I love sod.

And this is what it looks like now! AMAZING!! A couple days of incredibly hard work, some great assistance from Paul's dad and Con and we now have grass. Next up - putting the fence back up and hopefully letting Scout run free. We did not purposely match our pond water with the grass - we're working on changing that:).

The scoop: we were praying that we would be able to paint the purple palace this fall, but that is not looking very promising as we have had non-stop wet and rain for the past few weeks.

Maybe we will have an unusually warm November - you know 60 degrees or so?!

I guess the question is - can we put Christmas lights on a purple house that has caulk in every nail hole? Definitely something to think about:).

The backyard.

This is what our backyard has looked like for the last several months - no grass, mud, and the fence down between our yard and Con and Erin's. And yes, poor Scout is still in the "dog pound." And then there was this great invention...

On to the upstairs bathroom

With the main level of our house "just about" finished, we have moved on to the main bathroom upstairs. Picking tile, sinks, and all that good stuff. Just a reminder of what it looked like before and now...including the new tub and cabinet. The big excitement - the concrete counter top that Paul is making for the bathroom. This is venturing into new territory, so Paul read about it and decided to go for it. We are hoping it is a success:->.

I love our door

If you try really hard you can see the "purty" purple door on the purple palace. BUT I LOVE my new door (I found it at a salvage yard for $50...no joke...and Paul did his little handy work). Once we put the new door up we realized how much better the exterior will look (hopefully) when it is no longer purple. Only a couple more months...

One BAD paint color

Throughout our experience as homeowners we have, for the most part, picked fairly good paint colors...this luck was bound to end one day. But it was much to my surprise when I came home from work to find our den/dining room painted a bright neon green...it was the classic... "THAT IS NOT THE COLOR THAT WAS ON THE CARD!" Paul tried to pretend that the color would work, but we new in the end it would have to go. We are much happier with the final product..."maple" from Miller paints line of "historic colors". Yummy!:-)

The floors and doors...sort of.

Paul installed hardwood floor for the first time - he did a great job. It was pretty intense. We love the lighter wood compared to the old dark pergo floors. And of course the doors - much better I must say!:->

Getting closer...

Alrighty, these are not perfect before and after pictures but it gives you an idea of how things are going at the "purple palace". I knew I was a delinquent when I saw Kathy Burns at my five year reunion and she said, "You need to update your blog!!" Thank you Kathy for keeping me on top o' things:->. The kitchen before (with a nice shot of our realtor) and the kitchen now - minus the counters and sink. Hopefully these will be added next week - I'm so excited! We also decided we don't like the dark blue in the kitchen so that will be fixed at some point. The fireplace before and the fireplace now. Sorry about the mess...just a glimpse of life at the "purple palace".

French!

Another change! Paul, along with Regan, who is a very talented man from our Church (can do just about anything) took out the old back door, cut a bigger opening and put in a french door today. We really like the difference it makes - but now it puts more pressure on us to have a "nice" backyard - now you can actually see it.
Photo 1: The back door way, way before we got a hold of the house
Photo 2: Scout monitoring todays progress
Photo 3: They're done! Well at least the door is in - it needs to be fixed up a little:->

Welcome Home.

Our first night in our new house and our first family photo in our "new" lil' living room. The buyers for our old house asked if we could close a week early, so Sunday and Monday we began packing the items we would live with for the next few months...everything else will be moved over this weekend. We have moved into a couple of the upstairs bedrooms and will continue to work on the downstairs and then move up. Four weeks without a kitchen...hopefully we don't look 50 pounds heavier by the time these kitchenless weeks are over. Scout is having a difficult time adjusting- the first night none of us slept because he just roamed the house all night with his nails "clip-clapping" on the floor. We were all miserable! Hopefully things will begin to improve soon!:->

The First Improvement

It is amazing how fast things change when you pay someone to do the work. In one afternoon we had a brand new garage door (thank you Home Depot)...the purple palace is better already! Paul told me not to get use to it - we are all about "sweat equity":->.