Pictures!

I realize it's been over a week since I last posted, and I feel terrible for it. Comcast isn't able to get to our house to hook up Internet until after the 4th of July, so until then I have to find time when I'm near wi-fi and not working to update. I wanted to post a few "before" shots of thehouse while I have a minute.

This is the outside of the house (obviously.)

This is what the floors looked like before we sanded them. They had dark stains in several places, so we sanded them and plan to stain them darker. This way we didn't have to sand terribly far down, which takes more time and effort. We were able to rent a belt sander from a local hardware store for $55 for 24 hours. We only used three pieces of sandpaper (one that was on it and partially used) so the total came to $65.

"Before" den

"Before" kitchen wall. Hand painted wall...not sure what was going on here, but I'm ready for it to be gone!

Sanded floors.

I'll post a few more pics later with an update of our work and planning over the last week.

Floors, Fridges and Moving Day

Disclaimer: I'm exhausted, so I apologize for whatever rambling might follow. I tried really hard for alliteration with my title, but my vocabulary is failing miserably at the moment! Yesterday I got in the house to clean...and three hours later I finished the bathroom--yikes! The dirt, dust and grime was intense. Thanks to my dear friend Christie our mustard-yellow fridge is clean...two and a half hours of elbow grease to accomplish that feat! (We didn't plan to buy a dust-covered home; however, the house is part of a trust and hasn't been occupied in a few years.)

Friday's goal was to clean the entire house--which more or less happened, mainly because of our wonderful friends who stopped by to tackle whatever project I came up with when they walked through the door--as well as sand all of the wood floors in the house. We started that project Thursday afternoon but soon realized that we could rent a large belt sander for way less than the cost of belts for our small one. Andrew did an amazing job, working from 5 until 11 at night, and all this without much light. The sander tripped a breaker that we couldn't get fixed so most of the late night cleaning and sanding happened by streetlight and moonlight.

Saturday morning came early...6:30 too early. I had to make a run to Wal-Mart for tape to finish our last minute packing before we left to pick up the U-Haul. Following a rental truck mix-up, we were able to get moved without too much trouble. Huge huge thanks to our friends who worked so hard and were flexible enough to cram coffeemakers, groceries and other odds and ends into their trunks.

While I did promise pictures yesterday, I'm not entirely sure where the camera cord is at this moment. I'll do my best to get those up soon. Agenda for tomorrow...cleaning the old apartment and initial kitchen design. We do hope to grab a nap or two also!

Day 1: One Dirty Mess

After two months of waiting to close on our first home (this following some near heartbreaks with actually signing a purchase and sale) we signed the final paperwork at 10 a.m. on June 16: one year and one month after we said "I do."

The house? A 56-year-old, three bedroom, one bath ranch...complete with green wood paneling, hand-painted ivy, mustard yellow fridge and a stove that Alice from the Brady Bunch would have been proud to own. But we got what we wanted: an ugly house in a nice neighborhood. The listing said "needs some TLC." And TLC we will give it...lots of it.

With a long to-do list already, the only "renovation" work that was done yesterday was measuring for a new front door. Gotta start somewhere, right? I did get in the house this afternoon to start cleaning, following a few unrelated to-dos. Not only are we renovating an ugly ranch, no one has lived in the house for several years...which means tons and tons of dirt. I believe I may have ticked off several eight-legged creatures that were occupying our lonely residence.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the exterior, plus all the before images of the interior. We also started sanding the floors to refinish them, so I hope to upload a picture or two of my newly acquired skill--taught to me by my handsome and talented husband, of course!