Sneak Peak

We're getting ready to move. And since the current housing market is a little less than stellar, we decided it was time to spruce up a little in hopes of making a sale.

Here are a few of the many projects we are currently tackling. And when I say "we" you need to understand that I really mean "Ian." I personally have more of what you might call a supporting role. My job is to keep the rest of the household moving in the right direction as the projects unfold. Or sit at the computer and play Spider Solitaire. It really depends on my mood.

So here you see our new fridge. Although it looks much more massive than the old one, it actually has less cubic footage. Go figure. Ian constructed the built in for the fridge to slide into. He also faux painted all the kitchen cupboards.

And this isn't a current project, but go ahead and check out those awesome concrete countertops. Yes, he cast them himself.

What you may not appreciate in the following picture is what you actually don't see. And that would be the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of books that used to be on the bookshelf that used to be on this wall. According to our realtor, people don't have bookcases in their bedrooms. Well, I had a bookcase in my bedroom, and to paraphrase Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I a person?" According to Kim, apparently not. So that was a project I actually helped with. I gave away 3 boxes of homeschooling books, sold about 4 boxes and made $149.00, and gave 3 more boxes to Amy to sell at her garage sale this weekend. The other boxes got stacked up in the garage along with the floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Now we just have to paint the wall and get it to feather in with the old paint.

Look Mom, I even made my bed for this picture!


Baseboards are coming up next. And after that we will replace the world's nastiest carpet.


Moving down the hall, we come to the girl's room. First it was Amy's, now it is Annika's. They both have made their mark, literally. I wish I could find a before picture so you could fully appreciate the change. Those of you who have seen it in person can testify. We still have a little work to do on the shutters, as you can see. The ceiling had to be patched, because remember that little roof leak issue we had? Yeah, it killed the drywall in this room.



There's more to do inside, but it's a nice day here in Arizona, so let's go outside, shall we? New framing around the french doors, the start of the prep work for painting, and all the beadboard on the porch ceiling was taken down.


Yep, there it all is.


Now, Kim told us our back porch looked really bad. I wish I had counted how many times she mentioned it. Every time she looked at it she would say it again, "Oh, that looks really bad." Yeah Kim, we get it. This is the new tile we've picked out.

Here's a cool new gate Ian framed up. It leads to this tiny little area right outside the master bath. We have a huge tub with a big picture window, so this is the little privacy area that keeps the Toms from peepin' in.

We have several citrus trees that were a tad bit overgrown, so Ian cleaned them up a little. Now you can actually see the tree trunks. One of the last things we'll do is lay down a new layer of rock. For those of you outside of Arizona who might not understand, yes, I said rock. It's everywhere. You get used to it after awhile. You even grow to appreciate it. And then one day you hear yourself saying the unthinkable: "Hey, I like the way the rocks look in your yard." You know you've gotten used to the place once you embrace the rock. Well, anyway, it's not time for new rock quite yet.



These bad boys will require a professional.

And that is just a small taste of what's goin' on in our neck of the woods.