FINALLY - some photos!

I have more to post (about our busy, busy week this week), but first some photos of our new projects!

First, we had some outdoor work done. Out front, we had a rickety "wall" installed by the Builder. Basically it was a pile of rocks which, while it looked nice, was slowly letting all of our flower bed fall into the neighbor's yard. We finally had it replaced with a real retaining wall. I wasn't crazy about this project - it seemed like a lot of money for something I essentially never look at. BUT - once it was done I was thrilled! The wall looks great now, and it offer a wonderful flat surface that I can use for flower pots and jack-o-lanterns in the fall! Yay!


The same contractor put in our patio off our deck. We have been wanting to do this for quite some time, but always ended up pushing off the job. The guys were in and out in two days and I love the results! Prior to the nasty 95-degree, 100% humidity weather this week, we found ourselves outside quite a bit! now we just need to finish restaining the deck and add the river rocks around the base - and we'll be living in style (at least outdoors!).


We also added a new deck box to our deck - in an effort to control the kids' toys (how do we always wind up with so many balls?). The older two kids spent the weekend with my inlaws, so Craig only had Jacob as a helper when he assembled the deck box. He was a good helper, but was a little confused when he figured out that he was stuck IN the box. :)

The big on-going project is our bedroom. Our new bed & mattress arrived a MONTH early! Our plan was to paint both the room and the bathroom before the bed arrived, but that didn't quite work out. We are prepping to paint (the bedroom is nearly ready - perhaps paint this weekend?), but the bathroom is turning out to be a much bigger project! We (hah - let's be honest - this is ALL ME!) opted to change the lighting fixture, the faucet, the towel bars, the medicine cabinet etc. So it's going to take us a bit longer to get the bathroom done. We love the new bed, and it's inspired me to declutter a bit more and work towards having a truly peaceful master suite. We're not quite there yet, but I am working on it!
I certainly have enough to keep me busy for now! The end of the summer is coming quickly (actually, I go back to work next weekend - so summer is officially over for some colleges!) and I finally feel like we got something done! Lots more to do though!