Some house-ly additions

Well now that we live in a fairly large house and not a small apartment we decided we needed a large vacuum. So good bye mini vac (who does well on small jobs) and hello Bissel! Kiss the cat hair good bye!

The next item is our new king size mattress! It isn't a hammock like our old queen mattress we dumped as soon as we could get it out of the apartment and it is much larger and nicer than my old full bed (now in the guest room). We also love our new bed ensemble...Bran actually picked it out! He has nice taste. Very comfy and my new favorite place in the house.

Then there is George. A smaller addition but just as classy. Got him for $2 from a thrift store and spray painted him white (he looked like a clown before). He is quite dashing.


We also finally picked up Great Aunt Mary Jane's dining room table from Aunt Rita and Uncle Dick who were nice enough to store it and some chairs for us. It definitely makes a difference to have furniture in a room. Next we need the china hutch!

Lastly, my pride and joy. This dresser I found and bought from a thrift store. After being talked to by a furniture enthusiast for a good half an hour about what a solid piece this is....I left....and then went back the next morning and bought it. I love it. Solid wood (cherry?), dove tailed or whatever, and pretty large. $75. A pretty good deal I think. So proud of my dresser. I get giddy when I see it. Please ignore the radio and picture on top of it though.

Tile!

So a quick update with pictures!





The bathroom tiling is almost done! Uncle Dick has done a stellar job and all that is left is caulking in some spaces and clean-up.






The living room is still pretty messy, but the fireplace is painted!




And my husband has done a wonderful job tiling the kitchen counters with .40 cent tiles from Lowes. Not bad for his first tiling job. All he has left is to put the wood trim around the back and them stain and poly.


This place might not look so bad someday.

Busy Bees.....

Well we have been busy busy….time to update but no pictures at the moment (will have some on Monday hopefully) means that the real update will have to wait until next week.

The reasons for the lack of updates though is something I can explain…

July 1 – We had just moved out of our apartment the day before and into the house. Boxes are everywhere.
Also, our cat went missing….bring on the hysteria and waterworks

July 2 – Second commute to work from the house….turns out it doesn’t take me any longer than when I lived in the city.

July 3 – I got sent home from work (since my publisher understands cats are like children). I cried and searched all day and got no work done.

July 4 – I am slowly starting to realize we might never see our Frizbie again….which brings more crying. I got a few little things done as poor Brandol listens to me sob. Later than night....we found her... in her new favorite place...under the house. She decided it was time to come up after almost 4 days of no food. Yet, she seems to think that under the house is the best place ever and escaped down the hole (which we never noticed until she escaped again) behind our washer. I went after her the second time under in the crawl space and she really didn't want to leave. Little brat. We are so happy to have her back though.

The rest of July so far has been slowly unpacking and moving things around as we live there. It is a mess, but it is still better than our apartment.

Yesterday, July 15th, was my 23rd birthday. I got some great gifts from my Mom and Dad (including 2 beautiful bowls, dish towels, nifty place mats from Kantigoods.com, and more!) and beautiful flowers and a TJMaxx giftcard (my favorite!) from the husband.

So we have not been updating (the blog) because we have been busy….but I promise to update with pictures next week! Just wait until you see the kitchen and 2nd bathroom!

We hope to pick up a bit this weekend since we have our appraisal on Monday….cross your fingers!

In other news, we have 2 HUGE blueberry bushes in our yard and are enjoying the “fruits of our labor.”

Be jealous.

Moving on up

So we had a busy weekend.
We have to be out of our apartment this Wednesday (has it really been 2 months already?) so we started moving our junk this weekend. Since our floors are still in the works we moved most of it into the 2 bedrooms. So we have a LONG 4th of July weekend ahead of us of unpacking!

