I'm Back

There's so much to share with everyone. I'm struggling with where to begin. I think the best place is our house improvement project. If you look back through my blog to Brie's Halloween party, you can see the back of our house. It was UGLY in my opinion. I had been thinking about what to do to make it look better and came up with some reasonable ideas.... a little paint, some wood, new light fixtures, and a bit of elbow grease.

First of all, it helps to have great neighbors who were willing to "help" with this project. They did the majority of the work.... like here for instance. This is Todd painting the side of the house (Emile's exterior bedroom wall). While up on the ladder he got shocked by the air conditioner because it wasn't properly grounded. Sorry Todd.

And here's Kyla. She started painting the house one evening before we were even home. Imagine my suprise when I pulled in and found her already working hard. I was a bit ashamed. For the record, Kyla loves to paint... she says so herself. She did a great job.

Then the girls and I had several 4x8's and 4x12's to paint with the contrasting color. These boards would be used for the trim. It took two evenings to get them completely painted with 2 coats. I wanted to do it right.

Now we get to the good stuff. While Kyla took a much deserved rest, Todd was getting ready to put up the trim.

Even though Todd knows what he's doing, I was nervous every time he went up on the ladder. I could just see him falling and getting hurt. Fortunately he didn't. Here he is working on the back end windows.

And here are the two of them working around the back sliding door. We were closing in on the last steps at this point. All that was left to do was run electricity from a old light fixture on the side of the house around to the back, install the two new motion detection lamps (one on the side and one out back) and install an outdoor electric outlet below the back lamp. Todd had that done much faster than I thought he'd be able to. Of course Kyla helped a lot with this, too. They even put up two decorative pieces I had bought to put out back.

TADA...Here you have it. My new and improved house!! Kyla even "stole" the little flower planter beside the back door, repainted it with colors that compliment what we had done, then put it back. I was so thrilled. She is very talented... you should see some of the stuff she's done in their house. To be honest, they really inspired me to make the changes I did.

Another view... just a little closer. Doesn't it look great!! I'm so excited and I still love how much better it looks. So there you have it. The first major outdoor project we've done. Next we'll attack the back retaining wall and work on the back yard. I can't wait to get to that, although it will have to wait until next summer. That's ok. One thing at a time.

For those of you who don't know what the front of our house looks like, here it is. I've always thought the front was nice.... and now I love the back as well. Hope you enjoyed reading about our project.