We're Adding On!

Ah, house-building regrets… they haunt me every day.  I don’t have many, but the few that I do have are humdingers.  If only we could do it all over again and just tweak a few things (can you say white kitchen cabinets?!)!  We built our house six years ago (pre-kids) and thought that we were doing everything just right.  However, I’m here to tell you, that no matter how much thought you put into it, there will always be something that you wish you did differently down the road.  Don’t get me wrong, I still adore our house and I’m so incredibly thankful to live in it, but we desperately need some storage! 

Now that we have our family of four (and all of the bedrooms are full) along with all of the stuff that comes with having a family of four, we are sadly realizing that we didn’t plan well for storage, indoors or outdoors.  I know, I know it’s a good problem to have (#FirstWorldProbs), but it would be nice to be able to open my passenger door without denting it on the lawn mower that’s wedged tightly in the corner of the garage.  And Christmas decorations… sigh… I go all out for Christmas, so I have at least ten storage containers for fall and Christmas décor (I’m well aware that that’s a ridiculous amount of stuff – it’s been the root of several of Brian’s and my rare arguments), and there is just no place to put them.  We don’t have a lot of attic space, and even if we did, I would worry about them getting ruined in the southern summer heat and humidity.  Therefore, they are currently spilling out of Brian’s small office closet (along with a massive heap of other junk) and you literally cannot set one foot in his office.   

To solve (hopefully) all of our storage needs, we have decided to add an indoor storage closet off of Brian’s office downstairs, an outdoor utility closet off of the back corner of the house (also off of Brian’s office), and then we figured while we were at it that we would go ahead and extend our covered back porch across the width of the house to meet up with the outdoor storage closet.   

It’s gonna be glorious!  And I think I’m most excited about the porch! 

When we built our house, we did upgrade to the covered back porch, but it is actually very small (around 8x10, maybe?) and we just can’t do very much with the space as it barely fits a bench and a grill.  Plus, our back yard faces south so it is in the sun about 90% of the day until the sun goes behind the trees on the other side of the neighborhood, and unfortunately we have no trees in our yard (yet) to provide shade, so it’s always blazing hot out there.  The outdoor utility closet is going to serve as a side wall for the west end of the porch, which should end up blocking the sun during the afternoon and evening hours when it’s the hottest, and also when we use it the most.  The porch will also now be big enough for a table and chairs!!  Hello, dining al fresco!!  

The builders are starting in about a week, and I am ecstatic!  I can’t wait to share the building process, and most of all, the decorating process with you all!  In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a few porches that I found on Pinterest that will make your heart skip a beat.  A girl can dream…  

Have a wonderful evening, and enjoy part two of The Bachelorette tonight (if you're watching).  XO