The New Oak House-{Before Pictures}

It's been over a week, and thankfully we did close on the new house last week!  We've been moving for the past five days, and today was the first day I got more than 4 hours of sleep in a several days.  I think we totally underestimated our move, but we are officially out of our old home. We closed on our old house today and handed over the keys to the new homeowner, who couldn't have been any nicer.  I thought I would be more emotional about leaving, but I think we were so tired, we didn't have the energy to be emotional!

I use the term 'new' loosely.  The house is a 1980's brick colonial-style home.  The good news is it's in it's original state, so there are no upgrades that aren't my taste.  The bad news is its in its original state, so everything is from 1988-yikes!  But some of the things that drew us to it were the mature oak trees,  the large lot size, and original oak hardwood floors throughout the main floor.   But enough talk about it, let get to the pictures!   Most of them are by me, but some of them are from the listing.

The entry has mauve trim.  I remember helping my mom paint our living room mauve in the 90's!

Another thing I liked about this home was the original solid-wood raised panel cabinetry, and french doors off of both the kitchen and family room.  And while I have no plans to keep the wallpaper, I have always found 80's wallpaper kind of charming.

I love this hallway...I've never had a house with a hallway.

This house is a complete change from our previous home.  We bought our first home new, whereas this one is a bit of a fixer upper.  We have debated over the past few months about how to approach it.  Do we tackle the bathrooms first, since they are the most dated, or do we go with living space since we spend the most time there?  We decided to go with fixing up basic bones of the house, which for us means updating the flooring, paint, and lighting.  For most rooms in the house, we felt those three things would make the spaces feel updated.  After closing, we spent most of Friday and Saturday cleaning up inside and out.  It felt good to take down all of the old, dusty drapes.  

I don't think I am alone in feeling like I can't live with old, dirty carpet.  Even in hotels, I usually keep my socks on. So we both felt that the upstairs carpet had to go immediately.  On Monday the flooring crew began working on the floors, so we haven't really moved in yet.  I'll have to share the plans for each room and the flooring progress!

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The Oak House Is Moving!

So a lot has been going on here at The Oak House.  We're moving!  

A couple of months ago, we decided to go to an open house we saw advertised.  When we got there, the house was closed but we found two other open houses in the same neighborhood.  We fell hard for the second one like love at fifteen.  We found this house, fell in love, but then broke up with it.  But we felt heartbroken, so we got back together, proposed, and now that were about to get married, it's like we can't get a marriage license!  Ha ha!  No, but things beyond our control have seriously delayed our closing.  

We had tossed around the idea of moving for the past several years.  GB was always for it.  But me, I have my literal blood, sweat, and tears in this house with every wall I've painted, every DIY project I've done, and oh man, my bookcases!  But a series of "let's just see what they say" events led to us putting in an offer and listing our house.  One thing I did know was that I love my home, and I didn't want to leave it unless I had somewhere to go that felt I could love just as much.  The only problem when you go that route is then you worry if your home will sell quickly.  But thankfully ours did sell quickly, and while that's great, the sheer number of boxes I have been packing is overwhelming.  And I don't feel like I am anywhere near being done.  I don't think you can really comprehend how much stuff you have until you try to box it all up.  I mean, why does a party of 3 need 100 plates?

In the interim, we've had family in town, been to swim lessons, and traveled to New York, all while faxing papers and simultaneously stalking the new house.  So in about two weeks we'll either be house-proud or homeless.  Y'all, I am really hoping for the former!

How was your last moving experience?  Did it go as planned or did it make you never want to move again?

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A Mini Garden Tour

This spring, I feel like I got ahead of weather and got quite a bit of work done early in the season.  The yard took a beating from the winter temps and looked quite dismal back in February.  So when we had an unexpectedly warm end of winter, I took advantage of it and with a garden clean up.  I feel that all my hard work has paid off, and I actually am wanting to go outside and sit.  There is still a patch of grass that needs some love, but overall its gotten more love this year than usual.

One thing that had to go were some overgrown shrubs.  The patio and retaining walls were overdue for paint, and the shrubs and plants needed a good fertilizing, and the yard needed a good mulch clean out.   Doing just those things and potting up a few plants has made the yard look so much better.  I still have a few more pots I would like to plant up. I have a bad habit of putting plants in pots, but not actually potting the plants!  But I think I can complete them before it gets too warm.

  I put together two matching pots, and I am loving the silver-toned greens, against the whites and purples.  You probably can't quite see it, but there's a lavender plant tucked in the middle of each planter.  Really looking forward to seeing these fill out.

A few more pics of after sunset...

I'll share some ideas for a patio spruce-up next time!

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The Garden View From Inside

Nothing really exciting going on around here today.  It's Monday, and that usually means a clean-up day from the weekend.  I've been going outside, in between the rain showers, to sit and admire the bit of work that's been done.  It's funny how just a little bit of 'green and clean' can be so inviting.  I'm also enjoying the clearer and cleaner view from inside.  Those half-dead shrubs were really dragging the yard down.

Loving how the dark grey of the birds on the pillow ties into the color of the retaining walls and fence.

I forgot to mention that I transplanted two shrubs from the retaining wall above into two of the holes where I removed shrubs.  They're called 'Goldmound Spirea', and already coming back to life.  I have at least six more of them in the yard.  They're virtually foolproof.  I'm loving the chartreuse color of the new leaves against the dark backdrop of the wall.

