Open House!

My parents used to send me care packages every weekend for the first few years in college.  Most of the time, my mom would wrap freshly baked cinnamon rolls in foil as they came out of the oven so you could almost smell them as I walked down the hallway with the box...or maybe you COULD smell them, as my friends always seemed to drift to the doorway when it was being opened.  Anyway, many times, my dad would stick a CD in the box for me and it was always classic rock.  The Eagles, America, CSNY...these were my favorites.

So just enjoy this one for a second...it's ok, I'll wait...maybe grab a cinnamon roll while you listen and take yourself back to 1997 with me...

I realize that we haven't posted pictures of the house yet, except for the request for help with the front windows, and that's pretty much due to my own vanity.  I just hate putting out unfinished documentation...I've always hated people to read my writings before they were unedited or see a project before it was finished...I would just rather wait until it is all done.

But, my friends, this house is FAR from being all done.

I told myself that I would post pictures after I had curtains hung.  Now, what may sound silly to you used to be a quite simple formality for me. 

In fact, I remember moving from Indianapolis to North Carolina with my mom and Robin and Danny (you know true friends when they help you move across several states!).  This was the last of many legs because I was too poor to be able to afford a U-Haul so we had to move over the course of a couple weekends.  On this last stretch, my mom and I spent the night at my new, little apartment and stayed up pretty late putting things away and hanging pictures and curtains.

The next morning, we met Robin and Danny for breakfast and I will never forget her face when we told her how late we stayed up the night before.  "You hung curtains already??" she said. 

I can recall similar events at pretty much every house we've lived in...until now.

Now, I am still curtain-less.

But my children and clothed and fed and the house is relatively clean, so I can't count myself a total loss - but this is what has been holding me back from posting pictures.  I know, I know...give it up, Annie.  I am.

So anyway...on to the house.  I was thinking of posting a different room every day so that you can see the whole shootin' match.   But first, let us prepare you just a little for what you are about to see...

The couple who lived here before us kept the house immaculate, albeit out of date...which we didn't mind because I think everyone moves into a house hoping to put his or her stamp on it (and I consider myself a little bit of an expert simply because we have watched every episode of House Hunters known to man). 

So we have made small improvement here and there when we moved in, but mostly, our plan is to live in it for about 6 months to realize what changes we truly want.  Plus, I think my husband would shoot me to ask him to make a change only to change it back to the original way later.  I'm not a furniture mover or repainter every year, so I kind of like to make permanent decisions.

And really, the only truly permanent change we've made to this house is hand and feet prints on the wall...

Oh yes, I said feet prints...

So your first peek is at Scott's pride and joy...the garage.  His goal over the first month was to get our mountain of junk and boxes stored away so that we could park at least one vehicle in the garage...and I am so thankful that he did.  Our life is so much easier, getting in and out of the car this way.  We have tons of storage and access to the attic is here as well.  He even moved the shelves over so we could tuck the deep freezer out of the way.

My hero, assembling shelves

Sorry for the blurriness...but there's the deep freezer and the shelves.  You get the idea.

We still don't have everything exactly the way that we want it and have a couple more trips to go to Goodwill, but this is certainly better than what it was. 

The girls' favorite feature would have to be the cat door.

Oh yes, I said cat door.

The owners before us had a cat and the litter box was in the garage - which is great for us, because there's really no lingering cat smell in the house.  But what it left was a kitty door in the door leading to the garage and also one in the garage door itself.  The girls love this little peek through to be able to call for Daddy when he's working outside or watch mama as she runs to get something out of the freezer.

Seriously, Rachel... I think you can fit.  Just try it!

Dada!!!  Are you out there??

Of course, I've also come home to find Butch's big doofus snout trying to push it's way through the door to see what's going on in the garage as well.  I think he can get through about to his eyes. 

And I will leave you with that image as I go back to emptying the dishwasher...

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!