Bye Bye Bike Room ...

It is true ... this was one of our spare bedrooms in the house ...

And now, it's clear why we needed to build a garage SO badly!  I'm happy to report that the garage is DONE! {If it wasn't so stinking cold out I'd go take a picture!} and yesterday we successfully finished putting everything together in the guest room/workout room!

We moved the bed and dresser over from the other spare room that will now become the nursery ...

I have to say, we're pretty happy with the final product!  It took a lot of work - the hubs had lots of stuff that he had to go through {thank you thank you for doing that!} but it is DONE! 

Now ... time to start working on the nursery! :)

Kitchen Reno ...

When we bought our house a year and a half ago we had toyed with the idea of redoing the kitchen.  Don't get me wrong, the kitchen was completely functional however; being in such an old house there is limited storage space and this included limited space in the kitchen. 

Seeing as my dad designs kitchens it only made sense to talk to him about it.  He measured, drew up plans, and gave us a quote.  And then, we saved saved saved :)  

We decided that doing the reno right at the completion would be the perfect time ... right?! ;)

So, after school got out I packed up our kitchen and then two days later - our new kitchen was delivered! 

It was a WHOLE lot of cabinets!  But, first - we had to demo {or rather the hubs had to demo!}

And that he did, with a little help from the pup ...

And a little help from both our dads! 

The next day - mom and I headed to our cousin's graduation open house and let the boys begin the install! 

They worked SO hard ALL day! 

I think the highlight for the hubs was using the nailer - which now he swears he needs one of his own :)

Work continued the next day ....

After taking my parents out for breakfast {as a thank you for ALL their help with the install}, the hubs definitely passed out!  I just noticed now in this picture that apparently Otis thought he should cuddle with one of his toys - he put his hot dog on his back, ha! 

Later that evening more work continued as we added the pulls to the drawers ...

AND then a week later - our counter-top was delivered and the hubs dad came down to help install that. 

This project definitely would not have happened without the help of our dads, and the hubs hard work too!  While we still have white cabinets on the wall - we enlarged the island {a ton!} and changed that to grey cabinets along with adding a pantry cabinet.  We are still going to redo the backsplash and change our lighting ... but that probably will wait until fall to be completed.

I cannot wait to use our new countertop to bake cookies galore on!! :)

And of course I must include a picture of the pup.  He was a trooper as our house was a construction zone and earned a new giraffe {his favorite toy}.  He disappeared at one point while we were working and apparently decided giraffe had to see the great outdoors :)

Day lilies for days ...

I am not a gardener.  I kill anything that's green - not on purpose.  But even my succulents, which apparently are SO easy to keep alive and require little work, yeah, I killed those.  I have ONE plant that I've managed to keep alive, and for that - I'm pretty darn proud.

SO, when it comes to the great outdoors I love that our yard is pretty much a cut-everything-back in the spring and it will reappear {many thanks to the previous owners!}.  But, apparently our day lilies were getting a little out of hand - and who knew they're not suppose to be right up against the house because they can ruin the foundation?!? Yeah, this girl didn't know that!  

So this past weekend I dug - and dug - and dug out day lilies. 

And when I say dug and dug - oh I mean DUG and DUG!  These little suckers are HARD to get out.  And, a word of advice if you'd like it - this is not to be done with a hand shovel.  We might have had to make a home depot run to get a larger shovel {which we didn't have} after I bent the hand shovel time and time again --- oops! 

But I'm happy to say that I succeeded in taking out an entire row of day lilies.  There are still PLENTY left, but now there is a nice space between the flowers and the house.  And my body - oh how my body still aches from squatting and digging - and digging and squatting ...

As a bonus - I was able to gift some of the day lilies to people - yes, we sure did have day lilies for DAYS! :)

Photo Dump ...

I've been slacking {once again} in the blogging department ... but here you go {mom} -  a little update for you! 

We've been enjoying the sunshine ...

And had Bo visiting for a couple weeks.  

Otis LOVES him some Bo - so much so that he's constantly by his side! 

