Attic Playroom- BEFORE and AFTERs

These pictures pretty much speak for themselves. Zach and his dad wired electrical/cable, insulated, drywalled and painted up in here. Up in here. Up in here. Carpet Weaver's also put down some carpet.   

AFTER

Backyard- BEFORE and AFTERs

One day I looked in my backyard and there was a large piece of machinery back there! Some days Zach and I struggle with communication, this one in particular it was neglected to mention that his Grandpa Dave would be driving a backhoe down the highway from Waynesville. Seriously though, such a fun surprise! 

(especially for a 5-year-old boy, ahemReagan.)

BEFORE

(tons of brush and countless dead trees, one had even been struck by lightening twice)

Check Reagan out in the bed of truck, he watched patiently all. day. long. and sweetly stayed out of the way. But who are we kidding, Zach was just as excited and even proclaimed that "this was his favorite day of the summer!" 

Concrete work was a little out of Zach and his dad's DIY scope. They had a friend come out to pour a new driveway, patio, and slab at the back of the yard for a shed (it was Carver Construction out of Champaign for inquiring minds.) They started at about 6:30am on Reagan's first day of Kindergarten. Zach's Grandpa Dave also graded the backyard so we could lay seed and his friend Jason came later and painted the garage/breezeway. 

AFTER

Front & Breezeway exterior- BEFORE and AFTERs

In the late summer of 2011, Zach took me on a date night. As of that time, these mostly consisted of us getting ice cream and driving around our favorite neighborhoods looking at houses. This particular night Zach had one in mind and after driving by a few that he knew I wouldn't like to throw me off his tracks, he pulled up to this beaut. I was sold hard and could immediately picture us making it a home. We felt so lucky to call it ours no matter what shape it was in.    

Front exterior

Our friend Jason owns a painting business and helped us with a ton of exterior painting. Reagan thinks Jason is awesome (of course because his diet consists mostly of sugar) and kept giving him compliments like "you're really good at this, you should do it for your job or something."

Getting grass to grow under these mature trees was not a fun task. Zach spent many an hour slaving/praying/caressing over this lawn. But now it looks great! p.s. I hate those shorts. We argue over whether they're boxers or not and whether they're meant for public viewing or not.

Breezeway

It originally was carpeted and enclosed, however several windows were missing/broken, snow and rain easily could get in and there was extensive insect damage within the walls. We opted to make it a covered patio area and frame it out. The gravel patio next to the breezeway was weird and gross (the people before us had trained their dog to only go in the gravel?? Is that normal?) When we poured the new driveway we also added a pad there.