Home Sweet Home... Is a whole lot of work!

The past five months or so of our lives have been mostly consumed with our house. We bought a brick cape style home that was built in 1953 and basically hadn't been updated since 1953... except for the circa 1970 paneling that covered the upstairs. We closed on the house May 9th with starry eyes full of excitement at making our first house our own. We still are starry eyed, but we think it's more from the masses of money spent at Home Depot and Lowes and the late nights trying to get as much done as possible before the baby comes. I have learned that I am married to a VERY handy man... even if every project takes 5x as long as we think and is at least 3x as expensive. Here are a few pictures of what we've done...We haven't changed anything about the outside yet. Next spring will be landscaping!

These cabinets were knotty pine - Ryan painted and replaced the hardware...we still have counter and floor to replace at some point! (And eventually new appliances. :))
The dining room was one of the easiest rooms to fix - all it needed was paint and a new light fixture to replace the sputnik looking chandelier that was there before.

We've never had a fireplace before so this year we're looking forward to chilly New England nights this year! The living room is pretty cozy and we enjoy this room a lot.

While it looks like not much has been done to our bedroom, looks can be deceiving. Even Kiwi is exhausted from our efforts! The walls were covered in dark paneling... First we stripped the paneling, then the wallpaper underneath. Next we scrubbed the glue off the walls, patched the walls, sanded the walls, patched the walls again, sanded the walls again, washed the walls, used Guardz on the walls to even out the finish, primed and painted... Oh, and replaced all the moulding.

We are in the process of finishing the upstairs bathroom and the the baby's room - same steps due to paneling. Stay posted for more pictures!