Our Fence is Complete!!!

 Yesterday was a very special day around here.... our backyard fence is complete!!!

If you've been following along you know that the privacy fence has been up for a few weeks (read more here) but we hadn't fenced up the back part yet. Saturday was a beautiful day so Tim and I headed outside to start attaching the wire fencing to the posts. We ended up getting about half of it done on Saturday and then finished up on Sunday. Guys, it was so overdue. I felt so much relief when it was finally done. We can finally let her run around with just her collar on and no leash trailing behind her. We can finally leave her in the backyard and run back inside to use the bathroom if she's not ready to come in yet. It is a huge relief and I wish we had done it a year ago!!

I have plans to plant some shrubs on the sides of the privacy fence so you will be unable to see the wire fencing from the street. I plan on allowing the woods to grow as close to the fence as it can. I really want it to fill in so I will be encouraging any natural growth that happens.

Wow, my husband is really the best husband around! He pushed through to get this project done for me! (Well for Sophie....)

Once Tim got the hang of hooking the fence up it seemed to go pretty quickly. 

On day two we started on the opposite side of the yard and then used a third roll of fencing to connect the two.

Now, you may be curious how Sophie is reacting. She doesn't seem to notice there is a fence....

Or maybe she has noticed but she just doesn't care. She's a happy girl running around the fenced in yard and she  doesn't seem to care that she's trapped. 

Our yard is pretty big but pretty much full of dirt. Hopefully next year we will get grass but honestly it bothers Tim more than it bothers me. In the above picture you can see our fire pit which next year will be surrounded by rocks and Adirondack chairs. (Side note- if you want Adirondack chairs apparently you have to buy them early in the season- there were none left come July this past summer!!!)

You'll also notice that the posts are taller than the fence which was not intended. However, I think it will work out because I want to put solar lights on all the posts. We have lights on the back of our house but they don't reach all the way to the back of the yard which I would like to have lit up so Sophie isn't afraid to venture all the way back there. If you have any suggestions for solar lights please let me know!!

Isn't this picture adorable?! The only time she seems to care about the fence is when someone is on the other side and we don't intend on hanging out in the woods much, so it should be just fine :)

Phew. Another BIG project done!!!

Have a great day everybody!!!

Privacy Fence is Up and Future Garden Ideas!

Friends, the privacy fence is fully installed! No thanks to me, but lots of thanks to my wonderful hubby! Now we just need to figure out how to continue the fence around the backyard with the wire fencing we purchased. Hopefully it's fairly easy and the rest of the process can be completed pretty quickly (fingers crossed).

On Saturday Tim got to work finishing the final two panels for our privacy fence.

Sophie and I watched. We are the best helpers around! 

Sophie has no clue that her freedom is slowly being stripped away from her. She continues to run around the fence and thinks it's a fun game to disappear behind it. Soon she will be trapped in the backyard....poor Sophie! 

Now, you might be looking at this picture thinking the fence looks slanted. Well, it is.

Our lot is sloped on both sides. There is a hill on the side of our house that isn't technically our property and belongs to the people who live behind us (the former owners of this home too) and while that piece of property used to belong to our house, before they sold it to us they split the property in order to allow for a driveway to be put in there someday. It's only 50 feet, which isn't much and they say they have no "master plan" which we are choosing to believe but that explains the slope that we can't really do much about. 

Also, while we are on the subject I am cautiously planning out what we will do if we ever hear that they want to put in a driveway...or if/when we go to sell the house. I am thinking of planting trees/shrubs along our property line to make sure we would still have privacy if they did decide to clear the wooded area.

Nevertheless. I love our new privacy fence. I am so happy we went with the final fencing and love that we now have some privacy in our backyard. It makes it much nicer when I head out there in my pajamas with Sophie in the morning!

Now, let's talk about gardening...because that has been the topic on mind recently!

I picked up these tulip bulbs from the Christmas Tree Shop and decided to plant them in our front garden by the street.

You can see the disturbed mulch area where I've planted them and I hope that it will be a nice beginning to spring. Keep your fingers crossed for me that they take and we see them in March! You can see my tree that the previous owners planted is changing colors, and the evergreens I planted are still doing well. The lavender I planted has gone past, and the annuals are long gone. I'm anxious to see how all of this will do through the winter and am keeping my fingers crossed that the evergreens make it through!

Other than the tulips I don't have any plans for this small garden. I may purchase annuals again next Spring or maybe some new perennials, but I haven't decided yet!

