A few house updates

I never put a picture of the light that Dad spraypainted oil-rubbed bronze. It's in the kids' bathroom. It's actually two lights. Here they are.

Just picture them gold before, like the mirror frame below them. Much better, don't you think?

And here's a picture from farther away.

Now not only is there chrome and brass in there, but there's also the oil-rubbed bronze. A trio of crazy. It'll all come together in time.

We had all the trim and doors in the house painted. The paint job before was horrible. All the trim and doors used to be a weird beige color and someone had gone around and done one coat of white, but it was really streaky and you could see the old color underneath. We've also changed the door knobs. Here's what they looked before:

I had already taken this off but I realized I forgot to take a pic so I put it back on. This knob, to the master bathroom, had one brass and one chrome handle. Some had both brass, some had both chrome. Here's what we chose.

We still have to do the hinges, but replacing the knobs has already made a huge difference to us.

Before we moved in, the entire backyard up to the treeline was completely tree-free.

We'd like to add a lot more, but for now we've added a few.

A sweet bay magnolia:

This type of magnolia is more like a large bush and it does well in swampy soil, like we've got on that side of the deck when it rains. Beyond that is our neighbor's yard. No fences here for the most part.

A jane magnolia (which is like a saucer magnolia with the pink flowers):

my lens is dirty, I guess.

And two redbuds:

Obviously October is not their peak time, so these pics are kind of underwhelming. I'm sure I'll take pictures when they bloom this spring. We also bought a yuletide camellia and a hydrangea for the front.

Last, but certainly most complicated, is the demo that's occuring in the family room. Here's what it looked like after we moved in.

It's the only place in the house to put the TV, so Dan wanted to hang it above the fireplace. He hated the whole paneled wall in the middle so he started demo. He ripped of the mantle. He tore off the granite surround. Under the granite was tile. Under the tile was marble. Under the marble is brick. And unfortunately, under the paneled wall is concrete. So until Dan can build a false wall, the family room looks like this:

And now we've got sheets hanging on the bookshelves, too, so everything's not covered in dust. Hopefully he can work on it soon. He's pretty busy, though. He's got a test on Saturday, a speech to give for work, and a half marathon all in the next few weeks.

We knew there were lots of cosmetic changes we wanted to make to this house. When we first moved in we made a master list of all the changes we'd like to make and their estimated cost. They we grouped them in three phases. Phase one if for projects that will quickly improve the resale value and make the house more updated and cohesive: Blinds (only three rooms in this house currently have blinds up), knobs, flooring, lighting, etc. Phase two is for projects that don't necessarily need to be done right away but things we know would also be nice (updating the bathrooms, new appliances, painting, etc.) I think we'll work on some of those phase two projects at the same time as phase one.

Phase three is stuff that's not necessary, but would be nice in the long run: exterior paint and a kitchen layout remodel.

More updates soon!