the process

I almost didn’t want to write this post yet because I didn’t have a good glory shot. I didn’t have that one picture where the house looks so much better that everyone automatically sees what I changed and agrees that YES that was a great decision. Then I realized if I waited until I had that shot to show you, it’d be next spring, or the next or never. AND, even though the house isn’t in its’ still glory, I’m getting a lot of satisfaction out of this small, 25 minute change.

shutters

One of the things I knew when we bought the house is that I wanted to remove the shutters. I’m a shutter snob. If I have them I want them to be real and spectacular. I didn’t think these wimpy-not-quite-the right-size-for-the-windows, thin shutters were doing our house any favors. I love the simplicity of the back of the house without any shutters and I wanted the same feel on the front…

remove the shutters

Our 15-year-old removed all the shutters with a drill and a ladder.

DSC_7698

DSC_7700

DSC_7690  DSC_7707

Wondering about the screw holes left from the shutters? I posted one on instagram.

front door

Then there’s screen door. It’s simply not my style. And one day I’d like to change out the whole front door and side lights for double doors but until then, I noticed a way to make this decorative door not be as much as an attention hog. There were screws in the little decorative corner things. So we just unscrewed them to get a little more non-descript, non-victorian, non ‘hey world look at me‘ look.

screen door

 DSC_6515before

nekkid porchduring

So instead of focusing on the fact that I want to rip out the knockout roses, the front door bugs me, there’s an orange cone in our yard that I don’t even know where it came from and why didn’t I move it? And ugh, those phone wires in the sky.  I decided to uncomplify things and recognize that even though the exterior is far from done, ….I see better.

It’s better to me because I see progress towards my goal. You may think it looks worse, and often times change can look worse before it looks better. Don’t let the knowledge that something could publicly look worse when it’s in transition to looking better stop you from making a change–remember the goal and acknowledge that you are one step closer.

white house, no shuttersmy exterior muses (musi?) on my Exterior Pinterst board

In this Pinterest world it’s so easy to trick myself into believing that I can’t rest or find beauty in something until it’s 100% complete. That’s not Pinterest’s fault. It’s my own. If I want to see the beauty in something, I can search for it, I don’t have to always have it handed to me on a platter so I can repin it.

Today I hope you choose to see the beauty in the unfinished and undone.  That’s real, approachable beauty: uncomplified.

I’m choosing to see the better.

I’m choosing to see beauty.

I’m choosing to rest in the undone.

rest

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