Extreme Makeover- Home Edition

For my entire marriage we have lived in apartments, until we moved here. Moving into our first house was exciting, and it has been a welcomed change from cramped space, shared laundry, and no yard. This house belongs to my father in law, who inherited it when grandpa, is father, passed away a couple years ago. The house was built in the 1920's and at one time was featured on the front of a Hallmark card as a classic all American home with 2 bedrooms downstairs, and a finished attic space upstairs that is my son's room.

Outside we have a fenced in backyard, a front porch, and a covered patio that is screened. The last 10 years that grandpa lived here it was impossible for him to keep up with the house and things went neglected. When we moved here I had a laundry list of things I wanted to do to transform this once Hallmark house back into it's beautiful state. You know in the movies where they start a project and you see them happily working together, and then through time elapse clips they are able to complete the project before the end of the song? Well that is kind of how I envisioned house projects. Just happy fun things that make you feel good. Well, so far there has been no three minutes projects set to fun upbeat music. There have however been project that in my naive little mind will be easy, and then end up taking weeks to do.

The number one project for this summer is my back patio. It is a beautiful space that one hosted parties, and was a play space for B and his sister. Over the years it had become a place for leaves and dirty to collect, bugs to eat away at the wood, and an over all annoying space to try to keep up with.

All that is changing though. After 3 weeks of working on the patio, we have a fresh coat of paint on the outside, all rotten boards replaced, and today we have an electrician out there to figure out why the electricity does not work anymore. Soon I will have a couple of ceiling fans out there to help keep the space cooler. I cannot wait to post a picture of my new space.

On a more sentimental note, I would say there is something special about living in a home where B's grandparents raised their family. I think of them quite often. I never met grandma but I still sometimes envision her working in the yard, cooking in the kitchen, and embracing grandpa out on the patio. This was their house, they bought it, they loved it, and they chose to raise their family here. It is full of memories, ones that I will never know about. It does make me happy to think of how much joy it would bring them to see their great grandchildren run where they ran, sit where they sat, play where they played, and all the while being reminded of the two people who built a life together, right here in this home.