house perks and joys

So this is our first house, and it’s amazing how quickly we can get used to luxuries.  Before I forget, I wanted to document some of the perks that I really appreciate after 7 1/2 years of apartment life.

This is the girls having a picnic out on the deck, it’s something they did a whole lot for awhile after we moved in.

1. the garage! I didn’t think this would be my number 1 most favorite upgrade from apartment to house, I thought that would be the yard.  But the convenience of a garage is fantastic.  I spent years carrying, baby carriers, groceries, tired 2 year olds, coaxing cranky 3, 4 and even 5 year olds to come up the stairs with me and get out of the parking lot, with my arms full and shaking under the weight of groceries and 2 gallons of milk.  There were times, I was literally left to tears of frustration and exhaustion trying to get my family safely inside our apartment.  I’ve left sleeping babies in the car while I ran groceries inside, in fear the cops would be waiting for me when I got back.  I’ve left screaming kids inside the apartment so I could get the ice cream out of the van.  But NO MORE!  A garage is a wonderful wonderful blessing and I think every mom should have one!
2. mas space!  Having more space makes taking care of my home much easier.  In a small apartment 2 toys on the floor made it look messy.  Now we keep all the toys in the basement and I don’t have to worry about them being on the floor, we just clean the basement every Saturday and it’s wonderful.  The space also makes having friends over much more enjoyable, we can have people over and the kids can play downstairs or outside and we can actually hear each other and converse!  In an apartment with everyone in the same room, it made this difficult.  We are also blessed to have a guest room and bathroom which helps attract visitors, which are always a treat!
3. the neighborhood.  We love the kids in our neighborhood.  There is almost always someone for my girls to play with outside, riding bikes, playing t-ball, running through sprinklers, or making an obstacle course in their front yard or whatever.  We’re in our front yard a lot more than I ever thought we would be because of our great neighbors.
4. the yard.  This one is great for the obvious reason that my kids can go play out back without my help where we used to have to make and “outing” out of it.  Now I can make dinner while they catch bugs or whatever they want, which results in them getting a lot more time outside.  I also like taking care of our yard, I look forward to learning how to garden next year.
5. freedom to change.  I enjoy being able to make the house my own, to try a new paint on the wall, or adding some trim to windows, being able to change appliances and (hopefully) sinks, faucets, and countertops (someday).  It’s nice to have the option to add a bedroom, make some built-in cabinets or whatever!

This is Dan installing our dishwasher.  We opted to save $75 to have him install the the dishwasher himself, thought we were being frugal… but I wouldn’t recommend it.  Not because of the hassle of installing it, though it was a hassle, I would still say it’s worth the $$ savings for that but the LIABILITY turned out not to be worth it for us.  The morning after Dan installed it, we were running a load before church when I heard Dan yell, “WATER!!! LOTS OF WATER!!” from the kitchen.  I ran down to see water just pouring from under the dishwasher, onto our newly refinished floors!  It was a horrible feeling.  We cleaned up the water and pulled the washer out, a little tug on the garbage disposal tube and the issue was obvious.

 

See the huge hole in middle of the hose?  Yeah it flooded through the floor into the basement, soaking through the ceiling in the 4th bedroom and dripping down the walls and onto my craft supplies.  And our kitchen floor looked horrible!  It was warped and curling up at the edges of all the boards around the dishwasher.  We got the hose replaced and placed a claim with LG for the bad hose damaging our floors.  Our claim was denied they said that Dan made the hole in the hose while installing it.  Which is ridiculous, but there was nothing else we could do.  So anyway, next time, we’ll pay for the install to avoid liability.  Fortunately, the floors have dried out and settled down significantly, no noticeable lasting damage.

 

Speaking of the sarcastic, “joys of home ownership.”   The garbage disposal broke our 2nd week in the house, here’s a picture of Dan replacing that too. :)  I didn’t mean to end on a negative note… so here’s a picture of my girls thinking it’s fun to get the mail out of the mail box while mom watches out the window.  We are so grateful to be here in our home and look forward to learning all we need to to take care of it.

 

Here’s a couple other things we did to the house in March.

Painting the banisters took FOREVER.  We had to clean, then sand, then wipe, then paint, then sand, then wipe, then paint, then sand, then wipe, then paint, then (skip sanding because we’re too tired) paint.  I’ve forgotten how many coats we had to do of pain but it was at least 4 and each coat took us (with at least 2 adults working) about 8 hours.  We bought a clear coat to put on top, but haven’t got around to that yet. :)  Made such a difference though!  I am so happy we painted the banisters.

 

 

This only took a moment, but I removed the “stained glass” look plastic sticker thing from above our front door, I wasn’t a fan.

Oh and I painted the mantel same time as the banisters, I like it so much better white.

 

So this is half of March, if I average 2 months per week I will be caught up by the end of this month.  Phew!  Here’s hoping.