Heights Make Me Shutter

I can't believe it's been more than a month since my last post! We have been so busy working on the house that I haven't taken the time to write anything about all of our progress. We had a few huge projects that we wanted to finish up before the weather turns too cold to be out there. I'm happy to say that most of those projects are done!

The first time I saw the house in a drive-by, I knew that it needed "something" to make it look less sparse. As a reminder, here's what it looked like before.

The absolute first thing I knew the house needed to give it some charm and fill out the sparse feeling was shutters! Because we are planning on upgrading the yellow vinyl siding at some point, we didn't break the bank with super-expensive, high end shutters. However, our windows are huge. They don't look it, right? But they are actually really big! I had to purchase 66" tall shutters, which I could not get at my local home improvement store in stock. And I knew I didn't want black. It's too harsh against the pale yellow. So we went with a nice charcoal gray from architecturaldepot.com

Once we decided on the correct size and color, we were faced with how to actually hang them! The house is tall. Like, really tall. My husband was convinced that we needed to buy or rent a huge ladder. I was convinced that there was no way I ever wanted to BE on a ladder that high up (and he is afraid of heights, so I KNEW it was on me.) I said, "we can do this from inside. I'm sure of it.) And we did. And by us, I mean...he drilled the hole and hammered in the first, inside middle nail in on each shutter, and then ran outside to guide me through the rest, making sure I hung it straight. He had the tough job, obviously... (This is a great sneak peek of our patio renovation though!)

The other necessity I felt the house needed was flower boxes. I absolutely love artfully designed flower boxes! I'm not there yet, but I'm excited to learn more about them as the seasons change. For now I'm very happy with the way the colorful mums play off the kale, boxwood, and gourds. Here's a close-up of our extra large one on the double window that faces the patio.

While we have no affiliates, I'm happy to share that these flower boxes are PVC from the company Mayne. They are the Yorkshire style. If you decide you love them, be forewarned, they require light assembly before you can get busy filling them. Another tip is that they are very deep. If I had filled them with soil and then put the plants in, they would be incredibly heavy and the plants would barely peek over the top! To keep them light, I used the packing material from the new television that we purchased for the house! Happily keeping that styrofoam out of a landfill.

There are a lot more outdoor updates (I did finally choose that door color and did so much more with the front porch.) But for now, take a look at this side-by-side of the before and after of the house.

What do you think? You might notice some other changes too. That porch transformation deserves its own post. Stay tuned for that! Until then, I hope your next morning is a Good Morning.