In the last year we've...

This weekend is the 1 year anniversary of being homeowners! And I'm well aware of the fact that I have not yet shared any pictures of our house yet. But before I share the before and after pictures of the house I wanted to make a list of everything we have done to the house. Most of the things we have done have been just to update the house. The house was completely liveable when we moved in, just needed a lot of updates.

I also need to say that we did all of the work ourselves. John's dad and a friend of his came to help install the floors and our good friend and youth pastor at our church also is an electrician so he helped with some of the electrical things.

I was able to do pretty much all of the things on this list because we did most of it before I got pregnant. So if you are calculating, we've had most of this done since September/October. It's been small and minor things that we've done since.

So here's what we've done:

1. ripped down 2 sets of shutter doors and 2 regular doors
2. removed a half wall
3. painted a double sided fireplace
4. removed the built in gold fireplace screen on the double sided fireplace
5. painted every room of our house (except the bathrooms)
6. painted all the trim around doors and windows
7. repainted many doors
8. removed a storm door from the front door
9. removed the regular front door
10. bought an old door from Habitat Re-Store and refinished it with black paint and new hardware and installed it
11. changed out 8 light fixtures/ceiling fans
12. removed 1 ceiling fan (replaced with nothing)
13. painted built in shelves in the dining room
14. removed ugly curtains/window treatments left by previous owners
15. installed 6 sets of white wood blinds
16. installed an electrical outlet in our laundry room in order to have the freezer in a better spot
17. installed a light switch in the kitchen since it was on the halfwall that was removed
18. installed an under the sink water filter in the kitchen
19. removed 2 "Greek" looking columns between the formal living room and dining room
20. installed electricity in a hall closet to house all of the media components (cable/DVR, DVD player, etc.)
21. mounted a flat screen TV above the fireplace in the family room (which required running a cable/electricity down through the attic)
22. built and installed 2 fireplace mantles
23. repainted all of our closet doors
24. ripped out flooring in the entire house including carpet, laminate wood, laminate tile, vinyl wood and 2 inch thick Mexican tile that was actually laid into the foundation
25. poured concrete into the area that had the Mexican tile to bring it up to the level of the rest of the foundation
25. removed more carpet tacks/striping than we want to remember
26. removed all of the original baseboards in the house
27. installed (glued down) hand scrapped hardwood floors ourselves in our entire house (excluding the bathrooms and laundry room)
28. installed new, tall baseboards in the entire house
29. installed black shutters on the front of the house
30. removed the nasty screens on the front of the house
31. removed 9 gross boxwood plants across the front of the house
32. removed the ground covering around and growing up our beautiful 50+ year old tree in the front yard
33. removed the ground covering around the lamp post inthe front yard
34. installed a programmable thermostat
35. replaced all of the 2 prong outlets in the house with 3 prong outlets and several HDMI outlets for safety
36. replaced all of the light switches and plate covers (were almond, brown and gold before...now all white)
37. removed huge bell in the backyard
38. removed 2 tree stumps in the backyard
39. removed "tree shrine" in the backyard
40. removed plastic white fencing in corner of backyard
41. removed odd paver and gravel area off of the back patio
42. installed outdoor party lights under the patio
43. installed outlet close to the outdoor light by the back patio
44. removed dying plants in the backyard
45. removed carpet from half of the master bathroom and extended the tile that was already there
46. rebuilt both closets in the master bedroom and Hudson's room

And on our To Do List:

1. redo landscaping in the front yard
2. landscaping in the backyard
3. possibly regrading backyard
4. new floors for guest bathroom
5. paint bathrooms

Whew...we've been busy! Stay tuned for pictures starting this week!

Come and Knock on My Door

Here we go...a real post!

As you know, we are having a blast destroying our house and putting it back together again.

The door that came with our house was ugly and hiding behind a storm door. The storm door was removed soon after we bought the house but the new door was a process. We found a solid wood door at the Habitat ReStore. I wanted a simple door, no windows or a lot of detail and I wanted it to be black. So a $30 door that needed some TLC was perfect for us.

Here is the before picture of the front of our house. Before we bought it...before we did anything to it.



Here is a good shot of the old door while John is removing it.








Excited about getting rid of this thing! (BTW...we sold this door for more than we paid for our new one...score!)


Here is the before of the new door...


See, it needed lots of TLC!


On goes the new one...




And the ugly front porch light before...


And the new one!


And here is how it looks now.


Again, we still have landscaping work to do but oh it looks so much better!

Hang On!

Y'all, we are so almost done with this first phase of our house renovation! (Please don't remind me it has taken almost 5 months.)

I'm pretty sure that we will be pretty much done by Thursday and totally done by Sunday. I'm hosting Bunco on Thursday so that's been a pretty good goal. But there are a few things that are going to have to wait until Saturday.

