I’m not doing such a good job keeping up with the house pictures. I’m told Courtney is doing a MUCH better job over on InstaGram. Of course, you won’t hear the fun stories from her.

If you see us very often, you know we’re making some progress, (or maybe just a big mess), since we are most always paint splattered and are lucky to find matching clothes in this house.

Here are a couple of quick pictures from earlier this evening:

Courtney’s bathroom is coming along. We still have a lot of work to do BUT there is no more hole in the ceiling (YES, we replaced all of that drywall!!! “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can….” was really more like “I hope I can, I hope I can, I hope I can….“. I think the risk paid off).

Jacob installed a new light, new fan and can lighting above her shower. We still have to replace the floor, work on trim, replace the vanity, (which I found used on Craig’s List for $30.00!!!), and replace the mirror (did I also mention we removed the existing- too small- medicine cabinet and patched the big hole with new drywall??!! I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I CAN DRYWALL!!! Woohoo!!!)

Some of you would appreciate the super-accurate way we are going about things. For instance, we know the mirror we need to find should be approximately 6 3/4 phone lengths wide. 😀 My husband would just shake his head and walk off the other direction but, it is working for us!!

Jon walked in today and remarked, “it’s very, ummm, pink!”. Well, yes it is, Jon! Meredith, however, rolls her body along the walls and will tell me it’s the most beautiful room she has ever been in, EVER! Boys and girls. They are completely different.

The back porch, well, it’s beautiful. In fact, it’s dreamy.

I won an auction last week for a large umbrella table. It will need to be painted- and of course, we will need the steps so we can move it on to the porch…just little things. For now, I’m content to climb out a family room window and just sit to stare at the lake. I’m dreaming of a little lemon tree and some pots of herbs to grow just outside of where the kitchen will hopefully(!) land when this is all done.

Our contractor will be back tomorrow, or early Monday, to finish the first set of steps. I’m praying by Wednesday, the next set will be done and then we move on to replacing the windows on the back of our home.  The Lord willing, the last side of our home to be sided soon, too.

What a journey this is going to have been. No one can say 2013 was dull, or we don’t know how we spent the year. Every month, every day, and every moment seems to have overflowed with something happening!