New Home Sweet Home

No, we're not moving to a new home.

Essentially, we've been making our existing house into a new home for the past year. Last year we gutted our kitchen and built it from the the ground up: new floor, cabinets, countertops, and appliances. Early this spring we starting working on finishing our basement from a drab concrete dungeon to a fabulous retreat. With the basement almost complete, we started doing some work upstairs. Because the main floor is open to the basement (previously there was a wall and door separating the two), we wanted the floor in the living room upstairs to match the floor in the basement. So the next project is tearing up the floor upstairs and put down new flooring.
In and of itself, this would not have been a huge job. The floor came up very easily (floating floor) and Justin had become an expert at laying the new flooring. But when my dad was over earlier this week to help with the floor, he mentioned that it was the perfect opportunity to put in a new fireplace.

Wait, what? you're asking

There are things called fireplace inserts, which are much more efficient than a standard fireplace. My dad had one that he thought would work in our existing fireplace, but wasn't positive it would fit. The fireplace would need to be disassembled and measured to be sure. So they did! And yesterday afternoon my dad, my Uncle Tim and Justin somehow hauled a 400 pound fireplace insert from Washington to our living room and got it to fit perfectly. That, with the new floor and some new furniture, will entirely turn our living room around. It's practically a new house!

We originally thought this would be a 5-7 year home. But with all the work we've put into it already (and we've only lived here 2 years) why move? We love it!