We're Going Fencing!

The Rached Dog Park is open for business!

And those hydrangeas are looking much nicer. Our grass, not so much.

After months of HOA problems, erosion, and actually saving up some money, we finally got to install our fence! This fence is very-long nine months in the making, AKA the length of a Jessica Simpson pregnancy.

Boone hasn't quite figured out how he feels about it. He loves spending more time outside and we love not having to watch him so closely. He does not, however, love how it cuts down on his fetch space or when we go inside and he's left out there alone.

Boo's never done the whole fence thing. The only time we even tried when he was about 4 or 5 months old; he found the only gap under the fence, came around to the front door and just watched us. I have no idea how long he was there before we noticed. In the mean time we're placating him with his Chuck-It ball.

Our HOA only allows black, aluminum fences, so that made our choice an easy, albeit expensive, one. Since our yard is teeny-tiny, we decided to enclose every square inch allowed. And we picked a five foot height, because we like big dogs. One of our neighbors pointed out that it's added security which we hadn't even considered. Most houses in Brightwalk have four foot fences or nothing at all.

This is one of the very last items on our non-negotiable list from before we even moved in. What that means is we can finally start focusing on making this house a home (I always feel cheesy when I say that) versus check items off a to-do list.

We still plan to add a patio, dog house, and plenty of landscaping to our yard.

Big, Big Laundry Room Plans

While I'm sitting around waiting for our fence to be installed, I have nothing better to do than to update y'all on the next big thing around here: our laundry room!

I have a thing for laundry spaces. I love 'em. I love the big shiny machines, I love the ample, out-of-sight storage, I love that the litter box isn't in a bathroom. I have some serious home-decor lady-wood for laundry rooms. That's probably why my Pinterest laundry room board has more pins than my office board, my guest rooms board, my Leonardo DiCaprio board, and my dad jokes board, among others (fact).

Some of my favorites:

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And let's not forget one of my all time favs, the YHL Homerama showhouse.

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There's a little something I like about every one of these, so ours will take elements  from each and swirl them all together.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, our laundry room is one of the things that sold me on our house. Not only is it upstairs, but it's the only utility space we saw in all our house searching that was wider than the combined width of the washer & dryer. We have enough space to add a cabinet or sink or shelves. So far, we've chosen to completely under-utilize the space and put the cat food there.

My list:

• Accent wall: I normally hate accent walls (mainly because they are everywhere) but in laundry rooms, where everything seems to be on one wall anyway, they just work.
• Open Shelves: And not wire shelves. This wall would be too heavy with a bank of cabinets running the full length. I love the airiness shelves provide, plus it won't cover up too much of my accent wall.
• Cabinets: If money and DIY ability permits, I'd love to throw in an upper cabinet or two.
• Hanging Space: In the days of do-not-tumble-dry clothes, we always have clothes laying on top of our washer, dryer, shelves, and occasionally actually hanging. It only makes sense to set aside a corner for designated, grown-up hanging space.

And to see where we are coming from:

It does not make me proud to show you these.

So that's where we're coming from and where we're going. Now I just have to find the time and money. We shall see how long this takes.

Early Fall Decor

Well that didn't last too long.

Yes, yes, I only got my patriotic Fourth of July decorations up days before the holiday itself, but I'm ready to move on. Once the Fourth passes, I'm pretty much ready to call it Fall. In an effort not to repeat the Easter Fiasco, I just cut my losses and moved on to a late summer/early fall appropriate wreath.

It's not too yellow & orange, but does harken forward to fall's arrival. And it's barely there, because we're not really decorating for any event right now. Even though we don't have kids, I like to think of this as back-to-school decor. I may perceive seasons differently than normal people. My calendar looks like: Winter, Spring, back-to-school, Fall 1, Halloween, Fall 2, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

To make the inside feel transitional as well, I switched out our foyer's console table for a more fall-friendly display.

Look closely and you'll see my husband's idea of chalkboard art. He revamped my outdated "June so soon" design.


The sitting area didn't necessarily get falled-up, but it did get de-springed. Toned down flowers change the mood of the in-progress, not-for-real staging of this room-to-be. Hypenating-hypenated-hyphens.

I'm really looking forward to clipping some hydrangeas from our yard and bringing them in here.

On a slightly related note, I've decided a seasonal decor calendar may be in order. What, you may ask, is a seasonal decor calendar? It's a way of keeping myself on top of switching out all the odds and ends that reference a specific holiday or season. In other words, no more Easter wreaths in June. But that's a post for another day.

Fourth of July Wreath

'Merica, am I right?

I cannot believe it is July already. When did that happen?

With only two days left until Independence Day, I'm running out of time to share the wreath that's been hanging on our front door for quite a while.

If I were a good blogger, this would have been up a month ago, leaving plenty of time to inspire knock-offs and get thoroughly circulated on Pinterest. Not only am I not timely, I'm not blown over by the way this one turned out. 

I love the tiny pennant, made by cutting up a tiny cheapo flag, even though I'm pretty sure destroying the flag is a federal crime. I like the idea of all the bunches of red, white, and blue flowers, but it lacks the charm of the pantry wreath.

Something just feels off. Maybe it's that it doesn't read as well from the street. Maybe it's that there's no other Americana outside our house. Maybe the whole thing could be perfect if I had decorated the topiaries.

Oh well. Too little, too late now.

Anyone have ideas as to what I did wrong?