Skipping ahead to our current fixer upper, Chris and I found an amazing 1.5 story home in June of 2016! Also located in our hometown of Jessamine County, this 70's home captured our hearts with its original beams, spacious kitchen and beautiful wooded lot. Built in 1974, this home radiated 70's vibes with its funky nooks, sunken living room and overall retro style. Kentucky in the 1970's (we imagine, anyway) was quirky, funky and fun. We wanted to incorporate that into our exterior design plan; it had to be different, yet attractive. It had to be retro, yet modern. Chris and I had a difficult task ahead of us...

As you can see, our home was not where we wanted it to be physically. The wood surrounding the windows and covering where the stonework did not, was rotting. Termites had taken their toll on the home, and parts of the current siding was flaking off in large pieces. Something had to change; and it was definitely not the stonework. Replacing the stone was out of the question; far too expensive and not really needed, to be honest. The current wood around the windows and doors, however, now that could be replaced! In talking with our window/door/siding/gutter/roof expert, Will Kelly, we discovered our love for board and batten vinyl siding. Unlike your traditional horizontal siding, board and batten spans vertically from top to bottom. It was different, it was funky, it was just what we were looking for! Now to decide the color... We looked into light beige, sandy brown, and even crimson red, but nothing seemed to complement our existing stonework- a funky red, river rock. As we turned to the back of the siding sample book, we landed on sage; a dark green!

"What if we lived in a green house?!" I joked with Chris.

I looked up at Chris from our little siding book and could see his wheels turning...

"Oh no," I thought. "He thinks I was being serious..." I instantly followed the outlandish statement with, "JK! LOL!"

But Chris was not kidding. Chris was not LOLing. I could see in his eyes that sage could be a real life possibility for our house... I was mortified! Later that evening, Chris and I drove out to the home to compare our final selections against the stone in person. Much to my surprise, the sage complemented the river rock perfectly! It seemed to bring out colors within the stone we had never seen before. It was then that we fell in love with sage. We called Will Kelly to discuss our idea. He was hesitant about our color selection, but ultimately trusted our decision and placed the order. As we waited for our siding to be delivered, the anxiety began to set in... Have we made a huge mistake in choosing green??? Should we call him back and cancel our order??? But there was no second guessing our choice now, our only option was to wait.

Finally installation day came and our siding was delivered. Will & his crew were hard at work, installing new windows, gutters and fascia boards in addition to the new siding. Chris and I anxiously drove to the house to see how everything was progressing. As we pulled into our driveway, all we could feel was relief. The sage board and batten was beautiful! It even matched the existing red door! It was truly everything we imagined it to be and more.

As Will Kelly and his crew finished the exterior work, we couldn't help but celebrate. We're far from finished and we still have many, many projects left ahead of us. Despite this, we still celebrate every accomplishment as we are one step closer to making this house our home.

Be sure to follow us @millerteamblog to stay up to date on all of our upcoming renovation projects!

Caroline