The balcony is down, and in good time too. Most of the wood was rotten right through. When the construction crew stepped on the sagging side the boards collapsed. Ekkk, glad no one got hurt! It only took a few hours to come down. The view from the windows now feels so bright, and we feel really high up! Construction of the new balcony should start in the next couple of weeks. So exciting, I'll keep you posted!

Our poor balcony needs replacing pronto! Part of the support has snapped and the boards are rotting. Instead of doing this project ourselves, for the first time in our lives, we are hiring someone to take care of it. It's a strange concept for me to not be undertaking a project, but it would probably take us the whole summer to complete. The professionals will have it done in about a week! Gives us more time to work on projects we want to do and enjoy our summer. 

However, they are only building it for us, we still have control over design! So we have been working through ideas for railings. The main footprint of the balcony has to stay the same, or we would need a building permit and it would be a major cost to change the cement supports on the driveway. ​

We even thought about removing the balcony completely and adding a Juliette balcony instead, which would be a lot cheaper. However, I think we have come to the conclusion that we like having the use of the balcony. ​ Although, the house actually looks a lot better without the balcony than I thought it would.

We originally wanted to use composite for the boards, to limit the maintenance we would have to do in the future, instead of the wood. However, it was just too expensive, especially since we would like to have a fancier railing. Turns out glass railings are the most expensive! So, I came up with a design that would incorporate some glass and some aluminum, which is still costly but not nearly as much. 

We are still tweaking the plan for the railing, but we are moving forward with the balcony. Should be starting construction near the beginning of June. So close, and so exciting!

These shelves are like a neat piece of art on the wall, yet are completely functional. And don't take up floor space! This is the Frame Collection from  by Lassen, and can be customized to meet your look. Check out more at Contemporist. 

We finally got our new house numbers up on the wall! I had bought them at the One of a Kind Show back in December, but we never got a chance to put them up until now. They are definitely more modern! I'm not sure how well they go with the rest of the house yet (yet being the important word). However, it is the direction I'd like to see everything going once we are done fixing up the outside.

We are currently working on a design for the balcony (which is falling down), and getting quotes. We plan to hire someone to do the hard work for us, leaving summer weekends for us to enjoy. Once complete we look forward to decorating the new balcony with pots of plants, furniture, and new lighting.