Many Irons In The Fire

Right now there are many irons in the fire for us. First off, we are updating our living room with new paint, new drapes and will be putting up some crown moulding and adding a few more touches. It seems a bit strange to me to be able to just buy exactly what I want, rather than just settle for something that I found in a thrift store that will work, but isn't exactly what I wanted. We have planned for this time in our lives and now we have set a 5 year plan of action to have the house exactly as we want without it setting us back at all. Living free of any debt for years has given us freedom and I mean free of debt, not even house payments on any of our homes. We skipped having the new car, skipped going out to eat with our family when they were young, except for pizza twice a month at a pizza buffet that was probably cheaper than some meals I cooked.

We are also making the final plans to renovate our bedroom, which involves making two rooms into one very large room and building a large closet. Then the fun of decorating it will begin. Our 5 year plan is a good one for us. Details having the house just the way I dreamed way back when we first purchased it nearly 20 years ago. It will never be a mansion, that's not what I want, but it will be our cozy cottage home, that welcomes family and friends and allows one to feel relaxed enough to be real.

There is work going on outside too. The rose garden is growing, 6 new bushes to put in tonight and a formal hedge is going in. There is a wrought iron gateway to be put in this weekend.

Along with that, the south porch is being painted white and will soon sport screens all the way around. No easy feat since the porch is a large one, 24 feet in length.
Lots going on and it looks like the next 4 years will have just as many projects as this one, although we are not doing the work ourselves on all the projects planned. Some projects are rather detailed and need to be done by professionals. Its a new era in our lives, an exciting one to be sure. Keeping life simple all the while that we take a new road for a bit.

curtain photos from Country Curtains which is where our new curtains for the living room and bedroom are from. The Master bedroom will be done in blues and white and the living room in Yellow with touches of the red in the curtains. The living room walls are being painted with Valspar Lemon Cream