an updated house post

Please keep scrolling if you don't want to read this boring post, it's mostly for me so that I can have it as a memory on what we've done to the old house in the last seven months.

We're getting so close to finishing off the giant list of things we had planned on doing to our house, and it's so exciting.  We'll never be fully finished, because our hope is to continue on with home improvements as time goes on.  We would still love to replace our kitchen countertops, I'd love a tile backsplash in here, I need to paint more and freshen up several rooms, we need new carpet upstairs, and we need to replace some of the wooden banisters on our staircase.  We'll get to all of that eventually.

We've come a very long way, though.  The huge things are done: new pipes, new siding, new windows.  We're enjoying every bit of all of it, too, and love utilizing all the windows when the weather is nice.  My favorite thing to do is to open them all up on a cool day and get a breeze blowing through the house.  I love the new flag pole that Todd put up a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't think I'd love it that much.  I think it's the perfect addition to the front yard.  Hopefully today or tomorrow we will add porch railing back to the front porch, he's been letting himself recover for a day, and he's having to dodge the rain.

We also have landscape stones (?) to place around the flower beds eventually, and we hope to do that in a couple of weeks or so.  I don't know if either one of us is sure when it's the best time to plant things.  His thumb is more green than mine, honestly, and I know little to nothing about that kind of thing.

Our newest favorite thing is the deck, though.

I have never loved our backyard because of the old deck.  It was gross and rickety, and though I was glad to see it be torn down before they started with the new siding, I missed having something out there.  I jokingly said to Todd that we should just pour a concrete pad instead of the deck, but that got us to thinking about something lower and closer to the ground.  Our old deck was equal to the backdoor of the house and the stairs were right against the house.  So, last Tuesday, Bill (my awesomely talented stepdad), Todd, Graham, Drew, Jonah and Noah all started on this deck and it's mostly finished six work days later.

Where the lattice railing is on that one side, there is now a ledge that goes all the way across it, where people can put their drinks when we're outside.  Todd trimmed up a couple more posts, and I think he has a tiny bit more there to do, and then he wants to put lattice around the bottom to skirt the whole thing to keep leaves and critters out from underneath.

The gray you see in the flooring are concrete pavers with concrete board underneath them so that the firepit can sit safely on the deck.  We added these new chairs last weekend, and the string lights were 100% Jonah's idea.  He asked for tall posts just for the purpose of hanging lights from them.  I wholeheartedly agreed with his wish and so did Todd.

This bench that they built is so comfy!  I never thought a wood bench could be that comfy, in fact.  We're going go buy some pillows to put out when we're outside enjoying the deck, and we're going to buy some more of those Adirondack style chairs.  We were going to put our picnic table and chairs on the deck, but I didn't love the way it looked, and even when we eat out here, we'll never keep the food out here because of flies, so we decided we really didn't need a table.  We can make our plates and just carry them outside, and we can use the rail that goes around that lattice work railing to place our drinks on, if we need a place to do that.

Todd ordered a new grill that should arrive soon, and we'll buy an outdoor storage bench to store pillows and such when we're not out there using them.   

I look forward to spending a lot of nights out here.  We've already sat out there, and when we haven't one or two of the boys have.  We couldn't be happier with how it all turned out, and it's not too shabby of a job they managed to pull off in just six work days.  ;)  Bill may never come back over again, but we're so grateful to him and his expertise as he was the mastermind behind it all.  He's been wanting to do this for YEARS.  He also built that roof structure you see over the front porch, along with Jonah and Noah.  

I'm so glad we're just about done!  It's been a long process, but it was worth every second.  Todd doesn't agree with me on this, but this is our forever home.  By the time we're done with it, it'll be our dream home.  I'm good with that!  It's the best location ever, in my my opinion, because we're thirty seconds away from our church and Byhalia Road, which is the road you need to be on to access most places in The Ville.  

If you're still here, thanks for reading.  Love to all.