Out with the old - In with the new!

Today, Ian and I continued the demolition mission assigned by my mother. We finally got the time and the courage to take down the final, largest set of vertical blinds. YES! Vertical blinds are one of my pet peeves especially! vertical blinds that you can't pull off to one side (because they are old and broken) so your only option is to look through them giving the entire house a slight prison feel to it. These blinds were getting in the way of Reese's deer watching so obviously they had to go, and soon. I mean look how cute those deer are! and we could barely see them through those old blinds.

Ian took on the demolition aspect as I am a little too short to actually accomplish it unaided. The blinds came down easily, but oddly enough the new curtain rods gave us a bit of a fight. Eventually we got them up so we were able to transform the room from.... 

THIS

To THIS!
(And yes I didn't iron the curtains but that is only because I was feeling lazy after moving boxes all day. Sorry mom!)

It is a huge different though and now we get a much better view of the backyard. I can't wait for the deer to come around now :)


Another project Ian and I took on today involved the front of the house and two sweet looking safety masks (due to possible lead paint contamination). We got a few odd looks from people driving by as we were wearing these masks as we planted flowers, but at least we know we were simply being cautious. The front planter fix-up ended up taking just a little bit longer than originally expected ( a whole week longer actually) because of the surprise I found when I took out all of the old "stuff" and tried to actually use it as a planter. The wood at the bottom of the flower box had rotted out and all of the dirt was falling through out the bottom. Therefore Ian and I bought some mesh from which I had to lovingly cut 4 strips with wire cutters and place in the bottom so flowers could actually have some dirt. But after all of that the house went from looking like...

THIS
(I don't know what she was thinking... Those little creatures can be pretty creepy at night and the stones just looked strange. I did however keep the dragon on the far left and he is still in the planter, only now he is staring at anyone who comes to the front door like a guardian.)



To THIS!
I know, you have to love that photo of the pro-gardener.



The next thing to go are those nasty bushes, but that is another project for another day (probably in the Spring so I don't freeze to death)