Ready, Set, Go!

I remember feeling like I was signing away my firstborn child, my right arm and a pinkie when we signed our loan papers. But after signing and initialing a million times, the house was ours. Wow.


My intention was to have the house all done by the time we got married so we could start fresh in our newly remodeled home. While we didn't get it done before the wedding, we did start on it right away. We had an electrician come and put real light switches in each room. And since the living room had no light fixture, we also had him install can lights. Ah, just having that done was a revolution! Since the house already had a good layout, we weren't knocking out any walls. Our improvements were mostly cosmetic ones. We:

• Took down all the wallpaper (found a little surprise while tackling this project, I'll go more into detail on that later)
• Had the entire upstairs painted. Ceilings, trim, cabinets, and walls
• Finished the patchy crown molding and added some fabulous 7 inch baseboards
• Installed light switches in every room and installed can lights in the living room
• Changed the light fixtures in every room
• Changed out all the locks, door knobs, hinges and cabinet hardware
• Re-carpeted and added hardwood floors
• Took down the fence in front that connected to nothing
• Laid sod in the front
• Pulled out the huge thorny bushes in the front yard
• Painted the mailbox
• Finished the driveway with concrete by the mailbox
• Stained the deck
• Finished the picket fence in the backyard
• Built grow boxes and made a garden area
• Did lots of trimming! Everything was overgrown!
• Added insulation in the attic
• Added to the sprinkling system
• Planted a tree
• Planted lots of flowers, grasses, and bulbs
• Made a self watering drip system for the flower beds
• Upgraded the kitchen faucet
• Installed a dishwasher and a disposal
• Installed a cookie sheet cabinet
• Upgraded the appliances
• Painted the storage room and storage cabinets downstairs
• Painted northwest bedroom downstairs (which to us, is the exercise room)

By no means did we do all of this ourselves. We had the help of professionals, family and friends. We are still decorating and organizing. There are a few major projects we want to do but haven't tackled yet. I'll keep you posted on when and how we tackle those projects!