Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Let the Renovation Begin

Well, almost!

Thanks to an overactive imagination, my brain has officially become overloaded with a large quantity of DIY projects and ideas to turn our disaster-house into a home.

One of the first things we are doing is a good cleaning.  And when I say we I mean the well priced cleaning service that I hired.  After a good scrub down, the carpets will be cleaned so we can at least move our stuff in.

After that, the FUN part begins.  Due to my husband’s inheritance of a large quantity of carpentry tools and saws and other dangerous machinery, my imagination is the only thing that limits what this house can have in it.  Truth be told, we even discussed a slide downstairs or a fire pole (though chances of either of those are slim to none-just wishful thinking). 

So on to the “real” ideas.  One of the first projects we are going to do is paint.  I’m hoping that not only will a fresh coat of paint refresh the disgusting, dog hair covered walls, it will make the place smell a whole lot better (especially the master closest!)  Then it is on to refinishing the hardwood floors.  I unfortunately am a wood snob, and not in the sense of quality.  I HATE most colors of wood.  My husband has learned that this is just one of my charming quirks that makes me who I am.  I hate blonde wood, beech wood, pink wood, whitewashed wood and most other woods in between.  I have  preference for dark wood floors, but not too dark, and not too much red.  Can you imagine how fun I was picking out hardwoods for our last house?  And imagine my horror when not only did our last house have mint green carpet, the wood was stained a nearly pink color. 

So for our refinishing, I’m thinking a color like this:

To refresh your memory our current color is this:


To match my shiny (newish) floors, I have every intention to replace the cabinetry in the same delightful blonde shade to 42″ white cabinets.  Since I’m a girl dreaming of steak on a hamburger budget, there is a better change I’ll paint the cabinets white.  Scott and I did this in our last home and were quite pleased with the how economical and well this option came out.  One day I’ll replace the cabinets with 42″ uppers since the wasted space where the bulk head is drives me nuts.  I also want to rip out the kitchen desk (who ever thought it was a good idea to put a junk catcher in the kitchen) and turn that into a wall pantry.

For some reference:


And to match our new refreshed kitchen, we will most certainly need some new appliances.  Since the dishwasher is unusable, this may jump to the top of our list as I don’t think I’ll last long cooking if I’m washing dishes by hand.

If I still have some sanity left after all that painting, I’m going to tackle the banister.  What use is it having shiny, pretty colored floors if your banister is the old color making the rest of the house ugly? 




Now, I don’t think I will be able to get the dark wood on the stairs, but I at least want to update the railing to be bright, molding white with the floor stain to contrast on the handrail.  Oh how I would love to walk into a foyer like this!  This is another one of those projects that won’t take much as far as money, but is going to be hours of labor.

Phew.  Well I’m exhausted just thinking about all of my future projects.  That should keep me occupied for January at least.  More project wishes to come.





Sunday, December 11, 2011

Inspection Day

Today we had our inspection.  Overall, the inspection went well and didn’t have too many surprises.
Problems:
  • Roof needs replacing ASAP (we knew this — old cedar shake roof)
  • Gutters need replacing (not too bad…we can do this with the roof)
  • Window outside trim needs replacing on quite a few windows due to rotting
  • Inside tracks need replacing on windows (due to humidity in house)
The STUPID previous owners had their humidifier on WAY too high.  The insides of some many of the windows were sweating which ruined their casing.  Other then those minor things, the house was in great shape (just really dirty and really outdated).


My honey-do list is growing by the minute! Pinterest really isn’t helping with making this remodel reasonable either.


Luckily, our real estate agent is going to try to get some concessions with the roof/gutters/trim.  Since it’s a short sale, we can’t be too hopeful, but it can’t hurt to ask for some money off or credits at closing.

























Oh the changes we will be making!  One major change is that we need some new appliances! JEESH! I don’t even think we’ll be able to put food in the fridge or dishes in the dishwasher — they are THAT bad.
Here’s to keeping our fingers crossed that this keeps working out!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

We got the house!

My realtor gave me the best news possible yesterday-we got the house!!  Originally, the house started out with a less than 1 in 10 chance of actually ever being ours.  As time went on, those odds became better and better as we found out more and more about the property.

Since it was a short sale, it had to first be accepted by the seller, then by the bank.  We we warned after the seller very quickly accepted the offer that we would be waiting weeks until we heard back from the bank.
Luck was apparently going our way (or it was just meant to be) because we heard back from the bank after only 5 business days.  The offer was presented to the bank Monday, and they accepted it on Friday.  Ever since hearing the news, Scott and I have been so excited and mentally gutting and remodeling the house in our head.

Some people look at my like I’m crazy when I explain that the house has great street appeal, but is disgusting inside.  And I say all of this with a smile on my face.  There is nothing more rewarding than turning a house you purchase into a home.  And while most people say remodels can tear couples and families apart (decisions, the mess, the finances), Scott and I seem to have this weird ability to get closer and closer.  The more time we spend discussing ideas and what work we want to do when (most of it is financially decided), we realize how much we both want the same thing in our home.

In Seatlle we owned a condo that gave us less than 700 square feet to make our own.  This time we have 3,618 — and we couldn’t be more excited!