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"Having someone to love is family,

Having somewhere to go is home,

Having both is a blessing"

Our first home...what an incredible purchase, but what an incredible labor of love! =o) This house, which we've now made home, has brought us such joy, excitement, sweat, tears, and hard work, but such amazing memories! How fun is it to have your own home to begin your new life as Mr. & Mrs.?! Of course, the mortgage payment isn't always "fun", but it brings some sort of right of passage to a newly married couple. It's a small house, but a great house. We've filled it with our things and made it our home, and most especially, it is overflowing with love. I will post a few before and after pictures of the improvements and changes we've made since taking over on December 7, 2007. Wow - I can't believe we've been here nearly a year! We'll start in the living room:
The changes we made in this room are fairly obvious. Paint, new carpet, new 2" wood blinds in the windows, new lighting. On to the kitchen/dining room:

In here, we painted, put 2" blinds in the window, updated the lighting, replaced the nasty oven/stove with a new black one, have a black refrigerator, and just recently replaced the dishwasher. Oh, and also replaced the faucet on the sink. Now, the guest bedroom/nursery:

In here, we painted, new carpet, new blinds, new lighting. The guest part of the bathroom:

In here, we painted, replaced the faucet and are in the process of replacing the towel ring and toilet paper holder to bronze to match the faucet. And, the office/third bedroom:

In here, we replaced the carpet, got rid of the horrible longhorn on the wall and the terrible burnt orange paint, and replaced the lighting. And, last, but certainly not least, the master bedroom:

In this room, we painted, replaced the carpet, lighting, new blinds. We are still working on our part of the bathroom, replacing the faucet in there as well as towel ring, towel bar and toilet paper holder.

We just recently had to replace the heating/air conditioning unit. Our furnace was leaking natural gas, and it was the original system installed in the house when it was built in 1984, so the system was pretty much obsolete. Therefore, we had to have a new one put in, but it works beautifully!

My list is still not complete with all the changes and improvements I want to make. I think my list grows everyday, to the dismay of my husband - I know he wishes I would just stop wanting things! The things on that list, so far, are new counter tops in the kitchen, a new front door, new windows (these are quite leaky and drafty), and a new hot water heater, a new sink in the kitchen, new lighting in the bathrooms, new hardware on the cabinet doors in the kitchen and bathrooms. I realize all this can't be done overnight; just some things to work toward as budget and time allows. But for now, we are enjoying the improvements we have made and we love our house!!