CHANGES AHEAD-----

Good Morning TLB friends!

I hope this post finds you all well. My hubby and I are practicing safe measures here in Florida to stay healthy. It certainly is a different world we are living in so please stay safe!

On to TLB.... You will notice some subtle changes that will aid in bringing my blog up to date with todays standards. With everything going on in our lives I decided to take a breath and hire a wonderful woman, that is much more "tech savy" than I am to assist in this change. I am so pleased she did an awesome job! 

Many thanks to my blogging friend Rita from Panopoly  https://wvpanoply.blogspot.com/for the referral of the "very patient and talented.... Linda from My Fairy Blog Mother https://www.myfairyblogmother.com/  Please stop by their fabulous blogs for a visit!

I have a new update on our personal front too! After much thought and consideration in regards to the Florida housing market, we decided to test the market and put our home up for sale. We actually had just worked out all of the normal issues from our new build, and homes started popping up on the market "For Sale" from our 2 year old cul-de-sac. They were selling in two days at prices that were quite tempting to us.  So......yep we discussed our options, and decided to "take the plunge!" We hired a realtor to sell our present home, and WOW it sold in two days! We close September 24th.

We've been so busy since making this decision. Frequent trips back and forth to our southen Florida home; lining up vendors, and watching our home "transform" into our final home has proven to be exhausting on some days. But with this new "challenge of transformation", both hubby and I were able to make selections, chose colors, select vendors, all together!  As many of you know, with all of our relocations with hubby's jobs, those responsibilites primarily had fallen on my shoulders and now I have a partner in "crime!". I must say we've only had a couple of decisions that we varied on, which made things quite easy.

We will now be living in the #2 Best Places to Retire to according to US News & World Report! At this stage of our life that sounds great! I'll be sharing our transformation pictures with you as work progresses. 

Have a wonderful day and stay safe!

Kathleen

           First step get rid of "2006" color palette!

New color is Sherwin Williams-

Shell White SW-8917

IT'S TIME FOR THE PORCH RENOVATION!

Wow----Welcome to all of our new friends! We sure are growing, and I am so thankful to share my days with all of you. I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was busy, but fun. 

We've got an upcoming renovation project that I've been working on, and in prepping my selections list for the carpenters, I thought maybe it would be helpful to share a bit of our history with you.

When we closed on our home 2 1/2 years ago, we had already chosen our contractors and completed all of the selections for both inside and outside. As soon as the ink was dry from our closing........the very next morning the house was a buzz with workers. Our neighbors will attest to the driveway full of trucks. I am sure they wondered, "What and who do we have moving in here!"  No worries.......we now have a bunch of new friends!

• Landscapers
• Carpenters
• Gutter Company
• Roofers
• Pressure Washers
• Electricians
• Plumbers
• Granite/Tile Companies
• Appliances
• Wood Floors
• Wood and Marble Floor Restoration
• Carpet Cleaners (Basement and Upstairs Bedrooms)
• Paint/Wallpaper Company
• Security Company

You get the idea........it was a flurry of activity that lasted for nearly two months.  This was a real test to my abilities as a General Contractor. With 13 moves under my belt, from new construction to this latest renovation being my largest renovation undertaking........you could say I have learned a lot. But, I am not naive enough to think there will not be those unforeseen things that happen along the way. Like, the wood floor that arrived originally was not of the quality we expected so a change in vendor meant that we moved into the house without the wood floor being completed. No big deal. We LOVE plywood sub-floor with carpenter graffiti sprinkled on it!

So the biggest renovations are completed inside, but as usual with any home, there's always a project. For us, it's now time for a Front Porch renovation....unfortunately it is made of wood that has begun to rot in spots.  I  came up with a plan, have done my research, and have interviewed carpenters.

My idea is to change the design by removing all but 2 pillars, (we are hoping this is all we need to bear the load)  which will be at the forefront on each end of the porch.  Since we didn't build the house from scratch, I still like to put our personal stamp on whatever we can. I like to change things up a bit if possible.

The new pillars will be larger in diameter and won't be tapered. The tops of each will have a decorative cap on them. We have already had to replace the roof so the roof will remain flat.

Below are some of the materials I have been advised are all good products so that we don't have to worry about rotting wood ever again!

With selections completed, now we wait for our estimates to come in. We always start out with what the hubby affectionately calls, "NICE TO HAVE" choices to be priced out. Hence, the beautiful caps I have chosen!  However, cost prevails always, and I promised I would stay within the budget. We'll see where these final numbers come in. But hey, that's life......I'm just excited my hubby said, "Get it done!"

Hope you enjoyed this part of our journey of our home renovations. I LOVE this stuff!

Wishing you a creative day!

 Kathleen

****Are you doing any renovating right now? What project are you up to your elbows in?

Share with us!