My House

Here she is!!!

So, I've been wanting to do this for a while but it's taken a lot of hard work and some time to get my house to the point that I'd want to share it with people. 

We moved in October 2010. 

The house had been repainted (on the inside), new (ugly brown renter's) carpet, new cabinets, appliances, etc.  The house smelled to high heaven of cigarette smoke, and the day we moved in my dog got into the crawl space and brought out cat poop and was eating it.  We discovered the previous people who lived here let their cats use the crawl space for a little box.  The smell was so awful it would keep me awake at night and I had an almost 8 month old was pregnant.  AWFUL!!

In addition to what had been done already, we repainted EVERYTHING.  Everything used to be an ugly oak and it is now painted a lovely shade of white.  Banisters, some trim, and we refinished our kitchen cabinets.  We put new hardware on EVERYTHING too.  Cabinets, banisters, doorknobs, you name it. I've even replaced my kitchen sink from a cheap stainless steal to a nice, deep, porcelain sink.  Very pretty! 

We tore out a hideous bush in the front yard that was covering the kitchen window, and a rose bush.  I think roses are beautiful, but they're high maitenance, and the bushes themselves I think are ugly.  Once we did that our yard had absolutely NO landscaping.  The backyard was green but it has rough orchard grass.  We reseeded the back and I think with time and more reseeing the back will become a lot better; it already is with what seeding we've done.  The front is nice grass though. 

We replaced insulation in the crawl space, added insulation, even painted the crawl space floor, we had insulation blown in the attic as well.  Our roof will need replacing in the next couple of years. 

My house is teeny--not even 1500 square feet--it's a tri-level and sometimes can be hard to maintain temperatures.  The upstairs can be stifling in the summer, and the partial basement (which is a basement that's not completely underground) can be extremely chilly in the winter.

I will toot my own horn for a moment and say that I think I have good taste for the most part.  I've discovered that my style is constantly evolving and I'm a mix between modern country and traditional.

In September and Ocotober we did a lot with the exterior.  We added shutters to match the front door which I had painted red the previous fall, and my yard now is the nicest on the street if I dare say even the neighborhood.  We had curbing put in, tore out sod, added bushes under both windows, two flowering plum trees to the line the driveway, had curbing put on the back side of the house, planted a maple tree in the back, and two shade trees on the west side of the house.  I planted over 100 bulbs in the Fall of tulips and hyacinth for the front and in the spring I'll plant petunias and lobelia which is a ground cover.  In the back I put some bushes to against the house, I transplanted some gladiola bulbs I had from this summer, planted daffodils, some tulips, and paperwhite something or other. And more hyacinths.

Even though this is very much a starter home and it's still a work in progress--roof, replace the chain link fence we have on one side of our yard with a wood fence to match the rest of the fencing, flooring--I'd love to do hardwood but we'll go with a nice laminate because it is less expensive and this house isn't nice enough for hardwood, and I want to replace our ghetto carpet.

Coming from an apartment to a hosue is always a step in the right direction.  I'm proud of the blood, sweat, MANY tears, and lost brain cells because of all the paint and chemicals we used to get the smell out.  This house is humble, but it reflects my style, and I think I've achieved the feeling of hominess, comfort, and the Spirit.  It's not the forevre house by far, and the next house I honestly just want to have to unpack and that's it. 

Someday, I'll have my dream home which would be a modern craftsman.  Or at least something like it.