Our kitchen is starting to come together! Appliances are in a hooked up…looking lovely and stainless. We choose a neat subway stainless steel stick-on backsplash for over the range. We even got all the cabinet doors and drawers up and in….thought we still need to paint the inside and backs of them. The only things left keeping our kitchen in the ‘50’s is the lights (and the ceiling but that is another time…) and the lime green counter. Since we plan on gutting the kitchen a few years down the road we didn’t want to go overboard and spend a lot on a new counter, but we want it to look nice. We had a stroke of luck and found some great tiles for $.40 a piece at Lowes! A little magic from Uncle Dick and we will have a beautiful tile countertop right on top of our scary green one! Very excited!

Our bathrooms even got some loving this weekend. The guest bath got the vanity put in on top of the beautiful tile floor and the little bathroom got a paint job and just needs a new toilet seat!

Amazing what left over paint will do….

Happy Birthday Husband

So forgot to mention the best part about our weekend!

It was the husband's birthday and here was his gift:

He and his brother put it together and I learned how to cook hot dogs.

Nice.

Moving Along...just not fast enough

Well we got more painting done this weekend.

Living room is done except for the fireplace (that is going to be a tough one…very very rusty and dirty)

We also set up shop in there to prime and paint our cabinet doors and drawers.

Sunroom is about done and is really looking nice with paiand a new ceiling fan.

We plan on getting new flooring at the end of this week. Including, tiling the guest bathroom, done by a very talented uncle.


We plan on getting the kitchen painted and hopefully a few other things done inside this week. It will be a crazy week for us because we also plan on moving a little bit at a time from our apartment, 45 minutes away. We are going to have to stash in the two guest rooms until all the other floors are done. Should be interesting.

The husband worked a little bit outside this weekend too. He trimmed some bushes down and cut the grass. It is looking better already. The brick mason also had built us our steps and they look just like my rendering. Very excited to have steps….Oh the little things…

before

during

done! (though surronded by trash)

Beautiful!

The hardwood floors are almost done! They are beautiful! We had to use a dark stain because of some water damage in high traffic areas (mostly in the dining room) but it is a beautiful color.

Our friend Chris (who has done an AMAZING job) sanding down the floors.

B-E-A-U-tiful

down the hallway...

In other news, we got clean and nifty new vinyl windows. They are double hung and have some nice features. I like them mostly because there is not a bug graveyard in each one….

hot summer night

We also have a brick mason out at the house at the moment. He is fixing some cracks in the bricks and also making us steps for under the sunroom.
See my rendering of what I want below (the vinyl siding has already been completed):

Sadly, the mason found an issue while correcting some bricks by the chimney…The studs, header, and base plate around the hearth are rotten because at one point we had a leak because of the settling issues (which we fixed). So since we don’t want to tear out a chunk of the outside of the house….the husband and his Dad will be tearing out that wall sometime this fall and fixing it from the inside. Can’t wait for that….

AHHHH....

Ah well. We also started priming the kitchen and primed and started painting the living room! We went with a blue for the living room instead of the planned beige because I want a beige couch someday (we haev a burgundy one now) and we are getting beige carpet and I didn't want beige overload! I like the blue, I think. We only have like 2 weeks to go…time to get to work!

The pretty blue for the living room....still wet

Here is a little before and after (more in progress than after....)

dark and the floors are shiney....but the kitchen is having work done to it! Still debating whether we should paint the beam and glass cabinets...

Our First House Guest

So we have had a few people over to look at the house and to help do some work. Our family and friends have been very helpful and supportive of our efforts. This past weekend though, we had our first house guest....albeit uninvited.




Hello Mr. Snake! So as the hubby was on his way out the door to wash off a paint roller he sees our long slender friend hanging from the ceiling (where the microwave and range will be). He immediately pins it with the roller, giving Mr. Snake some stylish stripes. The hubby of course was caught off guard by our guest and called for "a little help please." Of course my father-in-law, mother-in-law, and one of my aunt-in-laws (a master trim painter), and myself came rushing in to help him. While the women didn't end up getting too close, minus my mother-in-law getting some nice photos, my father-in-law came to the rescue and unfortunately for Mr. Snake....killed him with a shovel. Now, while I understand it was a rat snake (or black snake, whatever) and they are not poisonous, I did not want him making himself comfortable in the house...including the attic AND he was 6 feet long. Ew. So alas, Mr. Snake is dead and gone. He will forever be remembered though, in our memories, through photos and of course from the large snake skins he left behind. RIP Mr. Snake.



