welcoming myself back

It has sadly been almost a year since my last post!  I've wanted to start back up many times but have been so busy that it was never the right time.  I decided today that I would get back in the game as I want to be able to look back and see what we've done over the years :) 

I am going to try to do a series of post updating from these last 11 months.  The first post I am going to dedicate to our new house :)

We decided after the new year we would start looking for houses.  There really didn't seem to be much in the price range we were wanting to stay in. - and the houses that we had seen that were,well, they kind of scared me! lol  Then on valentines day 2012 a new listing was sent to my inbox.  I was for sure that Steven wasn't going to like it cuz it didn't have a garage and was in an area that was known to not be all that great.  Called our awesome realtor and asked her when we could see it.  She said we could go as soon as steven got off work.  So we met up at the house and my dad joined us, the neighborhood didn't look that bad. - that was a good start!  then we got in the house... IT WAS DISGUSTING! lol  the walls and floor were so gross that you really didn't want to touch anything!  and the smell of cat urine made us leave the doors open while we walked around. The house really did need a LOT of work.  so I figured for sure that Steven and my dad would both say no right away.  but they didn't.  They lay out and size of the house was great.  and the kitchen was really nice.  The back yard had a huge covered patio and decent yard.  I was starting to actually like the house - and so was my dad and Steven!  To my surprise we ended up putting in an offer that night.  it was a foreclosure so we didn't expect to hear anything for awhile.  I don't remember all the details after that, but in the middle of March we got the keys! I couldn't believe that the entire process only too 1 month.  Then the real "fun" began.  demolition, cleaning and painting!  Most of it was done after steven got off work and that is why we weren't able to move in till May. - a big shout out goes too all our friends and family that helped us out!

After it was done, it looked like a completely different house - and we couldn't be happier! I love my house and it fits us just right :) I wish we had a garage for storage, but other then that I wouldn't mind living here awhile!

so here is what you were waiting for, the before and after pics!!

First picture taken with our keys in front of OUR HOUSE!!

The living room...

The other living room/family room, we call it the fireplace room lol....

 The Kitchen...

 

The toy room/ school room...

 

and just some extra views of what it looks like now...

 

 The boys' bathroom.  I didn't post any before pictures as this is how the bathroom looked when we got it, it was just white walls instead of green....

 

The office.....

 

Master bedroom....

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 And two more views of the bedroom the way it is now....

 Master bath, nothing special. but it works just fine for us :)  couldn't really get a good picture....

 And just cuz I want to show it off, my sweet pantry.....

The left side of the pic is the view when you first walk into the pantry.  the right side pic (left side of the pantry) is mostly school stuff.

 The left side of this pic is the back of the pantry, randomness on the top two shelves, the snacks on the 3rd shelf down, breakfast food on the 4th,  and then baggies and such and juices/liquids on the bottom (5th)  shelf.  The right side of the pic (right side of the pantry)1st shelf you can't see in the pic and there is nothing on it. 2nd shelf down - cleaners, the baking,spices and condiments on the 3rd shelf.  4th shelf is canned goods and then pastas, rices and bags of beans.  5th shelf is where I store all my cooking gadgets - bread maker, waffle iron, mixer, food processor, small crock pot, popcorn maker, rice cooker, and large crockpot -- next to the crock pot is my blender but you can't see it in the picture.  I am soooo grateful to have all that pantry space :)  and I have no clue what I will do if we ever move to a house with a smaller pantry lol.

 There is also another room which used to be the boys old room before I moved them to the bigger room.  Right now it just has boxes of things that need to be stored that we haven't figured out what to do with yet and my sewing table and photography equipment.  but it is nothing special so I didn't bother to take a picture of it. - maybe when we figure out what we want to do with it, I will take pics of it then :P

 It didn't occur to me to take picture of the back yard before we moved in.  It was a mess like everything else.  over grown weeds, dead bushes,  and overgrown bushes.  anywho, here is how it looks now.  it looks a lot nicer in the summer when it is all green lol....

and that is our house :)