Our House is a Very Very Very (small) Fine House

Okay so it is not that small...not is terms of global international standards if you want to get all 'real' up in here. I use small in an endearing, sweet way. She's cute. At least I am saying that now while we are still living just two people and a dog (who we also refer to just as 'Big' sometimes, and he comes to that---so our perceptions of size are definitely skewed). Perhaps when this baby comes we will think of our house as miniscule and not in a cuddly, lil' Marcel the Shell way. We actually always have our eyes out for a possible new house to move into but for now we are embattled in an arduous (but wholly enjoyable) basement reno that has a firm completion deadline of 'by the time the baby comes'!! (two exclamation are more than necessary there, trust me).

Here she is with nothing done to her...this is actually right before we put in grass so you can make out (if you know about these kinds of things) the screed-ed (is that a word?) top soil that my sister law helped to lovingly level out before we laid the sod ourselves (in scorching August heat).

Here's our house about 6 months after we moved in...as you can see the grass is in (!) as well as 2 trees, some decorative rocks in place of actual landscaping and some seasonal potted mums on the porch. Since then, we have landscaped, put a concrete driveway in and made these DIY beauties from left over wood from the back fence and deck projects:

They were cheap (free basically), easy and look quite smashing all done up:

Ignore the weeds beside the planter though, this was 'bdw' (before driveway). The greatest thing about these planters are that since they are made of pressure treated lumber they just sit outside all year round and get different looks depending on the season. They currently house some lovely fresh winter greenery and birch logs.

So that is the run down of the exterior of our house...although this post is seriously lacking a final 'after picture' but since it is the middle of a cold and snowy Canadian winter, that will have to wait for the spring/summer when things are in bloom and all purdy looking (also, we desperately need to repaint our front trim as it is already chipping like nobody's business and looks, well, fugly---I'm thinking about ditching the boring white and pulling some browns and greys from the brick). I'll leave you with this (redundant) shot of two crazy kids in front of their first baby:

p.s: here's a fun game: can you spot a cute dog face in this pic?