Welcome to Hill Top Cottage

We have finally named our new rental home! Thank you to everyone on instagram who voted @LiveLovelyTravel. I could not decide between Sunflower Cottage (my favorite flower that I have also planted around the cottage this summer), Daffodil Hill Cottage (named after the daffodil field just down the road from our new place, and Hill Top Cottage (A nod to Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top Farm and because of the Litchfield Hills). It was a close vote, but Hill Top Cottage eventually won and I am so glad that it did! Matthew and I feel like the nickname really suits this darling home.

The photo above is what the house looked like when we first moved in. It has come a long way over the past couple months. Matthew has put in so much work creating pathways through the yard and keeping the rest meadows. We have built a beautiful raised bed vegetable garden, planted roses and sunflowers, and even started creating a tea room in the three-season room in the back of the house.

Still, it feels like we have so much to do. We still need to finish organizing the kitchen, bedroom, guest room, bathroom closet, and our home library. Matthew just fixed the dryer and we have had to have the septic pumped and the driveway paved (which is currently only part way done). Now that the garage is mostly cleared from the previous tenant we can start working on the downstairs. Matthew has been painting the downstairs walls with a fresh coat of white paint and I will be painting the downstairs bathroom a light green. The tea room is almost complete and there is another three-season room we will repaint over the winter months.

These are some of the beautiful views in our backyard.

We spent a lot of time this summer getting our landscape ready for next spring and putting together our vegetable garden. There is still so much to do.

Meet our new neighbor, Bubu the bear.

Wild flowers in our yard.

Garden views:

Matthew made me a tea room! It is coming a long way. The room is almost complete and I still have to decorate it and find furniture.

The sunlight in our bedroom before sunset:

The sunsets here are just stunning. This one in particular blew me away.

I will be sharing more of the interior as we get organized and make Hill Top Cottage our home.

I plan on adding a new contact paper backsplash and countertops in the kitchen and I am searching for a dining hutch and table for the dining room. Turning our master bedroom into a stylish and calm oasis is on the top of my list. I need to put together our baking pantry and I desperately need a home office area in our home library. Things still need organizing and I would like to update our front porch. Finish the lower garden planting the rest of our flowers, and creating an outdoor seating area is so important to me to spend time outdoors. I also need to lay down landscaping fabric around our flower beds, plant a flower garden for next spring, and plant spring bulbs in the yard and wildflower seeds in the meadow this autumn. In other words, we have many home projects to do to turn this rental into a home. Projects that we are very happy to do and I am more than happy to share with you.

There is so much excitement between us for this new rental home. It is our first time renting a house and we know we will be here for a while.  Thank you visiting. I hope to give you a grand tour soon!