I kind of can’t believe I’m writing this post, it seems a little crazy to me (ok, it IS a little crazy). We decided to put our house on the market, and as of yesterday it’s up for grabs (and yes, we’re willing to part with almost all of the furniture/decor as well)! WHY ON EARTH you ask?! Well, we’re ready for change! We have a serious sense of wanderlust, we love the thrill of a new place, we haven’t made as many friends here in Palm Springs as we hoped to, we want to be closer to longtime friends…the list goes on. We LOVE this house, one of us may have even teared up a little when the first offer came in yesterday. BUT, at the end of the day our heads are on straight enough to know that a house is a house, things are things, and what really matters to us is that our family is intact, healthy and happy! We were planning on turning the house into a vacation rental, and if for some reason it doesn’t sell that’s just what we’ll do! But if not, at least we’ll always have these photos and the amazing memories we created here! Click through to see the full house tour – with rooms we haven’t shared and sources whenever possible! xx- Sarah (ps- if you’re in the market for a Palm Springs home, please email me at hello@ahouseinthehills.com for our realtor information!)
If you follow along with my Instagram then you’ve seen the sneak peeks I’ve been sharing on Lowes’ Instagram this past week of the progress on our backyard makeover! But in case you haven’t I’ll start from the beginning! Lou and I loved the backyard when we moved in, but the huge lawn (seen below) was expensive to maintain (SO MUCH WATER!!!) . We also barely ever utilized the space. So we decided, with the help of the fine folks at Lowes, to turn it into our TRUE dream backyard. And I have to say, it’s so far beyond what I could have imagined and we are just pinching ourselves fifty times a day that we get to live here!! Thank you so much Lowes for making this possible!
We planted Bougainvillea bushes in these cute pots I found at Lowes to add color and height to the yard while we wait for the plants to grow in! Eventually we’ll move them to another part of the yard, wherever seems fitting once everything has grown! The plant selection at Lowes is stellar- we made a dozen trips there to pick up plants and each time I found ten more I wanted! #plantnerdproblems
When we fantasized about possibilities for the yard the first thing that came to mind was a designated space to hang a hammock (the one shownabove available here!). We knew that tearing out all of the grass and completing such a major overhaul on the yard would be well beyond our DIY skill level so we brought the incredible Falling Waters Landscape on board to help with the landscape design/install. We also enlisted our incredible friend Greg Coleman to design the structure. Knowing when you’re in over your head is so important with home projects! Both Falling Waters Landscape and Greg Coleman Designs are based in Southern CA and I couldn’t recommend either of them more, they made this project so much fun to work on and so far surpassed our expectations!!! Greg came up with some brilliant ideas for the structure to keep it from overwhelming the yard. The floating ceiling, thin white support beams and floating posts all help keep it visually light and modern! We had those pieces fabricated, but all other parts of the structure were made from supplies we found at Lowes. I realized during this process that they have EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER NEED. Seriously. One stop shop for home projects!
This before and after is pretty incredible, right? Eventually the plants surrounding the hammock structure will grow in- some will be tall, some will just fill out and cover the ground. We expect it to feel lush and full of life. There have already been so many more butterflies and hummingbirds around the yard, I’m ecstatic! Once the plants are established they’ll need way less water and we’ll be able to start really noticing the savings from having the grass removed! Falling Waters Landscape did such an incredible job with the design-we’re so in love with all the concrete pathways and how they divided the space so perfectly. They were our dream team. AND, we’re now the proud parents of a pomegranate tree! CANNOT WAIT TO PICK MY FIRST POMEGRANATE! (There were so many fruit tree options at Lowes that I was tempted to scrap the whole hammock structure idea and plant an orchard instead!!)
I’m so in love with these pink flowers, and most especially because they attract hummingbirds like crazy! I am so looking forward to next winter/spring when the yard comes into bloom! Down the road we may take down the hammock and put a 12 person dining table under the structure. There are walkways leading to it from the pool and the grill, so it would be perfect for outdoor entertaining! But for now we’ll be taking hammock naps every chance we get!!!
