One year and counting!

It's hard to believe, but just one year ago today, Shane and I were signing the papers for our new home.  Despite the obstacles and challenges we faced with purchasing this house, it was all worth the two moves, living out of boxes for 4 months and the constant fear that we would be without a place to call "home".  We can't thank my parents enough for allowing us to "crash" in their house during our limbo.  If we didn't have a place to stay, I'm not sure what we would have done.  I know Aspen appreciated having a pool during the hot summer months last year (I think he wishes we were staying there again this summer!)

Since it's been a year, we felt it was time to do a few home improvement projects that are not necessary but something we wanted to do since it will be our home for many, many, many years to come.  :)

First we had to replace the roof.  Note: this was not something we wanted to do, but needed to do because of the many rain/hail storms during the spring.  Apparently the roofs in our neighborhood were not of the highest quality when the homes were built 10 years ago so the last few months we have seen over a dozen homes getting a new roof.

Next we replaced the front and back doors.  Prior to moving in, we learned that both doors had been kicked in by the prior owners because they forgot their keys on several occasions.  This left the door jams in bad condition and required alot of pushing and pulling to get them open and locked/unlocked.  We also decided to add a storm door to the front to help with insulation and storm damage since our patio is so shallow.

This next week we are getting a new shower door in the master bath and shutters put on the back door.  We are also getting paver stones along the flower beds in our front and back yard.  After that we are going to replace all of the door knobs throughout the house with brushed nickel (they are currently brass) and then look into replacing all of the bathroom fixtures with brushed nickel.

I hope to have updated pictures of our "renovation" progress to show everyone once all projects are completed.  Until then, here's a shot of the house we had to go through hell to get and couldn't be happier! 

I have to point out that our yard looks ten times better than this photo (even though it doesn't look that bad).  The house sat empty without much yard maintenance for 9 months so it was in desperate need of some TLC.  Shane has spent numerous hours pulling weeds and crab grass since the spring.  It does take alittle longer to mow than Cemetery Hill but Shane seems to enjoy the yard work.  He definitely has the green thumb in this relationship!