Home is Where...

A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built on love and dreams.

Here are a few *before* pictures of our new house. I still have not taken the *afters* because it isn't after quite yet! We still have a lot of work to do.

These were taken by my Daddy in mid-July; a couple of weeks before closing. After working on the house for so long, it is interesting to look back on how it started. Not to mention how my belly has grown during the last few months!

A view of the front- (the guy on the steps is our realtor, Clayton). Notice the massive trees growing through the porch and in the backyard.. which are not actually trees at all.. but weeds on steriods.

Here is the view from the front door- the kitchen is to the left and the living room is to the right. Please admire the fabulous color scheme: red hall, yellow living room, turquoise kitchen and BROWN trim. Le sigh. As one friend put it... it is like they were trying so hard to be trendy that they missed.

The kitchen- minus all appliances....

The bathroom- which after taking a couple of broken mirrors down we discovered had at one time been pepto-bismal pink.. but apparently, that was just TOO CRAZY... so they painted it white and included...

this lovely mural... and although the shower rod blocks her left hand, it must be mention that she is wielding a handgun. Yes, there is a pregnant mermaid with a handgun above the shower. Can it get much better?

This is the master bedroom- and the only room we did not paint. Yay!


And finally, le bebe's room- although the walls are white we found about 837 nails (along with many more holes where we assume nails used to be) in the walls- we think it must have been collaged at one point..I have never spackled so much in my entire life.

There are many more pictures of various nooks and crannies, but this is the basic idea. Much painting and repairing has ensued.. but there is still much to be done. Because we know that we will outgrow this house fairly quickly, we are not doing any major remodeling (though I have to admit I have moments when the Extreme Makeover bug hits me and I just want to gut the place). Most of the work is cosmetic and relatively shallow.. but it already looks so much better.

Sometimes, I walk around and it will hit me that this is the house our son will spend his early years in. I will just stare at the bathtub, picturing him splashing in it... or at the backyard, seeing Ryan and Liam running around, chasing the dog and laughing. This is our home- we are starting our family here.

The other day, I put the cleaning supplies in a cabinet above the space for the washing machine, rather than under the kitchen sink...

Because of the baby. That will be here. In a matter of months. AH!

It's all so crazy. When did I become a grown up?!