I hope everyone’s enjoying these last few days of summer. The end of the hot season is bittersweet around here. We had the best time with our girl, we worked so hard on our cottage, took long nature walks and made countless trips to the pool. We read and listened to music, and just enjoyed the bounty of summer – fresh fruits and time outdoors. I just love how the days feel lazy and slow-paced mid-July and August. I’m also laughing because I just called our summer days “slow” when in fact, since our move, the days have been anything but. When we moved into our new house we made a long list of projects we wanted to tackle. Some of them easy and straightforward that we could do ourselves (like painting, adding crown molding and new baseboard molding), others more involved that would require contractor work (kitchen upgrades for example). And although we’ve checked quite a few things off of our to-do list, it still feels like we’re only beginning. Overall, my plan for the house is to straighten out the architecture a bit and simplify the floor plan before we start investing in new furnishings. To that extent, we removed the old fireplace screen, painted our living room walls a soft, warm white which I LOVE (Benjamin Moore – Linen White) and used our existing furniture to decorate. I love this room right now and I promise I’ll photograph it soon and share it here on the blog. It’s nothing fancy, and items in here have been repurposed and recycled but it’s so cozy and comfortable it’s become my favorite space in the house. I’m also learning to be patient and wait for the good things – home improvement on a budget takes time. Nevertheless, some things did get done.
To begin with, we changed our front door with a Craftsman style 6-lite piece from Home Depot and it took one afternoon to paint it a glossy, warm white. I’m now on the lookout for an antique brass door knocker to go with the new coat of paint. We also got a super-duper hedge trimmer and went to town with the overgrown yew hedges out front. It was great fun (and a good upper-body workout too) giving them a haircut!
One of the first things we did when we moved in was to clean up the garden patch out front. I found some lovely pink hydrangea bushes at a local nursery and decided to fill the space with some pretty blooms. Little did I know what drama that will turn out to be! More about that later. The picket fence was resembling the tower of Pisa, defying gravity and threatening to flatten our newly (then) planted flowers. It was wonky and it had to go. Which it did.
Hydrangeas right after planting …
We waited for about a month-and-a-half before our contractor became available again and installed fresh, pressure-treated pickets, both at the front and at the sides of the house.
I love the new fence, it was definitely worth the wait…
This past weekend, Ivan removed the old DISH the previous owners left behind and that made a huge difference in curb appeal. It was slightly dangerous because the ladder was short and we are on a hill, and I could have helped more instead of taking pictures but what’s done is done. Thank God no one got hurt.
Seeing the front section of the fence installed, we couldn’t wait any longer and primed and painted the whole piece last night. And what a difference it makes! Our contractor still needs to finish the sides and add two gates- one on either side- but we’re making visible progress and it is so exciting!
The house now…
…and this is how the house looked like when we moved in. See any difference? 🙂
Ohh, and notice the hydrangeas… They have not been doing well at all and I have been miserable about it this past couple of months. Something I’m doing must be very wrong, because the blooms have all wilted and, what’s worse, the plants don’t look well and the leaves are browning and wrinkled… So, I dug them up, bought new soil, Perlite and Vermiculite (at the advice of a friend who knows more about this sort of thing than I do) and planted them back in about a week ago. Fingers crossed. Anyway, next on the list is cleaning up the front garden some more, maybe mulch the hydrangeas if they improve, or transplant them and replace them with something else? But what? That front section looks muddy and messy… not nice. Any ideas? Please?
Thank you for stopping by and reading. I’ll be back soon with images of our living room, as is. It will change once we’ve completed some work on one of the walls which we’re opening to the adjacent bedroom, and we’ve gotten a new sofa and chairs but in the meantime it is pretty and cozy as is.
Oh my gosh, it already looks so much better, Eva! Your neighbors must be thrilled to see the home improve so dramatically in such a short time. Can’t wait to see what you do with your interiors.
Author
Thank you so much, Linda!! Still a ways to go but every inch of progress makes us excited for more! xoxo, Eva
I wouldn’t touch the Hydrangea again this year. Season is ending, let them adjust. There is always next year.
Lovely door!
Author
Thanks, Gina! Changing the door is my favorite thing we’ve done so far… About the hydrangeas, I’ll do my best to let them acclimate, thanks for the advice! xoxo, Eva
Your house looks wonderful with the improvements and the new door in particular. When we moved into our house 22 years ago, I inherited a very fussy garden that was not at all the English cottage look I wanted. After lots of trial and error (which just means lots of learning) here’s my best advice to you: become a kamikaze gardener (LOL). Here’s how: throw humus, compost from a bag, extra potting soil, if you have it, around your plants and in the holes you dig when planting them. Then top with mulch and leave them alone. The first year they sleep, the second your they creep, and the third year they bloom and bloom. If they don’t bloom, oops try something else (the kamikaze part). Gardening requires patience, channel your inner chill self. Have fun, thanks for letting us follow along.
Author
Wow! Thanks a lot, Tami!! Great advice, I might take you up on the kamikaze part especially! Gardening is supposed to be fun and your way sounds so much more fun than mine :))) xoxo, Eva
Dear Eva,
My dear husband makes all my dreams come true also. What a blessing! It looks wonderful! Good Tidings, Dawn J.
Author
Dear Dawn, it is one of the greatest blessings I can think of, up there with happy, healthy children! Happy for you… xoxo, Eva
Just lovely, Eva! Such a charming home.
Linen White by B. Moore is a beautiful warm white for a classic Cape Cod home. I have it in my 1920s Colonial Revival, on both the walls and trim. It never fails to brighten and warm a room, even my northeast facing dining room! Looking forward to seeing all your projects!
