Welcome!

I've always thought it would be neat to start a blog. But the question always nagged me: what would I blog about?

Mundane daily life? "Today I had toast for breakfast and stepped in a puddle on my way to my car." Time to hit the snooze button.

Blatant and occasionally embarrassing honesty? "I'm afraid of the dark to the point that after I turn out a light in a dark room I RUN away thinking about what if something was behind me." Nope. This is not a confessional.

Babies? "Today my little baby was sleeping in the swing and....wait I have no children." Strike three.

Lo and behold, I married a carpenter. I always used to think it would be so cool for him to build me something. So he built me a bench and built himself a dresser. That proved insufficient for his "I-can't-stand-sitting-on-the-couch-for-five-minutes-nevermind-I'm-going-to-the-garage-to-build-something" personality.

Lightbulb! Let's buy a fixer upper! This will heed his desire to stay busy and give me something to blog about. BRILLIANT!

Let's cut to the chase. Most of you who are reading this already know the background on our little investment. For those of you that may not, here's the short version:

In May, Greg stumbled upon a delightful little foreclosure in the quaint township of Clear Lake, MN. "Let's go have a look," Greg said, with the biggest smile I've seen in years. Greg fell madly in love with the property. I, on the other hand, was much more difficult to convince. But convince he did and a week later we put in an offer.

Count them - 117 days later, we are the proud owners of a foreclosed property!

Some details, if you will. The 30-year old rambler sits on just under six acres of mature oak trees. It is one of six homes in a smaller rural development - very appealing for the city girl that still lurks in me. It boasts a large pole shed, garden, chicken coop (that's right - going country), and a cute little guest house.

Beautiful, right? WRONG! Please review the following photo:

The plan of attack includes sledgehammers and other tools for smashing stuff (industry term for those non-carpenters out there). Our intent is to completely gut the interior, redo the entire exterior and make the place our own.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. The cute 400 sq. ft. guest house?

We plan to live in it during renovations. Yeah. We're going to really get to know each other.

So join us! Join us on our adventure in transforming this once run-down eye sore into the the place we call home.

Here we go!