Though we were a bit sad it wasn't a white Christmas here in Chicago, the warmer weather has helped move the construction along. New windows are in and the brick work in the back is complete, except for around the back door which *fingers crossed* will be installed next week.

Here is a picture of the front of the house with the new windows. We are planning on refurbishing the front gate and the new stoop should be poured within the next couple of weeks.

The new stairs with the landing are finished! We moved the stairs back about 3 more feet to make more room in the master bedroom which can be seen in the third picture below.

The original stairs led directly upstairs; since we moved them back we put in a landing with a turn and two more steps to get to the second floor.  The original second floor hallway was very wide with much wasted space.  We made the hallway smaller and this helped with making all three bedrooms a little larger in size.

Here is a picture of the kitchen with the utility closet to the left. The original plan was to have one double hung window in the kitchen, but we wanted to make sure we had a lot of light throughout the first floor, so we decided to add another window at the expense of cabinet space.

And another picture of the kitchen with the powder room to the right.

And the back of the house with the new windows. Love it!! Please excuse the pile of trash...