Details

We were supposed to play golf today but, due to inclement weather, we ran a bunch of errands (Randy's fav) and did a few odd jobs. 

We purchased fireplace tools and filled our box with wood from the parents Steele:

Installed pendant lights:

Installed my pants rack (thanks Pa Steele):

And we started the process of finishing the exterior details change out by removing the old gold numbers, doorbell and mailbox and filling the holes. Hopefully tomorrow we will paint the holes and then start installing the new stuff.

Here is our camillia's first bloom:

First Fire

Merry Merry!

I can't believe it's been a year since we started the blog! Admittedly it's been slow going the last couple of months as the Holidays got in to full swing. Randy has finished the exterior painting, so look for a few inside projects after the new year! Here is what the house looks like for the Holly-days!

Outside Updates

We finished painting the shutters, garage window trim and front door this weekend. We also installed new front door hardware...what a cluster:

I also hung the niece and nephew initials in the guest room:

Pretty Well Unpacked

I can't believe it. I believe that we are basically unpacked. We have a few stray boxes that we are sifting through but we are basically finished. We spent our weekend painting soffits, trim and windows and unpacking boxes. Here are some shots!

Outside:

We aren't loving the white shutters so I think we will do a light gray in the same tone as the pink we got for the door. I hung a wreath :)

Inside has come a long way:

Wo' Out

The Parents Steele came down this weekend and we busted our humps! It's finally in the low 80s so it isn't unbearable to be outside. All day Friday the original Steeles beautified our yard:

Before -

After -

You can see the house! There is also A LOT of hedge trimming that went on around the yard and the grassy flower bed now looks like this:

We moved the fountain grass to the left side of the yard. Saturday we worked in the backyard transplanting grass for a border, birds of paradise in 2 corners and we planted a tangerine tree:

We spent most of Saturday afternoon painting trim white and replacing rotted soffits. Today Randy whipped out his new mower and worked on the lawn whie I started painting the soffits. We pooped out around 3pm; Randy went to the gym and I started switching out my summer/winter wardrobe.

Cinder block = Painted

The main body of the exterior is finished being painted. Thank goodness! Next comes white (trim, soffits, shutters). We have some repairs to do to the soffits before tackling that job:

Can't wait to get rid of the Hershey kiss tree. I'd like to do something like this over the garage door eventually (I'm going to paint the window frames white):

This is what the front door looks like now:

I sprayed the numbers/mailbox/doorbell gold to see if I liked it..not so much. I think we will go with a brushed nickel for our light pink (eventually) door:

We also cleared out enough space in the garage for a truck:

Hung a pic in the bathroom:

And finished hanging curtains in the sunroom:

Decorating

Since Randy has been out of town this weekend I got to do 'inside' tasks. Here are a few pics:

I set up our 'hall' table and one of the lamps (haven't located the inside and finial of the second one) and hung a painting.

Finished setting up our shelves: 

And started styling them:

I put some tape on the outside of Miles' and Lillian's canvas paintings to finish the edges:

I hung a coat rack for my scarves (you can also see that we now have a master bedroom door):

And I installed the medicine cabinet hardware...finally:

Our contractor work on the house is officially finished. I still need to follow up with him next week on our electrical inspection. 

Everything but the...

Front! We have painted the body of the house on three whole sides. The sprayer has done a really great job (the mechanical one and the human one - sorry I left the door open, smooches!).

I also got impatient with the drywall patch so I just did it myself...

Hopefully we will get the rest of the curtains up tomorrow!

Gray Day

We started painting the exterior today and got a little less than half done. We used a combination of the sprayer, roller and brushes. So far I'm liking the color choice.

I'm also working on pics in the sunroom. Here is some inspiration:

What it actually looks like right now: