The biggest change over the last year was my mom and sister moving into the neighborhood! They moved to a house on 63rd Street. So its just down the street, around the corner and down to the end of the street. It's been really great for the kids, they are able to ride their bikes down there - there's a sidewalk all the way down 63rd they can ride on. My mom got a keypad on her front door so they drop in whenever, put the code in, and hang out. It's pretty much daily that they ask to go down there. Daylight savings has put a big damper on it because I don't want them riding back in the dark and we actually just put their bikes away for the season because we got a huge snowfall last night. But up to this point they still didn't have a problem riding down there in the cold. Our walks have turned into getting just to Gramma's, getting sidetracked there for a long time, and then heading back home. It's pretty great!
My mom and sister have done a lot of work on their house over the past year too! There was a hot tub in the living room/sun room. Mike removed that....such a weird idea to have in the house! They've painted, decorated, got a new sliding glass door, new lights....I can't even think of all the things but they always have some project going to keep them busy.
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| Epic New Years at Gram's before hot tub was removed |
Some things we've done around our place....
We added some new lighting to the kitchen and dining room.
I painted all the doors white and last year we put in some new windows so we put up new trim around them.
We redid the boys bathroom and have started on Kate's. The plan is to get new carpet upstairs. Kate has a wood floor in her room and still wants wood, so we will replace that with something new. Then put something more durable on the steps and redo the railing.
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Kate got a barn door in her bedroom for the closet door. I felt like it was tight going into her closet as we added a dresser in there, so this opened the space up more.
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In the spring we did some landscaping out front. We put in a tree in the spot that we took the pine tree down last year and added some bushes by the house.
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| Haha the only pic I could find that we took in the summer |
We repainted the main floor bathroom and put down a new floor.
I painted the back splash in the kitchen white.
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Mike did some work out in the garage and it has turned into a really fun hang out place for us! He hung up a TV, we got a ping pong table, and he started a new hobby of brewing beer! So he has a keezer system out there and has 6 beers on tap and also a rootbeer for the kids. We just love our garage, it's such a difference to have it heated and attached and 3 stalls!
We did a wainscoting accent wall in the dining area.
We are enjoying doing little projects here and there and not a whole huge renovation like we did at our last house. There's lots of things we still want to do here but it will all come in time. Looking forward to what this next year brings to us.
