Front Door Mini Makeover

Do you ever feel like the universe is conspiring against you? I have felt this way since Thursday. It all began when Blogger was not cooperating and refused to publish my post. After being cussed out by a student and staying late to see our school's (phenomenal) production of Urinetown, I thought I would let the universe have its way with the blog for the rest of the week. (Sorry guys!) Then Saturday I spent 8 hours at a CPR training. (This was not the universe, but BTSA conspiring against me.) Sunday our master shower pluming decided to snap in twain when the hubs tried to snake it. (I have a lot of long hair.) Then our toilet in the second bath shut down. Plumbing problems not withstanding, there have been some highs in between the parade of lows, but I am definitely ready to turn things around and start fresh this week.

Enter a front porch - if you can even call it that - mini makeover.

We *finally* changed the deadbolt (since we weren't sure who exactly had the keys to our pad), and we got doormats for all the exterior doors to the house. I love this fun striped doormat by Smith and Hawken for Target that I scored for $24.99. (We got one for the double slider in the living room too, since it's extra long and the colors tie in.) Doesn't it scream summer?

You have to see the carpet remnants that we were using before to really appreciate how those punchy stripes improved things.

And here's a close up of the new deadbolt for those interested.

It's not a perfect match to the door handle by any means, but it is much better than the brass deadbolt that was there for the first 6 weeks of living here. (Of course, I didn't snap a before pic. The hubs surprised me with this upgrade while I was fixing dinner.) And let's be honest, who cares what it looks like when you have peace of mind that random strangers are not running around with the key to your kingdom.

Let's zoom out of a second so you can get a sense of how claustrophobic the porch is:

I had hoped to place some plants on either side of the door on the porch itself, but it looks like we will have to get some larger planters to go where my sad little stand in pots currently are. I am not sure what I want to plant yet, but I am thinking something vertical surrounded by succulents. That will be next Sunday's project after we jackhammer out some backyard concrete on Saturday.

Beyond the potted plants on either side of the entry, we still have to get some lighting that works, house numbers, and figure out what to do with the door. I want to paint it, Ryan wants to stain it. Ah, the age old debate in this house: to paint or to stain? Either way, we both agree that the stained glass has got.to.go! We are thinking some seeded glass down the line, but there are bigger curb appeal projects to tackle first... Like the whole front yard!