So with all that being said, hang on. I just don't have the time or energy to post pictures and share all the fun things we've done to this house.

I was telling John tonight that I'm pretty much in love with our house. I mean, I loved it when we bought it, but my visions for it are coming to life and it's so much fun.

And I'll end this post saying that my husband is absolutely amazing. The man can do anything and everything and I'm usually not surprised by what he can do. BUT, he has amazed me with the baseboards.

Side note: We ended up ripping out the old baseboards and putting in new ones after the floors went in. That way we didn't have to sand and repaint the old ones plus we would have had to install quarter round anyway, so we went for new baseboards and no quarter round and I'm SO happy with the result.

Here's a super grainy, iPhone photo, sneak peak before the caulking...

Late Night Target Runs

My lovely sister came in town last weekend. We had a BLAST! Her first night here we went to Target to get several things for the house. One of those were new lamps for our bedroom...



Here is Whit trying on our lampshades.

We got to Target around 8:00 and 8 minutes before they closed we were checking out with a cart-full of stuff. Plus 2 barstools.



What you see...a new duvet for our bed, a hamper, 2 pillows for our armless chairs in the formal living room, 2 lampshades, (2 lamps are there but you can't see them), 2 pillows for our bed - they look sort of purple in the picture but they are gray, 2 sets of sheets and some Neosporin.

I'll share the rest of the weekend later. We got a lot done on the house so you get to look forward to seeing pictures of new master bedroom bedding, new light fixtures (inside and out) and new tvs!

Things are finally starting to come together but we still need several things.

Do share your favorite places to find rugs and furniture...PLEASE! I've exhausted every store and website I know of to find chairs for our family room.

teaser post

I am in Abilene this week for work. I brought my computer and had plans to get some blogging done.

Well.....I forgot to upload pictures from my camera. And everything I wanted to share won't be near as exciting without pictures.

So, here I am {again} telling you that I will share pictures of all of our home improvements soon.

I have our new {to us} front door to share, the finished beautiful hardwood floors, and our simplified backyard.

I know there is more but that is all I can think of right now.

a random update from my iPhone

-I can't remember the last time I blogged. The last 9 days have felt like one really really long day. Our Internet is unplugged at home and we have moved offices at work and we don't have the server up and running yet.

-I started a new job last Monday. To put it simply, I am a drug and alcohol counselor at one of the new high schools here.

-Our new hardwood floors are installed! The installation process started Thursday afternoon ad was complete Sunday night. They are beautiful but now we have a HUGE mess to clean up. Here is a sneak peak...


-I have been ordering new furniture for the house. So far we have a couch for the family room that will be here in 10 weeks, 2 chairs for the living room and an end table that can go in either the family room or living room.

-I am so happy with our decision to put the hardwoods in every room. I do not miss carpet at all.

-I seriously cannot believe that tomorrow is September.

-I will share pictures of the floor installation and our new furniture soon.

-Happy Tuesday!

Shaving the Beard

Like I've said many times, our yard is in need of a landscapping overhaul. We pretty much want to change everything except for the big trees. Only we needed to take care of Bearded Tree first. That's what I named him.


this picture is from when the previous owners lived here. 

We realy thought "shaving" Bearded Tree would take maybe 2-3 hours to complete. Remove the "ivy/ground covering." Simple right? At least John's mom was in town.



Wrong. This project took almost 9 hours. Holy cow people. I started using the hedge trimmers and was easily taking pieces off of the trunk. Easy part.

Then we moved onto the ground. Oh my goodness. This was the thickest stuff ever.



Did I mention that John was sick this weekend? He helped out so much more than he should have. We kept on the project because his mom was in town and she enjoys the yardwork.


So back to the thick stuff. I'm talking about "ivy/ground covering" that has been taking over a poor harmless tree for almost 50 years. It wasn't going to put up an easy fight.


Once we really got into the thick stuff we realized we were tearing down the home to many critters. Critters in the form of HUGE ROACHES. Oh sick.


And a frog.


I tried thinking about how in the heck he got in there but I have no idea. He was big and this thick stuff was so tight. No clue.

So around 7:30 we decided to call it a day. We had a wonderfully relaxing evening and we were all in bed by 9:30!


And I woke up Sunday so sore to say the least. Every single muscle in my body hurt.

But we shaved Bearded Tree.


But what should we call him now?

because it is his birthday...

I won't ask him to rip up floors in the hallway,



or watch while he tries to remove 50 year old tile (that is laid into the foundation),



or cringe when he tears up nasty carpet,





or pass him a screw while he rewires the light switches,



or hand him wet rags to wipe putty off of his fingers,



or hold a storm door while he takes it off the hinges,



take pictures while he holds a heavy {and ugly} chandelier,



or pass him a paint brush,

Because it is his birthday I will try to spoil him with a yummy dinner, presents and a fun evening of surprises.

