Homes Tour

Showing and designing homes is ingrained in my blood, it is one of the reasons I became a real estate agent. I grew up in a town full of Civil War history, my family has built/renovated homes, and I love looking at houses. When I was about to graduate college I was scared to death, one day I looked at my husband (we got married a year before I graduated) and asked him what I should do after college. At that time I didn't have a clue, my main reason for going to college was to have a back up plan if something was to happen to him, I really wanted to be a stay at home mom. At this time though we didn't have the finances for that nor kids. Anyway it was the first year that I was asked to volunteer showing homes from the Civil War era and loved it. Dressing up, learning about the house the history and the updates that had or were being done.

I love getting my hair done by my sister, yes I am working at the same time.

My boys were excited to see me and thought I looked like a princess, made me feel good even though I didn't have make up on.

Here I am 8 years later still volunteering for the homes tour and now a real estate agent as well as a full time mom. And when not doing that we get to live the remodeling dream, that is a little sarcastic.

This year we showed the Tilly House, this is a family affair. My grandmother, mother, sister, cousin(sister) and her husband are all volunteers.











This is the first year my sister is back so she decided to watch my boys and do our hair. The kids love her! Can't wait to have her back next year though.








Oh and this year my "niece" joined in the fun, a few years ago my youngest held this roll but he is a little to active now.

Giving a tour through the Blue room and Servants Quarters

They enclosed the back porch and stairwell to make the kitchen

Dining Room

Billiards Room

My mom and I would stand on the veranda and wave as people drove by

Yellow Room

My mother had the yellow room

Blue Room

Servant's room, they added they bay window later so the room was only to the edge of the bed originally

Halloween Costumes

I am a little sad my boys wanted to go more simple this year and be pirates. Yes I could have gone overboard and made them captains or done something more but at the same time if they were happy doing what they did on the ship then I will be happy too. But I thought I would share some of their costumes from the last few years...

Lobster! The cutest lobster I have ever seen

Stormy didn't know what to think of this creature

Dinosaur/Dragon We let him pick out the costume and he often changed which one he was depending on the person asking

 We met up with friends at the mall for their trick or treating. Unfortunately our mall has since stopped having the trick or treat night.

 Ghost, I worked hard on this costume but at last minute he decided not to wear the sheet. Luckily his face was painted and his clothes went well for still being either a ghost or a mime.

 Now with 2 kids we wanted to do more of a family theme, until my husband chicken out last minute ;) This was the point I really started having fun dressing the kids up. Here my oldest is Russel from the movie "UP"

 The youngest was one of Kevin's baby birds you see at the end of the movie.

 Not sure what happened to his eye but by this point he was very mobile and loved getting into the bottom drawer of the oven.

 Russel, Kevin (me), and baby he also carried a tennis ball with him. I also learned that I am allergic to the adhesive used for fake eye lashes. By the end I could barely see.

 We got daddy to wear the dog ears for this picture but that was as far as he would go...

 Last year was one of my favorites. We came up with the idea while walking through Target and just joking. My oldest wanted to be a mummy so we were trying to think of ideas for the younger when we laughed about him being a pyramid. For the next 2 months that is all my oldest wanted to be...

So we made his little brother the mummy. Downtown they have trick-or-treating the Friday before Halloween and they were the talk of the district. There are a few things I would do differently to make the pyramid but for the most part I was very pleased with the outcome.

Looking back through all these pictures especially the last 2 years makes me very happy that I get a break this year. especially with just a week left before Downtown Trick-or-Treating.

Hope you enjoy and any questions just ask.

No slowing down

People usually make the comment that they need a vacation to recover from their vacation and we are no different except for the fact that instead we come home and jump into another home remodeling project. In April it was the kitchen (almost finished, waiting on glass for the cabinet and the last piece of crown that was missing) this time our basement.

I went through 2 years of photos and couldn't find a picture when we had furniture in here

 When we bought our house this was the most updated section but it had been at least 8 years since it was done so it needed to be refreshed. The carpet was disgusting even before we bought it but we were able to live with it and the paint we liked until we repainted and now it just makes the space stand out so much more. Doesn't seem so dark and dreary.

 We were able to fit most of our furniture in the playroom, the kids had a blast with it. The more fragile things (tv, electronics, treadmill) all went in our laundry/storage room.

Never go into a home especially a previously owned home without expecting a few surprises. One of ours was unexplained settling...until one day we were changing out a light in the basement and realized they had cut out a major support post. So we replaced it and added another. The above pictures are us concealing them again.

My youngest wanted to help so bad but our rule was that they couldn't go where carpet had been pulled up. I had a carpet staple fishhook in my heal twice the night before I left for college.

Although we did make an exception so they could paint a little but there was still carpet on one section of the floor. 

 We painted the walls a lighter shade of green stripped with an off white. The laser level made this go much faster. We also learned a lot on how to choose colors when using the same color in different shades. It took awhile to come up with how we wanted to paint and what colors to use.

We then added the darker green stripe. I think it really helped dress it up.

 Back to ripping up carpet on the stairs. It wasn't terrible except the fact of having to pull out anywhere between 20-100 staples in each stair. I don't know what I would have done without needle-nose pliers. Oh and the fact that we got a call right before I started doing this saying they would be here to install the carpet bright and early the next day. We weren't expecting it for another 4-7 days. So while my husband was at work I made progress on both sets of stairs.

Since we didn't have much time to decide what to do with the stairs before the carpet came we decided to paint the exposed parts white. Since the carpet has been installed we have changed our minds and the top of the steps will be painted ebony leaving the underside white. We also have a new railing but since none of that is done yet I'll wait on revealing.

The finished room before furniture...We are still playing around with everything trying to find the right spot and pictures to hang on the wall. I am thinking about more of a scenic black and white but what are your thoughts?