I’ve update our House Tour page!

Enjoy your weekend! We are off for a little “camping trip” at my friends ranch.

Well…. it was a huge success and I have some pretty pictures for you all.

The Bride Melissa, looking flawless as usual.

Nothing like having your Bridesmaid there to lotion up your legs!

As you all know I have no outdoor furniture. So we combined some outdoor furniture from my mother in laws, a vintage desk from my bestie Allison, and pulled some vintage pieces I had around the house. I loved the feeling it gave to the space.

The Bride had the cutest idea, to hang lingerie on clothes pins across the pergola. It came out so cute!

Funny enough I had this old window lying around the house, and I’m happy to say I put it to good use finally!

Another one of the Bride’s amazing ideas, cupcakes in a jar. They were pure deliciousness.

All photography by our amazing friend Cooper Falk

So there you have it!  A beautiful vintage chic Bridal Shower for my amazing bestie.

Do you have any fun parties coming up at your home?

I’d love to hear how you tackle them, do you hire a caterer or do you slave away in the kitchen like we did?

This is what I woke up to on Friday. Yay!

I couldn’t wait to get home from work, the anticipation was killing me.

So without further ado, here is a our beautiful backyard

Along the fence line we planted screen trees, that will eventually grow higher than the fence to provide more privacy and block out the view of other houses.

Such a huge transformation from when we first moved in.

I was pretty nervous to let the doggies out, but I knew they were dying to explore their new space.

They felt right at home, so cute.

And yes, we’ve been busy!

Currently our backyard is getting a major overhaul! I seriously can not wait for the final reveal!

On Thursday the husband and I tackled this horrific scene:

Wow this is actually pretty embarrassing, and I can’t believe I’m allowing people to see our neglected backyard. I’ve always been more of an interior girl not so much exterior, as you can see.

I think one of my favorite things to do is throw crap away!

Here’s a nice little after picture, ahhh feels good. But still not done.

Yesterday our amazing landscaper started and it already looks so good without the weeds and some fresh dirt.

BTW, did you notice the posts on the pergola? We finally got them wrapped, so they are much beefier now and have the added detail as oppose to the metal lameness.

Our gorgeous new sprinkler head, our house has never had irrigation so after 5 years of living here I’m pretty damn excited.

Our landscaper was so sweet he even cleaned up the side yard! For FREE! Can’t beat that. Scroll up to see the before picture it was disgustingly bad. Ryan and I are planning to add some bark back here too.

Anyway, that’s the latest on our backyard progress. I really hope to see the sod in by today or tomorrow, so look out for another post to come soon.

Here comes the to do list, honey!!

Ok so I’m semi freaking out about this. There is a lot that we need to get done to get our house in shape.

Some of which is…

* Finish the pergola posts

* Finish painting the pergola

* Remove all weeds

* Install irrigation and sod

* Repair planter boxes

* Paint planter boxes

* Plant flowers in pots and planters

* Power wash front and back patios

* Paint front door threshold

* Touch up back of house where needed

* Tan bark for side yard to pretty it up

* Repair back fence.

* Hang market lights on pergola

* Fix guest bathroom toilet

* Pretty up guest bathroom as much as possible

And if that weren’t enough, I have some bonus items I’m hoping to get to also.

Like…

* Install backsplash in kitchen

* Paint back door

* Install new front door hardware

* Install retractable screen door

Hmmm can you see why I’m freaking out?

Anyway, I know I’ve been a little MIA lately but don’t worry more posts will come soon as I tackle this massive to do list!

I love modern mixed with rustic.

And this is what I hope to accomplish in our backyard.

source

Love the two seating areas, along with the fire pit and vines surrounding the pergola.

Sorry for the poor photo, this is the only picture I could find of our house when we moved in. It’s a picture of the CD that we got from our Realtor, unfortunately there were no pictures on the CD, just documents.

Here is the peak above our garage being built, we also upgraded our garage doors and got a new roof.

Oh the joys of having a porta potty in your driveway.

After about a year of living in our little yellow house, we finally painted it! I love the colors we chose, classic gray with a hint of green, bright white trim and a light blue porch.

In 2008 we decided to add 200 square feet to the back of the house, for a master bathroom and larger kitchen.

The addition took over a year to complete! That’s what happens when you do it all yourself at night!

Anyway, here is what our little house looks like now in 2011, we’ve come a long way baby!

TGIF!

this…

with these…

= gorgeousness

Recently we put up a pergola over our patio and I really love the idea of adding a large farmhouse table. Kind of like bringing the inside out. I’m so over traditional patio furniture.

We plan to either build our own table or I found a guy off craigslist who will make it for us.

Now the big question are the chairs, I’m thinking either tolix or wicker chairs.

I found these awesome chairs at World Market which could totally work.

They remind me of this GORGEOUS set from Restoration Hardware.

or…

These Tolix chair look a-likes , $50 a chair is a steal!

Even though I do prefer the armless versions from here

So what do you think? Which chair style do you prefer?

Oh and to give you an idea, this is what our backyard looks like now.

We still need to finish painting the pergola and add grass, along with many other decor items.