Closing day!

Our new home!

Closing day is finally here!

We're finally homeowners!

We did it!

We had a picnic dinner in candlelight and our gas fireplace in our new home!



We're finally homeowners and can relax...

A work in progress

It took 4 weeks to complete one coat of paint! It feels great to drive home and see our work as we pull in the driveway.

Our new home with one coat of paint! The trim on the dormers and sides have now been painted white, which makes it look even better! We spent 4 weeks working on the house before our closing, so it was nice when closing day actually happened and we became homeowners for the house we've put so much work into already!

It's amazing what one coat of paint can do!

The front of the garage and side of the roof painted.

The side of the garage.

The side of the house with one coat of paint. This is before the trim was painted white, which makes it look even better.

Our backyard

The backyard

The backyard after the sewer connection... lots of junk removed and a level lot!

The back & side of the garage with a coat of paint.

The back deck and back of the garage with a coat of paint.

Our new home!

Our new home before we did any work...

The front of the house with all of the chipping paint.

Our front porch

The unpainted dormers

Our front yard

The worst side of the house... needs a lot of paint!

Side of the garage

Our backyard


The back of the garage and back deck


Our huge back deck

The back of the house. The only part with vinyl siding.

The front room with a gas fireplace. It will be our reading room with all of our bookshelves and comfortable chairs; a place to relax!

Our kitchen

The downstairs bathroom

Our bedroom for now, while we work on the upstairs. We have a few different ideas for what we want this room to eventually be.

The living room/ family room (none of the furniture in the picture is ours).

The dining room (none of this furniture is ours either).

The upstairs bathroom, which we will eventually put a shower/tub in.

Master bedroom

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Attic space

Basement, which we plan to eventually finish.

Honeymoon

Our beautiful wedding rings!

We went on a cruise to the Bahamas! It was amazing! We swam in the pool on the 11th deck, had a few drinks, ate a lot of really good food, went to a few shows, took many naps, and Mike even got to play in the casino twice! The best part was spending all of those days together with no cell phones, internet, or any other connection to the real world!

So many gorgeous sunsets!

The first island, Cocoa Cay. We rented a wave runner and drove around the ocean for an hour. I swam in the middle of the ocean and held a huge starfish!

They had a night just for honeymooners, and I managed to dump a glass of mimosa all over my dress! We still danced and enjoyed this special time together.

The second island, Nassau. It was so hot this day that we went back to the ship to shower 3 times! We got some good deals on souveniers in the straw market.

We went snorkeling in the middle of the ocean! Although Mike was very nervous, he had a great time (after getting an extra life jacket to comfort him). Fish were swimming all around us!

We took a ferry over to Paradise Island, where we walked through Atlantis, enjoyed some Jamba Juice, and went for a long swim in the warm ocean! The sand was extremely soft and the view was beautiful. We could have stayed there forever!

After our long, sweaty day on the islands, we enjoyed a few drinks at Senior Frogs. Mike enjoyed his fruity Bahama Mama!

We watched the sun set while we enjoyed our drinks.

After our cruise, we stayed in Florida for the weekend driving a convertible around town! We went to Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, and the beach. I even went on 3 roller coasters with Mike at Busch Gardens, without feeling too sick. We found a great Thai restaurant, Japanese Steakhouse, and a 711 for a huge slurpee.

The last day of our honeymoon, after spending a few hours on the beach, we drove along the coast in our convertible, with the top down of course! The week was absolutely amazing, and we enjoyed every second of it.