And then we moved back to San Antonio and we got a house to call our own.
I was geeked out that we had found a brand new house that was move-in ready. It was fresh. It was clean. It was airy. It had good bones, which for me means it was ready to take on a French Country appearance!
Especially exciting is that this house was only 3 miles from my original inspiration for my home, the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort. And our neighborhood was next door to SeaWorld. And we were just off the outer country loop of San Antonio, which was nearly in the foothills of the hill country.
Having always loved the Texas Hill Country look that is French-inspired, I wanted to incoporate that look into our home. The exterior white stone with French blue accents were already in place!
My daughter was even happy to have her own room.
Be still my heart! A loft where I imagined a homeschool room!
I loved that the loft overlooks the two story foyer!
My cat loved this stairway, giving me a chance to start first, then she’d scamper up the stairs, beating me to the top where she’d look down to ask what took me so long. Additional bonus was for my daughter who had struggled to learn to take steps by alternating her feet, despite much physical therapy and sensory integration therapy. Since she now had opportunity to use a stairway multiple times on a daily basis, she figured it all out in a couple of weeks!
Love the peek-a-boo stairway that can be seen from the dining room and foyer.
My kids made great use of the circular space around the stairs that we later used as a staging area for Becoming History Presentations for our homeschool.
These photos were taken the day the microwave was installed over the stove. Those long counter tops were going to spoil me! I loved the window seat in the breakfast area. Even more I loved that pantry on the far right, which was also the laundry room: open, clean, spacious, shelves. There was a door to the garage so it made a good mud room. Possibly that pantry is the room I miss the most.
About that time I had discovered HGTV which opened my DIY heart to all sorts of creative possibilities.
Although the front yard came with grass and a little Live Oak tree, the back yard had nothing but dirt.
In the garage I found a pile of leftover bricks from the house building, so I hauled them to the back yard to outline a garden around the perimeter of the property. After carpet grass sod was delivered to the front drive way, I hauled it to the back yard and put it in place, then watered it twice a day by hand.
As I discovered round limestone rocks in my gardens, I used them to edge the front yard gardens. Then I bought some Arizona pink flagstone for a pathway from the front yard to the back.
Once the grass was established the kids’ playscape was moved to the backyard where the kids could play while I worked on the gardens.
Then I went to my all-time favorite nursery, Rainbow Gardens, where I could find not only the best plants that tolerated Texas heat well…
…but also unique plants like Texas Star Hibiscus!
I also sewed curtains for inside the house, that I had first debuted to see how the fabric would look not only from inside but also from outside the house. I was sort of a Thomas Jefferson at heart, always experimenting with his beloved Monticello, so these design decisions for my Texas house certainly were not the final choices in my window treatments or garden plants.
Many more photos are at my Flickr set if you’d like to see the remodel process. Just click on any photo to see the rest of the set. Or use this link.
Meanwhile my kids were geeked out that we lived next door to SeaWorld, so of course we had to get season passes. (more on that later)
A compilation of posts written from 2007-2009 to update my new blog in 2023.
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