The house.

Every night since we purchased our home, Jamison has gone to the new house to work as soon as he gets off of work. And we have barely scratched the surface of all that needs to be done.

Here is our list we are hoping to accomplish before we move in:

Repaint every single wall in the whole house.

Replace the front door, back door, and garage door.

Take down the wood paneling in the basement and dry wall the whole down stairs area.

Put new carpet down stairs.

Get the hard wood floors upstairs refinished.

Fix roof.

Cut out portions of the ceiling that had water damage and replace them.

Either put sod down...or hydro seed the front yard.

Figure out what we will do with the GINORMOUS backyard we now have.

Put in central air and get rid of the swamp cooler.

Replace a large portion of the plumbing.

We are hoping to get all this done (minus the yard) by the end of June. We are slowly making progress on the list.When we finally move in I will rejoice. We knew what we were getting into when we bought the house...but that doesn't make the fact that we won't actually move in for at least a month suck any less.

Right now our focus is only on the house itself. We have decided that we will not even worry about the yard until the house is complete.

I feel like we are on an episode of "Family Under Construction" from the DIY network.

I just want cameras to follow me around so I can whine and complain to the world about how hard it all is, but I will know that in the end it will all work out because its a T.V show.

This isn't T.V people. This is real.

But what I have to say is that we are SO thankful for all the help we have gotten from family and friends....because lets be real. Neither Jamison or I know what in the world we are doing when it comes to renovating a house (but we are definitely learning a lot). So many people have helped in so many ways, and we would basically be screwed without them and their massive amounts of home improvement knowledge.

Here are some pictures taken with my phone.

Jamison getting ready to paint living room walls. Notice the duct tape on the front door. The previous owners were using that to keep the door closed. Doesn't get much more ghetto then that. We have ordered new doors, but they take forever to make. I will be happy when I don't have to look at the ducted taped door anymore.

This is the hella huge back yard (and this is only a portion of it). Today when I was at the house I just stood there and stared at the backyard wondering what we will do with all that space. Garden for sure. Swing set for the kids. All in good time. Must focus on the house itself first.

Right now the backyard is a meadow of grass and wild purple flowers. We also have an apple tree, and a pear tree back there. The kids love the yard as it is, and I love watching them play back there with all that space. We also have 2 huge trees (not pictured). I picture a swing being hung from one, and a tree house in the other. Hopefully some day soon I can post an "after" picture of the back yard, once we get it cleaned up and looking better.

One of my favorite aspects of the house is the view. I love walking outside seeing big cottonwood canyon (or is it little cottonwood? I always get them confused.)

I day dream about the day that we will actually move in. I really truly love our little house.