Author
Thank you so much, Diana!! Your way is exactly what I have in mind – to extend the same color but different finish (high-gloss) to the trim and molding. When we first tested colors, I was close to choosing Acadia White but it read slightly pink-ish on our south facing living room walls… We thought linen white would be too yellow but took the risk and when the entire room was painted I was in LOVE with the soft, warm glow it casts day and night. I’ll clean up some projects and will share some images soon.
*Also, please feel free to send me images of your home, I’d be happy to share them on the blog. (evacontrerasdesign@gmail.com)
xoxo, Eva
That’s great, Eva! I’m so glad the color worked for you so well.
Most of my professional photos are of my clients’ homes, but I’ll see if I can take some of my own home with my phone and send them along.
Author
Thanks so much, Diana! I’d love to share them on the blog! xoxo, Eva
Some information about hydrangeas- they need more shade than sun (only about 6 hours or less of sun.) Too much sun and not enough moisture will cause wilting and brown leaves. On the other hand, Limelight and Lace Cap Hydrangeas can take more sun. Most hydrangeas also do well by the shore. Our garden design is cottage style, including our home, and hydrangeas complement the cottage charm. Hope these few tips will help with the hydrangeas but of course a garden center can provide more advice based on your micro climate. Thanks for sharing your accomplishments. Eva, it is amazing what you have done!
Jane
Author
Dear Jane, thank you so much for the advice! I should have mentioned that our hydrangeas are Macrophylla or Bigleaf and our home is south facing so they do get a good 6-7h of direct sun. Unfortunately they went in during the hottest week of July with temperatures of 100-105 and although we watered them daily, they burned… I’m praying they bounce back now that the weather cooled off…
xoxo, Eva
We planted hydrangeas last summer in England. It was very hot and dry but my husband watered like crazy. We honestly didn’t think they would survive but in fact they have except for two. We were also up against greedy rabbits!🤨 Amazingly they have bloomed this summer! Still watering like mad though as it’s another hot summer although much more rain thankfully. My only comment about yours is that they need a little more space away from the fence….they will bush out more than you can imagine! ( but that means digging them up again!😵)
Author
Oh, my! Thank you, Helen, for sharing this… Sounds like a similar experience (minus the greedy rabbits 🙂 ) and about the bushes being too close to the fence, our contractor mentioned the same thing when he installed the fence :(((
xoxo, Eva
You’ve made great progress and must be so pleased.
Benjamin Moore Linen White was also our choice many years ago for all our trim, tin wainscoting and ceilings throughout our house. It reads like a warm, classic cream that seems right for an older house. We’ve always been happy with it.
Most of our hydrangeas like morning sun and afternoon shade and brown with too much direct sun. There are several great sites that offer info on their care. One is hydrangeasplus.com in their “help desk” then go to “hints and tips.”
Author
Hi, Francine! I agree with – Linen White is just one of those colors that screams cozy, old cottage and we love the feel of our living room since painting! Thank you for the reference for hydrangea-care, I must check it out! xoxo, Eva
Wow so much exterior improvement in such a short time, well done! I agree with others that they probably need more moisture and (perhaps) less sun (mulch helps tremendously to hold in moisture, also making sure the soil has a rich humus mix helps to retains moisture). But also to be patient, it sometimes takes awhile for plants to really acclimate and thrive. You can start a compost bin to make ‘humus’ and add it around the plants next spring, or buy some plant-tone to amend to the soil now, but really it is just probably the luck of the draw planting during the late summer months – going from the nursery to the intense heat of late summer days can make the plants go into ‘shock’. Hopefully the shorter days and cooler evenings will be your friend and the plants will recover before they head into winter.
I love to watch GardenAnswer on youtube, she has lots of tips on how to manage and take care of hydrangeas and start beds, install drip systems, plan out cottage gardening etc. – good luck, and thanks for sharing!
Author
Thank you so much for the great advice!!! That must be exactly what happened and why they are not thriving in their new home… We’ll mulch them later this week! Thanks!!! xoxo, Eva
PS- If you want a quick and inexpensive compost bin, you can buy “Compost Bin by GEOBIN” for about $35 and add in grass clippings, kitchen veggie waste, and fall leaves and you are off to a great start for fresh compost in the spring (it helps to alternate dry with wet layers) . Apparently getting a plant called “Comfrey” Is a great and inexpensive way to add nitrogen to the compost mix – some people even make Comfrey tea – which is just a lidded bin of rotted comfrey leaves in water (rotted for about a month) that they dilute with water to fertilize their blooming plants. Hope that is helpful!
Oh hydrangeas, sigh. I desperately want a hydrangea plant at my house but so far haven’t had any luck with it. Maybe one day it’ll happen.
I moved into my house two years ago in July. All of the houses on my street have a front yard that slopes down a wee bit in the front. For my house, the former homeowners removed this slope by creating hardscaped flower beds. However when we moved in literally the only thing growing in those beds was weeds! Our first spring there we tried planting hostas and hydrangeas and we pretty much did everything wrong. It all died. So that fall we tore those plants out and replaced them with boxwoods on the top level and rose bushes on the second level and I’m happy to report that both are doing well.
Like you I tend to favor classic garden/landscaping styles. The rose bushes we have are the knockout roses and the drift roses. These two varieties were engineered to be super easy to care for. My front yard also gets a lot of sun throughout the day but with the rose bushes we literally just plant them and neglect them most of the year and they look great. My husband fertilizes them maybe once or twice in the spring and summer and then trims them back in the fall but other than that we leave them alone. They also bloom multiple times throughout the spring/summer. I highly recommend looking into them!