Some Kind of Progress

The great thing about owning your own home is all the things you can do to make it your own.  The not-so-great about owning your own home is all the things you have to do to make it your own.

It's been a zoo here.  A hard working, sweating, always-something-to-do zoo.  I swear we've been making progress, it just doesn't *seem* like it.  I wish we could have done the big ticket items first, like the floors mostly, but that's the thing about following promptings to buy a house.  It barely gives you time to prepare!  The money we had saved up was mostly used for closing costs, and then we had to buy appliances (not included in the purchase, blah!), which left us with, well...not much!  So, we've been doing what we can in the meantime, and hoping the elusive money tree will shake a few dollars our way, haha!

Here are some pictures of what we've been doing:

Kitchen:  First coat of paint over the crazy orange color.  Man alive, do I dislike painting.  I think only because the only time I can do it is after the kids go to bed, and I am exhausted!  Painting means breaking out all the supplies and doing a lot all at once, so I don't typically finish until midnight or later. 

 The color isn't right in this light, but at least it shows we have paint on the walls, eh??  Love the color, a rich gray.

 This is a better idea of the color...

 Woops, my chickies.  They were busy noshing on some leftover kale, they ate it right up.  Nothing is more satisfying than feeding my chickies leftover kitchen scraps.

 The backyard landscaping has needed a lot of attention.  Just overgrown really, so we've been doing a ton of weeding and cutting back and trimming and ripping out.  As you can see, there is big pile of garden clippings, just one pile of many.

 This side looks much better.

 This wisteria was like Medusa's hair!  It was wild!!  Well it's been trimmed way back.  And that little piece of dead tree in the foreground is on it's way out soon.

 This fence was removed, it sliced the backyard right down the middle.

 And this half of the fence went down first.  The grass is already greening up!  We'll figure out what to do with the empty spot the fence was hiding, soon.

 And the nice work shed, Kristoffer cleaned that up, and it's quite spacious inside.  He's excited.

 Kristoffer put this fence up with the old fence material.  There was a chain link fence there and it was U-G-L-Y ugly.  So, out it went.  Considering it's on the side of the house, and we live on a corner, it was pretty visible, so this looks awesome.

  If you remember, there were some overgrown bushes in the front.  Yeah...they're gone now.  And honestly, I think it looks better empty than how it did before.  The plan is to use garden blocks/pavers to build up the front about 2 feet to hide that yucky concrete and then plant some pretty little boxwoods or something inside.

 This tree was waaaay overgrown.  We were actually going to chop it down it was such an eyesore.  But, Kristoffer chopped it back and even though it looks like a big green mushroom, it's much better.  I'm going to get in this are with the garden blocks as well and make it pretty.  I think a lot of this will wait until fall for cooler weather and fall planting.

 Kitchen backsplash, ripped out.  It looked like tin, but it was actually all plastic.  And I think whoever put it up originally had a trigger happy finger on the glue.  That stuff was stuck!  I had to go at it with a crowbar and a hammer!!  Getting the area ready for tile.

 This room was originally yellow with and orange wall.  It's now gray with a mint fizz wall.  Love the color.  It's not showing up so well in the picture.   In need of a new couch (or two).

 This chandelier needed a facelift.  We originally tried posting it on craigslist, no bites....no wonder!  So, I gave it a facelift.  It was a bright shiny gold and it screamed "Heeeelloooooo, 1980's!!".  We're not so much that way, so I bought some oil rubbed bronze spray on good advice and sprayed away.  It's much improved.  Still not my favorite piece, but better at least.

So anyway.  We're making progress, and mostly done on a few things, and part way done on lots of things.  It's just taking time, and time and money.  My friend at work told me she relies on the "Two thirds" concept.  That working on a project will either take twice as long and cost three times as much, or cost twice and much and take three times as much time.  Yup, she about nailed it on the head!