I dream of houses pt.1

I spent the whole weekend trying to figure out what my next post would be about and with so many ideas rattling around in my head it’s so hard to pick just one.  So I thought what better way to give you guys a glimpse into what hopefully will be happening around here then to start showing you where my head is in terms of projects!

I started making lists of all the things I want to do to our place - ahh I love lists! - big and small, and you know what? There is way too much for one post.  So I’m going to break this up into manageable bites – that way I also might not feel completely overwhelmed with everything I want to do!  I’m warning you this could be a long post because I have a LOT of ideas (cue me jumping up and down in excitement)

Let’s start with the before…..its bad guys like REALLY bad.

This is how our house has pretty much sat for a few years – I warned you. 

 I couldn’t take it anymore it made me sad every time I drove up to my house so last summer I convinced the hubs to build a deck.  I will do a detailed post another time to best explain how we put it all together because man it was a LOT of work!  We also did some important preventative modifications which included new shingles on the roof and new soffit, facia and eavestrough.  These are the things that hubs said we had to do and he was right – I was more excited to get rid of all the brown!  Great for some people but definitely not our jam.

So that’s what we have done.  Now on to what I we WANT to do. 

**Front of the House** 10% done

• Build up gardens - now that our deck is in place the garden is looking pretty dinky.  Not sure how high we want to raise the beds but we now they  need a little lift.  Big question is do we use wood  like this or stone like this?  Hubs really wants stone because he wants to bring more grey tones to the front of the house but I love the organic feel of wood.
• finish railings on porch This is more of an aesthetic than a need.  Since our deck construction is below standard size we don't need to have a railing but with the kiddos running around it's definitely a must. 
  
  Currently our railings look like this so we need to finish those up and put hand railings down the steps

• stain porch
• we are trying to figure out what to do in that blank space on the front of the roof.  Maybe cedar shingles like this?
• we also have to finish in under the roof on the deck. I'm super excited about this project!
• house numbers  - I love this diy from 4 men 1 lady
• Add pathway to driveway - right now it's just grass and it gets muddy and gross so we definitely need something.  Maybe pavers?
  
  

**Side of the House** 0% done

• Re-side the back half of house - we already have the siding picked out we just have to purchase it.  I can tell you that we are going grey.  I know you can't see it in this photo but right now it's an aging yellowy colour and I'm sooo over it!
• rip side deck off and replace with a pergola or car port
• grade land on side of house so that we can get more function out of it
  
  

**Back of House**  0% done

• extend backyard - our property has a death drop down to a creek and so we don't have a lot of backyard.  we think we can add fill and extend it out closer to the water and then add a retaining wall.  I've also been toying around with the idea of building a deck that is supported on some kind of stilt system but I haven't told that to the hubs yet :)
• create outdoor living space in back
• build proper shed for tools
• play space for kids
  
  so there you have it!  Things are always changing and projects are being added or taken away depending on time and available funds but I'm hoping that in the next few months of summer we can at least get SOME of these things off our list.  I'm rooting for the pergola/car port  and finishing off the deck and I can't wait to share every moment of it!