Happy Birthday Katy!

Today we celebrated Katy's 7th birthday (it's really tomorrow, Sept 1st). I don't know how it's possible that this little girl is already 7 years old.

Here are two pictures. One from our wedding in Sept '04 just after she turned 3 and then one from today. My how she's grown. Our littlest niece isn't so little anymore. Her smile has changed a bit. Her big teeth are coming in now.

Our Summer Project

Memorial Day weekend. The unofficial start of summer. The official start of our fence project.

The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we started digging post holes. 43 of them. Thanks to the help of some friends, a rented power auger, and some meat on the smoker, all the holes got dug in one day.

Over the course of the next few weekends and many evenings, the posts were all set and many cross pieces attached.

We were getting so burnt out doing only the cross pieces that we finally started on some of the vertical slats and trim pieces. And viola! we had the beginnings of a very fine looking fence.

These pictures were taken one month from starting. It's a big project. 300 linear feet of fence is hard to put it into perspective. Way bigger than I can squeeze into one frame.

With stain and everything, we finished up the second weekend of August. So what is that? 11 weeks? Yeah, safe to say. Our summer project.

Now that it is 100% done, I should try to get a few more pictures...including the gate.

**edit** more photos of the completed fence

This last photo is taken from the easement part of our yard, about halfway point. We have the strangest lot on our block.

Finally!

It only took 4 years, but we finally agreed on a wall color for the bedroom. I can not believe I lived in a white bedroom for 4 years.

The new paint color matches nearly perfectly to the downstairs family room, and that wasn't even planned. Different brand, from a different store. I guess we just really like this color.

These were taken right after we painted. The comforter was fresh out of the bag and hadn't had a chance to straighten out yet. I love the new color!

Emerald Isle

What started out as a simple painting project turned out to be yet another remodel project. All we wanted was to get rid of the white!

When you're working with an emerald green floor and a green sink, the paint color choices are a little limited. Staying in theme with the basement colors, we picked a dark chocolaty brown. Well, that just looked like reverse tree with the green floor as the leaves.

So, after the walls were painted, we clearly saw that just wasn't going to work. We made a trip to our favorite local tile shop and picked out our new floor. We were able to find a vanity at Lowe's that matched the style of the new cabinets in the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom and on a trip to Menard's, we found a vanity top on sale. And from there our new lower level bathroom remodel began.

Seems to always be a project around here.

Here are some pictures before and after:

From Drab to Fab!

The kitchen was our first really big project. The before images are from when we looked at the house. None of the accessories were ours, but we did get to be the proud owners of the yellow & blue make green flower wallpaper border.

We had actually ripped down the border and painted the kitchen our first winter in the house. It wasn't until the 2nd winter that we really dug in and put our stamp on the kitchen.

In the Limelight

We started small with our first home improvement project. At least small in that it was one of the smallest rooms in the house. The bathroom was glow in the dark lime green. (Okay, maybe not that bad, but it was bright!) And, it had one of those wall phones that you can see all of the insides of. (You can see it in the reflection in the mirror.) I'd rather not take phone calls in the bathroom, thank you very much!

We tore up the old tile and the mesh covered poured cement base that was under it. I've personally never been a fan of the dual sinks in a bathroom, and it was really cramped between the toilet and the vanity.

I love the look of the new cherry finished maple vanity on the natural maple floor and the single sink is so much more practical. The on vanity tower was a nice addition as well. So much extra storage space.

It's hard to tell, but the finished color is a much more muted tone of green.

His, Hers, Ours

Spring of 2004.

He had His place, She had Her place, We bought Our place.

Of course this current picture of Our house does not actually reflect how it looked when we bought it. We've done a lot with the place in 4 years.