No More Dirt Patch!

I am sooo excited! We have grass! No more patch of bare red dirt right at my front door!! We ran a few pieces of sod short but I went and got some more today so by tomorrow ALL the patches of naked dirt will be covered! Yippeee!!!

You can look at the pic on yesterdays post and see how it looked behind the tree...and here it is today.

When we were getting ready to prep the yard and lay the sod I got an idea....it was obvious that we were waaayyy short of sod and we had this pile of stone just sitting in a corner of the back yard......We still have to grout it in, but man does it look better out there! I have always felt like the front of my house sort of reflected the kind of person that lives inside and I was just plain embarrassed by that nasty little dirt patch. Every time it rained red mud would literally wash down the driveway. I just love doing stuff like that too! It makes me feel so good to be able to see the fruits of the labor!

Pretty much this whole little house has been a labor of love! I've mentioned it before, but we rented it out for over 5 years. The last time the lease was ending we decided to move back over here. We had a big nice house at the time....and were working ourselves to death to keep it. No kind of life! We were both working 7 days a week...and long hours to boot. Once we really thought about this little house sitting over here with half the space, half the payment, half the utility costs....the decision was made. We were happy and excited about having less expense and more time to spend with one another and family! The excitement lasted until we came to get the keys from the final renters.....OH LORD.....what have we done was what ran through our minds! I can't even tell you how bad it was. I walked out of here, sat down in my car and cried....just cried! Sometimes I wish I had taken pictures of it the way we found it....but sometimes I'm glad we didn't! But I did take befores of it after we gutted it. Suffice it to say....just pulling up the carpet made us wretch!

Anyway, we pretty much gutted the entire house......and did everything except lay the hardwood floors ourselves. It took us about 4 months....DH took all of his vacation and sick leave so we both worked sun up to sun down...and often until late at night. After he had to go back to work it was just me all day until he got off work then we'd both be at it again. I thought it might be fun to put up a few of the before and after pics. These are the den...in progress and after it was done.

There are still some things we didn't get finished. We were blessed enough to sell our other home very quickly and ended up moving in a full month before we intended to, but there are always home projects when you own a home so they will get done in time! We are so happy NOW...lol...that we made this decision....and it's funny....we have bonded so much with this house now that it feels much more like "home" than the other one ever did! These are of the dining room. Yes....I do like bold colors....no white walls for this girl...LOL!

I really like the way most of it turned out....of course there are always a few mishaps! I do have one bedroom that needs to be re-painted. I took bedding down to the paint store and the whole bit....but it didn't come out exactly the way I envisioned it....right now I call it the Pepto Bismol room! I like pink, but wow....did they ever get it "pink"...lol....anyway...that is one of the projects that will be re-done! We did every room in the house except the hall bath. It will come later!