If you have ever been to our house then you know that the front steps leading up to our front door were a mess. They were very uneven and needed to be redone.  I didn't get before picture, but I took one soon after Rich started the work.

You can see where he started digging to build the new steps… the old steps have dirt piled on them that he dug out of the ground to build the new steps.  You can kind of see how crooked the old steps were.

Here are the new steps all beautifully built.  Rich put a wall where the old steps were and filled it in with dirt.  The flowers were waiting to be planted.

This is up at the top of the stairs, it goes along the front of our house.

Deciding where to put the flowers.

I don't have great luck with flowers, they never seem to do very well for me.  Instead of just using the dirt that Rich dug up from where our new steps are, I thought it would be best to use some Miracle-Gro.  Some good products to use are: Shake n’ Feed Moisture Control All Purpose Plant Food and Moisture Control Potting Mix or LiquaFeed All Purpose Plant Food Advance Starter Kit. We shall see how it goes   If you have your own little fun garden projects, you can check out The Gro Project to start your own story.

Here are the completed steps with the flowers planted.

I'm hoping the flowers will do well!  Don't forget to check out Miracle-Gro on Pinterest too, so you can get some gardening ideas!

June 4th- the ceiling and walls have been painted and the first wall cabinet is up.

June 8th- all the wall cabinets have been hung up.  5 1/2 weeks doesn’t seem too bad!

My dad helped us so much and was here almost every day helping Rich work on the kitchen.  We appreciated it sooooo much!!  Here he is redoing some plumbing work before they put in the new sink cabinet.

June 17th- all the floor cabinets are in.  Rich and my dad were able to hook up the old sink and leave it on the new cabinets while we waited for the counter top to be installed.  This was wonderful because it meant we were rarely without water.

June 27th- new counter top is in!

New refrigerator in a new place, which gives us some extra counter space.

July 8th- almost done… all appliances are in… the floor has been laid, all boxes have been unpacked, etc.

July 8th… another view

July 8th- another view.  We still need to finish above the sink, not sure what we’re going to do up there.

Here are some before pictures:

The dishwasher had already been replaced last fall when our old one needed to go.

Day one of the tear down- May 1st 2012:

Hailey helped to take the wallpaper down.

Happy Mother’s Day- the first cabinet is down!

All the hanging cabinets are gone (May 26th)

All the lower cabinets are gone… except the sink. (June 2nd)

Hailey picked out the colors all by herself and added the first stroke of paint.

Here is what the new colors look like:

Busy working:

Hailey helping set up the crib- the crib she used to sleep in… sniff sniff.

Trying out her hard work to make sure everything was done correctly.

Hailey helping some more.

The big helper!  She helped with everything that was done in the room- from setting up the crib to folding and hanging up clothes.  She is so excited about her little brother!!

Helping Pa with a drawer.

The finished room:

Now we’re just waiting for the Little Man Cub to arrive

The beginning stages.

Getting the base all put down.

The floor is all done and Hailey loves riding her bike on it!

The finished deck.

Maybe at some point we’ll have more than Hailey’s bike on it!

Let’s hope we get lots of vegetables and fruits!

Here is the before.

My dad helping to cut out the bushes.

Hailey helping get rid of the bushes.

Bushes all gone.  Yay!

We laid out a hose to try to figure out where we wanted to put down some stones to separate the grass from the flowers.

Stone all laid out.

The new landscaping all done.

Closer view of the new landscaping.

Move in day- dark brown paneling and dark blue carpet

Brooke painted the room white and Rich put down a new floor.

Since then Brooke has graduated and does not use her room anymore.  So we decided to turn it into an office for Rich.

Here are some before shots:

A view into the closet- it was never painted and floor was left alone since it was inside the closet and no one could see it anyways.

The other side of the room.

Paneling ripped down.

Once the paneling in the closet was taken down you can actually see into the room next door- our laundry/storage room.

Dry wall going up

Closet gone to make more room.

Rich picked out a color for his office and painted it.  Here is the finished room: