Random pictures

Some pics of the great crepe myrtle pruning:

The branches lined the entire length of our driveway! 

I was able to re-use (again!) the mantel that my great uncle built in the 1940's! We had used it as an entertainment center in the last house. Most of our furniture fit and works well with the design. 

I chalk painted this "sideboard" to fit a wall in the living room. It is an antique vanity I found in a dumpster!

Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of the home and this one is smack-dab in the middle of the house. It's the largest kitchen I've ever had, albeit with the least amount of counters. It's really wonky despite its airy feel. 

Here's what it was like when we moved in:

Sometimes it's really helpful to be able to load the dishwasher while you're sitting at the table. 

You also can't see how crazily the cabinets had been painted.

For our Christmas gift to each other,  Eric and I decided to give it a refresher since it would be at least a year before we remodeled. 

No pictures of the sink area, it was filled with dirty dishes. 

I painted the cabinets with a fresh coat of white and spray painted all the hardware. Eric replaced all the countertops and the only-worked-on-occasion light fixture. 

The house began to feel like it was regaining some of its dignity. Eric did repairs to the siding but nothing major-we were biding our time til' the other house sold and we'd figured out what we wanted to do. 

Beginnings

First, we trimmed the crepe myrtles. We cut off the top 25' and they still towered over the house. 

View of the side, open carport with fence surrounding the pool:

We had the pool covered as soon as we moved in but fixed it in the early spring so we could enjoy it over the summer. The screen porch was in poor repair but it kept out most of the bugs-we ate dinner outside for as long as the weather was nice. 

New Project

I give up. I'll never be able to blog the way I envision about our projects and folks prefer pictures anyway, right?

Once we moved, our plan was to stay in the New Home for at least two years. Replenish our savings, catch our breath and then either sell it or move to another project house...it was tight but we really wanted the tax break that came with living in a house two years. Famous last words, eh?

We spent an enjoyable summer kayaking on the river, vacationing in Destin and generally just trying to regroup. After a few months we got restless and I started once again perusing Trulia for a new place (Confession: I never really stopped.). I was looking at cheap houses and one caught my eye...I had seen it pop up a month or two before but thought it was in a neighborhood across town. Suddenly I realized that it was actually in a neighborhood we had thought we'd like to settle in "one day." Our lazy Sunday afternoon on the porch got a lot more interesting as we considered our options.

Insert: Real estate agent, bank, offers, counter-offers, tears.

One month later, it was ours.

The setting is lovely, the neighborhood is quiet and peaceful. The house? Well, it needs love. Lots and lots of love. This was from September of 2014. Yes, nearly a year ago.

And the new little home I blogged? We sold it in May so we could focus on fixing this one up. It will take us about a year (we hope) and there's not much we're NOT changing. There are lots of weird quirks and although it's the biggest house we've ever lived in, there is a lot of wasted space that we plan to remedy. We're adding about 700 sq ft. but I'm pretty sure once we've re-worked the floor plan, it will seem like much, much more.


                                     
 You can't see the holes in the siding or windows from this angle.

 Not really wanting to swim, thankyouverymuch.

 Master soaking tub - not level ( it won't drain all the way). Yes, that is a hole where someone fixed a leaky faucet.

The eighties called, they want their countertops back...