Renovation Update 1: Exterior Progress

Being a very handy guy, CT planned on doing most of the renovating himself, with the help of his parents.  They began by taking on the removal of the bushes that blocked the windows to the left of the door and the glass block on the right, as well as a dead dogwood.

One thing that CT, nor his parents, wanted to tackle was painting the exterior of the house.  We chose the colors (two sleek shades of gray to cover the previously white trim, with an accent of modern blue) and let the professionals get to work.  We love how the blue pops against the brick.

We also changed out the giant colonial-style light fixture for a modern globe sconce from West Elm:

One of the most exciting projects we tackled was cleaning the pool in our backyard.  First that meant raking and bagging years of leaves that hadn't been cleared away by the previous owner.  After removing the tarp, a local pool company suggested dumping chemicals into the mess to see if we could shock and filter the water so that it would be fit for humans rather than the toads and mosquitos that had been calling it home.

Eventually, we realized draining, scrubbing, and refilling would be the only way to start enjoying the backyard oasis of our dreams.

We then cleaned up the little cabana next to the pool, and painted the adirondack chairs we had moved from our apartment patio the accent blue we had used on the house.