Can you believe it's been one year already????

Yes, today is the one year anniversary for when we had the closing on our home!  It's so hard to believe that it's already been a whole year.  Home ownership is one of the most rewarding things - it's great to be able to come home to something that belongs to you.

Our home has come a long way since we bought it - here's some photos from last year, before we did anything inside or out with the house:

You can sort of see the trees to the left of the house, and all the greenery on the right side of the house.

This is the view from the back of the yard, with all the overgrown bushes there to the left and that clump of trees, bushes and "stuff" in the middle of the yard.

 

 

 

And this is what our yard looks like now, from the same vantage points:

 

 All the stuff gone from the left side of the house!

 

And all of the stuff gone to the side of the house and the center of the yard!

 

 

We did some stuff to pretty up the yard, and added this sitting garden to the side:



Here's some nice things that were already there, some we knew about, some that just showed up:

 We knew the azalea was there, and it bloomed so fully this past season!

 

 This crocus was a big surprise, it grew up next to the steps.

 

 And this hyacinth was quite the surprise, too.

 

We added the pansies last fall/winter, and now they've been replaced by begonias.  (I didn't take pics of those).

 

There's so much to do with the house still, as far as more planting in the yard, and finding more places to hang up more photos and stuff, but we're just taking our time with it.  No hurry, with me working full time and Brian and Steven in school full time.

 

We received a "happy anniversary" card from the original mortgage company today.  I thought it was pretty interesting that they go to that trouble, to still thank the customer at the 1 year anniversary.  It's even funnier to me since the mortgage company sold the mortgage after closing, before our first payment was due!