Home Tour

Memorial Day weekend 2010 we removed the front fence and replaced it 8 feet back from the sidewalk. This keeps the dog from trying to nip at people over the fence. It also gave me a place to start growing flowers. I was able to transplant several plants from the yard as well as from the neighbors. now 2 years later I need to make some changes. I hope to get to that this fall.

 

4th of July 2009 I tore out the flooring of the front porch. It was plywood covered with tile. As you can imagine it didn't weather very well. After large holes began to appear, I knew it had to go. We got a happy surprise of almost prestine concrete steps under the old decking. We replaced rotten joists, and reframed the flooring to expose the new steps. Then used pressure treated decking material to finish it off.

The Garden has been a lot of work, but not a lot of money. It started with some cedar edging I picked up on sale. Then hauled in two trailer loads of compost to fill it 3 inches thick, Adding manure and such yearly since. This past spring we replaced the privacy fence with picket fence like the rest of the yard. My garden finally has enough light to grow peppers. I had been ready to give up. The black barrel in the upper left hand corner of the photo, is the compost tumbler My Vet made out of spare parts.

 

August 2008 My Vet went with friends to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for a week. I used the time to strip and finish a dining room table and chairs. For Christmas 2011 I got some new artwork for the dining room. I found an image I really liked while searching Flickr, so I contacted the photographer. He was happy to send me the file for a nominal fee. I got it printed poster size and framed it. I love it and the entire project cost less than $40!

 

The Kitchen was in pretty good shape when we moved in. We only made small changes. I started by spray painting all the handles oil rubbed bronze, removed the popcorn ceiling, some odd decorative bits on the cabinets, and the wallpaper, then painted the walls a light green. I also upgraded the floresent box light, with a new decorative ceiling pendent. Along with a few retro touches of, I also have my collection of aprons hung for me to easily see and wear.

The Living Room. I found a buffet that I painted yellow. It replaced the train table that now hold's dolls in the girls room.The poster in the background I picked up during a girls weekend in Chicago. I am still itching to remove the carpet, change the couch, paint the door, and accessorize. Even with all that, I have finished some major improvements, and been inspired, it's come a long way baby!

 

The girls' room is a melody of garage sale and Craigslist finds. Their beds are matching twins, with dresser and night stand I got for $100 on CL. The dollhouse and camper $3 at seperate garage sales. Over each girls bed is an arrangement of their annual photos as well as family photos and loved ones. You will notice that ALL of the photos in the house have a black frame and white mat. That makes it easy to move or add to any collection.

Exterior Updates In spring 2013 it was finally time to get back to the exterior. I hopefully removed my last tree on the left side, added black shutters and an urn, as well as painted the front door. My progress on the weeds in the grass is slow, but improving, and I keep making small changes to the small garden in front of the fence as plants mature.

Main Floor Bathroom isn't exciting, but few bathrooms are. I am enjoying it more these days though. I changed out the mirror, removed some wall paper, painted, hung some shelves and found some accessories. I still would like to replace the cracked tile on the floor, upgrade the light fixture and update the "hand painted" sink that matched the old wallpaper.