The Fifth House - The Outside

Hi there! We are on to our last look of the Holland, Michigan house. Recently, I have posted tours of the main floor, the upstairs and the lower living area. Today, I will show you as much as I am able to of the exterior. In hindsight I realize that I did not take a lot of pictures of this house, inside or outside, and definitely not "staged" pictures. Alas, it lives clearly in my memory. Really need to remember to take more pictures!

This house started as one dream design and ended as a minimized version of that design. When we found out that we would be moving, I began to alter the design to save money while at the same time trying to stay as true to the original vision as possible. The exterior of the house took the majority of the cost cuts. Had we been staying, our walkways and patios would have been stone instead of concrete, our front porch would have been Trex composite wood decking instead of concrete, and our siding would have been wood on the main house and cedar shake on the garage instead of vinyl.

Here is a picture of the outside one week before we moved in:

Here is a picture of the outside after we had lived there for a few months:

Here is a picture of the front facade that was taken in anticipation of listing the house (taken in May 2020). For the short time we were able to, we loved sitting on this front porch before dinner and enjoying the expansive farm view to the right. We also loved to play wiffle ball in the cul-de-sac every night after dinner - a perk that comes with living at the end of a very quiet, empty street.

Now, a quick walk around the house.

One of the greatest features of the house was the oversized three car garage. Initially we planned to have it heated, dropped that idea when we found out we were moving and quickly added it back in when we found out we would be living there for a bit. West Michigan winters can be very cold and snowy. Having the ability of walking through the breezeway into a heated garage to get in your car was luxurious. I thought this was one of the greatest selling features of our house. Our realtor did not seem too impressed, I really don't know why!?!

Here is the back of the house. Moving from left to right is the garage, breezeway, mudroom with our oldest daughter's bedroom on top, French doors from the great room to the patio with our son's bedroom above and then the sunroom with the master bedroom above.

Here is a peek at the patio.

For landscaping, we kept it simple. I took inspiration from this picture I ripped out of a magazine years ago:

I love hydrangea bushes of all forms and I gravitate towards a white and pale pink palate outside, with boxwoods mixed in. Here is the landscape plan I gave to our landscaper:

You can see the beginning of the plants coming to life in the photos above. Again, I regret not taking more pictures. The Pennisetum Karley Rose that lined the walkway to the breezeway was tall, full and swayed as you walked by it. It was beautiful. The hydrangea also grew a lot and flowered very nicely. The yard was simple, not too bare, and is ready to be enhanced over time.

Another favorite feature of the outside were the beautiful skies in both the morning and evening:

In the last picture you can see that someone is getting ready to build on the other side of the street. Like real estate all over, the lots around our house that had remained vacant for years began to sell soon after our house went on the market. At least two of the families that looked at our house when it was for sale actually ended up buying a lot and starting the process of building a home with our builder. We like to think that the uniqueness and character of our home (particularly for that area) inspired others. I hope so. It would be fun to see what it looks like in a year from now.

I hope you have enjoyed the Holland House tour. It is hard to believe we were living in that house less than a year ago. When next we meet, I will introduce to you our sixth house.

Thank you so much for joining me today,

Kerry