The wall between the living room and dining room has come down and the "meat" of the columns has gone up!

Saturday Joseph took the flooring out of the laundry room and replaced it to make it more level. It's amazing at what all he has learned to do. He's been working very hard and I am VERY thankful!

I was recently talking to my aunt about all the doors I was having to refinish when she told me about the inmates at a jail in Columbia that do it. So for $10-$15 a door they can totally refinish them!! I was so excited to hear that! I was spending twice that amount on the strippers and not to mention the hours of sanding! So, thanks to my Aunt Bev for saving me all that hard work! :-)

Deuce Ruff =)

Here is Deuce when we first got him in July

And here he is now at over 50lbs! He's so sweet but a pretty wild one at times.

We've tried to train him not to get on the couch but how can you turn this face down?! Santa may have to get Deuce his own little doggy couch for Christmas...

I find this on the couch every morning when I get up...he sleeps in the weirdest positions!

Just For You Christina!

An old co-worker of mine got onto me today for not updating my blog so here ya go. :-)

There hasn't been a lot to show with the house lately. Joseph has been hard at work but there still really isn't anything to show at this stage. He's almost finished framing in the guest bathroom. It looks good and we're excited about how it turned out. All of the new storage/closet space we added is going to be great!

After seeing some of the Black Friday Ads, we decided to go ahead and choose our appliances. So far, we're going with Sears and here are a couple that we've picked out.

This is the color I've been thinking about for the kitchen. It looks pretty Blah by itself but against the stainless appliances and white cabinets it looks good{light & airy}. I want to print some of our Paris pictures in black & white for the kitchen too.

I'm hoping we can use our current kitchen table if we paint it a dark brown but the chairs are a no go :-) I really like these though....

Anyways...these are just a few thoughts I've thrown together for the kitchen. :-)

New Windows

Our new windows were finally put in over the weekend and we love them! They definately give the house a new, updated look. We used Window World out of Greenwood{they have been really easy to work with}. They are also doing our siding but that will probably be one of the last things we do.

Joseph and his grandfather also got the chimney down...

Framing in the wall where the chimney was...this was after Joseph's grandfather busted his head open and had to go get stiches!! He insisted on coming back to work though!

We had an eventful weekend and got tons of work done! Next weekend they'll take the walls down in the dining room and put up columns! After that we should be able to move to the next step{rewiring the entire house} Things are moving right along. We still have a long road ahead but I'm getting excited about moving in eventually! I've been looking more at paint colors and I'll post those as soon as I narrow down my choices a little more.

Guest Bathroom

The guest bathroom before...

Looking into the bathroom from one of the bedrooms after doing a little demo...it was in need of a little work!

We had originally planned to demo the bathroom but keep it the same size and layout. When Joseph started ripping stuff out, however, everything was pretty much rotten! So, when I stopped by one day this is what I found!!

Joseph really wanted to make the bathroom bigger anyways so we took up some wasted space from the hallway and made it bigger. Here is the new bathroom layout I drew up...I wasn't so sure about the idea at first but I think the extra space will be nice.

My New Project

We really wanted to purchase a new, updated door but after shopping around it seems as though companys think highly of their doors. The one's we liked{including the sidelights} were at least $2,000. So,I think we'll work with what we got :-)

Here is the front door. We'll probably leave the sidelights white and stain the door dark. Maybe add some grids too.

The door "before" {after stripping several layers of paint}

Gettin' there...slowly but surely

We're also refinishing the interior doors. We thought about staining them but we may just seal them and leave it's natural finish...

I've gotten five doors done to this point...now i just have to figure out how to get the small areas around each panel.

I couldn't leave this picture out, ha-ha. Joseph after a hard days work.

House Pictures

I'm finally getting around to adding some house pictures...before, after, and a few inspirational pictures we've found that we've gotten ideas from. We have gotten a lot done so far but we still have a ways to go! We both still want to build eventually but we think this will make a great, cozy starter home! I've always wanted to buy an older home to "flip" and thanks to my amazing, hardworking husband{along with tons of help from family and friends} we can. It's especially special to me because it's the same house my dad was raised in. Now on to the pictures...Simply click on the picture to enlarge it.

The first thing we did was dig up those awful bushes! The chimney will come down, the windows will be replaced, new siding will go up, and landscaping will be added...

The back of the house. We can't wait to get ahold of the back yard. Probably add a patio or deck...

I love big porches{especially this porch}. My cousins and I spent many days on this swing as kids while we visited our grandma. Our family has many, many good memories on this porch and Joseph and I hope to make more as we start a family in this house. :-)

The kitchen...

The kitchen {back door leading to screened in porch} We plan to put our kitchen table in this corner

The kitchen now {looking into butler's pantry and dining room}

inspiration picture for kitchen {more so the color scheme than the layout} We already have the white tile backsplash given to us from Joseph's grandfather! =) I love the recessed lighting and thanks to Joseph being an electrician we plan to carry those throughout most of the house! Joseph's also gonna try his hand at building our cabinets!

This is our inspiration picture for the butler's pantry {the "nook" between the kichen & dining room} We may even add a little sink or something. I can't wait to finally have a place to put all of our china and glasses!

The living room "before". We don't have an updated demo picture yet. The bookshelves have been removed and the fireplace will be taken out and a gas insert will go in. The carpet will obviously be taken up and replaced with dark wood floors. Joseph's already got his eye out for the perfect T.V for above the fireplace. :-)

Here is an inspiration picture we found for the fireplace. We don't want anything too elaborate or fancy, just simple...instead of using brick we will hope to use rock.

The view of the living room from the front door. Looking down the hallway and into the dining room {yes, that is paneling, blah!} That entire wall will come down and columns will go in...

The plaster and drywall are down...now we're just waiting to take the studs down and put up the columns!

The dining room before {it needed help BIG time} Everything was taken out completely! I have an inspiration picture for the dining room but I will post that later. We plan to paint it a chocolate brown {i LOVE brown}

Besides the orange chairs, i LOVE this dining table. I hope to find something similar to this but with tan chairs...

That's all for now...I'll post more as we complete more projects!

Our Very First House

For years Joseph and I have talked about where we'd live when we got married {Would we build or buy?} In September of 2008 we got engaged and really started talking more about our options and what we wanted to do. When my dad brought to our attention that he was going to sell my grandparents house I thought, 'nope, NO WAY!!'. It's old and needed LOTS of work...after some thought, however, we decided to buy it! I thought it would be really neat to live in {for a little while at least} the same house my dad was raised in! Here is a picture of me and Joseph on the day we closed...overgrown bushes and all. :-)

More "before" pictures to follow...