Happy almost Fourth of July!! Thank you so much for your sweet messages after Friday’s post, you are all so kind! As promised, I’d love to show you a few images of our new home. The house is a little Cape Cod-style cottage sitting on nearly one acre of land. Built half a century ago, it has been well-maintained and cared for, although not much has been updated on the inside. Many (if not all) of the original architectural details have been preserved, which I love!! The windows need restoring and, as you can see from the images below, the rooms need quite a bit of work as well but, we’ve given ourselves a year to tackle most of the projects ourselves. We’ll be working on a budget and will be taking our time to figure out how best to decorate so the house becomes a better version of itself without losing its charm. We love how cozy it feels right now but we’d also love to open it up a bit more to the beautiful backyard. Typical of houses built in the mid 20th-century is a lack of connection to the outdoors and it would be great if we could change that – either by building a deck/patio just outside of the library or by adding more windows in different rooms of the house to bring in more natural light.
We moved in on Friday and I still can’t believe it took us eight hours to transport everything from our old apartment. It feels like our stuff has multiplied many times over since our last move!! (Although, to be honest, knowing that we will be handling all the details of the move instead of a moving company, we were very liberal in the number of boxes we used to pack things. ) Anyway, on Friday evening our garage was chock-full of boxes you couldn’t even get to the the back door. Our sweet friends helped us tremendously and we couldn’t have done it without them (you know who you are!) Those first moments in a new house, when the boxes are unloaded and you finally close the door, are surreal. It’s such a funny feeling, both hopeful and overwhelming. You start imagining where your stuff will go (honestly, I’ve been planning furniture layouts since we first laid eyes on the house) and how you will live in the new place. Everything is new and fresh and exciting. I love that!
That Friday evening we cleaned out the fridge and kitchen and vacuumed the bedrooms, set our mattresses on the floor and called it a night. On Saturday we got new groceries and primer and paint samples and we’ve been working at a crazy pace ever since. On Saturday afternoon we carved out a much-needed clutter-free zone – the living room – and on Sunday we managed to get a hold of the cable guy and got our new internet connection up and running. Now my husband (and I) can work from home. At the time I’m writing this I’m heading out to get more primer for the living and dining room 🙂
My sweet husband has been working so hard in our yard. The garden at the back is HUGE and about half of it was soggy and the grass overgrown and we could not stare at it a minute longer. A professional mowing company came and tried mowing on Thursday but got stuck twice and abandoned the job. Luckily, we’ve been having some superb summer temps this week and over the weekend so the garden is all dried-up and hubby got the mower(s) working. He tried a hand-held one but the grass was too tall and kept clogging the mower so he started the mower tractor. We worked very hard all day yesterday (he mowed, Bella and I racked the grass clippings (by the way, what do you do with them? Recycle, compost, mulch? We know NOTHING about taking care of the yard but are figuring things out as we go…) ) and it paid off!
The yard is all refreshed and we can see/walk all the way to the back. There’s a vegetable patch on the left, started by the previous owners, that seems to be a favorite for our new pet woodchuck, Princess Cordelia. (She lives rent-free under our deck and has a liking for our next-door neighbor’s vegetable garden.) She is such a cutie-pie, we can’t get enough of her sweet face and are always trying to catch a glimpse of her playing in our yard.
Well, that’s about it in terms of updates… Next on the list, fixing the fence and a trip to a local nursery to pick up three large hydrangea bushes we’ll be planting in front of the picket fence. I’m going back and forth between pink and blue. I love both! The blue would go well with the green and white color scheme of the exterior but the pink ones would bring cheerful contrast. What do YOU think?
Anyway, if you’d like more frequent updates on our renovation, you can follow along on Instagram with a new account dedicated entirely to our home reno, @cafedesignhome. Thanks for stopping by, wishing you a Happy Fourth!!
Love it!!
Lots of potential. Many happy renovations awaits you. Enjoy!
Your biggest fan in the Netherlands.
Ron / empel collections
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Thank you so much, Ron!! That is so sweet of you, it makes me happy to know I reached the Netherlands!! xoxo, Eva
Beautiful! Congratulations and I love the blue 💙hydrangeas but I would find a spot somewhere for the pretty pink ones too!
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Hi, Angela! Thank you so much for your kind comment! I feel the same way and could cover my yard with both! xoxo, Eva
Please use blue hydrangeas. They’ll look fabulous with your Cape Cod.
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Hi, Terri! Thanks so much for the suggestion, I love the blue ones as well!! xoxo, Eva
No matter what color hydrangeas you select, the color will change based on the alkalinity or acidity of your soil. Pick the shape of leaves and of the flowers you like, and then modify the soil to make them the color you prefer. Coffee grounds work well as a starter to make the soil more acid, but you really need Holly Tone. If you leave them alone, they almost always go pink or lavender. Best wishes for your lovely home-it will be a joy to eat h you and your family settle in!
That was my first thought..what’s blue today may be pink tomorrow! The house has good bones. And the floors look like new! I’d say have fun, but it’s so much work!
Happiness always in your new home!
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Thank you so much, Gina! I’m just finding out about those sneaky hydrangeas, they change color on you unless you know what you’re doing! (Which I don’t, haha!) Thanks for letting me know, I’m reading about hydrangeas and it is fascinating. xoxo, Eva
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Thank you so much for the advice, Gretchen!!! Keep it coming, please! 🙂 I’m just reading about hydrangeas (to make sure I won’t kill them all once I plant them) and they are fascinating! xoxo, Eva
How exciting!! Congratulations on your new home, it’s a beauty!! It’s so wonderful that you could move right in and do what ever you choose to do when you are able to. The yard is amazing, with the view as well as all the garden area. I can’t wait to see the photos after you have settled in and made it home.
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Hi, JOANN!!! Thank you so much, the garden has me stumped right now – it’s big and I have no experience gardening (except taking care of potted orchids, if that counts as gardening – haha!) so I’ve borrowed a few books on garden design from our local library to try and get an idea of how best to treat the garden… Thank you so much for following along! xoxo, Eva
I know the itch is real – to get settled and start making it YOUR home! It’s wonderful that you have the original structure to work with – no one has gone in and tried to do a handy-dandy update simply for the purpose of selling. You have so many choices and decisions ahead – enjoy them all.
Congratulations on your sweet home.
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Thank you so much, Katie!! You’re always so kind!! The itch is real indeed – my husband and I have been making list after list with things we’d like to do around the house and it is both exhilarating and at times overwhelming. But mostly, we feel grateful for this little piece of heaven that is ours… xoxo, Eva
Love your fireplace. It’s a sweet house. I know you’ll make it cozy and happy.
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Thanks so much, Francine!! That’s the plan – make it cozy, happy and fresh… It will take a while and I will probably be impatient to get it to the point I want but I feel blessed and grateful to have the opportunity to take care of this little house with an old soul. xoxo
What a wonderful home, so well taken care of. Happy to hear you are not a fan of tearing down walls to make it an “open” floor plan. Warmth be gone with that fad. I would try for the blue hydrangeas. Real blue flowers are scarce in the garden world and blue hydrangeas are very New England.
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Thank you so much, Jean, for your kind words! I agree with you on the blue hydrangeas, they are very New England, and yes, GORGEOUS! xoxo
Congratulations, it’s charming! I can already picture it decorated for the holidays! I think I’d go with pink.
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Thank you so much, Mary!!! xoxo
What a wonderful, charming home! It reminds me a lot of our new home. But, it sounds like our renovations will be more extensive due to structural and rot related issues that must be addressed. Ugh. I look forward to following along on journey IG account. Welcome home!