Estimate for gutters: $5000

Our gutters: One Thursday afternoon and $250.

My guy is GOOD.

We’ve got them running all over the place and going where they need to go. It could keep snowing…no water issues here!

I’ve finally been getting to do some house projects that don’t “have to be done” but that are to make the place look nice. MK’s rule was stuff that “HAD to be done” first. I guess it’s fair that we make the place warm and safe before we decorate.

But I’m a girl! I want to make it look pretty!

We spent more time arguing  over the cost of new throw pillows for the living room than most people spend on life insurance policies. I had four pillows – two blue and brown, two green striped, that made no sense. But they did cost money. And so no buying new pillows when we had working pillows.

MK wanted me to MAKE pillows. He doesn’t understand that after all is said and done, it probably cost as much as new pillows, but I went to the store, bought all the necessary equipment, read the internet 100 times, and in two days, sewed ALL BY MYSELF some new pillow covers. And they rule.

They tie the whole entire room together, and the whole entire room is complete. We wall mounted the TV and finished all the trim. Yay!

The pillows came out SEW well that now I’m looking for other sh*t to craft. Like, anything. MK’s trying to reel me in. I want to SEW and stitch and measure and create! Watch out, or I’m gonna start making everyone quilts.

And no one likes homemade quilts.

We almost didn’t buy the house because of this room. The shower was as blue as the potty. I didn’t want to let anyone see it! I didn’t ever think we’d be able to do this:

Well, it feels like a gift. Mostly just labor.

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Seriously, TA DA.

The one on the left is a perfect before, the one on the right, first door in the house 100% complete, painted, trimmed, rehung. And gorgeous. Agreed?

Here’s another thing it turns out we rock at:

painting doors!

I’ve been dreading this since we bought the things – we hung them and they looked nice since they were primed, but obviously needed to be painted:

Everyone tells you it’s horrible – the cutouts make it super hard to get it just right. But I got a great roller and brush, and rocked it. It’s a tricky thing with speed – in between super careful slow and super adeptly quick.

You can’t probably tell the difference between the before and after pics, and it’s only one coat and I’ll be doing another. But I rule.

Each time we take off a door, MK is caulking all the trim and joining it to the door jamb so I can paint that too. It is starting to look GOOOOOOD around here.

I won’t mind house stuff in the new year if it all goes this well.

But it won’t.

I told you I had to help deal with the MILs HOA a little bit. After all the drama and angry emails and mean board members giving her a hard time, her (my) hard work paid off and they aren’t putting in the double what it should cost roads.

But that made me nervous. We had a meeting with OUR HOA coming up. Then I remembered we live in the coolest part of the mountains. We had wine and pizza and met neighbors and heard stories from the old timers.

You don’t know about the pots if you haven’t seen them, but MIL bought us giant pots. Since it was our first time meeting a ton of these neighbors, they kept asking where we lived. We’d say the address. We’d describe the mansion across the street, then say “the not big one across from that”.

Finally someone said, “You’re the house with those giant pots out front aren’t you?”

And we are.

MH already laughs about the pots, texting me once that “Even if I have a bad day at work seeing those pots on the drive home cheers me up.”

One guy said “Must be your first winter here!”

But no, the pots are fiberglass and indestructible. I’d told MK to hide the pots in the garage, but after how everyone had a good laugh at our expense, the pots will be back out loud and proud to survive the winter.

I went back and reread the posts from last November. We were so full of excitement! Many things around here haven’t changed: after the Ski Swap last night wherein I scored sick deals on some of the best skis on the planet, we once again have more skis than chairs. That tells me life is about priorities.

Some dream projects got done or are being done. We have dramatically changed the look and feel of our house beyond my expectations. Some things – master bath – feel like they might never be done, but at least it is live-able and we aren’t broke. We have been so fortunate that MK is so smart, so determined to do everything once and for all the right way and the most cost effective way. I’d blush to try and estimate what we’ve spent on the house, but in reality it’s so much less than it would have been in any other house, or without the two of us working on it ourselves. And I still get excited each time I walk in to a room a notice what we’ve done to it. Super rewarding.

We joke all the time that we’re never doing this again. That our next house will be a square. That we won’t buy anything that meeds major repairs. But we’re young, and the more I reread my past blogs, the more I know you can never say never, or you’ll be contradicting yourself all the time!