As of a few days ago, we have officially been homeowners for one year now! Looking back, I would say that we really didn’t know what we would doing when we began house hunting, but somehow I think we ended up with a good one. We really like living here!
The house has changed a good bit since we bought it, and I would say the changes are all improvements. We’ve repainted every room (minus the garage), put new shelving up in the pantry and master bedroom closet, installed a new garage door opener, weeded and pulled up old shrubs in our flower beds, fixed the fence in the backyard, and lots of other small projects that I’m sure I’m forgetting. The house has come a long way, but we’ve still got a lot more projects in mind for the future.
I would classify us as pretty slow when it comes to getting house projects done. I think there are several reasons for this. One, we’ve never done most of this stuff before. It always takes us a while to figure out how to do something the first time. Two, Travis is a perfectionist, which has its positive and negative aspects. It’s a good thing because the finished product always turns out great. But, it’s can be a bad thing because the project must be thoroughly researched, planned out in detail, and carried out, all of which takes a lot of time! And finally, we’re just busy most of the time. It’s hard to get anything done around here when we aren’t here that much to begin with! So, those are our reasons/excuses for not getting as far along on the house as we’d like to be at this point.
But, just when I get frustrated and start thinking that we’re never going to get anything done around here (because we really haven’t done much to the house since the summer), a weekend like this past one comes along and totally proves me wrong. We had a very productive weekend! Several weeks ago, we ordered blinds for most of the windows in the house (minus our bedroom and the living room that already have drapes up). But, we hadn’t had any time to hang them yet except for on the small window in our bathroom. Yesterday, however, we hung two in one day! Don’t laugh…I was really excited! The back door and the big window in our bathroom now have blinds instead of ugly shades. Yay!! It took a good part of the day to get those hung (remember, perfection is the goal here…), but they look great.
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| This one turned out dark, but oh well. Back door is complete! |
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| Big window in our bathroom |
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| Hooray! |
It definitely would have been easier to mount the blinds if they could’ve been mounted inside the window like most people’s. When it’s time to house hunt again, that’ll be something to look for BEFORE we buy, and hopefully our next house will already have blinds installed!
Friday night and Saturday morning were dedicated to organizing Travis’s study. Up until this weekend, there was still stuff everywhere on the bed, under the bed, on the floor, etc. But, now everything has a place, and the floor is clear. The study is one step closer to being complete!
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| So nice! |
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| His desk is (mostly) clear! |
We also organized the foyer closet and installed a new shower head in our shower this weekend. Don’t worry…we made sure that the shower head was the top rated one on Consumer Reports before we bought it at Lowe’s on Saturday night…haha :) By the way, it works great….we should have gotten it months ago! :)
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| Foyer closet + Gabby investigating |
So, what’s next on the to-do list?
- Hang the rest of the blinds we bought (6 windows to go!)
- Hang pictures in the study
- Repaint the window seat in the study (it’s pink right now…definitely doesn’t match)
- Organize the guest bedroom closet (which has turned into the “junk” closet unfortunately)
- Hang curtains in the breakfast room, study, guest bedroom, and our bathroom
- Replace ceiling fans and light fixtures throughout the house (most of them are brassy gold…yuck)
- Plant new shrubs in our flower beds
- Plant the dogwood tree that Baugay gave us
Those are the projects we’ve got coming up in the (hopefully) near future. Should be enough to keep us busy for a while!
I’m sure you’re wondering what Gabby and Felix have been up to lately. It would be nice if they would help us out with our projects, but they’ve apparently got better things to do…
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| Like snuggling on the bed… |
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| …and watching/catching bugs… |
Oh well. They’re pretty cute doing what they do, so I guess we’ll forgive them for their laziness.
Mom had surgery yesterday to get her port taken out, and it went well, so we’re glad for that! She said the area is a little sore today, but not really that painful. Next Tuesday she meets with the radiation oncologist to find out when radiation starts. Here’s to getting the last phase of treatment started and finished! Go Mom!! :)
Running is going pretty well I guess. On Saturday, we ran 4 miles in the neighborhood across the street from ours. It may have been a little ambitious because that neighborhood is very hilly, so I had to walk a couple of times, but at least I finished. I know I’m getting more endurance, but we’ll see how 5 miles goes this Saturday. Yikes! :) There’s still over 3 months til the half-marathon, so I think I’ll be fine…hopefully. Travis is still running with me and enjoying feeling more in shape, so I’m very proud of him!
I’m working Thursday and Friday again this week, and then hopefully we’ll have another productive weekend. Is it too much to ask for two of those in a row? :)
Hope you’re having an awesome day!
