Paved Driveway.

When buying an older home, don't let the driveway, garage etc be a selling point.  They are usually extremely small and narrow and usually only serve as a great storage unit.

When we purchase the home, the driveway had two strips on concrete framing out an ugly, barren, dead strip of grass.  It was a cute idea but was NOT working and added nothing to the already lacking curb appeal.

As a quick solution, we dug out the grass that "lived" there and just let it be dirt for a while.

(This picture was taken a LONG time ago, before we painted the house)

Anyways, it was decided that the time was now to fix this ugly thing and provide a nice driveway for our little cars to park.

This was another project completed with the parents in town :]

Justin had to dig down 12 inches to allow space for rock sand and pavers to rest.

Once all the digging was complete, they added a 8 inch layer of gravel and a 1 inch layer of sand.

Leaving just enough room for the 3 inch pavers, the new addition to our driveway sat perfectly flush to the old concrete strips.

The project went from this...

To this...

And still isn't quite finished. We need to make the cuts to fill in the inch gap on the right hand side.  It already looks great and is just about finished!

Gateway to Bliss...

Another project that went underway while the parents were in town, is something that I am SO thankful for - almost as thankful as I am for the French Doors...

Our backyard is a big blank slate.  It needs a lot of things but the most important need it MUST fulfill is for our pups to have a place to run about with out mom and dad having to worry.

Luckily it is fenced in.  Three different style fences, but fenced none the less.  We can worry about the visual appeal later.

Justin and Roger built a gate for each side opening to our backyard.  Now the Ace and Abu can prance about out of harms way and we can get some much needed chores done around the house :)

Ain't she purty :]

They LOVE it!  (And yes, that is our dried up Christmas Tree - It is one of their favorite toys)

I Can See Clearly Now...

Into the back yard...

The French Doors are in and they look AMAZING!  I love them and it makes taking the pups out to potty so much easier!

In this post, I showed you my amazing artistic abilities and plans for the new french door that will be in our current bedroom/future office :]

Here is the photo rundown on the Dobson French Door Installation.

Here is the before with all the furniture moved away from the wall.

Step 1: Take out window.  The window is in great shape, so maybe we could use it elsewhere?

The pups like it :]

Step 2:  Measure out 5ft opening and start ripping out the lath and plaster and exterior wall.

Step 3: Insert new door and secure into place with shims and screws.

Steps 3&4:  I forgot to take pictures but we used the spraying, expanding insulation foam around the edges and finished everything out with interior and exterior molding.

Now with just a little patching, paint and moving the curtain rod hardware, our door will look like it has always been there :]

Apologies

vacaSo sorry about not posting for over a week.  Things have been busy busy around here.  The in-laws have been in town for 10 days and we celebrated my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary this past weekend. Other family members and friends were in town and the past few days were jam packed full of lunch, dinner, family things.

Lots of progress has been done around the dobson home and I will share all that later!  Demolition is underway upstairs and we made a purchase that will serve as the center of our new master bathroom.

Lots Lots Lots to share! :]

Until then, here are a few pictures of my family filled week!

<3

It's MINE, ALLLLL MIIIINNNEEEE!

Celebration is in order!  I am now in possession of a SEWING MACHINE!!!

My WONDERFUL aunt gave this to me! It's definitely a little older but it's the perfect beginners machine and if needed I can upgrade later! 

Now I need to get on those ottoman covers! Aimee, Sarah, Learn me.

Here's the Plan, Stan.

We have BIG plans for the room we currently call our bedroom. 

As you saw in yesterdays post, we have already tackled the paint, molding, lighting and flooring in the space but there is one more thing we need to do.

Old homes, much like the one we live in, do not have access to the backyard from the main level.  In our case, we can access the back yard through our basement and garage, or can walk out the front door and mosey all the way around the house.  Blah.

No Likey.

We need to be able to get to our back yard from the main floor of our home for the following reasons:

1. Puppies: We need to have a better way they can get out to the back yard to piddle, play etc.

2.  BBQ:  Grillin up some chicken in our front yard is a lot a bit not our style. 

3. Summa Time:  We want to be able to have easy access to enjoy dinner, sunbathing and other backyard activities. 

4. Just Because: It will make our life better.

So what are we going to do you ask? 

.........

BAM! French Doors. 

We don't have palm trees or the ocean in our backyard but it will be a great addition!

We plan on putting it here:

I made this silly floor plan so we can gain our bearings. The red area is where the french doors will be. We will remove that window and tear out most of that wall to make room for the doors.

I think it will look great! This spring/summer we will add a patio and stairs and railings down to the yard level. There is a bit of a height difference.

This is a project that is planned for when the in-laws are here as well as many more!  Can't wait to share!

The Room that Shall Not be Named...

Because it's ugly.

Well... it's better than it was...

If you're wondering where the hubs and I lay our weary heads at night, you are about to find out.  Let us take our time machine back to one year ago.

This would be the 2nd bedroom on the main floor and is our temporary bedroom until we get the upstairs in tip-top shape.  Yes it was pink and yes it had weird commercial grade, burgundy carpet that wasn't even tacked to the floor - just rested on the top of it.  (???)

Here is the room now.  Still not great, but much improved if I do say so myself.  We painted the walls and added the molding right before the ceiling begins its curve.  We also repainted the window trimmings, ceiling and added new baseboard and a new lighting fixture.

Unfortunately, for right now, that's as glamorous as it gets.  The curtain look a little "off" with the wall color, but I had them in storage and they provide the privacy we need.  The furniture is all mish-moshed and not matching and we have "crap" everywhere that needs to be sorted through and donated or thrown away.

We have big plans for this room that will start next week :]