Board and Batten Exterior Progress

While it may not look like we’re moving in in one week, we have made major progress over here!

If you missed yesterday’s post talking about the plans and exterior inspiration, check that out first to fill in some of the back story.  If you remember, this is where we started.

This little place did have some charm, but it was in need of a lot of love.  While I love screened porches, I didn’t want one on the front of the house.  And you can’t see all of the peeling and years’ worth of coats of paint in this photo.  But she had potential.

Here she sits today:

You can read an update on the structural exterior changes (porch and house extension, etc.) here.

Today, we’re talking about the finishes that are starting to take shape.  That board and batten is KILLING me.  It’s all Hardie Plank siding.  Our house started out with asbestos shingles and we thought about just painting some of them to save cost, but in the end, it really all needed to be covered up.  They laid the hardie plank right on top of it!  This color is the natural color it comes in and then you have to paint it.

Some people have thought from the road it was already painted, but up close, you can tell this isn’t a finished look.

I’ve dreamed of a solid board and batten house for so long and seeing this come together last week was so exciting!  I love the texture and farmhouse detail it adds.

Right now there are no plants or landscaping in the front, but all of that will change.  We’ll use landscaping as the finishing touches and to camouflage areas like this front tiny window.  Balancing the inside layout and the exterior appearance can be tough.  A pretty little tree would look good on the corner there, I think.

I absolutely can’t wait to sit out on our new front porch.

This is our third home and with each house I said, “We’re having a front porch!”  Now, we finally do.  It isn’t very deep, but I’ll make it work with a nice little sitting area.  This will actually be the first “finished” room at the new house!  A front porch reveal is coming in just a few weeks.

We do have a front door.  I just realized it was accidentally left open for these pics!  It’s a wooden 12-light door exactly like our current one, but it’ll be painted instead of wood.

I’m getting it ready to enjoy for the nice fall weather!  We love living outside and a finished backyard is a ways off, so the front porch will do nicely in the meantime for our outdoor living space.

The porch has beadboard ceilings that of course will be painted Haint Blue, as we say in the South.  But the actual color will be Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue.  It’s a nice, true pale blue without any green in it, which I love paired with the green siding.  The floor of the porch, which you can barely see above, is tongue and groove boards that will be stained.  That’s the main reason I decided to paint the front door.  We’re so excited about the stained porch floor and I don’t usually like wood against wood, if that makes sense.

The porch will also get some rails and front steps, but we’re not quite there yet!

I love all of the details!  Some nice barn lights will go on either side of the front door and I’ve got to find a new light to go over the sitting area (where you see the old one hanging in the photo above).  Man, I still have a lot to round up!  There aren’t enough hours in the day…but whatever isn’t done will come along once we’re in and enjoying life here.

If you remember from when we moved in, the yard was sloped a TON.  We graded it to be flat and added this retaining wall.  Our driveway will go down on the other side of this wall instead of up in front of the house on the other side (where it started out).

You can see we already have a fence up and some sod peeking through in the back!  The fence getting done prior to moving in was a MUST.  When you have a 110 lb. Great Dane, having a yard to run in from day one is important.  Plus, now that we have Rosie, it’s a lot harder to take her out on the leash.  Thank you fence!  I know many of you are new around here.  Have you met our first baby Gracie?

You can read posts about her here.  When life slows down a bit, I’ll have to do a little Gracie update.  Some of you asked about her recently because I haven’t posted about her in quite awhile.  She’s doing great, loving life, and is going to die over this new, much bigger yard!

Speaking of the backyard, here’s a shot of the back of the house.

I snapped this one the other day, pre-sod.  So the backyard does look a little better now, though it does still have a ways to go.  But y’all, we have big, big plans for this yard.  I know we need to actually finish the interior first, but we’re both dying to get started back here.

Well, that’s all for today, friends!  I hope you have an amazing Labor Day weekend!  Though we don’t really have time with the reno and moving next week, we’re headed to the lake to enjoy some much needed family and relaxation time.

Happy Labor Day!

***

If you’re new here, there are a lot of exciting things happening!  You can check out our full current home tour here.

To follow our renovation journey every step of the way, make sure you subscribe to posts!  They come straight to your inbox when posted.

And you can catch up on any renovation updates you missed by clicking below.  While we love our little cottage, this family is moving on!  We’re renovating a sweet little bungalow just down the street called The Buffalo Bungalow.