Kitchen Before/After

As most of you have seen in the early on before pictures, the inside of unit #2 needed some major help... These shots show some TLC we gave to the little nook in the kitchen...

6 Months is WAY too long...

Ok, so in the last 6 months my life has completely done a 180! Most of you know I was laid off back in April and since then have been busy launching Peak Creative, selling hot dogs {check out www.peakcreative.wordpress.com for more info on that :-) } and still working on the house! I am finally going to post some before/after pictures of all the hard work that has been done! Enjoy!

Before...

After... complete with all of my yard sale/thrifty decorations : )

All moved in!

Here are a few photos of the place mostly set up! We ended up getting a new stainless appliance set and a new flatscreen (finally), everything is all in except our microwave that goes above the stove. Good deals of course! We will be moving our dining room table in this week and Keenan is puting in some more counter top and cabinets where the new dishwasher is. We're loving it! I can't wait until the warm weather is here and we're able to start on the outside!

As you can see I'm trying to practice keeping plants alive...(again)... my neighbor told me these are kill proof.

I HEART NEW APPLIANCES!

Our spare bedroom/outdoor activity closet/extra shoe closet :-) (still gotta move in the box spring)

My office/walk-in closet with my new desk... love it!


Other side of the closet/office

Empty dining room.

Living room.

New tube!

Spring was in the air!

Hi Guys! So, we're all moved in down in Middlebury! It was a crazy, stressful few weeks but we're in, Josh is in our old apt. and our new tenants moved into their side of the duplex last weekend. Just as we got all moved in we bolted off to Florida for some warm, sunny weather! I spent a few days in Tampa with the fam and then John picked me up and we headed to Kissimmee where we stayed at a cute little resort. We went to a dinner show, ate tons of food and I did a bit of outlet shopping... perfect little vacation!

Lounging by the pool.

Of course this was a "working vacation" for John... a Volvo he picked up in Miami.

Our little cabin!

At the beach with mom and Aunt Judy!

25 Days until the beach!

Well, it's only been a few weeks since my last post but I have lots to tell! John and I decided last week that we are in fact going to move into the finished side of the duplex! We had been joking around saying we wanted to but when it came down to it (and we had someone who wanted to rent our place we live in right now) and we thought about all the room there is there, how beautiful it came out and how cheap it would be with our new tenants on the other side (that's next!), we decided to do it! I actually just got back from bringing my first load of stuff down!

So that brings me to the next news... one night about a month ago I had been surfing around on craigslist checking out apartments in Middlebury and seeing what people are charging and decided to go to the "housing wanted" section. Low and behold, this is what I found...


... long story short... Meg and Eli are our new tenants in the unfinished side! They were looking for a place to call home for a few years and were interested in bartering some of the renovation work for part of the rent. They also wanted to barter gardening and landscaping when the weather permits! Above you can see just a little bit of what Meg has to offer with her gardening! They are super nice and John and I are psyched to have some nice new neighbors! (not that John's 88 year old grandmother isn't nice but...) Meg sells organic veggies, fresh flowers and jewelery locally in Middlebury and I can't wait to have to sample all the goods! Eli is a full time carpenter and part time web designer... both of which will come in handy!

So, I'm super psyched to be actually living in one of the places that I own! We had been going back and forth on whether or not to build out on the land right here in New Haven or to buy since the market is definitely in our favor. We had pretty much decided to buy and have been looking at houses in the New Haven, Bristol, Monkton area but haven't found anything perfect yet. We may end up being in Middlebury for a year or maybe more... we'll see how long John enjoys the "city" life!! (It was actually his idea to move in for real... and the fact that we will be in walking distance to everything in Middlebury... including FLAT BREAD and the farmers markets and will have so much space made me jump at it!)

