Our first house in the Baltimore/DC metropolitan area was a two-bedroom garage townhouse. In the 5.5 years we lived there, we made a lot of improvements to the house. The space was small, about 1250 sq ft on the two main levels, plus a finished basement on the garage level.

To the right, a photo of the deck and backyard. Small but landscaped, and we backed to a wooded area. We had 4 rose bushes, one 84-year-old peony (from my great-grandparents' house), loads of black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia), hostas, verbascum, daisies, fuschia, lobelia, dianthus, hollyhocks, morning glories, petunias, coleus, pincushion flower, scabiosa...and several varieties of herbs, lavendar, 25 strawberry plants, and one tomato plant on the deck. Everything is in full bloom in this picture.

Ah, the fruits of my labor...in the fall of 2000 I planted about 300 bulbs of various daffodils, jonquils, muscari, etc. Paid off very nicely the following April! In the picture, only about 1/2 of this patch were blooming. There were several other patches throughout the borders..

To the right, black-eyed Susans from 2000's garden. They're great because they're tough perennials and Maryland's state flower, but they are AGGRESSIVE growers! My mom gave us one nearly-dead plant in fall 1997, we picked up another young plant in May 1999, and by 2001 we were struggling to keep them from overtaking the yard.

Also pictured is a hanging fuschia plant that we tried one year. Very unique curly purple and deep pink blooms that are supposed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Roses out in front of the house. We had two dark maroon English variety Floribunda roses, and one tea rose that produced massive yellow blooms.

Inside the house...

I finally settled on an energetic yet muted yellow (about the same color as a black-eyed susan) for the guest bedroom. The yellow, red and green checked fabric were supposed to be made into pillows and curtains. Eventually, I will try to make a coordinating quilt. The bed is black metal, and the coverlet is white matelasse. Behind the bed is a travel poster with a 1920's beach scene.

This burgundy was the new color of the kitchen above the chairrail (below is ivory). We chose this color because the Italian tile floor is pink (sad but true) and it seemed like way too much effort to pull it up and redo it. To the right is the new kitchen curtain material. The fabric was a lucky find at JoAnn Fabrics---it is a perfect match to the paint, after the fact. The new curtains have three scallops in the center and drape on the edges, with white Roman blinds underneath instead of miniblinds.

Here's a view of the kitchen, from behind the kitchen island. We recently bought a corner cupboard to hide the microwave and store miscellaneous cooking gear. The cupboard is currently unfinished but will probably eventually be painted ivory.
To the right are the new sliding French doors. The cats don't like them (they block their view of the yard), but we're pleased and we're the ones with the checkbook.

We finished the basement, doing everything ourselves except for the plumbing and carpeting. The basement walls are white, the carpet is a light gray-blue to match the blue-and-white striped sofa, there is halogen recessed lighting on three dimmer switches. We have a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright posters on the walls, and eventually the window will have a leaded glass design painted on it. I'd like to make a quilted wallhanging for the wall next to the sofa (not shown in this picture)...maybe something patriotic in red, white and blue.

We painted the basement powder room a shade of red called "American Blaze" to match a Steinlen poster that we have hanging in that room. (We have three Steinlen posters in various parts of the house---repros, can't afford the originals yet!) We also put up white wainscotting and trim in that room. This powder room is the room in our house that gets the most compliments.