okay okay

I'm going to have to do this piecemeal because we've still got lots of work to do before I'm ready to show off the whole place. Until then, here you go:


the living room, part 1

the living room, part 2

The dining room before painting.

The goal is to put up moulding to separate the living and dining rooms, and then chair rail. The upper part will be painted some shade of cream, and the lower half will be painted chocolate brown to match the staircase walls. We had really wanted to put in a pass through between the dining room and kitchen, but as that wall houses the ductwork for the heat/ac, that's looking like an impossibility.


The yard before planting.

Other things on our punch list include:
1. obtain an energy audit.
2. buy a new furnace and have it installed.
3. completely redo the powder room.
4. completely redo the upstairs bathroom.
5. put a handrail on the stairs to the basement.
6. pull up the flagstone in the yard and lay sod.
7. plant some annuals and start a veggie / herb garden.
8. have wood blinds installed on the living and dining room windows.
9. change out the cabinet and drawer pulls.

That doesn't seem so terrible, but numbers 2,3 &4 are going to be pretty big expenses. For obvious reasons, the furnace is our #1 priority, but I think we can start buying things for the bathrooms and storing them until we're ready to complete the tasks. My biggest concern is how we're going to live without our only shower when we renovate that bathroom. Health Club, here we come! If anyone out there has other thoughts / ideas, please let me know.

At some point, I'd like to put in granite countertops and upgrade the appliances, but that's not a huge priority right now.

Overall we're really happy with how things are coming along. We're settling in nicely, and the kids are acting like they own the place. If we can make any progress this weekend, I'll post pictures of the upstairs and basement sometime next week.