Snow

Well, we've had our official first real snow "storm" here in our new house. Isn't it pretty.

By the way, have you seen how long and slopey our driveway is?

Christmas Lights

Just a little something.

Shutters!

We knew, the first time we saw this house, that we would someday want to replace the white shutters with black shutters. When we got our deposit back from our last place, and were surprised to see that it was more than we expected, we decided we should just go ahead and do it now.

We love how it turned out. It just took a lot of effort (obviously, mostly on DJ's part)

Half-way done.

The best thing of all is being able to look at the Before & After pictures.

Shrubbery

Our first round of planting.

Dwarf English Boxwoods on the right; Golden Euonymus on the left.

They are little now (you may need to click on the images to see them in the larger version), but they will grow. :)

Basement Progress

Well, I think we're all done unpacking the basement. We have lots of ideas for the future for finishing this off, but for now, this is how it is. :)


Cold Storage


Laundry



Exercise Room




Ping Pong Area
(Cedric, you know you wanna come play)

Mulch!!

We spent most of the day on Wednesday loading up compost/mulch (Thanks, Ed, for letting us use your truck...and wheelbarrow, and tarp) and dumping it in the curbed out landscaping areas. It was quite a job, but is a great improvement. Just another step in our landscaping plan. Someday we'll add flowers, bushes, trees, and such. :)

The Kitchen & Dining Room

Here's the kitchen and dining room.  There's a lot to do in here....some day.

Family Room

The Family Room

Our first NEW couch. The curtains really aren't as red as they appear in the picture. :)

Before & After

Goodbye Swingset

The previous owners left their swingset behind. The truth is that our kids really are too big for it anyway. (Kylie could probably get a year of play in, but Connor's definitely too big)

Before & After

Our plan is to build some garden boxes in this area and then do some pea gravel around them....and possibly a pear tree. :)

The Fence

Shortly before we moved in, our neighbor came to introduce herself. She also said she was putting in a fence between our yards. (I guess they had already decided they didn't like us....just kidding) It's amazing how different it makes our yard feel, just by defining it a little.

Before & During

After

After

Clean Slate

Before & After (the weeding):



It's a clean slate. Now we just have to figure out what to do with it. Any suggestions?

Snails

They are lurking.... they are hiding....
I'm completely obsessed with defeating each and everyone of them. (and there are hundreds)


Do you see them, mocking me by hiding below my siding.



Look closer...

The Living Room

The Living Room Series



Empty


With new paint, then new carpet



Put together.
The bookcase is a bit bare and the picture frames are empty....but you get the idea. :)

Kids' Bathroom

Before & After

The Basement Laundry

For some reason, when they built this house, they put the laundry hook-ups right in the middle of the basement. (The place that will someday be our fabulous great room (/theater/game & play room). So it became necessary to move the hook-ups to a different part of the basement. We put some plans together and found our best option was to create a utility/laundry room in the back corner. It's not ideal, but it's better than having it in the middle of the room. Here's a few pictures of the progress.




Original hook-ups are the white pipe stuff sticking out on the left side.






Original Utility Area.



This is the hole in the concrete they jack-hammered to connect the laundry pipes to the main stack.





Someday we'll add drywall, cabinets, a door, and flooring....but for now, this is it.

The House - New Carpet

Here's a couple pics of the carpet, before & after. We did not like the minty green. :)