Classroom Pictures

Christmas Decorations

Home Improvements

Now that we own a home, I have come to realize that "date night" now means spending Friday night shopping at places like American Furniture Warehouse and The Home Depot.  And of course, since you never get everything you need in one trip, it also means making two or three trips back there on Saturday as well.

We love it, though.  It's so fun to fix up a place that you know is yours.  That's what we spent our weekend doing.  We were so lucky to find a house that didn't need much fixing up... all we've had to do is update door handles and light fixtures to get rid of the 90's brass.  So we've been able to spend money on things like new furniture (that is not purchased at Target) and home decor items.  Our living room furniture was the most beat up (from our five moves in 4 years of marriage), so we decided to start there. 

Here's the before shot:

 

And the after shot:




We go the new entertainment center at American Furniture Warehouse.  DVD shelves are from IKEA (and expertly assembled by ME!)  And the rug was only $99 from American Furniture Warehouse.  We love it!

The other thing I've loved about owning a home is having our own outdoor space.  The yard needs a bit of work, but I think we'll tackle that project next year.  This year, I've just been loving seeing the things that are growing!

Strawberries:

Raspberries (I think):

Yellow Irises:

Roses:

Mystery Flower Plant (Peonies, maybe?):
I took this picture Saturday morning...

And this one Saturday evening...

Home Sweet Home

Jeff and I are officially home owners! I won’t get too wordy with all the details, but here are some pics of the house. Don’t judge the mess. One thing that we realized after buying/moving-in to our house, it that even though the house was move-in ready when we bought it, there are still an endless number of projects we want to do to make it feel more like home. One of my biggest challenges will be to balance the projects we want to do now with the ones that can wait for later. (Captions for the pics are BELOW the picture.)

Curb Appeal

Front Door

Empty Living Room

Living room

Empty Dining Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Other side of the kitchen (those doors are to the pantry and garage)

Stairs to the basement

Part of the basement that will be Jeff's workshop

Other side of the basement for laundry room and future bathroom

Backyard

Other side of the backyard

View of the house from the backyard (eventually we want to build a bigger deck)

Stairs to upstairs (next to front door)

First bedroom upstairs - My Craft Room!!

Second Bedroom upstairs - the office

Guest bathroom

Master bedroom, complete with un-made bed

Master Bathroom

Master Tub

Master bath - to the left is a shower, to the right is a linen closet

Shortly after moving in we added this little guy to our family. His name is Oscar and he is super cute and friendly.

But this big kitty is not too happy about it... yet.