Thanksgiving Preparation

I would think most people who are in the middle of finishing major house projects wouldn't invite their entire family (and all the in-laws) over for Thanksgiving dinner. Especially when you live 6-8 hours away from the closest relative, so everyone has to either stay at your 2 bedroom house, or you feel bad when you make them pay the cash to stay at a hotel. My solution: work our butts off to finish the unfinished before everyone shows up and let them decide if they want to bunk together in the living room with their air mattresses or splurge for privacy at a hotel. Unfortunately for me and Patrick, our to-finish list is quite long. 

We must:

• Install the corner round to finish the floor. (Do you realize we put our floors down back in like March or something?! No excuse for this one.) 
• Paint all the crown molding and trim in the house. (Crown molding got put up around April.... excuse: I wanted to pay my brother to finish it and instead have been paying off my truck. Solution: Patrick and I tackle that ishhh)
• Make ourselves a mantel! And paint the brick inside the fireplace. (So excited for this one - it will really make the living room super cozy. Maybe we can even have our first fire on Thanksgiving. Or maybe before Thanksgiving  to test it because that would suck if we learned that our ventilation doesn't work so well and everyone suffocates.) 
• Center the dining room light wires over the dining room table and install the cute Ikea light I bought 3 months ago. 
• Stucco the house. Yes - we realize this is a big one - but it's what Patrick has wanted all along when I've made him remodel the kitchen, bathroom, put up crown molding, build a shed, and completely overhaul our floor plan, among other more minor projects. As it stands now, when we pull into our house, we pretend it's not ours. Our poor little block house has a really sad facade and needs a major overhaul, which is really sad, because the inside is really cute and (almost) all re-done. 
• Do something with the front porch area - !DONE! I can't wait to share these pictures - but first I it has to be light outside so I can actually find the hedge clippers in the shed to cut down this awful little bush that's taking over our now cute little space. 
• Almost forgot - decorate for Thanksgiving! This picture is one I found on Pinterest (see caption for reference). I really like the lights on the branches and the little pumpkins, but maybe I'll try to do white ones or spraypaint the pumpkins some sort of fun color and place them on our future mantel. 

Source: sugarpiefarmhouse.com via Anna on Pinterest

Back to the front porch and stucco issue... this picture is one of my front yard inspiration pictures I found a long time ago on a real estate website. While I don't think we'll be able to do much of the landscaping anytime soon considering it's about to start freezing in the Panhandle (stupid cold weather), I love the simple style of this house and the fact that it's stucco and not concrete block. We want to get new windows in the front, a new front door, replace our existing columns, and instead of the green house color, paint it a subtle yellow. My favorite color for exterior paint is Behr's "lemon ice," which is the color our shed is painted so I know we both like it.

Source: 4brevard.com via Anna on Pinterest

Things like finishing hooking up the last two electric sockets in the living room, finishing painting the laundry room cabinets, and installing the linen closet door will have to wait. 

This is a ridiculously long punch list; however, in our defense, we both work full time stressful jobs, still manage to squeeze in a fun night or two and some sort of outdoor activity at some point during the week, enjoy our amazingly awesome dogs, and keep the house clean (most of the time) and the laundry done (and sometimes folded). Remind me not to completely overhaul a house when there is a kid or three running around.... (how do people do that?!)

Anna