What I Did on my Instagram Vacation

Freshly painted door trim and railings before tearing up the boards.

I didn’t intend to take a three-month hiatus from Instagram and my blog. But somewhere between the cycle of unpacking and re-packing for trips and juggling day camps and babysitters, an awful lot of home projects fell through the cracks—as did my documentation of those projects on Abode in Progress.

We did get a few new things rolling this summer. We tore out a deteriorating fence, ripped off our old deck (I was pretty into having a personal dumpster for 2 weeks, to be honest), and re-built the steps to our kitchen door.

If it sounds like a lot of demo and not a lot of build-o, you are following this story correctly.

This struggling fence is gone but we haven't installed a replacement yet.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling pressure to get things through the finish line and crossed off my list. I’m trying to find bandwidth to dive back in as the kids are settled into a new routine and work shifts to a steady hum. (It will shift into a steady hum, right?)

But I also have no regrets about hitting pause on the home. I am extremely grateful for the summer activities we got to do over the last few weeks. I won’t use this post to recount what I did on my summer vacation. Our beach trip where we celebrated my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, the boys’ first camping trip in Shenandoah and this weekend’s excursion to New York City were pretty magical but probably of little interest to you.

With that said, do expect a post about our trip to France! It was brimming with design inspiration, which I simply cannot keep to myself.

So, in short, hello! I’m looking forward to connecting with you more this fall as we take on some new décor and renovation adventures.

Now that we ripped out this fence and the ivy beds, we're ready to address a new patio and backyard design.

I’m still here. (Can I make this my Joaquin Phoenix moment, sans public meltdown?)

If you're curious about what’s on the docket for the coming months, consider this checklist a teaser for future posts:

• Finish out the steps to the kitchen

• Build walkway on the side of the house

• Patch wall in Charlie’s room and mount his re-styled name art

• Wrap up update to Hank’s room: Art and shelves

• Replace the fence along one side of our lot

• Sand and stain stairs to the family room (potentially install a runner?)

• Second coat of paint in upstairs hallway

• Add art, new lights and replace railing in the hallway…

• And finally, the biggest project: The backyard/patio

At the pace we go, all of this should take us to about Spring 2045.

Thanks to those of you who said you missed my posts and for your patience during this summer lull. There’s a reason it’s called Abode in Progress and not Abode of Perfection. ;) I appreciate you staying along for the ride as we learn and try more DIYs together. Let's do this!