House pictures and work to be done

So, today I decided to write down EVERYTHING that needs to be done on our house before it will be perfect. The list is pretty extensive. I thought it would make me feel better to write everything down, that way I could get it out of my head and not have to dwell on it any more. Well, I was wrong. Now I am just overwhelmed. Not necessarily about the work but about the money it is going to cost to get this house into perfect shape. I know this doesn't have to happen in a year or two years or five years, but it sure would be nice to get it done sooner rather than later. So, I am going to write everything out here for you to read about and so you can see pictures of the house (not our stuff in it, but when I get new pictures I will change them out).


This is the front of our house. Not a whole lot to look at, and in fact it is the ugliest house in the whole neighborhood. We are going to completely redo the landscaping, roof, stucco, and eventually we will make the porch a lot bigger and bump it out to give it more curb appeal. We will put a fence around it and put a wall around a new sidewalk. It sounds like a lot, but this part does not bother me.



This is the back of the house and the backyard. You will notice there is NO grass. This poses a problem because Abby will need somewhere to be while we are at school/work. Again, the stucco will change. There will a new fence all the way around the propery. We will put in grass, flowers, and trees in the back and side yards. And since the biggest part of the yard is the side we will put a new garage on it for the boat and hopefully for a workshop for Jason.



Here is the kitchen. The floors are nice, though we are going to replace them eventually. Actually, the kitchen is the first big project we are going to tackle. We are going to totally replace the cabinets and the countertops. The appliances will stay the same but move slightly. Most of the wall will come down by the stove so the kitchen will open up into the livingroom. There will be a seating area on the new counter right at the edge between the kitchen and livingroom. There will be cabinets and a countertop on the wall where the fridge is. The dishwasher will move over next to the sink and the sink will be replaced. The wall leading into the laundry room will come down (to the right of the huge cabinets in the first picture) to make a bigger dining area and the laundry room will just get a little smaller. I am so excited about the new kitchen because I think it will make it fun to cook!



Here is the livingroom. The first picture is taken from the wall that is between the livingroom and kitchen right now but will be open once we remodel. The red door is the front door right now, though that might change later on down the road. The only thing we are really going to do in here is change the floors, paint, and maybe expand it out to the left of the second picture a little bit. The second picture is from the hall looking at the kitchen.


This is the porch. The beam that comes down out of the roof a little is where the livingroom would come out to. This would add about 50 sq. ft. to the livingroom, which doesn't seem like much but it is pretty small right now, so anything would help. The porch will eventually extend out further into the backyard, once we get that far.



Here are the two bathrooms. The first picture is the hall bath, the second picture is the master. We will just start with cosmetic changes in here. New vanities, paint, flooring, cabinets. Any major changes will come much later, if at all. We just want to make them pretty and liveable. (Not our stuff in there, this is when the old owners were still living there)



Here is one of the two small bedrooms (they are practically identical, even down to the color). They are really small, so we are going to have to figure out a way to use the space appropriately (one a sewing room, one an office most likely). We will just paint and put in carpet, and leave anything else until much later on. This wall color is pretty hideous though, so that will have to change immediately.


This is the master. Again, not our bed, but this bed is huge so it makes the room feel smaller than it really is. The closet is decent, especially for our clothes, so it will work for now. Eventually we will add on a master suite, but that won't happen for a while, and until then this is where we will sleep. We will start with paint and carpet in here and leave everything else until later.

There is also a garage that will fit both of our cars, yay! We will eventually build another garage out back, as I mentioned before, but that might take a couple of years, so for now this will have to work.

Like I said, this is going to be a ton of work, but it is totally liveable right now as it is, so nothing has to be done immediately, even though a lot of the house is, well, ugly. We are hopefully going to move in this Friday! I will post more pictures once we make things the way we want it and move our furniture in. Pray for us as we start this new adventure!