After six long, grueling (!) months, I am happy to announce that the property at 1800 Hog Mountain Road, Statham, Georgia is on the market!

The result of this renovation is really astounding. It has evolved from a rundown, sad and lonely place into a beautiful and modern farmhouse-style home with comfort and amenities to spare! The 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and 1.9 acres provide a family room to grow, and the deep soaking tub provides much-needed relaxation at the end of the day. Enjoy cooking dinner on a five-burner gas range while the open-floor plan allows the whole family to pitch in! For those nights when you just want to sit back and enjoy mother nature, pile up the logs in the outdoor fire pit and sit for a spell under the wide open sky or watch a beautiful sunset from the front porch...

This has been our longest and most-involved renovation yet, and we are extremely proud of this property. It has been a long six months in some respects, but in others it seems as though it has flown by! Every week has brought new challenges and new opportunities to learn and grow. Thanks for following our journey...and, hey, a new reno is right around the corner, so stay tuned on that.

​Here is a re-cap of the "before" and "after." Enjoy!

For those of you my faithful readers who are wondering Will she ever post again, yes, here I am... I find that my life right now is busier than I usually prefer, plagued with more decisions and hour-juggling than I usually prefer, and full of more tiring days than I EVER prefer! The days are going by like minutes and the weeks like days. Most nights I go to bed with the hope that the next day I will surely post something about my very-exciting (ha!) life, only to find the next night it didn't happen that day either! But today I am taking a much-needed "me" day, so here I am doing one thing I really love and that gives me clarity but don't always have the time I want to do it...putting on paper the thoughts I have about life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and about a million other things that ticker-tape through my mind each day. 

Those last-minute details as we close this six-month renovation are all-consuming. Last weekend as I touched up paint, I thought to myself I'm getting way too old for this. But there I was doing the dirty, climbing up and down the ladder, as my "older little" sister lay on the floor in an awkward position doing the same.  We've become quite the team, she and I -- she handling all the trim work while I have a special bond now with my roller. The up side of this is that we are able to catch up on each other's world, and enjoy a little "how to save the world" conversation as well. Unlike most men out there, we are great multi-taskers! As spring is upon us, we've taken some action to get the yards in shape, with the aforementioned removal of concrete in the backyard and just standard lawn maintenance overall. I have been delighted to see the brilliant green grass springing up all around the house, the trees beginning to bud out, and have thought to myself Wow, seven years of neglect and overgrown vegetation cannot keep this grass down forever!​ It's been lying there dormant, just waiting for the chance to renew itself. The strong will to survive is a force of nature with which to be reckoned.

This past week we took the last-minute action to ditch the well-water system and make the connection with city water. This is something we have toyed with the entire reno, but so glad that we finally did it. There's just something comforting about getting your water from the city over the deep underground pureness of a well, right? Ha, seems a little like skewed thinking to me. This was something that could've held up the completion of the job for a few weeks, but kudos to our local water company for their swift and accommodating services! Last but not least I was able to replace the front door, which is something that has plagued me from the get-go. I had every intention of re-painting it gray, but decided on the white. White is light! Did you know that your front door is one of the most important things in your approach to making your home feel welcoming? It is the first thing people see when they enter your home, and should reflect the great things waiting inside. Even if there's not much good going on in there, it's still important to have a welcoming facade because it tells the neighbors and the passers-by that you care and you're a team player. Don't even get me started on the many houses I see with junk all over the front porch. A welcoming entry is the first step in making your home inviting. You are very welcome for this Decorating 101 lesson!

On the home front, I have had the ultimate blessing of being able to help with my newest little granddaughter. Every day she reminds us of God's great love and hope, as she continues to thrive. This little girl has had so much to overcome, and my daughter and I have stood over her in tears more than once as she smiles and coos at us, reminding us that miracles do indeed still happen. I am getting utterly spoiled to have them so nearby, and cannot even think of the day that they might move away again. I don't even go there.

So on this 7th day of March, 2017, life goes on, love prevails, and the reno moves forward to a very soon-to-be completion. And even though I said I probably wouldn't post again about the renovation till it was on the market, it is entirely in my realm of possibilities to change my mind. Life is too short not to look at each and every day as a new opportunity to see good, share love, and give hope.

Who will you bless today? 

(Here's a sneak preview in pictures...I've done just a tiny bit of staging to make it feel more welcoming)