He's such a nice pup, he even shared his food! 

And his tail to give Bo a little extra warmth ;)

We have been spending a lot of our weekends traveling for Forensics.  An extra bonus is being able to "escape" for a bit and meet up with some college friends :)

I bought {and fit into} my first EVER size 6 jeans.  Hokey pete!!! 

The snow had melted and we enjoyed some nightly walks after work ... Otis was in heaven!  

And then, well it snowed again! :(  But, we did get one last snow day out of the deal :)

And there you have a bit of life lately ... gearing up for one more work week then SPRING BREAK! :)

Life lately ...

We had our pictures taken for our Christmas cards ...

and the pup even rocked it - as my mom says, "He's even smiling!"

We celebrated Thanksgiving up north ...

and had lots of cuddles ...

I spent some time with this little dude - didn't have a shark attack, but did have the flu attack - ekk!

the sock thief has been in action lately ...

the joys of a new bone ...

we survived the LONGEST week ever with anticipating Christmas break ...

I got up early to fit in my workouts BEFORE work - that alarm went off SO early!

we had a sick puppy - cuddles were just what he needed!

It SNOWED!!

And someone was in heaven {too bad it's pretty much all melted now!}

And we have been lazy, very very lazy ...

Because we are officially on Christmas break ... and couldn't be any happier! :)

Home Improvements ...

One thing I {and the hubs} knew we wanted to accomplish this summer were some house projects.  We knew we couldn't do everything we wanted right away {like the garage that we both desperately can't wait for!} but we thought it'd be a good idea to chip away at some of the little projects we had on our "wish list" to complete.

First up was some yard work.  Now mind you, I told the hubs that I would gladly do this by myself, or that I was sure my mom would come down and help me.  Of course, it didn't help to pick the hottest day and to do the work right smack dab in the middle of the afternoon - but I'm thankful that the husband helped {who am I kidding, he did the majority of it!} and we now have edging all the way around the house! 

Here's before in the front of the house ...

And after!  I can't wait for the hydrangeas to bloom here! 

And what is the side of the house {but we use it like it's our front door}

We will be inheriting some plants from my mom to go here.  Some daisies, hostas and a rose bush - and another family friend has offered us some plants that she wants to divide up!  So very thankful for that! 

The hubs let me know that he is done with outside work - he'll cut the grass but no more planting so I guess that will all be up to me!

Another item on the list was trying to figure out where we would put the boxes and boxes of books we had.  The hubs and I had tried to figure out where we could put bookshelves, if we would build some or get premade. I giggled to myself when I saw the hubs looking up ideas on pinterest - gotta love it!  Since our house is so old {and nothing is straight} we ended up with shelves that could attach to the wall. 

 A before shot of our "office" area at the top of the stairs.

During construction.  One of these boys was a little more motivated than the other ...

And after! 

We both LOVE the way this turned out.  Funny thing is though - the shelves are not level at all! Originally we hung the shelves so they were level.  We got the first one up and noticed that on one side of the window there was about a one inch gap, on the other - a 5 inch gap ---- so that wouldn't work!   We ended up making it level with the window and thankfully no books have tumbled off yet! :)

However, with all of these shelves we still needed more room for books - so we turned around and figured we could make the room cohesive by putting smaller shelves on the other side as well. 

Before

 After

This gives us some space to grow with books {as the hubs has an addiction to buying books I'm pretty sure!} and I stuck the picture up of Otis to reserve my shelf for books that are still at my parents. :)

I was also so excited to find what the hubs and I both thought was the perfect spot for our "Our Story" sign.  I always pictured this going on a gallery wall of some sort but our house just doesn't have the perfect space for that - so we made our own little gallery wall above the window if you will. 

We filled the frames with pictures that explain us {as of right now} - us sailing on the Salty Dog, on the ferris wheel at Cherry Festival, an engagement picture, and our first Christmas married {with puppy Otis of course!}

We were both really happy with how it turned out.

And we end with a picture of the hubs and Otis.  Because honestly, this picture just makes me giggle with how Otis sits like a little toddler :)