We sold our home in one day based on two words: Curb Appeal

It drives me nutty when I see a home that is fully decorated on the inside, yet the outside is sorely neglected.  The outside is considered a separate entity.  Not connected to the home.

I believe Dave and I began working on the gardens at the blue house almost immediately after we moved in.  Well, immediately after the frigid cold of winter passed.  Yes, we moved into the blue house in the middle of winter as well.  Our strategic planning skills when it comes to moving are completely lacking. 

I love to garden. I love flowers, plants, gardening tools, garden art and the list goes on and on.  I am particularly infatuated with English cottage gardens.  Dave and I could never really figure out what the style of the blue house was.  It wasn't a bungalow, it wasn't a cape therefore we decided it was our very own English cottage.  Right, smack dab in the middle of Ohio.

The gardens in the beginning were non-existent.  Neighbors told us stories of beautiful tulips that had been planted by the previous owners.  Unfortunately, by the time we moved in, the tulips were no longer blooming.  We know the tulip destruction had something to do with an ugly divorce and a lawnmower.  That's all we know to this day.

It was time to start over.  I would go to the bookstore and study book after book on gardens.  I knew what I wanted, but considering I had never owned a home, I didn't necessarily know how to make it happen.

The first year was great.  We lived about 5 minutes from a stone center.  I would take my car, drive over, put as many stones in my car that it would hold and drive home.  That was about 5 stones.  It was the most inefficient way to do stone in a garden that you could ever imagine.

In addition to building stone walls and borders we started our cottage gardens.  I wanted them to wrap around the house.  Tea roses, vines poppies.  The garden was going to be fantastic.

The garden was fantastic the first year.  The second year came and I had a jungle.  I had planted too many flowers, too close together the previous year and the garden didn't like it.  

I repeated this viscous cycle of planting without planning for quite a few years.  One year in particular, I was so frustrated I just stopped gardening all together.  Dave and I spent a few weeks in Europe, did absolutely nothing to our yard and upon returning we were awarded the Neighborhood garden award. 

I kid you not.

It wasn't until the last five years in the blue house that the gardens really began to take shape.  When my guests came to the front door they were greeted by the scent of fresh lavender.

At the end of the day don't forget about the outside of your home.  Curb appeal is critical and it can  determine how long your home is on the market.

The Blue House

The blue house. To many it's a house, to me it's a home a story to tell.

I'll never forget the day we bought this house. Dave and I were newlyweds, 23 years old living in Washington, D.C. I was desperately homesick and Dave was loving the city. In typical Dave fashion he told me if moving back to Ohio was what I wanted he would go. Dave stayed back in DC to finish work and I started my search.

We had been paying $1,200.00 a month for a one bedroom apartment in DC about a mile from the Lincoln Memorial. We really thought we had moved up in the world because we now had a stacked washer and dryer. We were living the life. Upon returning I soon realized we could really be living large. For what we paid in DC we could live in a house. A real house!

This little blue house was the first and only house I looked at. I called Dave on the phone and said "I bought  house!" He asked me to repeat myself and I did. He said "Did you pay full price?" I proudly responded "I sure did!" That was the beginning.

I've always liked to learn my lessons the hard way. Not only did I pay full price, the plaster walls were covered with wallpaper and updates were non-existent. I never asked about the furnace, HVAC...what is that? All I saw was a beautiful house just dying to be given a little TLC. I could see the potential so clearly.

16 years later it's the house I saw and the home I wanted. Every nook and cranny has been filled and dreams have become reality.

This home has seen the birth of two beautiful girls, the coming and going of jobs and the completion of higher education, friends and family from near and far, holiday spectaculars, sadness, love and loss. Truly, if these walls could talk the stories they would tell.

My dad, Tom Lolan, is a fine art photographer. Quite frankly one of the most brilliant photographers I've ever seen. I asked him to photograph our home so that we could have a keepsake as we depart. We had a make-shift dark room in our basement when we were growing up. I'm probably one of the few people who enjoy and become nostalgic at the scent of film processing chemicals. Dad used to have contact sheets laying around everywhere. I would analyze each sheet and examine the small and large nuances of each image. The picture below reminds me of contact sheet where every image comes together and shows unity. The pictures represented are his work and I view them as art.

Our home has been a work of art and creative expression. I hope you will continue to follow our journey as we form a new beginning in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. A new home comes with hope and promise and I believe it will exceed our dreams once again.

I hope you enjoy viewing the home we created and the beautiful photography elements. Until I can get music to my site I highly recommend clicking on a new tab and listening to New Slang, by the Shins while watching this slideshow because the song rocks and the auditory stimulation is pretty excellent to go along! Here's to looking forward...