Before and After~EXTERIOR

We added window boxes and painted them white

The addition of Savannah's room and bump out of master bedroom

New improved bigger deck


Starting the dining room, probably one of the biggest projects



Those french doors are where the old garage used to be. New dining room going in on top

Stairs leading up to deck

New deck and exterior siding

I installed all the river rock and shingles myself while my husband was at work!

Exterior of finished dining room

Front porch, where one never existed before

Stairs up to front porch

Home sweet home~April 1998

BEFORE

We bought our first home out here on beautiful Crystal Lake in 1998. We were newlyweds with a little one on the way. This house was definatly not our dream home, but the location was perfect! Being do it your selfers, we dove into the projects, one by one, and still are not done. I wanted everyone to see what can be done with a little money and elbow grease. Anything is possible! It just takes time and patience. We did everything fairly inexpensively and did almost all the work ourselves, making some mistakes, but learning along the way. We are not professionals by any means! We enlisted help of friends and family and did trade work to make it all possible. I LOVE our home, I don't think we will ever leave it. It's where our kids were born, our first big purchase as a couple, and we have so many memories here.

We have since enclosed this part under the deck, enlarged the deck, built stairs up to the deck, and turned the old garage into a functioning room.

Do you see the fireplace? This sits where my daughters room now is. The fireplace is exposed in her room, now covered in river rock.

This is the back view of the house. This is our master bedroom you are looking at and to the right is now our daughters room.

Old garage, now a room. We built a separate detached garage. The little strip of deck you see has now become our dining room. It was bumped out, this looks so foreign to me now!