In other news…I saw some of the hardwood floor being shaved down and it looks great in the bedroom and hallway. Sadly, there are some bad bad water stains in the large dining room so we are going to have to use a much darker stain than I think we had originally wanted. Oh well though, still pretty. We are going to try and get some more painting some this weekend….We have lots of touching up and maybe finishing a few rooms. We started priming the living room and kitchen too, which is already a big transformation. Our nasty, old, and untouched kitchen might not look so bad with appliances and some paint.

Let's See How Far We've Come

What we have done so far:

Fixed the settling & foundation issue on the side of the house with the chimney (chimney was falling because the foundation stopped just past halfway under it!)

Got a new roof!

Demoed the front covered car port or porch thing….it wasn’t to code and was infested with spiders….not too mention FUGLY

We took out the paneling from the Sunroom, Bedroom 2, Bedroom 3, and Bathroom 2 and also the drywall since it was paper meshed with old and tissue thin wall paper. We then got new drywall in all of those rooms.

We tore up the carpet in the dining room, living room, all bedrooms, and both bathrooms (yes, the bathrooms had lovely yellow carpet…yuck).

We have bought a new vanity and made a shower and shower shelf thing in the second bathroom.

We have painted all the bedrooms (and bought new trim for 2 of them), one bathroom, dining room, hallway and the sunroom…..so far…more painting to come.

Hubby and his Dad put up siding on the newly revealed sunroom exterior wall.

We had our A/C, electrical, plumbing, and etc checked out.

We bought new appliances! Fridge, dishwasher, over the range microwave, stove/oven, washer, and dryer. So excited! Stainless steel no less....not high end but nicer than the stuff at the apartment we live at now.

We have done other smaller things like some new lighting, raked leaves, trimmed a few wild crazy bushes, primed rooms, order flooring for rooms that are going to get it.

I am sure I missed something....


Where we are going (this week):

Our friend is coming in a sanding down and refinishing the hardwood floors.

We are picking out countertop and tile for the 2nd bathroom.

We are getting new windows this upcoming weekend.

Brick mason is coming out (hopefully) to make some steps by the sunroom and small deck …and fix some bricks too.

More painting….which I am so tired of doing already haha.

It is all coming together though...just slowly.


Our bedroom - the master


Guest bedroom - bedroom 2


Guest bedroom 3 - office


Dining room


Guest Bathroom aka #2


Bathroom 2 vanity

More pictures to come!

We all start somewhere...

I guess to be able to see the progress we have made, we need to see where we came from.


This is the front of the house....or at least I think it is....kind of hard to see behind all the freaking trees and bushes!


This is the side of the house from the back...it looked just as awful from the front. There is a poorly constructed enclosed patio on the front and glass greenhouse beside that.


The backyard....well the neighbors say it was a pond...the husband would like it to be one...


My beautiful retro kitchen....yuck.


The lovely dining room....the lady who had lived here LOVED Green...with a hint of yellow.


The huge living room! With more green...including pale lime green carpet.


Our master bedroom...aka room with the biggest closet. Sorry for the lame pictures...I am not good at taking pictures of rooms.


Second bedroom...guest bedroom. Love the paneling and mustard carpet.....


Our last bedroom...probably will be an office because it is tiny...not sure if you can see it but there is a window on the side that actually looks into the ghetto laundry room...what a view


Our not so sunny sunroom...with foam beams!


Master bath...well it will be one day...right now it is just sad and small


And then their is the guest bathroom right out of the 70's...it used to be the master bathroom so at least it is a good size.

As you can see we have our work cut out for us