Happy Birthday House!

A year ago this past Saturday we closed on our house, and we've come a long way--if I do say so myself. I'm still not sure what possessed us to get such a fixer-upper...I guess too much of 'The Notebook' finally had an ill-affect on me *shrugs*. A renovation project seemed like a good idea at the time...if we had money...if we had skills, but we had neither. In fact, we had just come out of the worse financial period of our lives. Our savings had been completely depleted and we were rolling on a wing and a prayer. Of course that made it the perfect time to purchase a home. And it was dilapidated? Even better! *Shakes Head*

Despite all that, things have really started to shape up. Today, we can't step foot outside the door without one of our neighbors stopping us and telling us how good our house looks (no doubt due to the horrid condition it was in before). What we lacked in planning in the beginning, we totally made up for after we realized that we couldn't get by without a solid strategy...and that perhaps we had bitten off a little more than we wanted to chew.

In just this one year, we have learned so much--and obtained so many new skills. I can't lie, it hasn't been easy. We've had to get down and dirty, do things ourselves, work together, and really roll up our sleeves and jump in head first.

However, our efforts have paid off--for the most part--and there's nothing like a little DIY, right?
Our plan has been low hanging fruit first, meaning, we tackle the things that cost the least amount of money that will also give us the biggest effect. So although I would LOVE to redo our porch and expand my bedroom (to make it a master suite) we had to keep things in perspective. Unfortunately, those goals are pretty much unobtainable right now--so they're currently on our wish list for a couple years out. In the meantime, we wanted to focus our efforts elsewhere--again, attempting to get the most return. Our plan has been to focus on the inside of the house in the winter months and on the outside of the house in the summer months. Because we had already made quite a few changes to the inside before we moved in, we began this spring with our outdoor checklist. Our outdoor checklist included:

To Do:



1. Restore Electricity To The Outside Of The House
2. Install New Light Fixtures
3. Cut Down Humongous Tree In The Backyard
4. Remove Shutters
5. Replace Shutters
6. Complete Front Yard Landscaping
7. Restore Grass (we had all weeds)
8. Replace Front Door
9. Paint Porch
10. Paint Trim

I didn't mention the fact that we power-washed our house because it wasn't a part of our original plan, but I guess I could add that too. If you read my post about removing our shutters then you know that the power-wash was kind of forced on us. So far we've completed everything on our list except:

1. Cutting Down the Tree
2. Replacing The Shutters
3. Painting Porch

7 out of 10 isn't bad, and we still have some months of warm/warmer weather so all isn't lost just yet.  Technically, it hasn't been a year because we didn't actually move into our house until about a week into September, so...high-five to us! ;-)

The reason why we haven't tackled the tree is because--simply put--it costs too darn much to cut it down. It's HUGE. I pray that next spring we will be able to cross it off  of our 'to do' list, but until then I'm in the backyard like:

You will not...

 

The shutter replacement is just a matter of taste. We've The hubby's been going back and forth 

about rather he wants to replace them or not. I definitely think that the house needs shutters, however he seems to think that there is something more unique that we can put on the house instead. OK...0_o More than likely, we'll replace the shutters...

 

As far as painting the porch, that one should be easy and I am about 98% certain that it will we be done before our cut off point--which I've decided is Halloween.
So without further ado,  I'd like to show you the before pic of our house as well as what it looks like after exactly one year of  purchase. Let's look at the before first, shall we?

What were we thinking? Were we thinking? Our house was a hot mess!!!

 

But all it needed was a little love :-)

 

Not bad, aye? We still have a mighty long way to go, but we've accomplished so much in a year that when I'm not complaining I can't help but to be a bit proud, and more importantly, thankful to God. I can't wait to see all the changes that the years will bring. I get excited even now thinking about our plan to turn our backyard into a relaxing escape where we can enjoy a bit of quality time with our loved ones. I don't, however, get excited when I think of all the work that it will involve...

But we're ready! I guess. We don't have any other choice ;-) Oh, and one more thing....

Happy Birthday House!!!