Meg and Eli are already planning gardens for the spring and we are going to work with them on fencing in the back yard for Farley. I can't wait to work more on the outside of the house in a few months. Oh! And we'll finally have a spare bedroom!! TWO actually! Amazing, I know! We're heading to NH this weekend to pick up a new dishwasher and a desk and hopefully will be all moved in within a few weeks! Below are a few videos and pictures from the finished product!! I will post the "before & after" photos tomorrow!

Dining room!

Living room!

My FABULOUS contact paper I got at Target.

I do not care that my washer and dryer are in the kitchen.... that's a lot less stairs I have to go up and down now!! <3>

No more red sink!!

Kitchen

Here are some videos! Enjoy!!

And lastly! Stace and I spent a fun weekend down in NH at Mom and Jan's! (Unfortunately Mom had to go up to Maine because Aunt Judy is a bit under the weather :-( Get well soon JU JU!!!) Jan, Stace and I had a fun weekend full of Wii, wine and work!

... and here we're launching Crossroads Contracting into the online marketing world!

Oh and I have to have a Farley update too...

He's all pissed because we took his Adirondack chair away...

Helloooo 2009!

Well, 2009 is here and already off to a crazy but productive start. I surprised myself and bought a plane ticket down to Florida for the end of February when my mom and a few other fabulous Porter's will be in Tampa. John and I had planned to take a ski trip out west this winter... but of course then it snows and gets to be 5 degrees out and the power of the mouse click is overcome by warm weather destinations! John will be hauling some cars down with our friend Ray because of his minor addiction to WORKING... but at least he's getting away :-)

Aaaaaanyway, the duplex is moving right along and the first side should be done within a week or so! The last major project is tiling the kitchen floor and then just a major cleaning! Below are some new pictures of the upstairs and the living room all finished!

Living room with a missing floor vent.


The end of the hallway upstairs - the door leading up to the attic.


Looking down the hall from the rear bedroom.

Middle bedroom

Robins egg blue bathroom!!! (Still waiting on new floor grates) Watch where you're standing when you get out of the shower! heh heh hehhhhh.


Back bedroom. I WANT THOSE FLOORS!!!

Another Christmas come and gone!

Well, another holiday season is almost over... crazy! I hope you all had a great time with family and friends... like I said before, any reason to sit around and stuff myself silly with the friends and family that I love is all I need!

I've taken some new pictures of the duplex and the first side is almost done! The wood floors are actually getting redone as I type and the kitchen tile will go in this week. We were there yesterday and I was about ready to move my own stuff in! John told me to focus... rental income will be good!

The kitchen... cabinets are all painted, new ceiling and new ceramic tile will be going in this week!
Ohhhhhhh the Oyster White on the walls is luscious with the ultra pure white trim!!

Upstairs hallway

Keenan, our contractor says this color makes him want to vomit... but I think Robin's Egg blue is very lovely and bathroomy!

These were the floors underneath the groooosssss carpet upstairs... I can't wait to see them refinished!!!

Bedroom.

So, this year John decided to have the 1st annual Packard of Vermont Christmas Party! We rented out a cute little bar in Bristol and had an amazing lasagna dinner, drinks and of course desert. So much fun! (clearly)

Gimmie my poolstick!

"What'd ya find?" A III's trademarked saying

Farley LOVES the snow!!!!

So, I'm sure most of you have heard about or seen John's new "hobby"... aka... the new Massey Furgeson tractor he got a few months ago. The storms we got hit with a few weeks ago had him plowing up a storm... op and then there was Josh right behind him in the little bobcat! Like kids in a candy store...

new tractor - if you squint you can see it

So, I came outside and poked my head around the corner... only to find Farles sunbathing in one of the Adirondack chairs...

Ohhh just giving daddy some kisses.

A few weeks ago we headed up to Smuggs for the weekend and stayed with Jackie at her condo. After a long day of riding there was nothing better to do then go play in the inflatable fun zone! Jack was of course the only one who could do the rope walk thingy.

This is about as far as I made it. (and I sware my toe isn't really touching)

The girls!