One Year(ish) Housiversary

 Earlier today in the course of a conversation, Tim reminded me that last winter when we were house-hunting, he'd been the one who liked this house right away, and I was the one who was like, "Nah." I didn't disagree. "It's because we kept coming back to the same thing being wrong with it, and we'd talk ourselves out of it, go look at other houses, and then you'd be like, 'Let's go back to that house.'" There were lots of good things about it, and I could see, at least sort of see, the potential to change what we didn't like. But I had been hoping for something more turnkey. I'd wanted everything perfect as is, but really almost nothing we were looking at would have fit that bill. I came around because he had a vision, and I trusted that.

I told him that recently it occurred to me that I've really settled into this house, and am really glad we live here. There were some hurdles to me liking it, but we're over those now, and it is definitely feeling like our home. It reflects us. 

I love this little corner next to the garage. I had no idea that the catnip would get these gorgeous purple blossoms in spring. 

You've seen most of the changes we made inside; we've also done quite a bit to the yard, front and back. It is so much more of a welcoming sight. Tim took down the chunky railings off the porch, and we invested in some good landscaping to just catapult us to where we could maintain it from there ourselves. Many new things were planted; some of them such as Japanese maples and hydrangeas, were on my wishlist, and some were suggested to us to add all the color and texture we were looking for. We cut down some big ugly dead trees both front and back. A few things remain from before: a crape myrtle, the holly tree right in front of our garage, and some boxwoods and gardenias.

Maybe next year this little tree will get leaves on the top branches.

I was remembering today how one of the biggest things I didn't like about this house was how when I would sit outside, I didn't see anything that was pleasing to the eye. We have fixed that. It was hard for me to imagine how nice it could be; as I've said before, being able to visualize things is not my strong suit. Fortunately for Tim that is much easier. He and the landscaper put their heads together in the backyard, and I'm pretty blown away with what they came up with. 

The picture above is right outside our bedroom window, to the right of the screened-in porch. It's a row of azaleas flanked by two little lime hydrangeas. The azaleas will bloom in spring and fall, and the hydrangeas in summer; so with the exception of the dead of winter, something will almost always be in bloom.

The fence line used to be just a lot of dirt and weeds, overgrown trees and shrubs, and other assorted vegetation. Now we have five of those arbor vitae trees, a cherry blossom tree in the corner, and more grasses, verbena, more azaleas, camellias, and drift roses sprinkled throughout. Our neighbor directly behind us saw what was happening on our side of the fence, and it lit some kind of fire under him. He cut down all the wild vines and stuff that were on his side. We see a whole lot more of each other now.😃

The patio and fire pit are new. You can see how new and still small all those new plants are against the fence. I'm really going to enjoy watching them grow in the next couple years.

There are a couple patches of sod, one of which you can see behind the dark blue chair on the right. That was the site of one of the big old trees. In the picture below, the sod had just been put down, and it still looked brown. Tim has big dreams for the lawn, though. Big northern dreams of velvety green golf course grass. He's not sure how he's going to get there. Honestly, I'm just happy to see it all being green, even if I wouldn't want to run barefoot through it.

And this porch, which I am constantly taking pictures of, is my haven. We gave it a refresh a month or two ago, just in time for spring. It has all new cushions, a new ceiling fan and light fixture, and string lights, which make any other lighting unnecessary as far as I'm concerned. They're the best. You'll find me on that porch every night at sunset, watching the kids and dog run around, and the sky change colors. You'll find me there when it rains, especially when it storms. You'll find me there whenever there's time to spare -- reading, praying, trying to take the PERFECT picture of my view.😆

I found it comical as I was looking through photos for this post, how many frames I found Willow posing proudly in. "Everything the light touches" is her kingdom. 🤣

We found the right house in the right neighborhood in the right town. It's a dream come true.