The big reveal!

It is finally time folks! That's right...the painting is DONE. I never thought this day would come, my hands, back and legs are killing me from a summer of up and down ladders, back and forth with brushes and painting faster than the speed of light to get as much as possible done during naps. This is our first big project to check off our list and it feels SO. FREAKIN. GOOD.

Let me just take you back to a time where our house looked like this:

And now lets all bask in the glory that is Caribbean Sunrise by Behr:

EEEEEKKKKKK...doesn't it just make you want to scream with excitement?! It is such a great feeling to take on a huge project and see the end results. As you can see we have removed practically every piece of landscaping that we possibly could (I guess we'll let the grass stay LOL). We aren't planting this year and I'm sure our neighbors are all scratching their heads wondering why we prefer dirt over overgrown shrubs. We just wanted to be ready for planting next year and not having to worry about tearing everything out (which was a very time consuming and hard core physical job...poor BB).

And here are some more before and after pictures:

At the beginning of the summer when this ALL started...here Bryan is on our first day of working on the house.

And the after! We took out all the bushes and painted. New gutters compliments of Grandpa Lucky :)

This was our project today...tear out the hedges. These babies were at least 5 feet tall. 

And after...you can actually see our front door!

This was taken during Grandma and Grandpa's first trip when the painting began. 

And here we are today! What a HUGE difference!

So next on the list for outdoors will be painting the front door (but what color?!), landscaping in the spring (front yard only) and we HAVE to figure out what to do with that basketball hoop. Who in the world decided to put that right smack in front of the house?As you can see, Bryan lowered it today so Layla could play LOL. We are taking off the backboard tomorrow so we'll just be left with the pole for now.

Here is Bryan getting ready to lower the backboard (I love that Oscar sits under the ladder)

And here is Bryan taking out a tree stump with nothing but a shovel and hand saw. The fastest way? No. The easiest way? Of course not. But did he get it done? YES!  And PS- that is SAND, not dirt. I had no idea that Michigan soil was basically sand...so bizarre.

Now that we are pretty much done working outside for the year, we decided to play outside a bit after nap. Here is Bryan helping Layla make a basket.

And here is a short video of Layla and how she acts on a normal basis. WARNING- she takes a nasty spill at the end that I know will be very hard for Grandma Mudd to watch. LOL. But she is fine! She had a little mark on her knee and that was it. But I love that she falls and we both just hold our breaths and stand their until she cries. LOL