22 months!

We now have a 22 month old! Lizzie is so much fun and growing and changing so quickly! But first, some more before and after shots - this is what Ryan and I have been working on these days. First is my project - our dining room floor has (had!) ugly avocado speckled vinyl tile which we decided to paint (we couldn't leave it the way it was - to ugly - and didn't want to buy new flooring at this point). I forgot to get a real before shot, so just pretend I hadn't started the base coat yet in this picture.



And above is the "after" shot. After many coats and several late nights painting (so it would be dry when we needed to walk on it in the morning). While missing some of the beauty a whole new floor might have, it definitely takes away much of the ugliness of the old floor. The next project was Ryan's - sprucing up the porch. When we bought this place it came with this porch - sort of screened in through use of several old and mis-matched sliding glass doors. Ryan replaced the roof a year or two ago, and this weekend he fixed the front. We decided a regular railing would be the easiest and the most attractive change.

Above is the after shot - I think we are going to paint it white one of these days (if we get a good stretch of warmish weather and if I have the chance to paint it during daylight hours - a lot of "ifs", so we shall see when it gets done!) Also, Ryan has celebrated a very important birthday! I didn't get many pics, though my mom has a few more on her blog (link above).

Last but very not least, here is the star of the show. Ryan and I were having a conversation and we both looked over at Lizzie at the same time and found her in this position. I know Ti-ti (Auntie Kate) has been trying to teach her how to do a back bend, so maybe she was practicing on her own? She stayed like this for at least 30 seconds - Ryan and I just looked at each other, trying not to burst out laughing. What a cutie!

Harmonica

Lizzie loves playing the harmonica - she is really getting good at it too! She is prone to dancing while playing - she has a great sense of rhythm already (much to Ryan's joy). Here she is playing for us while we are making dinner (or, Ryan is making dinner and I am just coming home from work.

Listing our House

Here is a shot of Lizzie from last week - the rest of this blog is about home improvement, but she deserves top billing.
Today Ryan and I met with our realtor and have officially put our house on the market. We have been working hard to finish a number of home improvement projects and have spent the last week and a half tying up loose ends (read: working into the night and sleeping little - especially Ryan!) we still have other projects to finish (the porch, a little more cleaning and organizing, etc) but we felt more was done than not. First is our newly painted and de-cluttered guest room - I don't think the picture does it justice, but it is much nicer than before.

Here is the master bedroom - the majority of this work was done last year at this time, but now we have a door and molding throughout. I will miss this room the most when (if?) we sell the place.

This is the completion of our most recent project - Ryan has spent a lot of time working here - totally new kitchen throughout - this is probably what I will miss second most about this house. In order to have the room ready for her to take pictures today, Ryan installed the microhood last night - sometime between 10pm and 2am he got it all done. It looks marvelous!