Home Improvements

We sure love our house!

Somehow, we got involved in a lot of home improvements this year. It was mostly due to Covid-19 and the fact that we had an extra two months of summer with nowhere to go. That was okay. We weren't spending our money on travel, so it was good to invest in the house. Here are a few of our projects:

We had Ryan, who has built most of our house, come over and work on the half wall. It had been damaged and drywall was cracking in certain places. He built a really nice shelf on top of the half wall and put up some bead board around the table area. While he was at it, we replaced all the small baseboards in the kitchen hall and living room. Then Mom painted the hall, stairway, and living room. It made a huge difference in how our house looked!

Mom especially loves the bead board.

The new baseboards look so clean and pretty.

Dad also talked Ryan into rebuilding our deck. It used to be a small 5 x 5 foot wooden landing that clung to the back door. They ripped it out and extended it to a decent size. Since Dad traded work with Ryan, going with him on several jobs, we only had to pay for the materials. After Mom and Dad finished the railing, it looked great! We have barbecued out there at least 4 or 5 times a week!

We love the new deck!

Soon we will add a shade cover to the deck!

We also added a new light to the back porch, and we need to change the front ones, too!

Glen built us shelves in the basement to go on top of the shelves. We specifically designed them to fit the Dowdle puzzles that we love. There is now a ton of space for food, games, and other things. We've had this idea for a long time, and it was great to get it done.

The shelves give us so much more room! It's amazing!

One day our neighbor, Alfredo, said he was ready to redo the mailbox. We've talked about it before, but we never got serious about finding someone to do it and split the cost. So, we found a retired brick layer and he did a beautiful job. We admire it every time we pull into the driveway.

No more broken mailboxes for us!

Mom and Dad final decided it was time for a new bed. Coincidentally, they found the perfect frame at Costco. After finding a nice cushy mattress to go with it, we moved our old bed into Mark's room (he is sleeping like a queen), and hauled his bed away. Now everyone can sleep easier. 

Mark loves his new giant bed.

Mom and Dad sure sleep lots better in their new bed.

For years we've had these clunky shutters on the back door. Whenever we open or close it, the shutters banged against the glass. It only took Ryan about two hours to cut the old glass out of the door and install a new window with shutters inside the glass. Now we don't have to dust them, and they are not in the way.

After we updated this, we wondered why we hadn't done it 15 years ago!

Jonny offered us a new TV, and since the one in our basement is over twenty years old and roughly the size and weight of a manatee, we accepted. Dad lifted the TV out on his back while Mom and Mark steadied it. Mom's finger was the only casualty. Then we designed some shelving from IKEA and got it all put together. We have so much more storage for movies and video games, and the new TV looks great!

Randy worked hard to build everything around the TV. 

Our final project isn't really ours, and we would have delayed it if we could. But after 15 years, they finally developed the field next to our house. We miss the cows and the birds, but at least we lived on a dead-end long enough that our boys grew big enough to be smart in the road. We are really grateful for being able to live in this magical part of Lehi for so long, and we are actually excited to have a neighbor. It will also save us a lot of sticking gathering, leaf raking, and worrying that a massive limb will crush our fence!

Things are changing all the time over here!

This is what it looked like on August 5 when we came home from camping.
Soon it will be a thru street.