This is our new house! We lived in a ground floor condo for a little over five years. We had a screened in patio but that isn’t the same as having a yard – a real yard.
To some it might sound odd that setting up a garden was at the top of our to-do list. But honestly, we just could not wait to have a reason to open that patio door and walk outside whenever we wanted.
So, day one, after we got beds set up and bedrooms and bathrooms organized, we headed outside and set up our Garden Tower®. It’s a composting vertical garden planter.
At the moment, what I’m calling a yard is a big square of dirt and it will be for a while. Because labor and supply chain issues are cramping the plans we have for landscaping. I know we’re not alone; back orders and back logs have affected a lot of things and a lot of people. But Bailey doesn’t mind! She loves romping around in the dirt and playing in the hose when we water the plants.
Al (my husband) wants to go big with a hot tub and pool. I’d be happy with a potted mini lemon tree, artificial turf, a garden and a few well-placed flower beds.
We still have several meetings with the landscape designer and time to decide what we want. In a way, the delays are working out in our favor because it gives us time to be out in the yard and really think about how we want to use that space and what we want it to look like.
We added the Garden Tower casters and I’m so glad we did. The wheels roll smoothly and makes the whole thing portable. Perfect for finding the right amount of light for the plants. Because it’s a vertical garden planter, it’s brilliantly efficient and we have plenty of room to add plants and grow the fabulous kitchen garden we’ve been talking about since we signed the contract with the builder.
And it’s pretty! You have a choice of two colors, Terracotta and Warm Sandstone. I chose Warm Sandstone. A lovely color of beige that doesn’t flash too pink or peach and would blend well with a range of exterior house colors. For my color science friends here’s the Munsell notation: Hue 7.80 Yellow-Red, Value 5.89, Chroma 2.90, LRV 28.74.
As for the front of the house, we did opt for the upgraded landscaping package from Taylor Morrison, our builder. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like how it looks. There are a few plants I’d like to replace because I feel like there’s one too many colors and I’m afraid it will be a little busy. But our landscape designer reminded me that the plants don’t bloom at the same time. Which is a good point – and it’s finished. There is so much we’ve yet to get done now isn’t the time to think about redoing completed projects.
We also had the whole house painted in Dunn-Edwards Fossil DE6225 before we moved in. I choose their which comes in a matte finish. Oh my gosh, I can’t tell you how much I love this paint. The final finish is spectacularly luxurious and elegant! Not to mention extremely durable.
A few weeks after we moved in, we added some color to the loft and my office. Having a professional painter use a top tier paint on the walls over the builder-grade paint was SO the right thing to do. It gave is a good base to add color and since we aren’t professional painters, we need all the help we can get!
I’ve been sharing the paint projects on Instagram. If you’re not already following me, here’s my Instagram account. Of course, you’ll be hearing more about what we did and the colors I chose here on the blog. I plan to post more often now that we have a house and a very long list of projects and decorating plans.
I have to say the most important thing to me on moving day was to have clean bathrooms and beds set up and ready to go.
I’m curious what’s at the top of your list on moving day?
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