A little outdoor rearranging...

I've also been moving houseplants outside that don't seem to be doing too well inside.  I've only had these maidenhair ferns for about two weeks, and check them almost daily, and they still don't seem happy.  So one is outside for a little sunlight therapy. 

A closeup of the little plants I put in last week, so far so good. 

So that's my Monday morning.  Is anyone else feeling the effects of the daylights saving time shift?  I said I was excited about it, but I forgot about how it feels in the morning. 

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Pre-Spring Garden Clean Up {Hardscape & Shrubs}

Oh this yard...it is the bain of my existence every year.  I really love gardens and flowers, but I feel like the love doesn't translate into my yard.  I will say it has been seven years since we planted this garden.  It was originally a full-sun landscape, but as trees and shrubs have matured, it has become a mostly shade garden.  But my plants and my grass aren't really shade tolerant, so it has not done well the last couple of years.   On top of that, several of my favorite shrubs got nearly twice as tall as the tag said they would, so they were very over grown.

I attempted to hire my neighbor's landscaper, but he didn't come back for the appointment.  So I decided to copy some of what they did next door.  I noticed his crew did a deep cleanup of the planting beds, removing all of the old mulch and leaves that had blown into them over the winter.  So I did a deep cleanup of all of my planting beds and collected 13 bags of yard debris.  They also removed some shrubs not doing well next door, so I cut down and pulled up four overgrown, half-dead shrubs.  I thought it would be really difficult, and it was hard.  But once I got one up, I figured I could do the rest of them.

I also have retaining walls that had peeling paint, so I cleaned them as best I could with both a wire and regular brush, then pressure-washed and repainted them.

after scrubbing and pressure washing

with a new coat of paint

 Now the patio floor...I mean, it just looked dirty no matter how much I cleaned it.   We have put in french drains on both sides of the patio to alleviate the water that runs across it to no avail.  So I cleaned and pressure-washed it and gave it a fresh new coat of paint.

I used the same color as what is on the pergola, but unfortunately it reads a lot cooler on a horizontal surface, so I feel tempted to repaint.  I also planted a few new plants (that will hopefully cover the ground and prevent the soil from washing out) and put new mulch down around the patio and along the tops of the retaining walls.

In other news, I have finally ceded that, in Georgia, grass will not look good without the help of professional weed control services.  I still want to have new sod put down, replace the shrubs I pulled (with hydrangeas depending on the light), add more new plants along the top of the retaining walls (I'm thinking dwarf lorapetalum, creeping jenny, and lantana/verbena!), and finish mulching the planting beds... but that will have to wait until later in the spring.  (Thank goodness because this week's worth of work nearly killed me!)  The house needs to be painted badly and I don't want a paint crew stepping all over freshly laid sod and mulch.   I also want to let the trees fill in so that I can get a feel for what the light will be like, since I had one of the larger trees limbed up last fall.  So that is next on the (never-ending) list of home maintenance.  What spring projects are you up to?

Psst..if you want to see the garden in its (semi-)glory days, 

check out these previous garden posts!  I'm feeling more hopeful already!

Linking to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party!

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Pillows, Plants, and Purging the Past

First, I wanted to thank Andrea over at The Cottage Market Blog for including me in her round-up of Ikea Hacks with Pottery Barn style.  I thought it was quite the compliment that my Tarva nightstand hack has Pottery Barn style!

I can tell spring is near because the days are getting longer, the cherry trees are blooming, and we are  having some warmer days.  Not to mention, my allergies are starting up! I can't tell you how excited I am about Daylight Saving Time approaching.

There's been a lot on my mind lately, but one thing I am aspiring to do is stop shopping.  I've sort of unintentionally stopped buying.  Lately if I go to the store and see something I like, I ask myself, "Do I need this, or do I have anywhere to put this?"  And I usually walk out without it.  One blogger that inspired me is Cait over at Blonde on a Budget.  She's on a two year shopping ban after going thru a serious purge over a year ago getting rid of things she didn't need.  She inspired me to clear out my guest room and clean out my closet.   I also started going thru things in my attic, and got rid of a lot of clothes I had put up over the years with the hope I would one day fit back into them.

I also love reading Janet over at The Gardener's Cottage.  I love that she lives in a small 970 sf home, has also cut back on her possessions, and lives simply yet beautifully.  We live in an area where it would be almost impossible to find a house that small, but she inspires me to appreciate the abundance of space that I do live in.  The conversation has come up in our home of moving, and I can honestly say, I don't want any more space.  To me it's just more to clean, heat and cool, and maintain.

With spring approaching, instead of shopping, I've been swapping.  Since we had been sick, I did a major house clean yesterday, washing all of the pillow covers and bedding, cleaning bathrooms, and mopping the floors.  It felt like a bit of spring cleaning.  In the process, I swapped out the pillow covers for my sofa back to my spring/summer set.  (I love blues for the summer and warm colors for the winter.)  I also have been picking up some houseplants that to me enliven my home.  And with just those few changes, plus the amazing sunlight we're having, things feel fresh and ready to welcome spring!

Of course, I still have quite a bit of actual spring cleaning to do, plus the outside of the house needs quite a bit of work, including some landscaping (with the tree we took down last year), and house painting.  I can't figure out which one needs to be done the most, but we are hoping to get around to both of them this year.  I'll be back to share more of what I am doing to prep for spring.

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