HopefulGardner: The first bite......

It's hard to know where to begin blogging about this process. We spent four years living in this house before we began this renovation. Three years living with colors I hated -- year four I finally broke down and painted over the worst offenders: a purple-mauve in the living room and a pepto bismol pink in the kitchen.

It was a house that didn't work for our family, and honestly for me was a source of irritation. I did not try and buy things to accessorize over the offense, although I longed to. I hung art where it fit, not where it worked. I spent my time over-looking our living space, while it insulted me in my peripheral vision. I collected inspiration. So much inspiration. I hoped the new friends we were making were not judging us, believing that the house we were inviting them into was a reflection of us. I bided my time, knowing that big change was coming and threw my creative energy and time into the gardens.

In the summer of 2010, we knew it was now-or-never. I had been watching the market for three years, and I knew what we had in land and location was not for sale in our location and what we wanted in a house was not in our price range. We decided we needed to take a 'bite' off and get started.

So we began here:

October 2010