It's coming!

Oh I love house projects- well most of the time. And this is one of those most-of-the-time times.

I've been recently working on painting a BEAUTIFUL bookshelf, Josh's best friend made for us to go in our foyer. See when we moved in here the banister that existed could hardly be called a banister. (well maybe I'm being a bit hard on the poor rickety old thing but anyways) Suffice to say, it would not be staying as it was un-safe.

 Here's my husband, who stands 6'4". See how short the banister is? (*granted he is not the 'standard' height)

Notice the gap on the bottom- i.e. not safe for when we have babies crawling around who might like to go right under the gap (or stick their head in between the not-up-to-code slats)

No no. It was decided that this puppy needed to go. So out it went.

(Note the HORRIBLE linoleum floor that we found after we ripped up the carpet in the foyer! It's the black stuff)

And so then we were left with this, which is how it looks TODAY (with the exception of 2 pictures I hung on the right wall)...

But not for long because right now I'm in the middle of painting this sucker that will soon find its permanent home running lengthwise in the foyer, complete with baskets for organization and shoe shelves on the bottom!

End capped with this beautiful piece (see safe, aka child proof, aka Josh height and normal people height safe):

Welp, I'm off to go paint. Can't wait to see how this looks when it's all finished and installed! =)

~We're Home Owners~

So while I had every good intention of getting this blog going in the spring, it seems like life just took over and I couldn't find time to post over here as well as my personal blog, and even that was sporadic at best.  But since starting this blog A LOT has taken place and hopefully this'll become a place to post about our house projects. Yes friends, you heard me right- we bought a house! Our first house and I love it!

She is a fixer-upper indeed but her bones are great! (like how I've managed to personify our house already? Apparently, she's a she.) Anyways, as I was saying her bones are great! We knew in buying this house we'd need to do some things even before moving in. She's been a rental home for the past few years and as such needed new flooring, new kitchen counters, and preferably new toilets to replace the, what I affectionately call, snot-green toilets. Yes snot green.

See? 

We closed on this puppy on July 12 and one month later we have ripped out all the old carpets upstairs and replaced the entire upstairs with a hardwood laminate that we LOVE, we replaced our counter tops in the kitchen, Josh, my husband installed a BEAUTIFUL new kitchen sink, Josh's best friend (& contractor) built us a custom bookshelf/banister for the entryway & a new railing for our kitchen stoop (to replace the hideous 70's brown, view-blocking fence) and I've managed to transplant the few plants we do actually have in the front yard to a more prominent and appealing location. It may not sound like that long of a list but I am SO pleased with the way even those changes have improved the house!

But let me not just bore you with words of these beautiful changes- let me let the pictures do the talking!

Before & After living room floors:

The Kitchen: Complete with new sink, counters, and floor!
Top: Before, Bottom: AFTER!

Our outdoor fence replaced by beautiful railing (T.B.S.- to be stained) (please ignore the horrible 1970's siding. That will be replaced eventually)
Before:                                                                     After:

These are just a small sampling of the wonderful changes my hubster has made happen- I really can't say enough for how he has blown me away with his handyman skills! We also are so blessed with generous and thoughtful friends who have helped us along the way and we could not have done so much so quickly without them. I've got to run for now, but at least this is a start- hopefully to be followed by many more fun updates!