Now, by having the new fence it means I am given the opportunity for new gardens! I am thinking of getting evergreens for this area so there is always something colorful in front of the fence. I might do an arborvitae on the corner where the vinyl fence meets the wire fencing, but I don't want to completely cover the rest of the fence by planting tall evergreens along it. 

I am thinking about mixing some conifers with possibly rose bushes. I can't wait to play around with this area. It is tucked behind a Siberian elm tree the old owners planted so it's a little secret garden area. We aren't having a gate or anything over here so I could really bring the garden out as far as I want it which is dangerous. I need to not go crazy or I will spend all my money on plants.

The picture I just showed you meets up with this one. Along the side of our house in front of fence is a skinny area we dug out and mulched in the summer. I planned originally to just fill this with hostas but Now I'm not sure, I definitely want to include hostas since they do well in our area but I am thinking I might bring in some other plants to enjoy. 

Also, don't judge us for still having our AC in....my husband runs it almost every night and it will certainly be in until November... I just pile on the blankets over here!

Now on the other side of our house we have the vinyl fence with our gate. There is only a tiny sliver of area between the driveway and the fence so I'm not quite sure what we will do here.

It definitely needs something, but it will have to be something that doesn't need a lot of space to spread out. 

However on the back side of the fence I have lots of room to play! You can see my bird bath here as well and my plan is to fill this area with a mix of evergreens and perennials to keep it looking amazing and colorful in the spring and summer but still have enough winter interest in the fall and winter. I also would love to add a bird feeder here and want to add bird feeders and house around the yard. I might be turning into my mom....

On the back side of this fence I am thinking along the same lines as the other side. Evergreens and perennials, maybe some grasses? I need to figure out how to get all these areas filled without spending a million dollars...

I'm not even going to show you the back of the house because although eventually I would also like that to be a garden, right now it's storing extra bricks, fencing, etc... and is a disaster. I couldn't resist sharing this little face though! She was watching me out the window and just looked so sweet!

Any ideas for my new gardens? I might do a post with some inspiration pictures I've found on pinterest...so keep an eye out for that!

 Also, can you believe that two years ago tomorrow was our wedding day?! It's flown by and I am still so in love with my sweet husband! Although two years ago I never imagined being in a global pandemic on our second wedding anniversary, I am happy that through it all I have someone reliable, kind, and amazing to wake up next to every morning! Happy anniversary Tim, I love you!!!

Our Guest Bedroom

Getting real today!

Our guest bedroom is nothing special. The furniture in it is the furniture I grew up with in my bedroom. The mattress is on the floor and it's Tim's old mattress (although super comfortable!) 

I store my vacuum fleet (yes, I have more than one vacuum and I want more...) in this room. The decor is just kind of thrown in there. 

So yes, nothing special. But to be honest we haven't ever hosted anyone in this room. This is a three bedroom house and when we turned one room into an office, we set up the second bedroom as a guest room. Eventually if we have kids I imagine this becoming a nursery. But for now it's just an extra bedroom in case someone spends the night!

When you first walk in the door you see the dresser with the tv and DVD player on top and my vacuum fleet. Also a signed Gronk picture that is making me a little sad lately.

As you can see this was just a typical day where I didn't clean up for you for pictures. #keepingitreal 

Donations and items listed on poshmark were just sitting on the bed.  

I love this ladder bookshelf but there just wasn't room for it in our living room so I stuck it in here. Maybe if we renovate someday or if we move it will fit out in our living room again. Do you keep furniture even if it doesn't work for you currently?

A look back towards the door. So, as I said at the beginning...nothing exciting! But this room is basically filled with things that didn't work elsewhere in our home. 

Do you have a guest room in your house? How often does it get used?

Our Kitchen

Hey everyone!

Today we are talking about our kitchen! If you've been reading along you might have noticed that I'm slowly sharing with you each room of our house. Our kitchen is used daily and along with the living room is the place we spend the most time.

When we first moved in we immediately painted the cabinets and then bought new appliances. Here's what it currently looks like:

Our island is where we sit to eat all of our meals. There isn't room for a kitchen table in our house currently so we spend our meals at the counter. In our apartment we sat on the couch so at least this is a step up!

Eventually we would like to replace the countertops and floors. I could see us also redoing the entire kitchen if we decide to make this our forever home. For right now it works just fine but seeing a quartz countertop would be so nice :)

I love the appliances we picked. Tim was the person who actually pointed them out. I was so set on getting stainless steel but I never thought about the black stainless and I honestly like it better. It looks so good with the white cabinets. We have loved our LG appliances so far and I would definitely pick them again in a future home!

