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Substituting for the Soleil Chair

June
22 20
comments

I’m turning my attention once again to the front porch. Remember, I gave the furniture that was out there to my mom (whom I visiting this weekend for her birthday, so maybe I’ll get some photos of the table and chairs in her yard).

I got as far as putting new benches on each end of the porch before stalling out and moving on to other projects. Summer is short though, and I want to finish so I’m back on the job! I think I just need to add a chair, a little side table or maybe a coffee table, plus plants. I’ve always liked this Soleil Lounge Chair, but I recently realized that I have a similarly shaped chair already. It was from Pier 1 (a long time ago). Here it is in a photo from a few years back:

front porch

I know it’s not an exact match, but it’s free. I’m considering spray painting it, though I don’t know what color. In white I think the lines of the chair would make it a decent substitute for the Soleil, but why limit myself to white? I mean, there’s always pink. Or yellow. Or green. Or…

link    Outside  •  20 Comments  •  June 22, 2010

Landscape the Front of the House

June
1 41
comments

This was one of the items on my 30 Before Thirty list. We’ve lived here for three years now, and the front has been a bit bare the whole time. There was a dead Rose of Sharon that we removed, but not before leaving it up for a year first (“maybe it will come back!”). We also added some hostas (free from my dad’s house) and two boxwoods (small, and not holding up so well).

I feel like there’s more pressure to make the front of the house look nice because that’s the public part that everyone sees. I’ve been having fun experimenting with the garden in the back, adding and subtracting, moving and rearranging plants as I see fit. And it’s looking pretty cute back there!

Our Yard

But the front? Nope. The front has remained bare because I’m too afraid to put the wrong plants in. Yeah, well guess what I did.

I went to the nursery looking for some flowers and a bush. I got five astilbes (good choice!), but then I also got an Ivory Halo dogwood (wrong choice). The flowers are excellent in the shade, which is what the front of the house gets. The bush is supposed to be in full sun. I didn’t even look at the tag because we have three of the dogwoods in the backyard getting partial sun, and I thought I remembered them being OK in part sun to shade. Wrong. So now I’m not sure if I should move it (to where, I don’t know), or take my chances and hope it survives.

Oh, and the front of the house still looks pretty bare.

Out Front

link    Outside  •  41 Comments  •  June 1, 2010

Urban Chairs

May
25 36
comments

Did you notice our backyard patio among the pictures from Eleanor’s birthday party? Just in case you missed it, here it is again.

Eleanor's First Birthday Party

We were able to get four of the chairs through Craigslist (thanks to some helpful readers!), and we picked up the other four Urban chairs at IKEA. They’re working out nicely.

link    Outside  •  36 Comments  •  May 25, 2010

Roof :: Coop

May
21 23
comments

What is it called when you switch out one letter at a time in a word in order to get to a different word?

roof
room
loom
loop
coop

In this case, it’s called linking two unrelated ideas together for a brief update. (Ba dum bum.)

Our new white roof is excellent. People were asking for photos, but there are none to share… We only replaced the flat roof on our home’s addition, which is not visible from below. It has made a huge immediate difference in the temperature of the second floor though! We’re so glad we went with white.

And the chicken coop? I’m still keen on the idea, but Brandon is most certainly not. Therefore we will not be adding chickens to our household. Maybe when Eleanor is older (maybe?), but definitely not in the near future.

link    Outside  •  23 Comments  •  May 21, 2010

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