SOLD!

Hello! I meant to get a post up about us FINALLY CLOSING ON OUR HOUSE but we have been going NON STOP since it happened that now was the soonest I could squeeze it in.

So funny bit of information for all of you out there who care to know, these are not my hands. That isn't the funny information, the funny information is that when you purchase a homesteps house (FreddyMac/foreclosure) apparently you don't get keys. Oh yeah, true story. So there we were, sitting at the big table our mortgage lady to one side the title lady the other and our realtor across the way, all sitting there like we were on some HGTV show. We sign the final papers, big smiles, congratulations and handshakes are exchanged when I giddily look at the realtor and say so lets have the keys! She says oh there are no keys. Uhhhh excuse me? Say what? Your kidding right? Nope. Not kidding at all. Your house is currently wide open so I suggest you go to The Home Depot and buy new locks because homesteps doesn't provide you with keys to the house, they don't have keys to the house. Now I'm not sure if this is because the previous owners didn't leave the keys or if this is some sort of thing with a homesteps house but either way it was kind of a let down to not hold those precious little things in our hands. Once we actually walked into our house though the disappointment quickly left! WE ARE HOME OWNERS!


Yesterday was spent showing it off to our family and then assessing up close and personal just exactly what it is we need to do to the place to get it lookin top noch. Turns out, a lot.... After the initial daunting shock wore off we went home and slept on the fact that we were finally homeowners and just how exciting it is and all the things we have in store for us in the near future.


Today my dad and I went over and spend the better half of 5 hours cleaning up the yard. 5 hours. That is a looong time doing yard work folks! I think it may be the most physical labor I've ever done. Ever. We started off by cutting down a huge burning bush by the side of the house. This thing had gotten so overgrown that it covered almost one entire living room window and you could see about a half a foot of top branches through the master bedroom window which is upstairs. Yeah yeah, that's right the burning bush burns no longer. When I told a few coworkers that at work they were all like "awww. But burning bushes are so pretty." I had to agree that a few weeks ago when I saw it I couldn't believe how stunning it was in all its vibrant glory but it soon passed and then all I was left with again was a bunch of overgrown branches. It looks much better now, trust me. After we were done doing that we raked the front and side yard which took FOR-EVER! Phew! Then we weeded a millions years worth of weeds out of the front flower beds. I can't thank my dad enough for lending me his helping hand and getting this all done. It looks so much better now!


Tonight Mike and I went over after supper to work on getting some cleaning done inside the house so we could get started on some prep work for all the patching and painting we have in store. I'm on one side of the living room just dusting and minding my own business when all of a sudden I hear a riiiiiiip! I turn around to find Mike on a ladder pulling down this panel of bead board! It turns out it had been gaping ever so slightly when mister Mike got a little curious. He apparently started by just cracking the edge ever so slightly to see what was behind it and when he discovered that it was not great but somewhat decent plaster and drywall he tore the daggum thing down!

There is the portion of the wall that has been ripped down. Green bead board on either side.


So now Mike and his brother are going to be scraping the wall tomorrow and then hanging quarter inch drywall to cover up the imperfections and make it look like a wall that always was instead of a wall that had wallpaper goo on it and was just covered with paneling because they couldn't get it off. Which I suppose in a sense is what we are doing too but.... whatever.


After he pulled part of the wall off he decided he was going to make his way upstairs to "look around a bit." After just a few short minutes I was called upstairs to see what he had found. There Mike was, on the floor digging at the carpet with his screwdriver. There in all its seemingly perfect glory was hardwood floors. Later in the night after we had walked around the house a million times with Mike's brother talking about all the projects we were thinking about doing we found ourselves upstairs again picking at the corner of carpet. Well, one thing led to another when all of a sudden Mike stands up with the corner of carpet and pulls! He just couldn't stop himself, he kept pulling and pulling and tearing up all the carpet to reveal beautiful hardwood floors!!!

                                BEFORE

                                AFTER


The pictures don't do them justice. For one they were taken on my phone, and secondly they really are just so nice! There is a bunch of carpet dust and floor taks but once all that is cleaned up I think its going to be perfect. These things aren't even going to need refinishing! They are still shiny and everything!


After we took a step back and assessed what we had done we moved onto the stairs. We weren't quite sure what we were going to do now that we had ripped up the carpet as the stairs in the house are also carpeted. We had wanted to put down hardwood stair risers at some point but that certainly wasn't something we had planned on tackling immediately. For one we don't have the money to do those and all the other projects that really needed to be done first and secondly, we were hoping to get a few other DIY projects under our belts before tackling something as daunting as building your own hardwood stairs. We figured we had better bite the bullet though and just rip off the carpet and see what we were facing. This is what we found.

                                BEFORE: nasty pet and kid stained carpeting.

                                AFTER: Hardwood steps!!!!


Can't you even believe it?! Again the picture doesn't do them justice! They need a good cleaning and a little care due to the tacking strips from the carpeting but the main point is they are hardwood. Finished, beautiful hardwood stairs. I die!!!!!!


I am so dang excited about this little house I can't even begin to tell you. Mike is too. He can't wait to get started and see the finished project.


This may possibly be the longest blog post ever. I have much more to post but think I had better turn in for the night (seeing as though its 1am). Tomorrow I will post more, also I'm going to bring my camera and take some good before pictures since everything is getting ripped down before I can even get a chance to show anyone what it looked like!


Also, I've been meaning to take a picture of my new plant on my dining room table to post but its on my parents camera and all the picture I've been able to upload are from my phone. Thanks Theresa! Can't wait for you to come and see it!!!!


Hope everyone had a wonderful day!!


xoxo