We have been living here a little longer than the progress might lead you to believe.

Our actual move in was a little chaotic.  To keep things moving, I will explain how it all happened with the help of a timeline:

July 12th, 2016– We moved out of the last renovation house that we had been living in. That house was about 20 minutes away from our current house. Ronan and his brother, Conall, did that project together over the course of a couple of years.   We moved into it after the renovations were 95% complete and stayed there for about 9 months before selling it.  We knew we didn’t want to stay there forever, but now we find ourselves staring at pictures of it and commenting on how warm, finished, and neat it was! While this whole renovation process is super fun, we can’t wait to have that feeling of calm here, when all of the hard work is done. (Here are some pictures of that house for reminiscing purposes.)

July 13th– We had the closing on the house we were selling.

July 14th– We flew to Washington state to visit my sister and brother-in-law. This was also the day that we found out our closing for this house would be the day after we got back to New York (such a relief).

July 14th through July 21st– We were repeatedly asked by our 1-year-old “Is this our home now?” each morning when he woke up in a house he had never seen before.  

July 21st– We flew back to New York.

July 22nd– We closed on this house and moved in that day, since we were homeless and all of our belongings were in storage and/or our parents’ homes.

July 23rd– We were finally able to answer “yes” when our son woke up in the morning and asked if we were home (although I am sure he questioned our judgment since we had traded hip, comfy Washington homes for a mattress on the floor surrounded by boxes.)

So what have we done so far? Not a ton….

√ Took down a shed and fence that were in disrepair and replaced them with a new wooden fence

√ Pulled up the old stone patio in the backyard and layed a new one

√ Repaired the small wooden porch outside of the backdoor

√ Pulled out the overgrown plants and shrubs that surrounded the house

Before:

After:

√ Banged our heads on the low-hanging light fixture in the kitchen

√ Continued to bang our heads on that very same light fixture!

√ Took down the light fixture in the kitchen after not being able to stop the head-banging

√ Stabilized and leveled the floors

√ Took down the ceilings in the dining room and the living room

This was a mess…

√ Debated whether a window or a door used to be next to the mantle

√ Took the shutters off of one side of the house and then questioned daily whether or not it was the right or wrong choice

√ Took down the plaster from the dining room walls

√ Regraded the driveway

√ Removed an old heating system and installed a new one with cast iron radiators

√ Replaced the wood stove with a gas stove

√ Poured a cement floor in the basement

This picture was taken before the new floor was poured.  We think that the super old beams and walls are so cool.

Stay tuned because our To Do List is about 45 times longer than our Already Done List…