Our New Home!

A few months ago, I was ready to go buy a new house just to get away from this one.  Not that there's anything inherently wrong with this house.  It's up on a hill, has a nice view, has great architecture and high ceilings, only one wall attached...it's a great house!  What wasn't so great was the cat pee smell in the entire downstairs, the dingy old carpet with practically no padding left under it in the whole house, the lack of overhead lighting in most rooms, and what seemed like a general lack of space.

Instead of buying a new house, we decided to do some remodeling, which we started at the beginning of September right after we got back from our honeymoon.  We started with phase one, which was the downstairs.  Electrical work to install overhead lights, new paint and baseboards, new carpet, and bye-bye cat pee smell.  That was finished in mid-October, and we got our office furniture and got set up.  Then came phase two, which included the stairs, family/living room and the dining room.  The family/living room was a BIG project.  All sorts of wiring for our home theater under the floorboards and in the walls, a shelf built for our projector, electrical work and overhead lighting, new paint, new mantle, hearth and tiling, new baseboards and new carpet.  The dining room was paint, baseboards and carpet.  Today, on November 23, 2011, phase two is complete!!

 Our newly remodeled living room

There's still more to come after the holiday...phases three and four!  Master bedroom, master bathroom and powder room.  Hopefully that will only take a few weeks, and if all goes well, it can all be done before Christmas!!  Then the only thing left is the kitchen, which we may wait a little while on...

I can't even tell you how ecstatic I am.  Even without the master bedroom being done...it's seriously like having a new house.  Aside from the basic architecture of the house, practically everything else is new!  It looks amazing, it smells amazing (I had my house cleaner come today, too)...IT'S SO GREAT!!!  I lay down on the carpet in the middle of the living room looking up at our awesome new lights and the paint and the amazingness of it all, and I felt calm, peaceful, and very very happy.  Hooray!!!