31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation : Day 2

When we left off yesterday, here's what our ugly little house looked like:

And now let's get day 2 started with our backyard.  Here's what it looked the day we came to see the house for the first time (and obviously before we got a hold of it).  My beautiful in-laws joined us to give their stamp of approval on moving their grandkids into a dump.  (Have I mentioned I'm sarcastic? Please don't hold it against me).  The backyard before:

Our boys only cared about 1 thing: room to run and play.  Our last house was very nice and definitely spacious but it had NO yard.  When you have 3 boys (or kids at all!), backyard space is a definite perk.  The boys must have thought so too because they never even came in the house!

You probably can't tell from the pictures, but the deck was falling apart.  And that rusty old railing had to go. 

Our youngest son, Seth, had the pleasure of being the first one put in time-out in the new backyard.  Check out that bottom lip.

Fast-forward to November after we actually owned the house and we (ok, Ryan) got the deck taken down in a matter of hours. 

Notice that big pile of aluminum in the bottom right-hand corner up there?  Cha-ching! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my Day 1 money-saving tip.) 

Well, that just about sums up day 2. 

I know, it's not really that fun.  The demo part that is.  When I look at renovation or DIY blogs I always find myself wanting to see the after pictures.  And they are coming, I promise!  But this week I want to focus primarily on getting you into my world:  seeing the gross, deteriorating house that my husband promised me he could turn into a home.  My husband does this for a living (time to throw out my unashamed props to him and his company) so I had no doubt he could do it.  But still.  

So tomorrow, day 3, we will finally get inside the house.  You'll get to see weird rooms with weird decor and you may wonder, as I did, WHY.  

Thanks again for stopping by!

E