Chaos & Curb Appeal

As a Designer, I spend so much time working in the home of my clients, that sometimes my own home’s needs tend to go to the wayside. That coupled with the role as a new mommy to my sweet 7-month-old Ava and my husband’s work for his MBA program, left little time to tend to our home’s curb appeal.

When we purchased our diamond in the rough in 2008 we knew the home needed a lot of TLC (this might be an understatement) but we were thrilled to be homeowners 6 weeks before our wedding.  We have done just about everything you can think of to this home from the inside out: molding details in the bedrooms, painting, updated light fixtures and the electrical panel, the kitchen, and more recently the bathroom, saving the exterior for the end.  We had lived with this look for the last 7 years and it didn’t bother me so much anymore, the rotted trim was starting to grow on me (Not).

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We had so much to be thankful for in the last year, the arrival of our baby girl and the completion  of my husband’s MBA, (he was able to complete in 3 years at night class while working a full-time job, and juggling a newborn).  In the back of my mind, I had ideas for the front entry for the longest time. I had the new mailbox from Restoration Hardware for well over 2 years and I met with our rep from TWPerry for the new shutters the morning of my 12-week ultrasound appointment over a year ago.  In fact, the shutters then sat in our basement for the better part of 6 months as we waited to pull the trigger.

Apparently last week was the opportune time to pull the trigger.  With in-laws in town to cheer on my husband at his graduation from George Mason and a teething cranky baby girl with a temp of 102, we proceeded with work on the front of our home to include installation of new iron rails, new mailbox/house numbers, painting/scraping of the front door, new trim, and installation of the shutters.  We thrive in chaos and as we pulled into the driveway from the graduation we were amazed at the transformation.  Last Friday afternoon I asked myself the question I tell my clients they will most likely ask themselves at the end of a remodel; “why did we wait so long?”  Though our home is nearly 80 years old, to us it feels brand new.

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