I love you babe and I am so thankful that you can do all of the above things and so much more!

Happy 27th Birthday John!

this will have to do people!

We are too busy priming, painting, spray painting, unpacking, cleaning, bug spraying and home owning to even think about blogging!

Okay, so maybe I am thinking about it constantly. "Gosh, I really should update. That night before closing post is still sitting there."

So I haven't forgotten about you. We've just been crazy busy. We got to work IMMEDIATELY on removing doors (7 to be exact) painting and adding to this sweet little house that we OWN!

So, here are some iPhone pictures that will have to tide you over. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the plumbing issue that "came up" on Wednesday night. That was not pretty (nor did it smell pretty), but hey, we're homeowners now!

But don't worry, it is resolved thanks to the super friendly plumber that came to visit us at almost 10:00 that night.

So here we go...


The very first thing we did (after removing all those doors) was begin priming the fireplace. Let's just say this took FOREVER and was not the most fun.


For a priming break, John hung our shutters. It made SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE!


See! Remember the before pic? Also, notice the house numbers. There are still many things we want to do to the front (remove screen door, new black door, fix the landscaping, new light fixture....ugh!!)


Changed those too. I love the cleaner lines of these.


And the completed fireplace! We still need to get another screen for the other side. (It's a see through fireplace.) We also need to get mantels.


And a shot of one of the many things that were spray painted. This clock used to be red but I thought it needed a new look. Easy!

So there you go people!

New House Resolutions

Because we are less than a week from CLOSING ON OUR HOUSE I thought I would share with you my New House Resolutions. These are goals that I have for us as homeowners. I have already shared them with John and he didn't disagree with me...too much.

1. Always make the bed. Everyday. Not even coming close to doing this now and I hate it. I figure if I am a homeowner I can at least make my bed.

2. Keep the weekly menu on the chalkboard. The chalkboard that I do not currently own but have always wanted in the breakfast nook. Any tips on where to find one/make one would be greatly appreciated.

3. Always have fresh flowers in the house. My goal is to have at least a bud vase with a fresh flower. I can at least do that when we are trying to watch the budget.

4. Eat outside in the backyard at least 3 times a month. I would like to say 4 (going for once a week) but figure saying 3 times a month is more manageable.

5. Only eat dinner in the family room 1 time a week. We are HORRIBLE about always eating our meals on the couch in front of the tv. I would love to change this in our new home. Plus we will have the breakfast nook and won't feel weird about eating in the dining room (the way it has been in the apartment and duplex.)

6. Complete at least 1 house project a week. We have SO MANY things we want to do to the house. We have created a spreadsheet on Google docs that we share and can add things to it. We have it broken down to priority, cost, where to buy, etc. There is a large range of things to do and I would like to do at least 1 thing a week. I might be too ambitious on this one.

7. Have a plan for the landscape project complete by the end of the summer...August 31 and have it completed by October 31.

8. Host at least 4 backyard bashes this summer.

9. Have dinner guests once a month. If we have out of town guests that month, it counts as our dinner guests.

Let's just stick with 9. 10 is too cliche mkay?

all things HOUSE

Two weekends in a row we spent many many many hours looking at and picking out things for our new home!

Our very first purchase were these new numbers...we were so excited!

Hello overwhelming...



we went to a lighting and design center to look for new light fixtures and fans (we MUST replace all that shinny brass STAT!)

We loved this one for the entryway...



but we're afraid it won't look right since we don't have vaulted ceilings.

Love love love this one for the dining room...



but it's WAY TOO BIG!!

This is the one I am thinking will work for the dining room...



thoughts?

Wow, we really haven't had much lighting luck.

And finally...the hardwood floors...



I LOVE LOVE LOVE the hand-scrapped texture of these floors.

We are still trying to find furniture but we have TONS of fabric samples and we have picked out our paint color for the "great room." The color is called "Lamp Room Gray" and will be on the walls of the kitchen, family room, entryway, formal living room, and formal dining room.

We close in 11 days and move in 16 days!

shutter help

One thing that John and I can't wait to add to our house is shutters. However, there are 2 types that we are trying to decide between. That's where you come in. I need your opinion on these 2 shutters. I feel like the first one is a little more modern and updated while the second one is the classic shutter you see on all houses. Keep in mind that even though our house was built in 1967 we are wanting to update it and make it look more modern and well, not grandma's house.

So please leave a comment and let me know which one you like!

Do you like the modern, Raised Panel Shutter.....



Or do you like the classic, Louvered Shutter...

Thanks friends!