Our Home ~ The Outside

When we bought our house, the backyard was a sad, sorry place. There was no way to enjoy it and it was really nothing more than a grass lot with a few trees.

 

Slowly, over the past 6 {almost 7} years we’ve been doing things to make it more enjoyable, more our’s. The first, and last thing we did was built a deck, so that we could at least have a place to be outside. It’s only this past Spring that we’ve jumped on our other dream projects {that’s what owning your own store and infertility will do to your time and money}.

Let the pictures commence!

In 2006 we built a deck….

(which I can’t seem to find a finished picture of).

In 2010 we painted our house…

In 2011 we did nothing…..

In 2012 we did a lot {or I should say my incredible husband did a lot} and still have a lot to do…

We fenced in the yard {all 500+ linear feet of it}…..

 

We got Honey Bees {I’m hoping Matt will dictate a guest post for this in the fall, since they’re his bees}….

 

We moved our compost pile and framed it in….{Gotta love pallet recycling!}  We started building a swing set for the kids…. We added in a few new flower beds… Now it looks like this…..
    

Still to come….

Moving the hen house down by the garden and compost… Planting lots of bulbs along the west-ward fence line…. Building some kind of sitting area and water feature in this corner….

Building a shed for all those things you don’t know where to put….

So, Ladies, next time your husband complains about his Honey-Do List, tell him he should be glad he’s not married to me :-) (oh and for the record, I do help Matt with a big portion of these projects, because I love construction and DIY projects, just with the 4 kids I’m rather limited in my time/ability to help).

Living Room
Kitchen and Breakfast Nook
Dining room
Office/Pantry
Bathroom
Laundry Room
Bedrooms
Stairs/Hallway and Upstairs Half Bath

Our Home

We closed on our house on September 14, 2005, a month and a half before we were married. It was a rather stressful search to find a house. Most of what we could afford was in shambles and what we liked was ridiculously over-priced (have to remember this was in the midst of the high cost housing market).

We had found a house on a quiet little street in our town and made an offer on it; we were within $1000 of agreeing on the price. We didn't want to budge and neither did the owners. A friend called us, hours before we were about to conceded to the price difference, to tell us of another house in town that was for sale. We decided to go take a look at it: Either it would be something we were interested in or would confirm our decision about the first house.

We visited the second house and loved it! Much larger than the first, both in the square footage as well as the property. It had it's flaws but it was what we wanted. We canceled our bid on the previous house and within 2 hours we had agreed on the house and signed the preliminary paperwork to buy.

Looking back what a God-send this house was. We would never have even heard about it if it hadn't been for friends driving past it. In 2006 there was a major flood in our town, the house that we had first looked at had a car smash through it's living room wall: Our home never even had water in the basement. We have been beyond incredibly blessed with this house.

Now, don't think that means that the house is perfect and isn't falling apart or doesn't need work. It does...desperately! The roof needs to be replaced, the foundation is crumbling under the {poorly constructed} addition, the heating system is 40 years old, and the floors are completely un-level. But it's our's, it's home!

Here it is:

3 bedroom, 1.5 bath Victorian-ish home, built in the mid-1910s to early 1920s (not really sure). The house sits on approximately .20 acres (that's what it's appraised at, but I think it's more like a 1/4-1/3 acre)...I think the house is about 1300sq ft, not including the basement (which isn't finished) or the attic (if I counted both of those things in that number it would be closer to 1700sq ft, but both are unlivable and are basically just storage), and no garage.

The Outside
Living Room
Kitchen and Breakfast Nook
Dining room
Office/Pantry
Bathroom
Laundry Room
Bedrooms
Stairs/Hallway and Upstairs Half Bath

Our Home ~ The Outside

When we closed on our house it was painted this ok shade of blue. The front door was not at all weather tight and had a piece of plexi-glass for a window. We changed it out and put a new door and screen door, however, the new doors did not fit the same space as the old door.

In 2010 we had our house painted!

I'm happy....I love the look of it now and the black trim above the windows just makes it so sharp! We also got them to repair several panes of broken glass, as well as framing in the door correctly.


The Outside
Living Room
Kitchen and Breakfast Nook
Dining room
Office/Pantry
Bathroom
Laundry Room
Bedrooms
Stairs/Hallway and Upstairs Half Bath

Our Home ~ Kitchen and Breakfast Nook

Here are the sellers pictures....it was very odd and bland.

The only thing I did when we first moved in was paint the walls green and the ceiling white, and we swapped out the pull light for a remote-controlled ceiling fan.

Then over time we did some other things...bought a new stove, I wallpapered a backsplash (the walls had been horribly done when they were sheet rocked and spackled (it was the only cost-effective way to redo that area), we also installed a new sink and recessed lighting above the sink and the peninsula.

The Breakfast Nook
This was a really interesting feature of the house. It had a custom tiled table with built in bench (with storage underneath) and a swing. That's right a swing...no idea why.

You can kind of see it over there in the corner, and yes, those are board games hung on the wall. We kept the whole setup for almost a year before we tore it out and redid that space with a small table. It's ok for just the two of us to eat, but we're going to have to re-vamp this corner to fit a high chair.

The Outside
Living Room
Kitchen and Breakfast Nook
Dining room
Office/Pantry
Bathroom
Laundry Room
Bedrooms
Stairs/Hallway and Upstairs Half Bath