Well, I am back today with the final before tour of our new place, and it’s the courtyard. Go to these links to see the first floor, second floor, and third floor. There’s also a huge basement, but you all know what a basement looks like. We plan to use it for storage and then make a theater in the large room down there. Today we are going to the courtyard. You know that I love me a courtyard. I have always been crazy about a walled-in area. It reminds me so much of Europe because homes there will often have a plain non-descript front, but the back is a hidden secret gem where all of the living takes place.
The courtyard has a sunken portion which I love. As you can tell, it was a rainy day when I took these photos. The brick wall will be cleaned. That will happen as soon as it warms up, and I can’t wait to see it all pristine.
We are tearing out this wall and extending the kitchen to the edge of the sunken area. Our architect wanted us to raise the courtyard and put in a fireplace on the exterior wall of the new addition. We thought it was a great idea at first but then nixed it. I would actually like to put a gas fireplace on the now breezeway/future porch, but I haven’t planted that seed with the mister yet. Mr. Right and the architect surprised me with this addition. They put their heads together and planned it the week I was staying with Baby Girl. What a surprise that was to me!!! Now our kitchen will have plenty of room for both a cooking, sitting, and eating area.
You can see that this spot has potential. We don’t know if there is anything living under that dirt or not. We have to wait till spring to find out. Meanwhile, the existing plants need to either be revived or removed. I think they all need a good dose of food and a good haircut. After that happens, we will have a better idea of what stays and what goes. We want to concentrate our energy and money on the landscaping of the front yard first. So, the courtyard will happen slowly.
Just like in our current house, we will enclose this breezeway. It gets a new beadboard ceiling painted light blue, new fans, hopefully a fireplace (???), and doors. We will use sliders rather than French doors because we can open them, and they won’t get in the way. I plan to keep them open all summer so it will feel like a screened in porch. Those round arches will be squared off so it will be easier to fit the doors in there. This ceiling was rotten so after we had the roof replaced, the rotten wood was removed and replaced. The door at the end goes into the garage.
The door there will be removed and moved out because a portion of this breezeway/porch will become a mudroom with a Dutch door. You can see where the rotten boards were replaced.
Here’s another view. It was taken beside the garage door looking out onto the courtyard. It’s funny to me that the faucet in this courtyard is a Murdock water hydrant. You can see it in the bottom left. It’s what they use around here on horse farms to water the horses, but we have one in our small courtyard, too. They’re quite expensive, and it’s truly more than is needed, but it’s a fun little gadget to have. Plus, they don’t freeze in the winter.
Now, we have had a few people ask about our house actually being a townhouse because the full frontal looks like a free-standing house.
This photo shows where we are attached to our neighbor. And by the way, we are surrounded on both sides by absolutely beautiful townhouses. This whole area, as well as the rest of the front yard, will be getting low maintenance landscaping so that it will look wonderful but there won’t be any mowing involved. No time for that!
Okay, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us. Thank you all so much for stopping in.
Take care.
