Home Improvements

We have been working hard on lots of little projects around the house. It is so fun to make it our own! Although we still have so much we want to do, progress is slow. But here are some of the things we have been accomplishing.

First of all, I found a great cabinet for the downstairs bathroom. Our pedestal sink is very pretty, but there is no room to store anything or put anything down by the sink. Hopefully this little addition will solve that problem.

When we moved in they had installed one wire shelf in the laundry. I knew that this wouldn't work. Justin installed two great new cabinets that almost match the ones we have throughout the house. They look great! And I love not having to look at my cleaning supplies. Thank Honey!

After lots of looking, we decided on a rug for the front door. It's actually really hard to find very many that are black and tan these days. But we found one that really like!

In the back yard, we had a perimeter of dirt/bark around the grass the builder had planted. It is not good for the kids to run around in it. It sticks to their feet and shoes and can even give them slivers. It's just very messy! So we dug it all up (including tons of big rocks and roots), put down topsoil mixed with sand, fertilizer then the sod. It's taken root and is very happy. So happy in fact, it looks a lot better than the rest of the grass!

To solve our no-storage problem in the play room we looked for a long time on craigslist and at stores like Ikea to see what kind of storage solutions we could find. I stumbled across a German Schrank on craigslist and had no idea what it was. Well, it turned out to be just perfect because it's much bigger than what we could have bought and it is real wood! This came from a high end hotel originally, and has a lock and key on every cupboard. It fits perfectly on the far wall in the play room and will give us lots of room to store the toys, my craft/sewing stuff, and probably even more than that. Thank you craigslist! Now we just need to get containers to organize all the toys.

These shelves from Costco are really great and we have them set up ready to organize the garage. We're excited to get it done!

Of course here is a picture of Justin's great accomplishment in the first week we were here. Behold, the garage door opener!

Last but not least, here is what we've been researching and working on this week.....new couches! After lots of trips to the furniture store and long days, here is the smokin' deal we found yesterday! We didn't think we'd get them home so soon, but because they were the last ones (the floor model) and we had to take them that day or Monday, and because our bishop is so great and helped us out with the transportation, they're here!

If you can't tell, they're a beautiful dark blue color. Oh, and we got George hung on the wall too. He looks so nice! Our first picture on the wall!

We've done lots of other little things, but I think that covers the bigger ones so far. I think we are discovering that the to-do list will never go away, but it is sure fun to have a house to work on and make our own!