A New House, A New Beginning

You can't really appreciate change unless you know what something was to begin with. A person who is 20 pounds overweight might look heavy to you unless you knew they used to be 100 pounds over weight. As much as I love HGTV, it often gives the impression that renovations take place over a few months and then you get a perfect home. Most of us, myself included, can't afford to hire professionals to renovate our entire home and build the garage I'd love to have. So in the meanwhile, my husband and I, with help, will grow our gardens, DIY skills and our family.

We almost didn't even look at this house because I hate the lack of curb appeal. It looks like a box stuck on a hill, doesn't it? However, when there in person, we realized it has tons of potential and had all of our essentials. The quarter acre yard was smaller than I wanted but it's all very usable.

Part of the lack of appeal was the lack of staging and cleaning done by the previous owners. Many of the paint colors where unattractive and the stickers left on the wall wouldn't appeal to anyone. Wait till you see what we've already done to the dining area. 

The yard is large but was almost completely empty. They left one small swing set (which is great for our daughter) a decent size shed, one Sargent cherry tree, and one small flower bed. We've already created three new garden beds and have planted several bushes, but I've got tons of plans for turning it into a little homestead. 

What's the most important thing we're going to be doing here? Raising our kids. We have a beautiful little girl and we plan to start taking in foster babies soon with the hopes of being able to permanently add to our family eventually. Hence the name, Growing Lillys. This is what we've started with. Future posts will show how we fixed up the house, developed the yard and learn new DIY skills, all on a very tight budget. Stay tuned!