Talk about some serious radio silence for a while.

It’s a new year, so that means it’s time to refocus on getting a new series of posts up. Starting with all of the drafts I’ve had stored for weeks and finally get them live.

One of the big ones, and one of the big cosmetic changes we’ve made, was to remove the old, gross, stained, white vinyl siding from the back of the house. It covers all of the former sleeping porches/ addition areas. It was an an ugly, unexciting white, that desperately needed a face lift.

But what made the matter worse was that on the sides of each of the additions, were old windows. Not just working windows, but windows that the previous owners decided to cover from the inside, but keep them outside, resulting in broken windows that were exposing the interior of the house to outside. So we got them framed out correctly and sided over. Something I’m really glad for doing on day as freezing as today.

But, of course, there was a surprise waiting for us. Luckily, Gabe’s mom Nora, was staying with us for a few weeks as we were navigating some of the big renovations/ moving process and helped us hugely! Continue reading →