Y’all, I hope you had a great weekend!

We sure did!  This weekend, we had a “house baby!”  haha!

If you follow me over on my Instagram stories, you already know what I am talking about, but if not, I wanted to share it with you here.  

Sooooo….here’s the story. 

I have been at a loss with how I want to design the back of our house.  I’ve been wanting to design something where the front part of the house and the MIL suite look more cohesive. 

This is what the back of the house looked like when we bought it. 

The deck was only connected to the MIL suite, making it look like it’s own living quarters.  Which is exactly what it was.  The previous home owner lived in the MIL suite, and she rented the front part out to other people.

But for us, we wanted the front and back parts of our house to look like one cohesive home. 

I knew that I wanted the MIL suite painted black and the front of the house painted white, and I knew I wanted to connect the two with either a courtyard or a large deck.

For MONTHS, I have debated back and forth of whether I wanted a courtyard or a large deck.

I’ve been pinning images on pinterest to try and figure it out, and then finally this weekend…it happened!

On my instagram stories, I asked my insta-friends whether I should do a deck or a courtyard, and here are the results…

I also asked them to send me any inspiration pictures, and they did.  One picture that was sent to me was actually a picture of one of my dearest friend’s home, Allie from Proverbs 31 Girl.  

Allie and I have been friends for quite a while in blog world, and I have always adored her style, her home, and her heart.  She is a GEM!!!

I have known Allie’s home for years, and I have seen her porch area on the front of her house a gajillion times, but when I saw it again on Saturday, it suddenly answered all my exterior makeover dreams. haha!

Her home has BOTH of what I wanted…a deck area and a “courtyard” area.   (In my mind, I’ve always pictured a gray stone courtyard for our home, and her gray sitting area just brought my vision to life!)

Allie from Proverbs 31 Girl

Isn’t it beautiful!  

If you don’t know Allie, you need to go follow her on social ASAP.  She is MY FAV to follow!

I started to realize that our houses were set up in a similar fashion…

We will be installing four exterior doors in our kitchen leading out to our deck exactly where Allie’s doors are, and her front door with the a-frame roof is about the same place where our door to the MIL suite is.  

Soooooo, late Saturday night, I decided to crop the deck, patio, and doors off of Allie’s photo, and place it on the picture of the back of my house, and LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!!!…

OUR HOUSES GOT “MARRIED…”

AND WE GAVE BIRTH TO A “HOUSE BABY!!!!”

Y’ALL!  I was so excited when I could finally envision what the back of our house could look like AND it gave me the best of both worlds!  A deck area and a courtyard area!.

Now we have a plan, and I am so excited!!

What do you think?  Do you like it? 

A few things we will be doing differently.  Our doors off the kitchen will look more like this…

There will be four doors with black framing for a more modern look. 

And for the patio, I want to do some type of gray pavers maybe in a herringbone pattern similar to this?…

 

Not sure about that, though.  Herringbone is more labor intensive, and Cy may not want to do that.  It depends on how large we make our patio/courtyard. 

Either way, I am SO PUMPED about it, and I can’t wait to get started!

Here are the Instagram stories that I shared this past weekend, in case you missed my “house baby” being born.  {wink}

 
 

Have a blessed day!

Traci