5 years

On September 15, 2003 we closed on and moved into our house. These pictures were probably taken the next day, as there was no daylight left by the time we got to our house on the 15th. It takes hours and hours to close on a house.
A few days after moving in, while there will still boxes to be unpacked, Troy painted a wall in the office. He didn't like the dark wood paneling, and immediately wanted it painted to a bright, cheerful yellow. We did manage to unpack the rest of the boxes relatively soon after, but we haven't stopped working on the house. Here's a list of some of the work done:

• Painted 5 rooms and outside trim
  
• New flooring in half the house
• New roof
• Repaired wall damaged from leaking roof
  
• New windows
• Repaired and stuccoed retaining wall that holds up the entire property
• Plenty of little electrical repairs
• Renovated one bathroom, and put a new toilet in the other
• Planted 10 trees
• Leveled front yard
• Replaced in-ground sprinklers with in-ground drip
  
• Demolished old shed and put in a new one
• Expanded back patio and replaced broken brick walkway
  

So a house is a lot of work. But I really appreciate not having to pack everything up and move every time I sign a new lease :) Plus, we have more equity in our house than debt... which is pretty cool.