We bought a lovely little house when we were married, and we meant to stay there forever. But then the neighborhood changed, and the schools got worse, and we were suddenly in a position to pay attention to those things. So we moved. The new house was so different from the old. Bigger, colder, shadier. It was hard, moving from golden tones and roses in the all-day sun to stark white and gray and weeds in solid shade. For a year I struggled to stop missing our old house, and failed utterly. But then I realized that I hadn't been going about it the right way; I had been trying to turn this house into that one, and that would never work. So, instead, I've decided to embrace this house, and to make it a home in the way it deserves. And in the way we deserve.
This house has the bones to be a dream cottage; it has a river stone fireplace, gorgeous ceiling beams, and huge windows with plantation shutters. It just needs some brightening, so that it isn't overwhelmed and made gloomy by the shade of all the trees outside. And, speaking of outside, those weeds have got to go! Since the trees are most emphatically staying, there's nothing for it but to turn the yard into a woodland garden. There will be meandering paths, wildflowers, ferns, and maybe even a woodland rose or two. In the spirit of embracing things for what they are, all the plants in the woodland garden will be native to the deciduous forests of southern Michigan. (The more formal flower beds at the front of the house, bordering the small lawn and with just enough sun to scrape by, will consist of definitely non-native cottage flowers. What? It's supposed to be a woodland cottage, after all.)
So here goes. I suppose I'd better start by looking for some before pictures; I may have gotten a little excited about the transformation and started work before I started this chronicle of it....
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