I meant to blog about this in July, but I didn't have time. July marked one year since we moved into this house.
Sometimes it feels as if the year has flown by, sometimes it seems like it's dragged on. But only because we've been in non-stop project mode for basically the entire year.
The first few months were a blur of unpacking, company, and trying to get somewhat settled.
Then project mode started.
Here's what has been completed since February:
1. A kitchen for my mother-in-law:
2. All duct work was pulled out of our house, along with the 3 swamp coolers (2 on the roof, one on the side of the house, and replaced with ductless cooling units (2 on the roof, one on the side of the house, as well as individual units for each room in the house (with the exception of the bathrooms):
3. We had insulation blown into our attic. No pictures....it isn't pretty ha ha.
4. We had 3 rooms painted. The kitchen, the sunroom, and the laundry room:
5. Our latest project was some concrete work. We needed to finish the outdoor part of the addition, as well as some work on the other side of the house. We hired a concrete crew to add a pathway to my mother-in-law's new front door.
We also added a patio for her:
The concrete is stamped and tinted to give it a little more character (as opposed to just regular concrete that looks like an outdoor basketball court ha ha). The bucket is there for a future fence post. We are putting up a vinyl-coated aluminum fence to close that gap. We will have our backyard completely private again.
We also had the concrete crew pull out the old (non-working) 'water feature' that was in one corner of the yard. It included a pond (non working and non draining, so every time it rained my husband had to suck all of the water out of it), and a rock 'feature'. It was just hideous. Maybe if it would have worked we could have cleaned it up and actually used it. But we didn't want to invest the time and money to get something working that we weren't even sure we wanted.
Within about an hour, they had it gone:
In about 20 years (ha ha) we would like to put a hot tub in this corner. But for now, my hubby and mother-in-law may plant some annuals or something. It's nice to have the hideous water fountain gone!
Then, we had some drainage problems (of course) on that side of the house as well. Basically when it rained, the water would pool in one corner around the garbage cans (lovely). So the concrete crew pulled out all of the old stuff and poured new concrete that will drain properly down the driveway and into the street (as it should).
Unfortunately, because of these unforeseen issues, our flooring inside will have to wait. We have hideous carpet all throughout the house. It looks filthy, even though we have cleaned it multiple times. :( Oh well.
We still have the front yard to work on, as well as adding the fence. But those are more affordable things that we should be able to handle over the next few months.
So we really have accomplished a lot! I'm pleased with the progress so far. And it feels good to have the not-so-glamorous-but-necessary stuff done (concrete, insulation, etc.). It feels so...adult. Ha ha.
