Our "New" House

Stonewall has been in Mississippi for the past two weeks for AT, so I've taken it upon myself to surprise him with a few home improvements when he gets home on Sunday.

(Stonewall, if you're reading this, as I know you do sometimes, just stop now. If you ruin your surprise I'll kick your tush when you get home :) Love you!)

The weekend before this past weekend my mom came over and helped me weed and fix up our "landscaping." (I say "landscaping" because it really isn't.) The previous owners of the house "landscaped" and it is a complete mess. There are bushes literally planted on top of other bushes, no beds just plants planted up against the house...a real mess. So we went through and pulled out bushes that were too close to other bushes and we weeded everything. There is a flower bed in the front yard and we cleaned that up. We have a stone driveway, so we weeded that. Then my mom sprayed weed killer everywhere. We also bought two planted arrangements to put in these big cement vases we have sitting on our front porch.

We had built a kennel in our basement for the pups. Originally, the floor was laminate flooring, but because our basement is damp it kept bubbling up. I came home one day from work a month or so ago and the little brats had torn the flooring to shreds. And not from the outside edges to the middle. No, no. My little angels started in the middle and worked their way out. So we built a wooden floor and painted it with waterproof deck paint and attached that to the kennel. I'd like to see them eat through that.

This weekend my mom helped me paint our bathroom (with Olympic paint which is safe for pregnant women). We painted it a very light mint green color called "Rain Forest." It looks so much prettier than the icky beige color it used to be. Now if only I can get the fugly purple shower/tub replaced...

On Thursday, my mom and dad are going to be installing our new counter!! I'm super excited about this. I've been wanted to replace the counter since day one, but I was always under the impression that would cost at least $1000. Turns out I was so wrong. I was reading Domino the other week and discovered counters can cost under $100. Who knew? I went to Lowe's the next day and bought a new counter. It's marbly looking and is so much better looking than our plain white stained counter that we have now.

I'm so excited! Stonewall is going to be so surprised. Just think what I'll be able to accomplish when he's deployed for a year instead of at AT for 3 weeks!


PS. This is my first time using my online signature! I found a link on Lindsay's website, And We'll Just Laugh Along the Way, to create one. How neat!