Exciting huh?!

So it doesn't look like much to you, but can't you just sense my excitement? You really should, because it's palpable... It's my new appliances!!! I've never had all new appliances. I really thought that was only something that happened on HGTV, but my wonderful-loving-good looking-slightly germ-a-phobe- husband said that he wasn't building me a new kitchen and putting old appliances in it! So we sold the dishwasher that came with the house and we went out a picked out a new set. Mind you, they are currently in the garage - not really where you want to display your new appliances, but with no cabinets, or counters, or walls just yet, it's probably a better place.

 On a separate note, I think I've made it clear how I feel about beige paint. Let me add to that list - wallpaper. Sorry Mom, but I've made it very clear all these years - and now I am reminded why I hate it so much. (Just a note, from one vantage point in my mothers house you can see 7 different wallpapers - no joke. But I also counted 116 pumpkins from the stretch of the phone cord back in the day (yes, I obsessively count things, but that's a whole different issue)). I've been working on getting rid of this plaid and teddy bear ensemble since the day we got the keys, but that sucker is stuck. I should make my mom come take it off as punishment for the miles she has hung.

The helpers...aren't they cute... 

(Notice the BEIGE closet doors in the background, can't wait to take that on...)

Yesterday I finished the master bath (I feel so fancy having a master bath, I thought those were only on HGTV too.) It's a very light blue and the trim is now  a crisp white. But it didn't start that way. It was originally beige (shocker huh?) with a very thick coating of hairspray. You see, the woman we bought the house from had this terrible teased and sprayed hair ("you just tease it and make it look like a brown football helmet" - That was for you Heidi) And apparently she was quite thorough with the spray because everything opposite the mirror had a pretty heavy layer of nasty hairspray. Fortunately it was nothing a little sand paper, primer and paint couldn't handle. And I will not be causing the same issue to occur again, I don't think I own hairspray.

Tonights Project

I promise, as a homeowner, NEVER to paint a ceiling beige.

A little done, a lot more to do...

It was a busy week of painting and prepping but I was able to finish one small project. There is such joy in finishing something-even if it's a lowly bathroom. While it still has an ugly light and needs some caulk, it's far better than the orange monstrosity that was here before - now it's a soothing light yellow...awww, my oasis in the chaos.

Time to start the next mess...

On Saturday we started to remove our 30 year old flaking, dark, dirty kitchen.

BEFORE:

DURING:

 AFTER:

We are still going to remove the soffit and walls where the laundry and pantry are, but we are waiting for the dumpster next weekend. That and we have to determine if we can remove more wall without the house falling down, minor details.

 Next came the careful measurement, calculation and figuring. (We had good 4-legged helpers) As much as we have talked about our 'dream kitchen' all these years, when it comes to actually creating and building it. Wow -that's a whole different kind of challenge. We have spent so many hours sitting on the floor staring at the walls and talking it's unreal. I think we have finally come up with a design, layout, and color scheme.

So all seems to be moving ahead, except one major issue. The floor. We really wanted to put in hardwoods, but man are they expensive. So we've looked at engineered, bamboo, and everything in between. The other major issue of hardwood is that it's incredibly labor intensive and torture on dogs. We looked at carpet, it's easy to have installed (thanks to someone else doing the work) but carpet just doesn't last with dogs. It gets dirty and filled with hair - oh but the dogs love it so much.... So what do we do?? We're not all that sure - anyone want to solve that one for us? Until then, I'll be avoiding the chaos in my new bathroom. 

Keeping Track

When we bought our last house it was very much a blank slate. Over the 6 years we lived there we made a lot of changes and improvements, and I have NO photos.
So I've decided I'm going to document and record the update of this house. Unfortunately for you that means all my blog posts will be remodel related. Not very entertaining, but I'm not really blogging for you -  it's for posterity.

Project 1 Begins:

Ok, not really project one, because it's just my project (this would be a subset of the bulleted list)...Anyhow. Our house is mostly white however the few rooms they painted are quite colorful. I like color - a lot, but it needs to be well chosen. And a bright orange bathroom is not well chosen. Tonight I started priming the bathroom and bedroom (it was a fine shade of green but not in a darker room - and green isn't a sleeping color to me...)
Before I could get painting I had to get the heat going (yup, I 'm handy like that) and do a little demo of the ugly shutters on the bathroom window. Then I removed the exorbitant amount of beige wall plates. Seriously -beige? Who has beige light switch covers and beige trim. Even Penny has white trim and she's the queen of beige. Anyhow, that's all getting remedied.

