Coffee + Conversation

Happy Monday! It’s been quite a while – we have been super busy over here lately in the best ways so I’m just now settling in to catch my breath.

We have been traveling quite a bit for several weddings. This has been the year of weddings for all of our friends and it has given us such great opportunities to catch up with friends. Each of these were at beautiful venues from the mountains to historic homes to botanical gardens. 

At home we are finally finishing up our landscaping overhaul part 1. I have learned a lot about landscaping but most of all I have learned that I most certainly have a love-hate relationship with it. For most of the summer it definitely was more of a hate relationship but now that this project is nearing the end, I am so happy we did it.

Here’s a recap – we removed several trees that were planted too close to the house or otherwise not hoeing properly because of there just being too many, removed some overgrown bushes lining our driveway and replaced with hydrangeas, hostas, and gardenias for a neater more symmetrical look, removed all but the foundation plants in our front landscaping because it was just too overgrown and super high maintenance (we will be adding some plants for color in the spring once those plants have had time to fill in from now having enough space), opened up our back yard by removing some hedges that were planted literally in the middle of it (???), and planted a row of privacy hedges at the true back of our property. It has been SUCH a project but the result is a neater more manicured look, a lot lower maintenance by removing what needed professional trimming 6-8 times a year, and a more open space to allow us to better use all of our property and room to add a swingset for Madeline in the spring. Here are some before pictures, as you can see there was just a whole lot going on. 

Then, because we are apparently crazy, we decided to move forward with a construction project on our house, too.  So we have been busy interviewing builders, securing HOA approval, getting the documents needed for permits, and all kinds of equally tedious tasks. I have been so happy with every project we have done so far on this house but it is definitely a whole different ball game than working with new construction in our previous home! 

Meanwhile, Madeline has adjusted really well to preschool and is loving it. There are no more tears when we drop her off and she seems really excited on school mornings to arrive. 

So, it has been busy but lots of fun things going on!