Progress on OUR House

Joel worked on a quick project last night but one that has been weighing on my mind since we moved in. Our mailbox has never been attached to it's post. I'm sure our mailman cursed us every windy day he had to get out and pick up our mailbox off the ground. Thank you mailman for not taking your anger on us out on our mail. Joel took the mailbox up to the garage and worked away at it with Sarah while I enjoyed an afternoon with my mom. He fixed it so it would stay on the post (and it's very secure!) and added a special touch to the outside. Joel painted flames on our mailbox. There, I said it. And you know what? It's looks awesome. I'm totally stoked about it.

Joel often remarks to me that he works so much on my parents house that he often feels like he neglects doing stuff to our house. I assure him it's much more cost-efficient to MAKE money working on a house than to SPEND money working on a house! :) Well, we finally decided it was time to embark on a new project for our house this time. We realize that it may not be the most opportune time to spend lavishly on willy-nilly things but the bathroom was completely out of date and it will increase the value of our home by WAY more than what we'll be spending. We've managed already to cut the budget by more than 1/4 so that's a plus given we just bought more than half of the supplies we need today.

So far, Joel has the vanity, mirror and toilet removed and he totally ripped out the grumpies of my existence - the mini blue tiles. Oh, that was satisfaction enough for me. He plans on installing a sub-floor and underlayment and possibly he'll start cutting the tiles for the floor also. Do I have an incredibly energetic husband or what? Seriously, it makes me tired just typing out what he works on!

We've found some fantastic deals on bathroom accessories like faucets and toilets and whatnot so we really lucked out. Once the bathroom is done we have the kitchen and master bath to do and then my minimum achievements for the house are complete. I don't think it's so much for me that we have the latest and the greatest looking house on the block. It's just such a sense of 'we did it' when those projects are complete. I love looking back at pictures of what the house looked like when we moved in versus what it looks like now. I sometimes forget we lived on painted sub-floors and were surrounded by nicotine stained walls for the first few months of living here. The pictures say a thousand words.

I read last night a publication from the church about not comparing yourself to your friends or family, instead look at where you were a year ago. I am trying to keep life in perspective and remember it's about continually improving who and what you are.