The Before Tour - Exterior

May 2014

March 2023

We will have been at our home for 8 years this May and we have done so much work to it already.  From the beginning we knew it had some limitations and that there were some things that we would have to find fixes for such as parking and the dining area.  However, we had no idea that there would be 9 of us sharing this space so that has added the need for additional bedrooms and bathrooms as well.  

We've been back and forth a million times on whether we should add on or move and finally last year we landed on moving forward with an addition.  There are some things we'll never love about the way that this house was built but there are also some things we really do love and honestly it seems the most practical as these years are precious with our littles and not so littles.  I'm praying that this addition, although it will rely primarily on Brandon, will be something we can all contribute to and a great memory for the kids. 

Anyway, so before we get started I went back to find some old photos and took a bunch of current ones so that we could have some good before and after shots.  Wish I would have thought to have taken them last summer as the season difference between the two make it a little harder to truly compare but oh well.

I feel like most of our energy has gone towards the inside of our house but we've done quite a bit out here as well. 

The roses definitely looked better when they weren't under my care and we removed the huge redwood tree in front of the garage a few years ago.

We redid the 2nd floor balcony and the siding on the front of the house.

We did a lot of work to our fence replacing rotting boards and repainting it.  We also cleaned up our lower fence line removing tons of blackberry bushes and some random little trees.  The critter's we've had over the years have done the rest of the work mowing down the tall grass in the pasture.

The kids call this our dirt mountain.  It's all the leftover dirt from the kitchen addition which they've had a lot of fun playing on over the years.

One of our first projects was this addition which included more than doubling the size of our kitchen as well as adding a den off the family room.  

We later added a deck off of the kitchen which we love!!! This old deck is now kitchen space.

We tore down our old shed and built this one

We also tore down the old chicken coop and replaced it with this one.

And a few moving day photos just for fun!

The house has changed and the kids have grown up just a little.