New House - New Stuff

Perhaps due to my knee/leg injury, I decided I needed to move. Perhaps it was my parents getting older. Or maybe it was my youngest son (who had recently moved to TN with me) and his desire to return 'home' to IL. Whatever it was, I cashed in my chips and called it a day.

Moving back to IL has had it's bumps. It's cold. Very cold. There's snow that actually needs to be removed. In TN, it would snow...and it was beautiful! It was also gone by mid-afternoon, so I did not have a need for a shovel or salt or a snow blower. But this is IL. When it snows - it snows!  A trip to the store for a shovel or 2, a snow blower, salt, a receptacle to house the salt, ice scrapers for the vehicles, snow boots, hats, gloves, scarves, thick coats...Pretty sure the cashier must have thought we moved from Hawaii.

More importantly, I BOUGHT A HOUSE! My first house on my own!! A foreclosure with a bit of make-up needed. The first of which was a good cleaning, followed closely by ripping out the carpeting. Since those are tiny things compared to what's ahead, I'm just going to bypass those and start with the good stuff. 

My first thought looking at the exterior of the home was HATING the ugly, faded reddish color of the front door and shutters:

I started with the front door because I could accomplish that myself.  I chose this gorgeous blue:
 

The shutters were a whole other story. How in the hell could I get those the same amazing color as my new front door??? I first looked into replacing them. FAR too much $$$. Prime & paint it is! I enlisted the assistance of my youngest daughter's boyfriend (who is rapidly becoming a member of the family). Here's the transition:

Before

The prime & paint begins

Still priming & painting...

The finished gorgeous!!
(Next up in the spring-cleaning the siding...)

So begins the next blogging adventure...I believe this falls under "Start Anew" (see previous blog)