A Makeover

Before (what our house looked like when we bought it):
In-Between (what it looked like for two years- we had to replace the windows and front door before we moved in):

After (painted the outside, paved the rest of the driveway):

Of all the remodeling projects we (well, mostly Mike) have undertaken since buying our little fixer-upper, painting the exterior has definitely been one of the most grueling. We (again, mostly Mike) spent the better part of the month of June sanding and painting our little hearts out. Butch was a superstar from start to finish as always, but my lifelong fear of ladders got the best of me at times so I devoted myself to important tasks like standing on the front lawn complaining that the shade of taupe we chose looked too warm or stressing over what color to paint the front door. At one point I was mixing paint from various sample cans to try and create the apple green I pictured in my mind. Shiz got crazy. But now that it's finished I'm really happy with the outcome. The photos don't really do it justice (probably because there were shadows everywhere when I took them) but the paint job takes at least twenty years off the place. And I did finally find the perfect color for the door (offbeat green by Sherwin Williams).

In other house updates, I finally found a chair for my living room after looking for one since I wrote this post. I’ve come to the realization that in order to have a decent looking home you need to spend either time or money, and both are constantly in short supply at the Cassity house. Which is why it took me roughly ten months to find this little beauty at the overstock.com warehouse sale:

At first Butch was a little hesitant about this chair but after he saw that it reclined he was sold. Is it pretty lame of me to be blogging about a chair? I’m thinking it probably is. But such are the small accomplishments that make up my life these days.

If anyone is interested, we are selling the old chair. Details here.