Wow.  It has been almost a month since I blogged, and it's been just about that long since I've read any blogs...  Yeesh.  I've got some catching up to do.

Anyway.  Just to give you guys an update: We've been in the process of adding a garage and bonus room to our house - a project that was supposed to take two to three months and is now going on five.  The problems it solves are well worth it (I keep reminding myself), but honestly - I.  Cannot.  Handle.  Much.  More.  Of.  This.  Grad school + work (tax season, to boot) + chaos and construction at home = stress. 

The good news is, once this is complete it will solve virtually all of our minor issues with the house - we really like our house (I built it about four years ago, just before TBear and I got engaged), but it's fairly small.  Don't get me wrong - it's a great starter house and was ideal for a single gal, but if/when we ever decide to have kids things would get cramped.  We considered buying land so we could eventually build something bigger, but we really like living here - so this addition is adding a nice big garage (storage!! room for TBear's man-stuff!) and a nice big new living room so that TBear's big TV has a lovely nice home where it won't look like a 2-ton elephant squeezed into a child's playhouse...  AND I won't be running into speakers all the time AND the fireplace will be noticeable again AND no more scraping ice off windshields in the winter AND the washer and dryer will be moving to the garage so I get a PANTRY IN THE HOUSE!!!!!  YAY FOR STORAGE!!!!  Plus we were able to get the living room, dining room, and spare bedroom painted as part of the reno and the colors are gorgeous (previously everything was kind of an ugly yellow, due to an incorrect color-match by person or persons unknown when the house was originally built/painted).  HUZZAH!  PLUS, now we will have a nice back porch (previously pretty much just an oversized landing) and a back deck!  And did I mention we now have a real, honest-to-goodness concrete walkway instead of a narrow little DIY deal (that was painfully obviously inexpertly done by yours truly)?

So, while things have been crazy-hectic, at least the end is in sight and glorious wonderfulness awaits (LOL - kind of like life...)

So here are a couple of before/after pics (reno isn't done but most of the exterior stuff is):

House before.

House after.

Ugly paint before (hard to see color - just trust me on this one) (Oh, and btw - the TV takes up the entire corner between the window and fireplace)

Pretty paint after (the fireplace wall is an accent wall, so the color on it is a bit darker, then everything else is more of a putty color).

HOORAY HOORAY!