Four Years Later

 Today I was in the backyard after my husband had finished mowing the lawn, the first full day of summer, and it dawned on me how MUCH we have transformed the back of our home since moving here in the spring of 2013.  I loved the interior of the house on purchase day, but my husband had really wanted the previous home we had viewed the day prior.

I told him that the interior was better than the other house because the other house had closets the size of a house built in the 50's or 60's, the other house did not have a garage space for his lawn keeping items, the master bedroom was far too small, and I REALLY did not care for where the swimming pool sat.  It also had a driveway that was far too steep for getting up and down it with a vehicle during the winter months, as well as hauling trash down to the roadway.  The kitchen was tiny and we would have had to take down walls to increase it's size as well as the laundry room.  So.... I'm not sure why he liked the other house moreso than this one.???

Needless to say, I talked him into THIS home, which has also required a few improvements, but no knocking down of walls, which is something we had done in our Maryland home, and I did NOT want to live with all of the sawdust inside once again.

So, the back of the house was a plain jane, with no deck or even a way to get from that screened porch you see, down to ground level.  A strange situation indeed.  

There were no bushes, no roof over the basement entrance, and dirt everywhere that turned to mud in the springtime or anytime it rained.

Changes have happened over the past four years!

Here is the back of our home as it looks today.

The addition of a deck with stairs and a doorway leading from the screened porch to the deck.  Flowering bushes surround the edges of the concrete slab beneath the porch, a tree just outside the basement doors, trellis to hide the area beneath the stairs, mulch beneath the deck as well as around all of the bushes.

A roofed area outside the basement doors, and a small stonelaid area at the bottom of the deck stairs.

 

It's a much more user friendly area now.

You need to have a vision when buying a house.  And I say house, because it's not your home until you make it your home.

The prior owners had built the house and lived in it for six years, but it was an investment for them when the selling market was HOT.  It was not a house that the wife had fallen in love with, so investing anymore money in it was simply not in the plan.  The housing market stumbled and then crashed, so I think it became their albatross.

We are not world travlers, so our home is our Shangi-La and making it a place of joy is very necessary.

Four years later this house makes both my husband and I smile.

 

Pantry Issues

 Pantries.

From all that I read, pantries are the new critical piece of a kitchen when it comes to remodeling, since it's a huge 'want' and sometimes a 'must' for people shopping for homes.

Our pantry is a pretty good size, holds a lot, and is for the most part quite functional.

 But the one thing that truly bugs me about our pantry is to be quite honest...

the look of it.

 We've had other homes, homes that were built in the late 90's, and earlier part of this century,

and the standard was for the builder to simply add a closet in all new kitchens, with shelves in them

and call it a pantry.

I suppose we could just put a prettier and unique looking door on it.

 Our home was built in 2006, and as you can see.... it has one of those ubiquitous, white door pantries.

 Many would die to have any pantry at all in their kitchen, so just tell me to shut up.

 This view is from near the front door of our home.... it's one of the first things that smacks you dead in the eye when you walk in, and to be honest.... since there is no other place to put a pantry in this kitchen, my thought is to perhaps spiff it up and make it look like a piece of furniture.

The 'just putting a prettier door on it' doesn't work for me since the eye sore of the side wall when you enter the house would still be there.

ugh.

I found the above pantry design on Houzz and I think it's a place to start as far as a 'furniture' look.

Nothing white like that closet door that now exists, and I would not want cabinet doors in the color of our current kitchen cabinets, but a painted look that would work nicely with our current color scheme.

Now, since my husband thought this was a great design as well, the next step would be to find a custom cabinet builder and get a quote.

How's your pantry situation in your home?

Would you ever consider making a similar change?

More Pantry Ideas Below

 I LOVE the above! but my kitchen is not large enough for such a pantry/workspace area.

Great to be able to have all small appliances in one place though.

This one is more kitschy looking.... but it's unique and almost a conversation piece.

But oh how I adore the red door look of an old English phone booth.  (giggles)

Looking for home design ideas?  Check out the Houzz website!

Doors and Gates

 We adore our two boxer pups, Rowdy and Izzy, but they create extra work for us.

They enjoy being on the back deck, sniffing the wind and basking in the sunshine on spring days when it's not overly hot yet, as it will be this summer.

BUT,

it's a case of us going out and opening the door from the porch onto the deck for them multiple times each day... in and out and in and out.  It generally serves as an interruption for us to whatever we are doing inside the house.

 When we sold our previous home the buyers did not want a doggie door, so we took it out and replaced the door into the garage so it would not leave a huge rectangular hole in the door.

My husband has had this project on his list for a couple of years now... to install the doggie door from the screened porch onto the deck.

Yesterday while I was grocery shopping he tackled the job and completed it.

Within minutes Rowdy and Izzy, with a bit of pushing them through the door, renewed their knowledge of using a doggie door and are now happy with the access they have onto the deck.

 My husband also built a self closing gate at the top of the deck stairway which keeps the pups from running down and all over the property without our supervision.

 Now, when we are on the deck we can let them down into the backyard as we supervise from up above and when we are in the house we are assured that they are safe on the deck and not running into the woods to chase wild critters.

The gate looks as though it was built by the men who built our deck.

It's good for the pups and good for us.

Another win win!

Rocks, Lights, Action

***warning----LOTS OF PHOTOS***

The past week our property has been in the throws of rock laying.

This is by the same company we used last year for our flagstone sidewalk and patio areas, and they did a great job last year, so we hired them once again.

I showed you earlier the covers they built around our culverts, and this week the fun stuff was done, at least FUN to the eye as far as we are concerned.

The two columns at the entry to our property were built, then power and lights added to them by my husband, and the rock wall was also done.

We would still like to add one more wall on the other side of the driveway, but $$ requires that we wait, plus, we also are planning to have this all paved.

One thing at a time.

I'll just shut up now as I let you take a look at all of the stone masons' hard work, my husband testing the wall for strength, or fun, or whatever, and also Izzy as she takes a look at the new entry, and Rowdy as he does the studly walk of an alpha pup.

We are happy to have this done.

Enjoy the photos!

*will be planting another pampas grass on the right*

*that's their cement mixer in the background which has since been removed*

Thanks for looking and have a perfect Saturday!

A Home To Age In

 I slipped just inside our woods today to see what the back of the house looks like this late in the springtime.

 I rarely tiptoe out there because I am super skeeeered of snakes and lizards... you know, things that go bump not only in the night, but daytime as well.

 It was super pretty out there with wild things in bloom and it just doesn't get greener than springtime in southwestern Virginia.

 The view was exquisite and the back of our home is truly becoming what we had envisioned when we purchased it.

 It was bland, to say the least, but with much hard work and possibly more money than we had anticipated, it is blossoming into our perfect retirement home.

Larger than we thought we had wanted, and for certain, larger than what most retired people need,

BUT

he still speaks of making it perfect so we can sell it.

I told him.... "feet first, Buddy".

Which is what it will take to get me out of this house.

 But, even if we aren't around to sell it, we want it in pristine selling condition so that our children would not have a problem selling it.

Oh, the things you have to think about when you age.

Morbid, eh?