So we bought a house...

Well, when I wrote the post How God gave me something better than a house, little did I know that in less than two weeks Greg would be offered a new job, and in another month we would be moved to a new town (Eugene), and in less than six months we would have purchased our first house. But, here we are.

As I write this, I'm sitting in the living room of our house, looking out the window at people walking their dogs in the park across the street. Ah, love this view.

A great daydreaming window, and it's low to the ground. Even Nora can see out of it.

We have been officially in the house (as in sleeping here) going on three weeks now, although we got the keys to the house over a month ago. Since Christmas we have been busy working on the house.

Jonathan and Leesi both helped rip the wallpaper off.
Not all of it came off in nice big strips like this. Some of it came off in tiny shreds. 

Jonathan helping Grandpa with the nail gun. 

And working on the house. And working on the house. And working on the house. Oh, and moving and cleaning the other house and watching three kids. So there was a lot to do in just a little bit of time. It was pretty exciting and fun at certain times, overwhelming at others, and most of the time downright exhausting.

Greg had a week off in between Christmas and New Years. And my parents came down and stayed with us for a week and a half to help. (They were life-savers! We couldn't have done it without them; and lots of help from other people too: babysitting by Wanda, moving help from Uncle Rick and McKenzie, meals from Debbie, painting help from Sarah and Stead).

We decided to focus on the main living areas and leave the improvements on the rest of the house for another time.

In the kitchen we ripped out the wallpaper, tore up the flooring (which ended up being quite the job!), and took down the cabinet doors to be repainted. We found that the walls beneath the wallpaper were not in great shape. So we (by which I mean my dad) ended up skim coating the walls, and while he was at it he skim coated the paneling in the eat-in kitchen area so that it would look smooth like drywall too. We put in the new bamboo flooring, painted everywhere, and installed new baseboard. My mom was the super cupboard door painter. Last week I finally finished off the ones she didn't get to, and Greg installed them and a couple new light fixtures, so I figured it was time for some kitchen before and afters!

Eat-in area off of kitchen - before

Eat-in area - after

Kitchen - before (how could you forget?) 

Kitchen - after

Kitchen - after (from the other angle)

There is still a lot to do: many boxes still to unpack, a list of projects, and little finishing details everywhere you look, plus pictures and curtains to be made and hung. But all in all it is starting to feel like our home around here. And it's super fun to know that whatever we do with the space is up to us! We don't have to ask anyone before we paint, we can pick whatever colors we want, we can drill holes in any wall we choose. 

More pictures to come!