We love our little house. It was a hideous thing when we bought it. YUCK! If fact the first time that Jill drove past it with the realtor she told him don't bother stopping because it was that bad.

The photo above doesn't do the house justice. It was taken after we had purchased it and a great deal of clean up work had already taken place. The exterior was mustard yellow with a tan roof. The singles were curled and missing in spots. The grass was literally 2 feet high in the front yard... at least in the places where it wasn't dead.

The house sat on the market for weeks during a period when everything else in the region was getting snatched up within hours of being listed. Finally the owners wised up and dropped the price substantially. At that time we figured that it was worth a look at knowing that we would have to spend a lot of time and money before we would be able to move in.

Our first visit about made us all hurl. The person renting the house was there when we arrived. In what could only be described as a cauldron, the tenant was boiling kidneys or spleens or something else equally as disgusting. The house was dark, greasy and reeked of cat pee and boiled organ meat. All in all it was very unpleasant. It was extremely difficult for us to try and look at the house's potential and try best as we could to ignore the gross stuff.

The interior had dingy chocolate brown carpets throughout and dark cabinets in the kitchen. It was like the interior of a Spanish Inquisition dungeon.

After a new roof, fresh paint inside and out and new carpets, the house was quite livable. There was still a laundry list of things that we wanted to change, most notably the kitchen cabinets, but all of that could wait.

Two months after we moved in we received some "help" with replacing the cabinets. A gasket on the dishwasher failed and flooded the kitchen after we had gone to bed. The water buckled the floor tiles and the ancient particleboard cabinets soaked up the water like a sponge and began to crumble. We had to walk around on bare plywood for several months, however in the end we had the kitchen we wanted. New cabinets, built-in microwave, new counter tops, new flooring, and light fixture that actually illuminated the kitchen.

Other big improvements since then have been a play structure for the kids and a hot tub in the back yard, a wider kitchen window, new garage door, new dual pane windows throughout, floor to ceiling cabinets and shelving in place of a cheesy wet bar, a tool shed and the addition of garage cabinets and a work bench.

Jill spends a lot of time working on her garden and I do my bust to keep the yard looking nice and tidy. Although we may be slightly biased, we believe that we have the cutest house on the block.

Backyard Photos

Jill's Container garden.

The World's Greatest Dog.

The Patio.

Wildflowers in the sideyard.