Our house feels like a resort! SERIOUSLY, PINCH ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TEN TIMES!!!!! Also, come over, let’s have a party!!!!!
There’s the handsome man of the house, Lou Mora. You may not be able to tell but he’s bone tired and beaming with happiness! Love him. {See more of our Palm Springs home here}
This post was produced in partnership with Lowes. Thank you for supporting our sponsors! xx- Sarah
I have a crazy announcement, one that I’ve shared on Instagram through sneak peeks but kept mum about on here until I had some pretty photos to share. I think I’ve also been nervous to make it Official OFFICIAL, you know? Drumrolll….We’re moving back to the coast to be full time San Diego residents! We’ve been going back and forth about what to do for months, after realizing that no matter how hard we try, the desert just isn’t for us. We knew that it was a possibility when we bought the house, that we would move to a town we’d never lived in and decide that it wasn’t the right fit, but we of course had hopes that it would be.
We won’t be moving into a dream home in San Diego, we’ll likely be renting a two bedroom apartment or duplex. It will be a dramatic change from this luxury living but we’re looking forward to the adventure! As for this sweet home, we’ve got HUGE plans! We’re turning our dream home into a vacation rental!! We just can’t let it go, it’s such an incredible space and we know that we can make it an ideal spot for out of town visitors to get away to. I’ve had my hands full shifting my design ideas to accomodate the new plan! More details (including sources), lots of photos, and a sneak peek of the dining room progress after the jump! xx- Sarah
I LOVE everything about entertaining, from start to finish. Meal planning, setting the table, choosing the right music- it’s all so much fun! And of course the best part is that moment where I’m surrounded by loved ones at the table, everyone is laughing and enjoying themselves and I take a pause to sit back and soak it all in. That is the best feeling! I’m a believer that at a dinner party things don’t have to be fancy to be great, but it does add an extra bit of fun when they are! We didn’t have a registry when we got married and I’d never taken the time to fully put together a table set, so I recently enlisted the help of my dear friend / table styling genius Farra Miron of Hostess Haven to consult and and help me find the perfect tableware for all occasions! I’m sharing the results below- I hope you love! xx- Sarah {more after the jump}
I admit, my taste are all over the place- I love things rustic, glam, vintage and modern. So when Farra was helping me with the table she put together the perfect mix of all and even incorporated a bunch of what we already had! The Heath Ceramics plates that we got at the factory store last Fall were the starting point, those are going to be our dishes for life, I love them so much. This table is my dream celebration table- what I would love to have for special occasions or anytime I felt like glamming it up a bit. It would be perfect for a girls brunch and at night the sparkle of all the gold would make it so festive and beautiful!
I love decorating the little spaces in a house as much as the big spaces. Creating a pretty something to look at in the hallway, a vignette on a patio, sprucing up a corner of a room that could easily be left un-decorated… I LOVE IT ALL! We recently a plant and a black and white photo to our hallway, keeping it simple and sweet. But it’s amazing how much more lived in the house feels when these little spaces have something pretty happening! See more of our house decorating progress HERE if you please! xx- Sarah {planter via Gilt, plant is a snake plant)
We have a little snippet of progress that I’m so excited to share! Last Friday our new dining table arrived, just in time for the holidays! We went back and forth on tables, but really I’ve wanted this Saarinen tulip table for as long as I can remember so we went on a long search to find the best possible reproduction that we could. And I think we found it in this Mobital table we purchased from AT HOM. I couldn’t be hapier with the quality and we got extra lucky with an amazing slab of marble with really incredible lines! We also replaced the neglected womb chair in the corner with a campaign dresser we snagged on One Kings Lane. Still to do: We’re having the bookshelves painted white, replacing the bird painting with a black and white photo (TBD) and swapping out the light over the dining table. It’s so fun to see it coming together! More soon…. xx- Sarah
