Little Steps.

I thought I would take a few minutes and talk about a couple of the little things we've managed to cross off our list this week. Baby steps right? And actually, I shouldn't even say it like that because they aren't baby steps at all really! If *I* were doing them, it would take me the next year to figure out! On that note, here we go.

First off, deck. This past week Steve completed all the deck boards on BOTH decks (WOOHOO!), finished the stairs, and completed the fascia boards on the entire upper deck. YAY! So all that remains of the entire deck project, is the fascia on the lower deck, which only involves two sides. We also are thinking of adding a privacy panel to the one side of the lower deck, but that will come later if we do. Looks pretty darn schnazzy huh?

 

Don't mind the AC unit in the window, we have central air that we added, it's just not 100% ready yet (next project!). We also have the new sliding door to install still. Also, seeing these photos makes me anxious to paint all the trim white, that's for sure! The white railings look so lovely....

 

Up next is the light fixtures. These are the ones that were installed on the front porch (two) and on the deck (one). YIKES. Rusted, corroded brass torches. 

 

My handsome worker bee husband.

Just beautiful right?

ANNNNNND here is the replacement fixture:



Such an improvement. There were a couple of other funky ones that I liked, but seeing as we needed 4 of these (two for next to the garage that we want to install still), I went with a classic set that was less expensive.

Here is another shot of our super low maintenance (read: hard to kill, for when you can barely manage to keep your children watered so your plants take a VERY backseat) flowers.

Oh, I can't wait until all that trim is a nice bright white! Not to mention the porch floor and siding being painted/replaced as well. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves here people.

 Ah and the deck light we replaced as well. I chose a more industrial modern piece that I thought was perfect for the deck. I also think these would be so cool as lighting in the boy's bedroom. At $25 it was super reasonable too. It casts a nice bright light, directing downward, which is perfect. These are all iphone pics too, just cuz I'm lazy like that.
























OK. Onward. Inside we go for a brief moment.

Although we have been totally focusing our time/money/effort on the exterior of our property, I decided to get crazy and make a mark on the dining room. I call it a dining room because a)it has a table in it and b)that is the technical term, BUT we have yet to eat in it even one time AND it has been our storage area for items without a home yet and craft supplies/ongoing projects (talk about run-on sentence!). Oh and it was a greenhouse/jungle for a couple of months with all of my brother's house plants while he was buying a home of his own. So yeah. It has been a wreck. It is in our plans for the future to open the room up and expand our kitchen, seeing as it is so seldom used/needed, but for now, I needed a clean space. I am a super clean freak and it was making me beyond nervous.

Here is the before.

I can't even call these a true before, because these photos were taken a couple of months ago, when I only had a couple of plants (soon the entire table and dresser were covered) and didn't have the console table in there. But you get the idea.

 

GAH! That was a lot of junk.

So, I cleared that sucker out and tossed a bunch of crud, put things away, and also carried the unused wall hangings and furniture to the basement. Here it is all cleaned out! (phone shots again)

Today we moved that HUGE dresser out of the room and back to my dad's too. So now it looks ever better!

YAY! So much better. Here it is RIGHT NOW (I just took this photo two seconds ago on my phone), without the dresser. What a difference, it seems so much larger now.

See those ice cubes on the floor? Yeah those are to remove the indents in the carpet. I moved the table over and the dents were annoying me. Free tip right there for you. Once the ice is melted, just swoosh the carpet with your hand and VOILA, dent is gone.

So there you go friends. The lowdown on things going on around here. The dining room will soon sport a new chandelier (well, revamp), artwork, window treatments, and minor changes until we decide how we will be remodeling. At that point we'll paint, remove carpet, add crown.....etc etc. For now it is just marvelous being cleaned out!