Our Other Baby

Before there was a Nicky there was a house.  A house that was very dated and had been a rental house from the day it was built in the 1980s.  Then along came us Johnsons with our big ideas of sprucing up the place to bring it up-to-date.  Four years later, and we still have a long list of things we want to do with our first child!  We've replaced all the floors throughout the downstairs; remodeled the kitchen and the master bath; painted the entire house; gave the upstairs and downstairs guest bath a facelift; painted and redecorated the living room and office/playroom...twice!; painted and installed a chair rail and crown molding in Nicky's room; painted and added crown molding to the guest room - and now it's ready for a make-over (or rather, we're ready to give it one); we've extended the back patio; and added a front porch.  Oh - and how could I forget the addition of our awesome siding?! (although you really can't see it in this pic, but you can see the new front porch and the pretty painted new front door!)

Our neighbors are always asking what we have in store next - most of them have lived in the 'hood since the houses were built and really haven't done much in the remodel department.  We are obsessed with watching HGTV and DIY and are constantly thinking of new things to design and different ways to decorate.  I don't think we will ever be done with the project that is our house.  I think we might go completely stir-crazy if we didn't have something up our sleeves!

Our latest project was ripping out all the existing builder-grade, holly bushes, etc and exercising our green thumbs to try and up the curb appeal.  I don't think it turned out too shabby! 

Kris is really the one that should get the props - he did all the heavy lifting; I just did the "designing".  We had some organic mulch delivered, which he spent an entire day shoveling and distributing in the plant beds and around the house. 

Of course, Nicky "helped"...

Then Kris spent another day being bossed around by me as I told him where I wanted him to plant things!  His little helper was sure to keep him in check as well :0)

Nicky was worn out from all his hard work...

...but he made sure to keep us well hydrated...

We still have a little bit of work to do - we need a few more plants to fill in some spots, but overall, we're pretty darn happy with our results!  It's definitely much better than it was before.