The exploding Pineapple.

I'm not even sure where to start on this one.

When we moved into the house a few things bugged me, but the exploding pineapple made me crazy. I don't think a photo can really even do it justice. To say it was ugly would be like saying Fra Angelico was a house painter. I honestly can't even put it into words. It drove me crazy. Jason could have cared less. He was on the road at least 4 days a week. He really never spent much time in the front of the house. Somehow, he had the odd ability to look past it. What?!? Before we moved in, I painted a few rooms but that was really it. We decided to have a birthday party for the kids and I wanted that light out before the party. Jason thought I had lost it and said people would never notice. Again, what?!? I FINALLY convinced him to let me order a new light. I told my friends we would get drunk and wear the exploding pineapple on our heads. I thought about attaching it to the back of the car and dragging it down the road like the cans on the back of a freshly married couple's car.

In the end, my Dad cut it down. It lived in my garage for a few months while I contemplated what do do with it. Ultimately, it landed in the garbage. I did take a few of the pheasant feathers out as a souvenir.

Not much has changed here!

This porch wraps all the way around the front of the house.

Our garage faces the rear of the house. The kids have a nice play area above it.

The sidewalk to the front door.

More front porch, complete with Owen and Mom.

Old house/New house

If you know me, you already know we've been back in Texas for almost a year. If you have no idea who I am, after 8 corporate moves, we finally made it back home to Texas. Finding the right house was a challenge. Thanks to Photoshop and camera angles, a house that looks amazing on the internet may look like a hovel in person. We made 3 trips down to look at houses. At one point I even convinced Jason to put an offer on a house he had never seen and wasn't really sure he could even visualize. That deal, THANKFULLY, fell through. Jason decided to fly down and look at it, he hated it. He told me he had looked at my top 3 choices and a house I had never even seen. He called and said he found my house and then he put my mom on the phone who confirmed, "it's perfect for you." Jason started the offer process, I was the one out of the loop this time. I flew down to Houston to look at it (after we were well into the offer, counter-to-counter, and inspection phase.) He was right, it was perfect. I have never been afraid to get my hands dirty and do a bit of work and I have the vision to see past what is there. Good thing...there was a bit to see past! The photos I'm going to post are the before I got my hands on the white walls and dried flower monstrosities.