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1970 home renovation

We purchased a 1970 brick ranch house in Washington County, Maryland in September of 2022. This wasn’t the home I envisioned us purchasing, but we thought it was a little gem that needed the kind of updating we were eager to do. We have had the privilege of meeting some of the children of the original homeowners, who built this Better Homes & Garden floor plan as their dream home. Follow along as we make updates to the home, big and small, while retaining the original charm and best features of the home.

1970 home renovation

backyard pool renovation | one year later

When we were first looking at moving back to the East Coast from Minnesota, I told Jeff I would have to have a pool if we were moving somewhere with hot, muggy summers.  I didn’t mean that we had to have a backyard pool, but I at least wanted access to one through a neighborhood membership or something.  I just melt in the heat and being able to jump in a pool would help me enjoy the summers more.  When we narrowed down our search to Washington County, Maryland, I primarily picked out homes with pools.  Again, it wasn’t a must-have, but I felt like it was a huge perk, especially with two teenage boys.  We ended up looking at an as-is home built in 1970 with a backyard pool that hadn’t been used as a pool in over 15 years.  We have never owned a pool and didn’t know

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1970 home renovation

home editing | 1970 home renovation

When we live in a house for a while, it’s easy to become blind to things that should be obvious eyesores.  Something that bothered us initially becomes something we don’t even notice.  Such was the case with the basketball pole off our driveway.  We walk past it almost every day and, occasionally, I would recognize it and comment that we need to remove it and then we would go about working on other things. We considered putting a new backboard and net up to make it functional, but we learned that it would have to be either customized or custom-made since the mounting hardware on the pole no longer matches up with modern backboards.  We then questioned if anyone in our house would use it enough to make it worth the trouble and expense and decided it would be best to just remove it.  We mentioned that it was going

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1970 home renovation

fencing day two & DIY cost savings

We finished installing the second side of the fence yesterday and I took the time to take a few pictures to share how we did it for those who are curious or considering a similar project.  You can read about our first day of “fencing” HERE. The fence really needed to be replaced from the day we moved in.  Pickets were falling off and it was only getting worse.  In fact, the gate used most often fell off one day shortly after we moved in.  I had a neighborhood dog wander to our front door a few months ago and I put her in the backyard to keep her safe while I notified her owners and waited for them to pick her up.  Well, a fence that held Sebastian just fine was no match for this escape artist.  The owner came to get her and she was gone.  It was

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1970 home renovation

fencing day one | 1970 home renovation

We were planning on rebuilding our crumbling fence a few weeks ago when the weather was still reliably cool and before the vines took off, but just as I went to order the fence pickets, Home Depot didn’t have enough in stock.  Someone else must’ve had the same idea because one day they were there and the next day, they were cleared out.  We already had sections of fence rebuilt with this style of picket, so we couldn’t just go with another option that was in stock.  We had to wait until we could source them. I called Home Depot regularly to check in on their next shipment and it finally arrived Friday and was delivered to us on Monday.  With the fence materials in our driveway and the weather cool and beautiful, we made the impromptu decision to start working on the fence right away.  Both Jeff and I

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1970 home renovation

edging the front walk

If you can’t tell by my blog posts, we’ve been focusing our efforts on the exterior of the house over the past few weeks.  I’ve been enjoying it and have some good momentum, but we’re also trying to get as much done before it gets uncomfortably hot.  Spring and fall are my favorite times to be outside, so we’re trying to take advantage of it before we’re in the dog days of summer.  We started working on our fence yesterday and got the section on the right side of the house finished (except for a few finishing details) and we’ll get the other side done over the next 2-3 days.  I’ll share that process and the result in another post.  Something we worked on last week, though, was edging the front walk. While the front of our house is very visible, the front door is rarely used.  Since the driveway,

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1970 home renovation

update on the back garden beds | part one

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] The areas that were always a struggle for me when it came to gardening were patience and planning.  For years, I would make a feeble attempt at weeding and planting, but I didn’t take any time to learn about the plants themselves or how to make weeds easier to control and maintain.  So, I would plant bushes, annuals, and perennials in totally the wrong places.  Plants that would eventually get huge were in front of others that were a low, creeping ground cover, plants were in the wrong soil, the wrong light, and I wouldn’t even bother to water or prune.  When what looked decent right after I worked on it looked terrible in a few weeks or months, I would shrug my shoulders in resignation.  Well, I’m just not good at gardening.  I’m a little older now, wiser, more patient, and willing

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1970 home renovation

gardening plan with a local nursery

Over the winter, I was already thinking about working on the front garden.  It was going to be a massive project landscaping this wide, rambling, unsymmetrical house, but we were at a place in our 1970 home renovation where we could get started once Spring arrived.  We had painted the siding and trim, removed the overgrown trees and landscaping, replaced missing shutters, installed new windows along the front of the house, and a new roof.  All of the bush-trampling jobs were behind us and we could start reestablishing the beds and planting.  But, I felt very overwhelmed at the idea of planning it all out myself. I reached out to a few landscape designers about quotes and the process for getting a virtual plan.  For a virtual consultation, I would have to have the property professionally surveyed and most of the quotes were in the $1,000 neighborhood.  While I felt

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1970 home renovation

garden updates | bishop’s weed, trellis design, & progress

In case you haven’t noticed by the subject of my recent posts, gardening has been my main focus over the past few weeks.  I feel like I have to take advantage of the weather before it starts getting really hot and also get the backyard cleaned up before we open the pool.  I keep feeling a pull to the easel to get some paintings done and I’m excited about finally painting the dining room, but I have to follow the seasons and plant when it’s prime planting time.  And, I need to get ahead of the weeds before they get out of control even more than they are.  In addition to the sense of seasonal urgency, I’m really enjoying it.  I put my headphones in and listen to an audiobook or music and completely lose track of time.  I’ve been gardening some evenings until it’s so dark I can hardly

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I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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