if i had known then, what i know now...

when we built our house in 2005.

 it was a quick decion.

 we were scared.

we were on a very. very. very. tight budget.

we were so young.

did i mention we were scared.

we had no idea what we were doing.

we did a lot of work ourselves. 

we made some mistakes.

okay. we made a ton of mistakes.

but, if i had known then, what i know now...
and had a bigger budget...

i would have white cabinets, with black granite counter tops. a huge undermounted sink. a bigger window. and a backsplash made of rock. that goes. all. the. way. up. the. wall.

i would have this very shower in my bathroom.
minus the fancy body sprayers. i'm a pretty simple girl and that is just too much. but i'm sure that i could handle that very awesome rain shower head, and all that beautiful marble. i love it.

we would have hardy plank siding. green to be exact. or maybe a pretty mustard. need i say more? i just drool looking at this beautiful house.

with all that said...

  

i  do love my living room. especially since we recently added crown molding and chair rail. we also rocked our fireplace. well, todd rocked our fireplace. it's awesome. he's awesome.
 todd also built our house. we couldn't have done it without him.
i know i would have lost more than my mind without his guidance.

i should also mention our incredible laundry room. it's so spacious. it has a pantry and an office area and i love it.

we decided to go with laminate flooring. at the time it was perfet for our extremely tight budget and way better than carpet. i'm so glad we didn't go with carpet. i'm equally glad we did go with the laminate. see, we have 2+ small children running around, dragging things, and dropping things. one day after coleman turns 3 we will get 'real' hardwood floors. but as i look at all the scratches and gaps on our laminate i'm so glad it's 'fake' hardwood.

i don't want to be misunderstood. i love my house. i'm proud that my husband provides for us and has for the past 6 years. i thank god daily that he has allowed us keep all we have. along with all that he has given us. given the current economy i realize many would be more than happy to have laminate floors, plain oak cabinets, or even less than we have. but, i can dream right? and i can defineltly say, "if i had known then, what i know now...."

some pictures from: www.alltexexteriors.com, www.sandiegotiling.com, www.decorpad.com