Before…
I haven’t blogged in SO long for two big reasons…we bought the 100-year-old Spanish Revival home we were renting and we had a baby. Needless to say, the second half of our year was really…um…intense! I’m not sure if it was normal “new house” stuff, or pregnancy nesting hormones, but I spent every waking moment of 2016 rethinking, refinishing and refurbishing our house. I’ll take you on that journey soon, but for now, take a look at our first big projects. We removed the fence dividing our backyard in half, cut down the creeping fig eating into our stucco, removed the scary bars from the windows, and had our windows and stucco redone and painted! There are still quite a few things to do outside, but this was a huge step in the right direction. I love the giant yard, cheerful paint colors and the functional window planter that my mom filled with tons of succulent clippings. Later this year, we will need to paint the studio and pergola, re-tile the front porch and replace the fence surrounding the whole yard…2017 will be a busy one for fixing up our beautiful new(ish) home!
The evil creeping fig…pretty, but destructive!
Our patio will need lots of work in the future, but for now it looks like this.
This bamboo fence divided our yard in half, creating a separate yard for the detached studio.
The creeping fig had made its way all the way around to the back of the house.
The fence coming down!
G “helped” to remove the vines.
Jeff started removing the vines at the back of the house. That was when we realized it would be a big job!
The vines fell in heavy sheets off of the house, pulling paint and stucco chunks along with it.
Almost clear!
View of the yard without the weird fence.
The front of the house without the vines.
Before the painters came, we removed the two Bird of Paradise trees from the front of the house. They felt strangely random and visually messy.
Back of the house without vines.
Rotting doors at the back of the house.
Side of the house without vines.
Once the vines were down, it was clear that the repair job would be a big one!
The security bars were long overdue to come off.
The house slowly settling over 100 years caused quite a bit of damage to the stucco, particularly around the front porch.
Detail of porch crack to be fixed.
The front window had a long forgotten flower box built-in that we wanted to utilize.
Rotting, sad flower box…
Even more sad and exposed wood!
The front has French doors leading into the dining room. I swear no one knew they were there.
So many bars! SO much window damage!
After power washing the house, the painters sanded down the windows.
Window repair in process.
Window planter in process.
Window planter repair. Holes were added to the bottom for drainage.
I was already dying to put plants in!
Cracks being repaired.
Some cracks were larger than others!
The window glazing wasn’t done very well, so I ended up doing a lot of it myself.
A fresh layer of stucco.
Each side of the house was in a different phase from one day to the next.
The largest stucco split…repaired!
The stucco, windows and paint took about a month to complete. This is the back of the house with some new doors and after paint!
Windows!
Window box!
Our screens need to be replaced as well, but it’s still 1000 times better!
Functional French doors with new hardware and a cheerful orangey red front door!
Side of the house where the creeping fig was…see the stump?!
I went with a deep teal for the windows and a warm gray for the trim under the terracotta and all other functional wood work.
After!
delia-hauser.com 
Wonderful! Thanks for taking us along on your journey.
Gorgeous! — Vanita
Beautiful Delia. WOW!
Looks beautiful!!!
House is beautiful. You nailed those paint colors!
Yes- I agree about the paint colors – spot on!
Wow! Congrats lady! 😄 It’s beautiful.
It Looks Awesome! I love the paint choices and the window box is giving it to me xxx
Congratulations on all of your exciting news. Your house is stunning.
Your house looks great! A lot of work, but so rewarding! We loved working on an old house….ours has been a 45 year project. I will admit it was more fun when Cletus was around….
Barbara A