Backyard Makeover Plans + Before Photos

Here lies the decrepit, soggy backyard of the Ivy League House. May she rest in peace.

Okay, so maybe she isn't dead yet...but she will be soon. At the end of December, Nate and I were feverishly tugging on our dry, dying Christmas tree stuck in the doorway leading out to the backyard deck so we could leave it on our tree lawn for pick-up... As helpful as I thought I was being acting as a pseudo-air traffic controller for Nate's tree trajectory, I unknowingly stepped backwards on what we both knew was a rotting deck plank and fell straight through it. Nate had to run inside to get a hammer and a chisel to get my leg out of the rotting wood plank. Luckily, I wasn't hurt except for a few bruises and scrapes, but the deck and the rest of the backyard signed its death warrant in that instance. 

Although I have despised our deck since the first time we laid eyes on the house, I probably would have tried to push our backyard transformation to 2020 if it weren't for that particular sequence of events. Our backyard isn't really something that we've been able to take advantage of and enjoy for several reasons: For one, it's unsafe, clearly. Secondly, it's ugly. When we first moved in, I had resolved to strip the awful barn red color from the wood to something that would match the rest of the exterior a little better--but when we realized that we had some rotting boards and wanted to demolish it altogether in the future, it didn't really seem like a priority any longer. Not to mention, the grass is overwrought with weeds, several dips in the soil that collect miniature lakes when it rains, and  the gardens are ripe with poison ivy. 

It's safe to say that I've spent the better part of the last 1.5 years being in our house thinking of different layouts, materials, features that I want for our backyard-- but even more now that I've set my sights on this year being THE YEAR of yard transformation. The  "before" pictures don't even fully encapsulate the current state of the space to really understand the dire circumstances of this project, but here you go... 

We really have a limited amount of space to work with, which tearing down the deck in favor of a much smaller deck staircase leading down from the back door and a ground-level brick patio will really help the yard seem bigger visually. The deck being so large and high off of the ground really cuts the rest of the yard off. I've always compared it to a play pen or a wrestling ring, haha! 

Depending on our ability to stay within a reasonable budget for the stairs and the patio, we also really want to replace the chain-link fence with something prettier and allows us a little more privacy.

I don't really have the layout or materials picked out completely, though I know I want composite decking for the stairs (for durability and avoiding further PTSD!) and a darker charcoal brick for the patio. 

Here are a few spaces that have been serving as muses recently-- 

Photo via A Beautiful Mess

Photo via Yellow Brick Home

Photo via NY Times

Photo via Vogue

Anyway, I'll leave you with that inspiration. Nate and I have our work cut out for us, as we hope to do as much as we can ourselves to stay budget friendly. I'm anxious to get started once the weather is nicer, and share everything with you all. Let me know if you've used local businesses or design resources that I should know about in the comments below!

2019 Goals for the Ivy League House

Happy New Year, friends!

'Tis the season for resolutions- they get a bad rap, don't they? I typically try to avoid them at all costs. If I can share a moment of honesty here, I definitely had plans of writing out all of my house-related goals at the beginning of 2018 with the intention of posting them on this blog. It's probably for the best that I never finished and published it-- I have a tendency to create astronomical, lofty goals for myself and it truly would have been embarrassing to look back at all the things that didn't get done.

Despite not publicly proclaiming my goals last year, I still was able to look back on all of the things I accomplished-- all through interviewing for/starting a new job, having awful poison ivy twice, etc.-- Reminding myself of all the projects I did do in 2018 without setting any goals has me feeling incredibly motivated for 2019!

With that said, I'm creating goals (or intentions, if you will) for myself this year and trying to tiptoe around the precipice of high self-inflicted expectations. I had a horrible habit in high school and college of procrastinating and then stressing out over everything I had put off, and my mom always preached the gospel of "manageable chunks" and list-making. That's exactly the kind of foundation I'm using this year for the goals I'm setting!

If you're anything like me and easily set yourself up for failure, here are some ways that I am approaching renovation & redecorating goals to allow for more flexibility and less disappointment:

1) Make a list of everything you want to accomplish this year- and then makes cuts & prioritize. 
When I started jotting every project I want to tackle in 2019, I quickly realized that it wasn't realistic. Nate and I both work traditional 40 hour weeks and a lot of our weekends are spoken for before we even have the chance to block it for projects or even our own sanity's sake. I continued to write everything down, but once I was done- I prioritized things that were most important to me to get done. Make your main goals the priority, and everything else not qualifying can go on the docket for 2020 or can be a bonus goal if everything else is accomplished

2) Allow for financial balance!
Unless you hit the mega millions this year or just have exorbitant amounts of liquid cash to throw around- you need to balance your expectations of how much you want to spend this year on projects. If you have three goals - make two of them low-budget or cost free if possible, and the third should be your attainable splurge for the year. For example, my big ticket goal this year is to totally overhaul our backyard so we can actually spend time back there and not feel embarrassed to invite friends over to hang out during the summer. With that in mind, I had to scale some other things back- like coming up with more frugal ways I can update my kitchen back splash instead of paying $300 or more to install new tile.

3) Not everything you accomplish has to be a firm goal. 
If you don't tackle a goal you set for yourself by the end of the year, don't beat yourself up! Chances are you accomplished a lot that wasn't necessarily set as an intention. Reorganized your kitchen cabinets in January? That's an accomplishment! Downsized the contents of your closet in September? Um, yes! Let everything else fall to the wayside so your mental health could flourish? That counts too.  It's not the end of the world if you didn't end up completing a resolution for the year.

Even though this post is a bit late in terms of New Years resolutions, I hope this helps you set your intentions for the year and create a home that makes you happy. Go forth and kick some ass in 2019!