Our new house

Hello!  Does anyone even check this blog anymore?  I started this post MONTHS ago.  We have officially lived in New York for just over a year now.   We moved into our house nine months ago. Time to get caught up, huh?!

After looking at approximately 40 houses, we finally found one.  Our original plan was to find an old farmhouse on land.  Land would allow us to have room for the kids to explore - and I could finally have the goats and chickens I have always wanted.  We didn't find the right farmhouse on the right land.  So we went back and looked again at the houses that would work.  This house is located on a long, quiet cul-de-sac which is perfect for our kids.  The kids can ride their bikes/scooters or rollerblade with no traffic.  They have neighbors to play with and also two acres to explore.  Our backyard is all woods - perfect for trails and a tree fort!  And, we can still have chickens - someday!

Time to show some pictures.  Here is our house when we bought it!

Chad and I both disliked the outside of this house.  The faded blue shutters looked dull and the matching blue door was just plain ugly.  But, we knew we could change all that.

As soon as Mom and Dad arrived from Texas, we got to work on replacing the faded blue shutters with brand new black shutters.  Already a huge change!  The black shutters are a much better contrast on the yellow house.

Caleb even helped Papa with the hard-to-reach shutters.

As much as I hated the blue shutters, I loathed the front door.  It made me angry.   We priced a new front door and it was over $2,000 - for a basic door.  We decided to try and paint the front door first and see if it would be okay.   Thanks to Mom (and approximately 6 coats of paint) our door looks fabulous!

I chose two red paint swatches and we let Caleb pick the winning color.  He picked Show Stopper red and it is a perfect pop of color!

We didn't stop there.  Our little front porch needed something.  A railing.

I adore this railing.  It makes the porch feel bigger.  The black coordinates with the black shutters. Our teal milk crate even works!

Here is a BEFORE of the house:

And here is the AFTER:



The front door BEFORE:

And the front door AFTER:

We also:
*replaced the old light fixtures with larger ones (must be a Texas thing!)
*removed shrubs

This job is best done by a 12 year old on his 4 wheeler, while wearing pajama pants.

With a supervising dog.

*removed small pebbles that surrounded the front walk and replaced with larger, more practical stones.  Thanks, Dad!!

Okay, that is enough for now.   

Next up, the inside and more projects.  And homeschool.  And birthdays.  And animals.