Next up, another coat of primer, real paint color, switch out the beige lights and plugs for white, and paint trim... all before Art gets here this weekend so he gets surprised. (No, he doesn't read our blog, I am not ruining the surprise.)
I'll be adding empty house photos soon - It's very different totally empty.

Systematic

I am an organized person. Quite organized. Some would say to the point of OCD. I just really like things in their place. And I really like a calendar. And I REALLY like a spreadsheet.
When we were getting ready to move I typed up a nice bulleted list explaining when we were loading, the process, where things were moving, etc. Kyle made fun of me.
But you know what, our move went pretty smoothly. Even after we moved it up a day and I had to reissue the bulleted list with an updated calendar. (It probably helped that I had every box double labeled and color coded for weight and placement in a box pile. OCD? well maybe.)
Now that we are homeowners (wahoo!) I am finding that my systematic tendencies are again bubbling up. You see we are planning some major projects before we move into the house. Things like gutting a kitchen, relocating a laundry room, laying new floors, and maybe knocking down a wall (you know, the open-concept - it's great for entertaining (Please note sarcasm, we like to make fun of people on House Hunters)). So the list of things to do is long, and complicated.
You can't put in floors until you demo. But you can't demo until you check the structure (we really don't want to cave in the roof). And you can't do a new kitchen until after floors and demo but before molding. You see, it's complicated.
So this weekend was our planning session. We wandered around the house measuring, noting, figuring, and planning. We determined the order of operations (I wish it was as easy as PEMDAS). And assigned chores (Art has to plan and build a kitchen - I have to get the gas turned on and remove wallpaper - we all have our skills.) The lists and calendar are actually a bit longer than that and incorporate our schedules for the next few weeks. Our weekends in Logan are laid out and our weekly to-do lists are prepared. All of this nicely typed up on a colorful calendar and bulleted list.
I emailed this to Art this evening. I'm sure it's sitting in his Inbox, and if I'm lucky he'll open it before next weekend. Meanwhile I will remind him of the chores I am ticking off my list and the chores he has scheduled to complete during the week. And I will systematically plan the remodel of our house, and HE will do things whenever he dang well pleases.

REALLY Homeowners!

I have the keys!
We are proud owners of a new (to us - really born in 1974) 2600 sq. foot, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home on a 0.2 of an acre, and I don't know how many pounds it weighs. It's white with a black roof (see prior pictures) It's in the greatest neighborhood in Logan on a tree lined street with the best park a 3 minute walk away.
We are SO excited, and feeling SO blessed that we were able to get into this house for just the right price. We knew that location was the most important thing (you can change a house, but not where it is!) But we thought that getting into our ideal location meant we were going to have to buy a junk house. Thanks to Butch we found this winner. It definitely needs some love - nothing on the inside is 'done' - but it's all livable, sort-of. That is, if you aren't married to Art. But how can I complain when he's going to make me a new kitchen!!! Since we are fortunate enough to have Butch and Sharon's house to live in we are going to use this opportunity to gut the kitchen and do an upgrade. We'll probably do a lot of painting and maybe new floors.
So yes, I have a new house - but i'm not moving in yet... but I'm still SO excited!
It's good to no longer be homeless...

Nearly Homeowners

So, it's looking like it might really happen - we're going to buy a house. When we started looking I thought we would never find something Art would find suitable. He's rather picky. But we finally found a few to look through so he came up and we spent a Saturday looking, and found the one! Although, I can't take the credit. It was Butch and Sharon (well, Butch is taking a majority of the credit because he encouraged the turn down the street) who found the house. It was a For Sale by Owner, just on the market - and although I walk the neighborhood every day I hadn't seen it yet. Anyhow, we put in an offer - did some negotiating - got it for what we wanted and now we're through the final phases of hoop jumping.
This weekend we finally got to go in it again and I got to take pictures! (FSBO = no online browsing) Now, it's not final, yet. So don't send the housewarming gifts, yet. We don't close until the end of the month, and when we finally have keys in our hands then Art will believe that it's ours. When I saw them loading U-haul today I got pretty convinced.
A few photos, more details when it's really OURS....