Around the house...

When we purchased our home, not a whole lot had been done to it in the last 20 or so years... We got it for a good price but it needed a lot of updating. We've been here for a few years now and have changed all of the exterior doors, insulated the basement, installed a new bathroom vanity, some new flooring, jacked up the floors, have painted every room, updated wiring and electrical, installed a dishwasher and new appliances, and have done some landscaping. It still feels overwhelming, the work that needs to be done... we need to tear down and rebuild the falling down garage, repair the crumbling chimney... and I'd love to put on a small addition for my studio so that we can go back to having three bedrooms for guests (or a sibling for Isabel?).  But, that's not for a while yet.  Of course, we are having to do all of this on a very tight budget!

Over the last couple of weeks we checked a few things off our to-do list that have been lingering for a while. When we replaced the doors, the walls that are still lath and plaster crumbled... so, we repaired the plaster in the side entry, filled all of the cracks that appeared when we had previously jacked up the floors, and painted. I still need to put down some new flooring on the stairs, but for now, our side entry way looks 7000% better. No exaggeration!

our crumbing house!

Clean and bright!

 We had begun to plan to do our garage build this summer, but there is total chaos outside our house from now until October. Our entire street is torn up and we've lost a good chunk of our front lawn. The street is being widened and new sewer and water pipes are being installed. It's been an inconvenience (not to mention ugly and noisy), but when it's done everything will look new and pretty!

the summer of construction.

To escape from some of the ugly and add some privacy, Dan put up some lattice pannels on our front porch. I absolutely love it! It's like we have an extra living space now. We bought a small patio set for out there and how have a nice cool place to sit back and relax (after all of the construction crews have left).  And look how much my gardens are filling out!

My gardens are filling out.

But the really BIG thing that we have recently done is having painted all of the awful orange wood paneling that covered our entryway, stairs and upstairs hall. It wasn't your average wood paneling. It's this deep-grained, shiny, horrible orange paneling that was a nightmare to paint (and in general, a nightmare to look at). None of the corners or seams were finished very well so we went through a ton of spackle. I think at one point, part of one of the walls in the entryway was used as a bulletin board, or possibly a dart board... it was absolutely covered in holes.  Underneath the paneling is more crumbly lathe and plaster, which eventually will be removed. But, for anyone who has done that before you'll know it's a terribly dusty job, and not one I want to do with a small baby crawling around the house! The house feels so much brighter and cleaner now.

This window seat is what made me first love this house.

How our house looked when we bought it, and after we installed new flooring.

We keep toying with the idea of moving, but every time I look at the houses in our modest price-range, I never see anything that even compares to how much I like this house (warts and all). Maybe I'm just sentimental because we have done so much work to it. There is still so much to do... it is overwhelming. But each time we finish one project, I begin to love our little house even more!!!

Isabel started crawling a few weeks ago, pretty much right at the 8 month mark. Life is now really hectic. She's pulling herself up to standing and cruising around on her own around furniture. I can't believe how much she has changed in just a few weeks. She's starting to really be like a kid now!  She has 6 little teeth, is nibbling on finger foods (she is a cookie monster!), gives slobbery wet kisses, and says "dada" pretty much non stop.  She's a total cutie, and if you follow my Instagram you can get lots of Isabel Spam.