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Looking back at the reno, a year later

September 7, 2011

It is hard to believe that it was just about a year ago that we started the house renovation (September 1, 2010, to be exact). The renovation seemed like it lasted forever (and it was a good six months) but looking back on it now it seems like a distant memory. Surely renovating a house (and probably building one too, although I have no experience in that area) must be like having a child: you forget the worst parts and remember only the good.

I’m not quite to the point where I’ve forgotten ALL the bad parts, but I suppose I’ll get there someday. Having been through it, though, I can see why some people become serial renovators: You learn so much during the process that would have been really helpful to know in the beginning that you almost want to do it again (almost) just to apply that knowledge.

I didn’t blog much about the renovation after it was finished because I was sick of it and exhausted and I thought anything I wrote about it would probably come out sounding overly bitter. Now that I’m a bit removed from it I thought I’d share a few thoughts about renovating with you this week.

First, though, an update. There are a lot of little projects in the house that are not finished. When spring came I so needed a break from house projects that I dropped them all and went outside. And I’m just starting to come back inside now. Some of the items on the short-term agenda are the gallery wall I have planned for the upstairs hallway (by the time I get this finished I suppose gallery walls will be passé), making the cushion for the window seat in the master bedroom, moving things onto the shelves in the master bedroom and generally just filling the walls with art. I also need to paint the doors on the mini-closet in the second bedroom. I’ve still not done anything about window treatments in the bedrooms and at this point I’m not sure if I will. We haven’t had a need for them yet, and I think the windows might look OK without them.

And now, onto some photos. For whatever reason I’ve never put the exterior photos together like this before.
Here are the plan drawings of the front (south side) and back (east side). Yes I realize that doesn’t make sense that we consider one the front the other the back, but in my bizarre mind that’s how I’ve always thought of it.
House 1

Here’s the original front side (on the day we moved out of the house for the reno hence the junk on the patio):

Reno1 090210

And here’s the new front:
Newhouse2

And the old back (that snow fencing protected a dwarf Japanese maple that I’m happy to report made it through the construction just fine):
Oldhouseback

And here’s the new back of the house, including the new landscaping I worked on all spring:
Newhouse1

And just for shock value, here’s maybe the scariest demo photo:
Demo1 091410
If you’re interested in looking back at the whole process of the remodel, check out these posts:

Construction Update 1
Construction Update 2
Construction Update 3
Construction Update 4
Construction Update 5
Construction Update 6
Construction Update 7
Construction Update 7.5
Construction Update 8
Construction Update 9
Construction Update 10
Construction Update 11
Construction Update 12
Punch list
Stairs
Guest bedroom sneak peak
before and after remodel
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
11 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

View all posts by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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Comments

  1. threeacres says: September 7, 2011 at 5:34 pm

    I really love how you added architectural interest with the new entrance and the pergola. Do you have any vines growing up the pergola? Does it give you much shade? We're considering adding a small pergola around our patio door because the back of the house is just a big box.

    Reply
  2. Remington says: September 7, 2011 at 9:15 pm

    That is SO awesome!

    Reply
  3. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: September 8, 2011 at 2:29 am

    That last photo is scary! We had that kind of stuff for digging the pond but it would be more than a bit nerve-wracking to have it eating your house!

    Reply
  4. Erin Schanen says: September 8, 2011 at 4:06 am

    @ threeacres: I didn't grow anything up the pergola this year because I wanted to keep things simple and just sort of live in the space a little bit first. Whatever I grow there, and I'm sure I'll grow something there soon, will probably have to be an annual or something very hardy as it will have to live in a container. I think mandevilla vine might be night. I don't want something that's going to get overly aggressive. As for shade, ironically we don't really need the shade there (it's the east side of the house) which I realize sort of defeats the purpose of a pergola, but I wanted it just for looks (which my husband thinks is crazy). I really love it and love pergolas in general. Anytime you can add architectural interest, I think it's a good thing.

    @Linda: I remember coming home from work the day they were taking the top off and feeling absolutely sick to my stomach and thinking, "Oh my god, what have we done?" Of course there was nothing I was going to do about it at that point anyway!

    Reply
  5. Kylee says: September 8, 2011 at 2:57 pm

    Erin, wow! It looks GREAT! What a change, especially to the back! (What I think is the back…LOL) I can imagine how you feel about the whole thing – glad to have it behind you. But it's been worth it. I love it. More importantly, YOU are happy with it, too!

    Reply
  6. Kara says: September 10, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    Your house is beautiful. I love all the little touches you have added.

    Reply
  7. Reenie says: September 21, 2011 at 5:06 pm

    WOW…. I love it!

    Reply
  8. artsyfish says: September 22, 2011 at 12:28 am

    What Reenie said!

    Reply
  9. Stephanie says: September 23, 2011 at 3:44 am

    I just came over from Before and After because I had to see how you did the reno. WOW is all I can say. That is a huge transformation and I can't wait to browse the process on your blog. The backyard is my favorite.

    Reply
  10. Marti says: September 27, 2011 at 5:27 pm

    It's fantastic! I bet you are just thrilled living there now too. It's just like you envisioned, right down to the pergola on the back.

    Come back and check the posts to you on the Small House Forum. We miss you.

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
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