Ch-ch-changes!

I know it has been awhile since I've posted. So Sorry! My dad and older brother made a trip down with their trailer in tow and helped us move. We've been officially in the house for just over a week now. Still stepping over boxes and pushing things out of our way occasionally though. 

We're in that stage of unpacking where all (ok, most) of the necessities have been taken care of and it's just the things that are left. This house is so much larger than what I'm used to living in, and I have a decent amount of space to work with here. It is a little daunting trying to figure out the "right" place to put everything. 

Also, Nick and I have both been trying to be better about getting rid of excess stuff. Tossing it. Donating it. Whatever. I just want it out of the house. No extra clutter for this girl! I type that as I am sitting in a living room that is littered with STUFF. It is definitely a process, and a long one.

Since we have moved in we have been busy, busy, busy! Lots of little (and not so little) projects have been started. We have finally found a home services company (Shout out to Green Leaf Home Services!) that is helping us out with some of the things on our long list that need to be completed before we can reschedule our city inspection. (5 months and counting, people!) Nick has stepped up his DIY-game and is even familiarizing himself with the Home Depot that is only a few minutes away. (thanks free handy-dandy Home Depot App!)

I would like to dedicate a post to each of the changes that we've been making. Sadly, I am a terrible blogger and have spaced on taking that many pictures. Actually, it is less that I forgot to take them and more it is hard to stop a project to snap decent pictures when you only have a short time between dinner time and bath time with a toddler. So please forgive me! I will get around to posting actual pictures of the projects that we have gotten into so far, but for now I'll share list so you can see how much progress has already been made!

Living Room:

• Tear up carpeting
• Chip off and spackle peeling paint 
• Hang Curtains
• Paint walls
• Paint trim
• Build tripod lamp

Dining Room:

• Tear up carpeting
• Remove asbestos tiles
• Paint walls
• Paint trim
• Build dinner table

Office:

• Tear up carpeting
• Paint wood paneling
• Paint built ins
• Build a new work desk

Breakfast Nook:

• Remove wallpaper
• Spackle uneven surfaces
• Paint walls
• Replace blinds/hang curtains

Kitchen:

• Remove drop ceiling
• Get new oven installed
• Install light fixture/remove fluorescent light
• Replace faucet
• Repair garbage disposal
• Replace water cut off valves under sink
• Paint walls
• Paint ceiling

Wow. And that is only the list for the Entry Level not including any of the bathrooms or bedrooms! Also, it doesn't include any of the decorative things such as, "buy a new sectional" or "build a coffee table"! We also need to paint the hallway that connects all of those rooms and goes upstairs. Eventually we want to refinish all of the wood floors throughout, but I know that it is going to be quite a while before we can fit that into our budget so for now, it gets left off of the list.

Nick and I are going to sit down one of these nights and make an in depth list of what we want to get done and set little goals so that we don't get too far "off track". Here's hoping that we can tackle the Living Room trim sometime this week!  

XO!
Sam

Off To Work We Go

Harper doesn't watch television or movies yet, but I've been singing that song from Snow White to her for the past few days. We've been knee deep in projects over at the house. Trying to get everything some things ready before we move in. We've already found a handyman who is going to be moving into the spare (moldy) bedroom in the basement. Not really, but seriously he is going to be helping us out with a ton of projects/repairs that we have planned. I think Nick feels a lot more comfortable having a professional take a look at things and give us the thumbs up before we start doing things like chipping off paint and ripping down ceilings. While I have more of a "dive in head first" approach, but I'll get to that in a minute.

So, yesterday Nick took Harper and dropped me off around 8:30 am, and didn't come back until after 3 pm. Oh boy did I get some cleaning done. At least the kitchen is livable now! We also got a little excited and tore up the carpet in the living room. We just could not wait to see what was under there. Drum roll, please.

Hooray! Nick and I both gave a sigh of relief when we lifted up the corner and saw wood beams staring back at us! I think we were both waiting for there to be something wrong with them (think giant burn mark, stain, or gaping hole) but they have been protected by the gross carpet and are in great shape! The tearing up was the easy part. It took us no time at all to roll up the carpet and then the crumbling padding underneath which is stapled into the wood floor. After reading some not-so-great things about tearing up the stables, we were pleasantly surprised to find that there really weren’t that many! I was able to tear up most of them with needle-nose pliers and Nick got the remainder with a mini crow bar.

Then came the less easy and exciting part, tearing up those tack strips. The carpet is held in place with these strips that have nails (or tacks, eh?) sticking up. They are then nailed down every 6 inches or so. The two longest walls in the room had two tack strips, one that was thin and new, and the other a little thicker and obviously much older. The thinner one was nailed down ever 4 inches. Every time I could get my crow bar under it, the thing would splinter and crack everywhere. It came up in a million little pieces, and I found it was fastest/easiest to leave the nails in the floor and then go back and rip them all out after I’d cleared a section of splintered wood. 

As you can see in the picture below, the older tack strips came up in big long pieces. Super easy, and 100x faster than the new ones. Things just aren’t what they used to be, I guess.

I only let myself work on that room for about an hour, because my mission of the day was to get that kitchen clean! So after I snapped these quick pictures on my cell, I moved in there to start scrubbing. I didn’t bother to get any pictures of that, I’m sure you don’t want to see the dirty fridge anyways. 

I got a tiny bit distracted in there though and may or may not have torn down the hideous drop ceiling and started attacking the wallpaper. (Hint: I totally did both of those things! Sorry Nick!)

Things are starting to look up and we’re feeling a lot better about where we stand in this house. We’re really excited to turn it into our home. Can’t wait for this clean slate (in the form of a really, really dirty house) and all the exciting things that 2014 is going to bring!

XOXO

Sam

Pinspiration: Kitchen Edition

We posted our kitchen mood boards last week, so I'll continue to ride on that same thought train and share some of the inspiration photos that helped create those mood boards.

We've been trying to find as many images as we can to draw our ideas from. We want to make sure that things will "work" the way that we imagine they will. Placement of the sinks, appliances, peninsula (maybe?), etc. So, it is nice to see what other people have done. Here are a few of the kitchens that I've been drooling over on my Pinterest board. 

source: here

P.S. Holy cow! Check out those BEFORE pictures! 

Better Homes and Gardens

I love the pop of color on the peninsula! Nick and I have tossed around the idea of paining the seating side of the peninsula (if we choose to install one) a bold color. Probably a peacock turquoise.

source unknown

source: here

As you can see, I've done a pretty good job sticking to my original design idea of white cabinets, light countertop, and dark flooring. I try to look at different color schemes as well, to get some variety, but I always find myself going back to this one. It is just so bright and airy. Which I think is an important aspect for a room where we'll be spending a lot of time. 

Maybe when the time comes I'll go out on a limb a little bit and take a chance with some more bold colors?

Do you have a "safe" color scheme that you find yourself drawn to? 

XO Sam

Hashtag Mold Problems

We had our home inspection done on Monday August 5th. Everything came back with relatively good results, except there seems to be a serious mold problem. A dangerous mold problem. Ugh! 

Thankfully the foundation is solid and this was the only major problem that surfaced.

We are really itching to get it remedied, but because it is a short sale we can't even get quotes for the repairs until the bank has accepted our offer. 

It's only been two weeks since we put our offer in, I think, and we're told it takes at least thirty days to hear back from the bank. 

This is only the beginning of a very, very long process.

There isn't going to be much to post about until we hear more from either the seller's lender, or our real estate agent. 

I'll be back later to share some of the inspiration that Nick and I have been accumulating via my Pinterest boards!

XO Sam