Don't...I mean, DO fence me in

One of the first items we tackled at this house was building a new fence.  When we moved here the fence was completely rotten and falling down. 

Like This:

My hubby and his friend worked tirelessly all weekend to get most of the new fence up.  It took tons of wood, tons of concrete and much sawing and nail-gunning.  Oh, what fun we had!.....not.

Here is one side of the fence after the posts were in. Now we just had to wait for concrete to dry...tick...tick...tick:

And that was only one side.  There is the entire street side of the fence, too.

See here:

Then, there are 2 gates to build.....IN. THE. RAIN.

Doesn't this project look like it was just so much fun? NO??

How about in the rain AND in the dark?

See? NOW we are having "fun". 

After all of those good times, here is what we ended up with:

Sooooo worth it! It has been 2 1/2 years since this fence went up, and man, what a job! Mamma is so glad to have that checked off her list.  Onto the next!

Before and After - Powder Room

It's my Texas Bathroom!  Or at least that is what I call it.  I grew up in Texas and sometimes I get all nostalgic when I miss it, and that is the result of the inspiration in my powder room.  This is one of those projects that we thought would be fairly straightforward.  But, just like all of my "this will be so easy" projects, it ended up being more difficult than it should have been.  Everything went smoothly except the toilet install. It took like 4 days because of installation issues. My husband could NOT get the base screws to properly attach to the house's original thingies on the...oh forget it...i dont know what I'm talking about...It was hard, ok?!

I knew I wanted to gut the entire bathroom and put in a new toilet, sink, faucet, hardware, mirror, lighfixture and crown molding.  My dear hubby is the one that does all the labor around here, and he was so good about letting me add to the list of things I wanted to do in there. I think he felt safe that since it was a small room, I couldn't go too crazy with my wish list.

Anyway, here is the before pic of the downstairs bathroom.  Can you believe I lived in this house for 2 YEARS before we did anything to this room? 

BEFORE:

HOW DID I NOT GO CRAZY!  Probably because there were 100 other more important things to tackle in this house first.

And now....ahhhhh, so much better!

AFTER:

This little box holds/hides extra TP.  What do you think? Wrong spot? Too big?

And finally:

Don't mess with Texas.

I grew up in Texas so I LOVE this.  I made it from a birthday card my best friend sent me.  I saved it for about 4 years before I finally framed and hung it.  It is perfect in my "Texas" Bathroom.

I am always messing around with the items on the shelf and I cannot seem to get it just right. Sometimes, I think the shelf is too low. Sometimes, I think the accessories are too small. Sometimes, I want to move the pic.  Sometimes, I feel like I nut, sometimes I don't. 

Hope you are having a WONDERFUL weekend!

The Backstory.

  We purchased our house from my aunt and uncle for a GREAT price and are forever grateful to them for working with us to help us get in this house. Without them, then this housecapade would have never begun.  Even though I may get frusterated sometimes, these adventures are a huge part of our memories, and that makes for a full life. Thanks J & J!

Before we decided to purchase the house, they (the aunt and uncle) had a contactor work for a year to redo several aspects of the interior to move it from 1988 into the 21st century.  All the oak moldings in the house were replaced with white wood. All the dark wood doors were replaced with refreshing bright white wood doors.  New light fixtures in the dining room, eating nook and bathrooms. New hot water heater.  All the walls and ceilings were freshly painted..and I mean ALL.  New front door. All the carpet was replaced.  New hardwood floors installed.  Basically, just about all of the interior was replaced for cosmetic purposes.  If they would not have done those things before we bought the house, we would have never been able to afford to do them all ourselves.  Even though all the interior had been redone, there were still some key things missing that we needed for this house to function. Such as blinds, a cooktop, all the towel bars and toilet paper holders, and closet doors.  We didn't really need closet doors, I guess, for the house to "function"..but it sure was nice once we put them in.  We got the cooktop right away, but still went a year without getting permanent blinds. We used those paper ones for a year...A YEAR! 

With all of those major replacements out of the way,  we could see this diamond of a house would be a very smart investment. We knew we still had a huge HUGE job ahead of us to make this house what we had envisioned and we are continually working to make our house, our home.

Here are some pics of the house when we did the walk through prior to purchasing. So much has changed since then and I can't wait to show you all that we have done, and will do in the future. 

Before:

Whew! I'm exhausted just from looking at those.  They don't look too bad right?....right????
Well, just wait until you see what we've accomplished since these were taken. I am so excited/proud and tired. 
I just wanted to give you an idea of what we started with.  I will post these Before's again when I post the After's.  Hope you want to see them! This is like free therapy for me.

When all else fails...start blogging.

Well, here we go!

My husband and I moved into a 20 year old house about 3 1/2 years ago. Since day one, it has been more than an adventure (at times its closer to a nightmare). We have put SO much time and energy into our home with a huge amount of repairs/remodeling/decorating/painting/planting...you name it. We have come to accept that these are just the "perks" that come with owning an older home (a' la Money Pit).

Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our house. And feel so blessed to be able to live in such a wonderful home, but it has been a labor of love.....and sweat...and tears...and blood....and ER visits....and...and...and...you get the idea.

I started this blog as an outlet for me to share our house capades. I would love to hear yours too...it will make me feel less crrrazy!