We’ve done a lot to our kitchen this past year. It’ll still be awhile before we do a complete remodel (especially since we can’t quite decide how we want it to look), but we did get a nice new stove, add glass shelves into the window, built in a cabinet, put up some shelves, repainted the walls (after stripping the wallpaper), and even installed our new nest. Happy fourth anniversary to our home.

We also stripped the wallpaper and wood paneling out of the dining room. We painted it the same gray as the kitchen, but instead of yellow accents, we went with a nice shade of blue. We redid the door, all the outlets and light switch plates, and added in some curtains. Since we started this in July, we also put in a nice ceiling fan to help the air move. The dining room is going more slowly then the kitchen, but at least something is happening in there!

I’m trying to *finally* post the things Kyle and I have worked on the past few years, so hopefully there will be a lot more posts coming along. Yay! I’m dating them according to the time the projects were done, so they will actually be before this one in the post. Confusing? That’s how I am at times! This one is just to highlight the flower beds that Kyle worked so hard to put in. We’re still deciding on plants every year. Once something comes up, it seems to never be just the way we had pictured and we end up moving it or tearing it up completely. Such is the life of a gardener! Here is a slideshow of our flower beds we put in three falls ago and what they look like now. Enjoy!

For our third anniversary in our house we got a new water softener and replaced the toilet in the master bathroom. Also, that wallpaper has come down! I went ahead and picked out a paint since the wall behind the toilet is best painted when the toilet is out. The old wallpaper glue required some serious scrubbing, but seems to be worth it. There is a lot I want to change about the bathroom, but that will have to wait for another day! You can click on the photos below for a bigger peek.

Our project for summer 2015 was to redo our daughter’s room. She had an old captain’s bed that she inherited from her brother. It was a bit bedraggled and didn’t suit her at all. I designed a cute bed that looked like a house and my husband helped me put the whole thing together. The room was an ugly white with random yellow colors around the place. I painted it a pale pink straight away. We ended up removing the carpet and exposing the original oak floors before we built the bed in. It has real cedar shingles and a mailbox. It took a couple of weeks for us to get it built, but it was totally worth it. I think my daughter’s room is the only room in the house that is actually complete!

This update is incredibly overdue, and could even use some more photos. Oh well, here is a little bit on my master bedroom. I’ll have to try to find photos of our built in bookcase Kyle added for us as well. It’s fantastic!

Our master bedroom was something akin to a dark cave when we bought the house. I painted the walls before we moved the furniture in, and then worked on doing some more painting the next summer. There is still some touching up to do, and the master bath needs completed as well. I did hang up some really cute curtains that let in tons more light than the old ones did. The first morning I woke up after having finished most of the painting and changing the curtains was incredible. So much sunshine in my room!

Here is one of the walls from our front room. There was dark wood paneling from top to bottom on this wall. Kyle tore it down, and put in a doorway to the hallway leading to the childrens’ rooms. This gallery shows a little of the work that Kyle put into redoing this wall. Since then, we have cleaned it up and painted it as well as another large wall white. The front room is my area of concentration this Spring, so there will hopefully be lots of updates posted here. Soon, I will be finishing the painting job on this wall, so be prepared for more photos to come!

For our second anniversary in the house, Kyle decided to repaint the back grilling area and put gutters on it to help preserve the fence behind it a bit. He used nice red and white barn paint and it does look cute! I think it could use some more decor, but it’s not my area, so I better not touch. Here are some before and after photos for your enjoyment.

This is a little overdue, but here is our kitchen and dining room flooring. For our first anniversary in our home (last October) we pulled up the carpeting (!!!) in the dining room and kitchen. We put down some maple flooring to span the two and connect them better.  Hooray for hardwood flooring!

Well, we finally got our greenhouse built! Its been years since I put a photo album on a blog, so I decided to do a slide show instead. (Though I honestly don’t think it looks as good!) I’m glad it’s finally complete and I can’t wait to plant in there next year! We are going to work on the shelves later this year since there isn’t a rush on that. I’ll have to get some more pots and such from the shops, but I’m pretty happy with it overall.

Kyle tore down the old shed and cleaned up the area mostly by himself before his head injury. My son and I started the foundation but my dad had to come over and show me how to properly finish it (as well as cut my cinder blocks for me) since I was a little stuck for a bit. Kyle and my son made a large frame for my future banana tree (squee!), and the whole family got together to fill the area with pea gravel. It should drain nicely now. Kyle and I worked in the hot sun (I have a sunburn as proof!) all weekend and Monday night to get it finished. We put in an arm to open that window that reacts to heat, which is great because it sure gets warm in there!

On to more summer projects!

Well, I haven’t posted in a couple of months so I’m sorry. I have been super busy working around the place and taking care of Kyle through his accident. It took three weeks for him to recover (not fully, but able to return to work) and now I’m off and running again. The attached garage is finally cleaned up and organized. Now I have no excuse not to finish some of my old projects! The built-in bookcase in my bedroom is painted and full of books and knick knacks. I love it! The greenhouse foundation is started, the lawn furniture is almost refinished, and I just might be hanging photos before I head back to school. I’ve even got the old wallpaper out of the master bathroom and organized the childrens’ rooms! This week I’m painting my bifold closet doors that have been off since before we moved in. I took them off to paint the bedroom walls and haven’t put them back yet. Horrible! Anyway, I need to get some photos together to add to this post, but I’ll do that later. I’ll have to finish some projects and get posting about them. I hope everyone is having a good, productive summer. I’ll be here, concentrating on bettering my violin and my house. Cheers!