Welcome Home!

I got home from the Peoria trial yesterday and Brian and I decided to head up to the house to take the rosin paper up from the floors and pick up the mail. Imagine my surprise when I found this at the back door!! It's a genuine Rilda Sue petunia in a Michele pot!! Thanks ladies!!! It is so cute!!!

The Outside...

I am not planning on doing a whole lot to the outside of the house this year. Next spring will be a different story for sure. However, there were a couple things that needed to be done. This was the yard as it looked during the inspection:

Here are a couple views of the yard after being fenced (a BIG priority for the dogs!!):
It's a nice sized yard and has a lot of shade.

The previous owners used to garden a bit, but didn't do anything this year. This is what we had to clear out: Not quite done, but the fence posts are out and the knee high weeds are down. We have a few piles of yard waste to take out and we will be bringing in some dirt next year to level it out a bit, but it's getting there. I will be able to do a bit of agility back here.

This is where the deck is going to be someday - it will go from the back door to this corner of the house and will be a great area to sit and enjoy the yard, barbecue, and let the dogs play. We have already moved the air conditioner around to the north side of the house (just to the left of the photo - it was sitting on that cement pad behind the bench) and the gas meter will need to be moved next year to make way for the deck.

Hmmm... I'll have to show you my plans for the front of the house next!

Some Before and After...

We've been doing a lot of work on the new house over the last several days and I thought a few before/after shots might be fun. We put in a new furnace and air conditioner - this is the old furnace:

and the new one:
The old air conditioner unit - the house was built in 1961 and the furnace and a/c were original:

And the new air conditioner - moved to the north side of the house to keep in shaded and to allow us to put in a deck next summer:

Most of what we have been doing the last few days is painting (and LOTS of it!!). This is one of the bedrooms before - note the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling:
And... the after (that's two coats of primer and a coat of paint to get rid of that dark blue paint!!- you can't see it in the photo, but the ceiling cleaned up very nicely and took paint well):

There's lots more to come... I'll have to take more photos once all the painter's tape is down and the rosin paper is off the floor and our furniture is in.