Our House ~ Entryway/Living Room

This is our living room. Its the room you walk into when you come in the front door. The previous owners had sponge painted it and put a wall paper border around the top, which we took down. We painted the walls a color called Brown Bag. The closet door was replaced with a new white six panel door and we put in new white trim all around. We also put in a new ceiling fan. The carpet was new when we moved in, but there is a walkway from the front door to the dining room and hallway that was hardwood. Though I love hardwood floors, they were in pretty bad shape, so my dad put down new laminate flooring for us in that walkway, dining room and hallway. He also put the same flooring in the kitchen cause it was just linoleum in there. We also put in new window trim and added new shades. We had no furniture because we were just moving from our parents' homes, so the furniture is all new. Thanks for looking.

This is a picture of the living room while the previous owners lived there.

Here is the living room now, from pretty much the same angle.

This is a picture of the window and ceiling fan once the previous owners had moved out but before we had done anything with this room, other than taking the border down around the top of the walls.

Heres a picture of the room now from that same angle.

This picture shows you all the trim work my dad did around the window. Thankfully the windows were pretty new when we bought the house, so we didn't have to worry about that.

Our new ceiling fan.

A few more pictures of the living room.

This is the enryway (looking in from the front door) when the previous owners lived there.

This is a picture of it now, from pretty much the same angle.

Here it is from the opposite view.

This is a better picture of our entryway table, wedding picture and partylite sconces 

Practical Scrappers Summer Theme Challenge

Our challenge for this week was to use summer themed products. I used my Life's a Beach cricut cartridge and some summer themed paper to make this layout!! I hope you will all head over to Practical Scrappers and join in the fun.

A close-up of page 1.

A close-up of page 2.

Our House ~ Back Yard

Yesterday I posted the front yard, so today I'll show you the back yard. We did a lot of work to it this year, which I've showed you a lot of. We added a patio, and fixed up the playground that was already there. We also got some patio furniture. There is more work I'd like to do to our back yard, like adding some landscaping and some stepping stones from one patio to the other and I'd love to have a privacy fence in place of the chain link fence, but all in due time.

The stone paver patio we put in this past spring. When we bought the house, we didn't have the garage, so there was no door there originally. It was just all open to the street, which wouldn't work with having dogs. So my dad built us the garge to close the yard in and to of course, keep a car in. It worked out great. I still need to get some better chairs for back here and I'd like to put a couple flower pots on the patio as well.

This is to the left of the back door patio. Like I said bfore we live on a corner lot, so our back yard is kinda "L" shaped. This slab of concrete was there when we bought the house. I'm assuming its for a shed, but since we have a garage and a basement, I didn't feel like we needed a shed, so I thought it would be better suited as a second patio. I'd love to get one of those screened-in canopies to put over it. We were able to get the patio furniture for free from someone at our church that wasn't using it anymore. I'd also like to put in some stepping stones from the back door patio going to this patio and some lights. But that will also have to wait til next spring.

Here is a picture of the whole back portion of our back yard. Hunter made it into this picture too, LOL :-)

This is our big oak tree right off to the right of the back door. Its great for shade, but horrible for yard waste. It drops lots of acorns and branches. I'd really like to put some landscaping bricks around the trunk and put some mulch around it. Thats a project for next spring too, most likely.

This is a picture of one of my flowers in the hanging basket by the oak tree.

Here is a picture of the side part of our back yard. Standing behind the oak tree.

Here is our playground. I posted a lot of pictures of this as I was working on it this past spring. When we moved in, it was just the wood part with one swing. The mulch and everything was there, but was not in good shape. So I pulled out all the old mulch and plastic underneath and put in all new. I also added new swings and found a great deal on the slide on craigslist. It looks a lot better now and my nieces and nephews enjoy it. I would like to get a new canopy to go over the top too.

Then this picture is of the right side of our back yard. It runs along side the garage.

Our House ~ Front Yard

It recently occurred to me that I've never posted pictures of our house on my blog. We did a lot of work to it when we bought it, thanks to my Dad. We are pretty proud of the outcome and really love it. We closed on it on April 26th, 2007, just a few months before we got married. We bought it with the plan of fixing it up and having it move in ready by July 14th...our wedding day, which we pretty much succeeded at. We got a lot of the big stuff done, with only a few minor things left to do. The house was built in 1960. It already had many updates done that we didn't have to do; like new vinyl siding, the basement was finished, it had new carpet and a newer roof. Most of the updates we did were cosmetic. The previous owners' decor was from the 90s, LOL which you'll see in some of the "before" pictures. They had used a lot of wall paper, which we had to take down. We also added a garage, where there had previously been a carport. The selling points of this house were the finished basement, the separate dining area and the fenced in back yard for our dogs. This house will always be special to us cause its our first. Its a great starter home. I won't be able to post all the pictures today, but I'll spread it out over a few days so its not so overwhelming.  So here is our house...Home Sweet Home.

Our house before we added the garage, new front door and hardware.

Our house now with the garage, new door, brushed nickel hardware on the front and new landscaping.

A close-up of the front of the house before we changed everything.

A close up of the front now. We changed everything that was brass to brushed nickel, bought a new front door and moved the mailbox and numbers to the right side. It made getting the mail easier. :-)

The front of our house.

Landscaping.

A close up of the garage.

Flowers.

This picture shows the front and side of the house. We live on a corner lot so our back yard is "L" shaped.

I'll put some pictures up tomorrow of the back yard.

Smith Family Picnic

Jake's grandparents, who live in the Kansas City, MO area, came to St. Louis this past Sunday for a visit. I rented a pavilion at a park near our house and we all had a picnic. We grilled and had a great time. Here are a few pictures from our picnic. Thanks for looking.

My husband an his oldest brother talking with their Grandma.

My nephews Larry and Jack playing on the jungle gym.

My niece Bella.

Another niece of mine, Sophia.

Another nephew of mine, Ethan.

Under the playground, by our pavilion, we found a momma duck sitting on her nest of eggs. At this point one of the eggs had hatched and you can see on the left side of this picture is the baby. While we were watching, 2 more eggs hatched and she had about 6 or so more eggs to go. It was so cool to see them hatch.

Jake teaching some of the kids to swing a golf club, LOL. All the little boys had their shirts off cause it was soooo hot that day.

Jake's Grandpa, playing with his Great-Granddaughters.

My new camera

I have a great Kodak that is about 5 years old, that I love. However, its somewhat large and bulky. So I've been wanting a little camera that I can keep in my purse, that way I'll always have a camera on hand, no matter what. So I bought this little 12 mp Fuji camera. I'm still getting used to it, but I'm liking it so far. Here are a few pictures I took last week while at work. They are pictures of the building I work in and some pictures I took from my window at work. I have a great view of the city of St. Louis. :-)

The building I work in, in downtown St. Louis.

The view of St. Louis from my window.

Busch Stadium where the Cardinals play.

The St. Louis Arch.

The same picture as above, in black and white.

Footloose at the Muny

This past Saturday night, we went to the Muny to see Footloose, the Musical. We had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures I took that night. The Muny season is almost over. :-( Just one more show left. This week its Showboat. I've never seen that one, but we plan on going this coming Saturday.

The Footloose Flag.

My husband's cousin Jen, my SIL Amie, my MIL, my husband's aunt Emily, my husband and myself. Not crazy about this picture of myself, but oh well. :-)

My husband and I in front of a fountain at the Muny.