Changes around the house - Very long post!

We have been making a lot of changes to our house. It's about time considering we have been in our house now for 6-1/2 years! Just kidding of course - it is an ongoing process. We replaced the roof (thank you Hurricane Ike), we finally landscaped the front - nothing big mind you, but there are now actually plants there! We were also lucky enough to have Grandpa Smith come out for a week in November to go on a Father-Son camp-out with the boys and then stay on to help us with some bigger projects like tiling the kitchen, baths and entry and replacing the back door. Craig and I are also repainting our bedroom and bath as we speak. Lots of projects - so little time. A BIG "thank you!" again to Dave for all his help. We never could have done it without his help. It was so fun to have him here and visit - we will need to do it again soon without all the chaos!

Here is a picture of our house when we bought it 6-1/2 years ago
We lost the small tree not long after we bought the house, and then Hurricane Ike took care of the big one. It's weird to not have a yard with trees anymore.

We have made other changes like painting the door and shutters black. We ended up over the years taking out all the original plants, and trees (bushes) in the front of the house and we really scaled back the size of area to be landscaped. We put rock along the front........

...added some beautiful plants and...

..there you have it. The finished product - for now. We still have plans to repaint (the same color) the outside and hopefully get our grass back to life. Our front yard has become the neighborhood playing field, and it shows.

Now for the inside. I unfortunately did not take very many photos during this process but what I have will give you and idea of what we have done. (on the kitchen at least!)

Here is the kitchen before - we were still deciding on tile.

Here is everything ripped up and the back door out. This is when things were somewhat still in order. It didn't take long before the fridge was in my den and the dining table in my living room and anything else that was supposed to be somewhere was somewhere else! Those who know me will know how hard this was for me - haha!

Working on the back door

Emmie loved helping her daddy! And I love the one of her just reading and eating popcorn in the middle of all the chaos! She definitely did not get that trait from her mother.

Ta dah! Here is Emmie showing off the finished product.

And here is a quick one of the entry before we grouted. Sorry - not pictures of the bathrooms yet. I am the worst at documenting things. Maybe someday I will post some!!