A little T.L, and C

Today we spent the day in Bloomington at our new house! We are officially homeowners! The only bummer part is that Chris is in Vienna. My mom, dad, Cole, and I went down, though, to start attacking the yard. It's extremely overgrown and untended, probably for at least a few years. It's the epitome of a fixer-upper house. We're going to have a lot of interior work done soon, so today was outside day. We pulled weeds, chopped trees, cleaned out the trash in the house and especially the basement, and raked, raked, raked. I ripped up carpet, hosed out the crawl space under the porch that was filled with mud, dog poop, and trash, and took down old window shades. My parents were so helpful, and even though we all came home with scrapes and bruises, we had a great time. My dad even used a chainsaw! The people living in the house up until last week had a litter of pitbull puppies that they really didn't care for well at all, so they left remnants of that, old beach towels, rocks, books, and more all over the property. Unfortunately, we didn't do too much to the backyard (otherwise known as the Pit of Despair). That's next week's job. I think there is a garden and a sand box buried in bushes and overgrown weeds. Really, it is a jungle out there! The process is going to be fun, though, and since we don't have too much time pressure to move in and get going, we're ready for the challenge. HGTV, here we come! (I've been watching a lot of shows lately to get ideas and inspiration!) Above you see the house the first time we saw it, overgrown. You also see it today after we cleared out a whole lot of junk. Big progress in one day! Stay tuned for more photos.