All of our KitchenAid supplies and other teal decor is my favorite! How nice would it all look with a grayish quartz countertop on both the regular counter and the island?!

This is the main door we come in and out every day. I really love how homey it feels. As many improvements as I can come up with, I love this being our first home! I know we will probably outgrow it someday and need to make a decision whether to add on or move but I do love coming through that door into our home every day. Especially when a little furry face greets me :)

What is your kitchen like? Do you have any big plans for it?

Social Isolation = Yard Work

Hey everyone! How is everyone doing with the current situation? Here in RI we were told to isolate at home which I'm not going to lie is kind of nice. There is a ton to do around the house so it was nice to have an excuse to make no plans. As an introvert I totally love staying home, so I don't mind being told to not go out at all!

On Saturday morning one little girl was ready to wake up!

Hello mom, it's time to wake up!

I know last Wednesday we talked about the front gardens so here is what it looked like on Saturday...

I think that these might be true forget me nots. I used an app that identified all the plants in the fall and based on that I think that they a forget me nots. We shall see!

I think these are crocuses, so soon we will know for sure!

There are a few other things poking through. I can't wait for a month from now to see what it looks like out here.

Now up towards the street (we have a big front yard so this is kind of far from the house) we have our well cover which needs to be replaced. I'm not sure what is around is but I'm thinking about putting common ivy here so it will be more covered and look nicer. 

I'm not sure what this tree by the road is, my mom thinks it is something that will flower this spring. I can't wait to see what happens!

This is a tree on the other side of the yard. I'm also not sure what this one is, but we will see soon!

This is a Siberian elm which is Sophie's favorite tree! She loves to run underneath it when the leaves are all on it.  I'm honestly not a huge fan of it and think it's really strange looking, but I will keep it up for her!

You can see the buds on the trees which is super exciting!

I worked out in the garden quite a bit on Sunday. I finally bought a rake so I was able to rake the garden out and clean everything up!

Now I just need to figure out what to plant in here! I would also love to get some window boxes but that is a long term project that I'm not sure will get done this year. As Tim reminded me on Sunday, "Everything costs money" so we need to prioritize what we want to get done this year. 

Here are my loves on Sunday morning. Sophie is so happy that Tim and I spent the entire weekend with her! She also got quite a bit of outdoor time too which she absolutely loved. 

I picked up a fiddle leaf fig plant which I absolutely love the look of! At the end of this post I'll show you where it ended up.

I also worked on raking some of the backyard and cleaning up the sticks that I found. We have a big backyard and are still figuring out exactly what we are going to do with it. The firepit is going to be disassembled and rebuilt on the side of the yard instead of the center. We also talked about where we would put a shed in the future. 

There is so much to do! Do the projects ever end??

We hooked Sophie up to the long leash so she could hang outside with us and we wouldn't have to worry about her.

We have forsythia bushes on the side of our yard and I can see the yellow flowers already! I can't wait till they fully come in.

Here is a glimpse of whats to come.

Another picture of the backyard after a bit of raking. 

These pictures are weird because of the way the sun was coming over the house, but the garden looked so good by the end of the day! Just raking everything out and getting all the dead stuff out made such a huge difference. Now I can see where things are growing and go buy some plants. 

Tim also started working on installing the lattice on the side of the deck. The whole deck will be stripped and restrained this spring.

The rest of the lattice needs to be cut in order to fit along the deck. Tim is going to get that done and then Sophie will no longer be able to get under the deck. Eventually we would love to put up a composite deck but right now since we aren't really ready to add onto the house, we are just making the deck we have look a little nicer. 

More pictures of the backyard.

Here are some of the plants I'm planning to plant. I think I'm going to put the hosta in around our mailbox.  I'm not sure where I'll be putting the sunflowers. I also picked up lupine because I thought it was pretty and I think I'll plant it in the front garden. 

I definitely have quite a bit more to buy though! I was looking for boxwoods but didn't find them yet and also definitely want some hydrangeas. 

Meanwhile, my fiddle leaf fig is hanging out in the corner of the living room and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays green! I really want to add more plants into our home, so any tips would be great!

I'm also watching Garden Answer on Youtube and after watching her garden tours I'm now obsessed with at least making my yard presentable!

Have a great day and stay healthy ya'll!