We bought our first house in January 2011. It needed some updating, so we did lots of painting, landscaping, and upgrading over the next several years. It was a fun learning process!!
What we tackled:
- Painted every room in the house (along with the pantry and our closet)
- Dug up the weeds in the flower beds and planted new bushes and flowers
- Hung new ceiling fans in all bedrooms
- Installed a new garage door opener
- Installed new programmable thermostat
- Hung new shelving in our closet and the pantry
- Hung blinds on almost all windows
- Installed new fans in both bathrooms
- Turned one of the spare bedrooms into Brooklyn’s nursery
- Steam cleaned the carpet in the whole house
- Gotten a couple of leaks in our roof around the chimney repaired
- Got new soffit, fascia, and bigger gutters to improve the outside of our home
- Painted the walls and trim in the garage and hung new blinds on the windows
- Hung new light fixtures in breakfast area, dining room, foyer, hallway, laundry room, closets, and bathrooms
- Replaced hardware on kitchen cabinets
- Replaced the lids/seats on both toilets
- Organized our garage with stand-alone metal shelving units and the Rubbermaid Fasttrack system for hanging things on the walls
- Repainted the trim in Brooklyn’s “big girl” room
- Repainted the walk-in closet in Brooklyn’s “big girl” room and added a new shelving system
- Repainted the walls and trim in the nursery closet
- Got a new swingset in the backyard!
- Replaced the water heater in the garage with a new, hybrid one
- Had a leak in a pipe under the slab fixed (in our foyer closet) – still need to get the floor replaced :(
- Removed the old, rotten railroad ties around the swingset, tilled the ground, and added fresh mulch around the swingset
In early 2017, we decided that it was time to start looking for a house with a little more space for our growing family. At that time, we had 2 little girls and one on the way, and we were feeling more and more cramped ;) We put our house on the market in April 2017 and got a contract about a month later. We closed at the end of June and moved into an apartment temporarily while we looked for a new house to buy. We have recently found what we’re looking for (we think!) and are hoping to close on our new house in early December. Merry early Christmas to us!