We have a similar house and, a small budget to improve. Here's our tips: 1) hire a landscape designer for a consulting/layout consult. Their hourly price is worth it! They design, you plant. It will be so much easier if you had the property surveyed prior to closing so you can give the designer the property survey. Consult w/your local town zoning most have rules on laandscaping distance btwn properties. 2) updating your house numbers and exterior lighting is a pain (we just did it) but worth the effort. If you are not handy, contact your local Chamber of Commerce see if there is a local contractor that takes on small jobs. If you are new to the area, join a community volunteer group to meet & greet and find out who's who in the contracting zoo. You should ask people that are long in the tooth for a tip before you hire anyone. If you get a lot of "I don't know" and, they've lived in their town over 20yrs. I am finding that a lot of really good contractors in my area are on Houzz. Kudos to Houzz for finding them. 3)Does the interior feel like a trailer, too? Ours does. We changed the layout. In our opinion you need: a strong marriage; a partner in the trades; a job with a lot of vacation time accrued and, a tent to live in the backyard while walls are going down/replaced in our opinion. We took the bedroom facing the front of the house and sectioned it into 3 spaces: (street facing) is now a mudroom and a powder room, on the flip side (facing backyard) we created a master bathroom. Looks amazing, took away the trailer feeling. Changing the small master bedroom into 3 new rooms as a DIY cost us about $3k in 2015 includes upgraded electrical and window removals. 4) working on the exterior first is a good idea. when you can smile as you pull in the driveway makes everything else easier.

Besides Russian Sage deer don't seem to eat the native flowers! I have desert marigolds, Mexican primrose, California poppies, and a shrub called Texas Rangers and they don't get eaten by the deer. I also planted some Gopher plants can't remember scientific name. I have also strung on my fences, and on my Texas Rangers, bars of Irish Spring Soap. I read about it years ago in Country Living magazine and I decided to try it. I haven't had a deer or a Havalina in that part of my garden since hanging them. I hung them in little hair nets I purchased at the dollar store and they have lasted about four months. I just noticed one bar on the ground so time to get new hair nets. Hope this helps good luck.

Hi Alaina, first must say that it's so good to hear from you and see your updates! Your new mirror turned out beautifully....wow! Reminds me so much of that BDDW mirror....which btw, I'm still coveting til this day, lol. Your art is stunning too. Please remind me....is it an original? If so, who's the artist? I'm relatively new to the original art world and discovering what I love in regards to works and artists has been a regular pasttime for me lately. With the new colors and accents you've brought in, I'm sensing that your tastes/style preferences has evolved a bit. Or maybe I'm just not recalling the earlier discussions clearly? Anyway, overall, I actually like the way the colors have livened up the space a notch. Not that the space even needed it....considering the bold and beautiful piece of art is already had. Although I'm usually with Tems on most things, I do agree with you re: the stools. I ❤️ love the stools! Not 100% sure about the starfish....though I do like that sculpture itself. But, like you, not sure it works where it is now. That may be (for me anyway) bringing it over the "too much teak" threshold. I also agree with DrDeb in regards to the table vignette reading too busy, particularly with the colorful pillows in the background. Maybe it's the pink agate that's throwing it off for me? That, along with the pink books almost feels too "glam"? I see your space more as soft contemporary (mixed with artistic and warm organic modern touches) vs. anything glam....if that makes any sense.... Overall though this space and your project is still one of my faves here on Houzz. Thank you for taking me along for the ride. It's been so fun and got to learn a lot from you and others here.

Don't know if anyone has suggested a water feature before ...but it adds a lovely relaxing sound and is so easy to do ....in most hardware or garden stores you can get a pump for as little as $20... and just sit it in any kind of waterproof container near the top of the water for a cool feature....no plants or fish needed just a nice size pot with the water spout...Can be a half wine barrel...a big colorful flower pot...whatever...there is a product called aquashade that gives the water a pretty blue color and combined with the water movement keeps algae etc under control..altho if it is small ...changing water from time to time should be easy