One of the first things we did after we bought the house was take those trees out. I was sad to see them go because they were such big, pretty trees, but honestly they were just too big for in front of the house. They needed to go. You can actually see the house now! I'm not sure if that's good or bad because it needs quite a bit of work, hahaha! But it does brighten up the inside of the house a lot. We also got the front doors replaced right away, the new ones are the picture. That makes a big difference in the entryway, it was just SO dark before. Now we just have to update the rest of the house so the doors don't look out of place!
My first decorating project was the kids' rooms. I painted all of the dark trim white, and I added trim to the doors and painted them dark gray (you actually can't see that in any of the pictures, sorry!). Poor Ben has been in a pink room for the last couple of years so I decided to work on his first! He wanted a Shark/Ocean room. I think it turned out really cute!
Elizabeth's room was next, because all I had to do for hers was paint and then put up her old decorations from the last house. Well, I had to make curtains too, but that wasn't a big deal.
Kaylee, of course, was bugging me by this time to do hers too. I wasn't planning on doing them so quickly but I figured, why not? My amazing sister Mary helped me out when she came to visit a few weeks ago! We got everything ready - the decorations, curtains, etc. - on Wednesday and Thursday, and then on Friday when Kaylee went to school we painted and hung everything up, so it was all done when she got home. She was very surprised and excited. The funny thing is both the girls' rooms ended up being butterflies. That was what I chose for Elizabeth's originally, and then Kaylee fell in love with a butterfly comforter, so that is her theme too.
Somewhere between all of that, we bought a play set at Costco and put it up. It took FOREVER to build that thing. At least, it felt like it. But the kids love it so it was definitely worth it.
After all of the kids' rooms were done, I decided to work on the dining room. I was going to do the master bedroom next, but the dining room was driving us crazy because I took down the curtains and the afternoon sun shines in there extremely bright. Not great for eating dinner. I wanted board and batten, so a couple of Saturdays ago Will and I put it up, and also put casing around the doorways to bring it all together. It was pretty easy and went together very quickly. Then I spent all week priming, caulking, and painting - that was the hard part! We bought a new table and chairs, and a chandelier (better than the old green crystal chandelier that was in there before!) and had it ready for our big dinner on Easter Sunday. There are still some things that I need to do - we need some more furniture (hopefully I'll find a china hutch somewhere that I like) and I need to hang things on the walls, but I love how it looks already.
I started my herb garden in the kitchen window. I usually don't have a lot of luck starting seeds, but they did awesome in this window. They didn't need a grow light or anything special, they get so much sun here. The plants are still pretty small of course but they are growing fast. I'm excited to cook with them. Yes, there are two basil pots, no, that's not a mistake. We just really love fresh basil. :)
That is all for now! We're probably going to take a little break before starting another project around here. We need some energy and money recovery time. ;)
