month one.

We've only been in the house for a month and it already feels like so much has changed since the day that we moved in. 

Here are a few interior changes:

Living Room:

The walls were painted, we hung curtains, stained the tv stand, got a new sectional, got a new rug, and finally got around to framing and hanging a few pictures...

Dining Room:

The walls were painted, we replaced the light fixture, brought in our furniture and hung a few pictures...

James' Room:

The walls were painted, his furniture was moved in, we bought a new rug, and I replaced the old lace curtains with navy blue roman shades.  Now we just have to hang his frames on the walls and get some closet doors!

Most of our sweat has been poured into the outside of the house.  I should point out that my Mum has put just as much - if not more - time as us into the yard.  We've spent hours removing the pool and chopping down unwanted vines, briars, and branches but she has volunteered several of her afternoons to haul away much of our "debris".  We pay her by letting her watch James 3 days a week.

First, our pool was removed...

Next, we ripped out half of the vines/briars/brush that was growing uncontrollably in the back left corner of our yard.  It was crawling it's way up the surrounding trees and strangling them to near death.  For now, we have a 25ft. sandbox in our backyard.  We plan on putting a small stone patio down and then laying grass to cover the remaining portion of the yard.  That big tree in the middle of the picture below is what is rotted and needs to be removed - eventually.  We still have a lot of brush to get rid of on this side of the yard, obviously.  We're holding off on ripping the other briar patch out because there is an egg filled bird's nest inside.   Oh, and the drum barrel...we use that to cook...marshmallows?  No, town fire department, we wouldn't dare burn anything outside of the designated burn season!

We also started to rip out some more briars/vines from the back right corner of the yard.  The vines that are wrapping around these trees are even larger and stronger than the ones on the other side of the yard...

The next project I want to tackle is our bedroom.  Or maybe the main bathroom.  Or maybe the kitchen.  Arrgh.  The bedroom will probably be the least expensive of those options so I should probably focus my energy there.  (Although its getting more and more difficult to ignore the kitchen wallpaper and cabinets and bathroom sponge paint everyday.)  While we're saving up for bedroom furniture, we should be able to spruce up our room with a coat of paint, some new curtains, and a treatment on the back wall to mask the small, off-centered window.  For now, I guess I should just work on trying to figure out which piles of my laundry are clean and which are dirty.

And just because he cracks me up...