It's About Time....

Hi there! 

I've been meaning to start this blog for a LONG time now so our family and friends can keep up with our never ending house adventures. From some drastic home improvements to simple Do-It-Yourself projects to the more than occasional design disaster, I figured it's better late than never right? After telling my sister-in-law last December that I would be starting this blog "right after Christmas" (Ummm.... Hello August!), I got the final push from her a few weeks ago, and figured why not? Since most of our family and friends are all over the place (Shout out to Florida, Texas, Germany, Italy, and Thailand!) I thought this could be an easy way to answer the all too common question of "How's your house coming along?" while also helping me keep my creative juices flowing and get feedback on new ideas for our home.

While our house isn't close to where I want it to be, it has come a LONG way. As most of you know, our home was actually Nathan's old college digs. Yes- he used to rent this house with his buddies. It was without a doubt THE party place for a few years during and after college. I need to dig a little deeper for some good "Before" pictures, but it's hard to believe how far it has come. To be honest, any pictures I find are probably going to be filled with beer bottles and Chinese takeout boxes. So imagine my horror (yes- horror) when Nathan proposed the thought of buying this perpetual man cave.... I was pretty upset because I knew I would be living here once we were married (There may or may not have been a few tears shed). However, the shock eventually wore off and he purchased it for a great and apparently irresistible deal. With the help of some friends and one memorable and appropriate "Tear Down the Walls" party, we started the transformation...

Excuse the grainy pictures, but that was dust in the air! Our friends helping at the
"Tear Down the Walls Party" 2010. (Surprisingly, no one was injured in the progress of this party.)

Fast forward 3 years, we have been married for a little over 12 months and are still continuing to tackle room after room... and we still have plenty to go! Looking back on it, it was clearly the BEST decision we could have made. Buying a reduced priced home has helped us to be able to afford those updates that we were really wanting and it has been a lot of fun and rewarding along the way. That being said, everything we have done has been on a budget and that mindset is at the forefront of every project we take on.  

We truly LOVE this house. The more we pour our sweat into it and make it our own, the more we appreciate every nook and cranny. I gave Nathan a note on closing day of the "new" house and told him I could not wait to help him make this house a home.... and thankfully with a lot of love, time, and effort- that is exactly what it has become.

Hope you stick around!

 

A framed memento of closing day on the old college digs... April 29, 2010.

-Tricia