Although the new windows were very exciting, Nate and I were both thrilled to finally get in our new working doors. Their installation made an instant visual upgrade to our house.

The most complicated install was our double slider. Its original configuration was not structurally sound so the new door was pre-built with the panes of glass above the actual door to give it as much support as possible.

Now all the windows and doors just need to be framed with trim and we are good to go!

Crazy how one change can make the house look so different.

It’s such a relief to see that our dream of opening up the front room not only looks great, but looks right.

The actual opening for the window was not easy. The installers had to cut each side of the concrete block before they could bust out the opening.

Then frame the unfinished concrete with wood and set in the window.

A lot of hard work, buy boy does it look good.

And now we finally have light in the front room.

It is so much more inviting. I love it.

I think I mentioned that today is the BEGINNING of our entire house window and door install. We have been waiting almost three months for these babies to get placed in our house. Needless to say, as my work day progressed I was more and more nervous to drive home and see what progress had been made.

As I pulled into the driveway, I immediately saw a difference.

All the windows minus the front window next to the door had been replaced.

Because of the cost associated with completely removing the frames from our concrete block construction, our windows are actually retrofitted. This means that the installers removed as much of the original window frame as the could from the opening and then installed the new window on top of the original frame. Basically all the windows are a little smaller to fit and the framing is a little larger.

You can see the extra “frame” on this window compared to the older one.

If we had the resource to remove all the frames, I would have done it. No question, but given our choices I don’t think the larger frame is too bad. Certainly something I can work with!

Our giant panes of glass along the interior patio were also replaced with two paned glass. This was one of the jobs that I did not want to do myself! It was an easy decision to leave the removing and disposal of the glass to the professionals.

The interior framing of all the windows will happen next week when the doors are installed.

Tomorrow the guys will finish the front picture window. This should be our most dramatic change. Stay tuned!!

I am so happy to announce that our windows are being installed today. (Can I have a big woo hoo!!!) The wait has been excruciating long, but now I can finally see what all this patience has earned me. (Double paned windows, baby!!)

The crew arrived right before 8AM with a trailer packed tightly with all our new windows. I saw a few glimpses before I headed to work, but I will have to wait through the work day before I see the transformation. We have been told that the window install will take two days so this is only the very beginning of the process.

After a year in the house, we are finally painting our bedroom. It seems a little silly to wait that long to make our sleeping quarters pretty, but we had so many social events planned that required us to make the common spaces more of a priority.

Needless to say, I am ecstatic to beautify this neglected space.

Its sad to say that I have lived this last year in a linoleum floored storage shed. We didn’t make any adjustment to the room after we first moved in. Nate and I didn’t even remove the old rusty nails from the walls. Guess, we just moved in and moved on. I can only imagine what it will be like to wake up in a freshly painted space.

This is the current state of one side of our backyard. Basically, its a big mud pit.

This is a general idea of what we want it to become. A concrete patio bordered with river rocks. The seams in between the concrete pavers will be planted with low creeping Thyme ground cover or something similar.

Originally, we were going to build a concrete or stone wall between the pool and the patio, but because of cost and permanence of the structure we have decided to use river rocks instead. I think this will be a better solution in the long run because it will allow the space to be flexible depending on what we are using it for.

The hut will house our pool equipment. Eventually the plan is to move the equipment along the side of the house, but the hut will have to do for now.

Inspiration

I really like the look of ground cover between the pavers. It really works in both a modern space and more rustic settings. Here are a few samples of how cool it can look.

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