Days 20-21 - The Little Things

Thursday & Friday
These past few days have been difficult for me to work on the house.  My little peanut has been extremely attached and gets very upset if I try to leave her with anyone.  I finally managed to get to the house today for a bit by bringing her with me and having her aunt and cousins entertain her upstairs while I got a few things cleaned up and prepped for the next steps.  Do what works, right?  Esther helped by sweeping the kitchen and dusting the furniture while Julia sang five hundred rounds of Maria's favorite song to keep her happy while I worked.  These hard-workin' girls didn't even have time to change out of their school uniforms before coming over!

All the new doors are now hung with the exception of the linen closet and pantry.  Those doors are both 20" which is apparently a special order size.  They won't be in for another two weeks or so.  I'm glad we got the new exterior doors up so the locks are now changed.  It's always a good idea to change the locks when you buy a new home.  I know I still have a key for our old house (kept by accident) so chances are there are at least one or more keys floating around for this house too.  I'm loving the new front door.  I would have liked to have a bit more glass just to let in extra light, but if you've ever gone door shopping, you know how expensive those pretty doors are.  With all we've got going on, I'm happy with this one.  I particularly love the handle we chose.

Here's the guest bath door with the handle installed and the sliding closet door in the nursery:

Spraying paint on these doors is on the list of things to do after we've moved in.  They're good enough for now!  Already a major improvement to the blanket doors...

One thing I really appreciate looking back at our old house was all the little things the previous owners thought of.  They had extensively renovated that house back in the 90's, and while I didn't necessarily appreciate the wife's affinity for floral wallpaper, the house was planned with love and care.  For example, every closet had a light inside that came on automatically when you opened the door.  The bathrooms all had motion sensor lights in them.  Granted, this occasionally confused our guests when they used the powder room, but I miss that!  The kitchen had been painstakingly laid out in a way that made it so easy to cook in it.  Each bedroom closet had a convenient system to maximize the storage space.  The beauty of living in that house for me was in the lovingly planned details.  I'd like to find ways to put our own thought-out details into this house.  It's the little things that make a house a home.

What are some minor details that you have seen somewhere or done in your own home that you felt went above and beyond?  Is there a non-necessary "extra" you've put in to just add that special touch?  What little things help make your house a home?

Keep dreaming!

Day 19 - House of Doors

Wednesday
All future overnight guests of Casa del Goodwin will be pleased to know that we now have doors for each room!  You may not have noticed in the original photos that were taken before we closed, but there were hardly any doors in the entire house.  Most of the bedrooms had blankets hung on nails for privacy and the closets were either open or had a blanket tacked up there as well.  The few doors that were there were not the style we would have wanted anyways so all doors are being replaced.

We chose the 6-panel door design for the interior doors.  Perhaps it was just wishful thinking but looking at these doors in the store, we kind of thought they were already painted white.  Turns out they are just primed to be painted.  When placed up against the very white door casing, they look more off-white or grayish.  Hey, another thing for me to paint!  The hardware on the doors will be satin nickel handles.  Here's a photo of two bedroom doors and the handle for the front door:

The closet doors will be installed Thursday so Daniel is painting the casings white tonight.  Apparently the slider type closet doors don't come with a casing so we'll be using the existing frames.  Those casings are one of the few original things that will remain in the house I guess!

I stopped at TJMaxx to check out their clearance shelves for decor items.  I found two lamps that I liked for the living room.  Unfortunately, the living room was designed (as most are) without any overhead lighting.  While I'm adding "canned lighting" to the wish list as we speak, for now we will need lamps to see when the sun goes down.  Plus lamps are just a stylish to almost any room I think.  Here's the two I found, and I'm hoping to find the matching floor lamp online.  The photo is a bit blurry.  I liked the brushed silver base with the neutral gray shades.  Going for clean classic styles in this room - I guess I'm not very funky.

Speaking of decor, I loved the ideas I got from everyone who responded to Tuesday's post both in the post comments and on the Facebook link!  I think I'll keep the decor gray walls with black and white in the dining room with just one or two pops of red.  I don't think an accent wall would look as good once we put in the wainscoting - a project for after we move in.  I liked these examples of monochromatic rooms with just one or two pieces in color.  Red is my favorite color so that will probably be our "pop" in the dining room and at least one of the bathrooms.  Of course the style of furniture in the dining room pictured below is more contemporary than anything I own.  After all this remodeling, our old furniture is just going to have to keep holding up for a good long while.

The biggest thing on my mind now for decor is window coverings.  If money was no object, we'd live in a house with enough trees and privacy around it that I would never cover the windows.  In fact, that's pretty much what we did in our old house.  The way it was situated on a hill higher than any of the other houses with our bedroom windows facing the large backyard, I rarely closed most of the blinds.  Sure, folks may have gotten a surprising view occasionally, but that's what good neighbors are for, right?

So what are your preferred type of window coverings?  Wood blinds, Cellular Shades, Vertical Blinds, Aluminum Blinds, Roller Shades, Curtains with or without blinds - so many options!  Keep in mind, I like things that are easy to clean and maintain (what mom doesn't?).  And soon enough, little toddler hands will start exploring whatever I put on the windows.  What do you like best?

Soon we'll have those windows covered to keep the summer sun from waking us up too early so we can keep on dreaming!

Day 18 - What would YOU do?

Tuesday
I think my hand is soon going to be permanently scrunched in a "brush-holding" position.  I guess that's what happens when you've been painting for six days in a row.  On the bright side, we are ALMOST done!  Daniel's brother Josh was so kind to come over again last night to help while his wife and girls babysat Maria.  He got the second coat rolled in the dining room and bathrooms.  He's an awesome brother!

I just have to get a few more rooms cut and then I can be done painting for a while, hallelujah!  And the good news is, I got the scary job over with.  My least favorite thing to paint is the stairway due to having to climb up high on a ladder to paint.  It always freaks me out.  I never used to be afraid of heights but the older I get... yeah, I was a little nervous.  I couldn't help envisioning losing my balance just enough to throw the paint tray I was holding all over the new carpet on the upstairs landing.  That would have been very upsetting.  Fortunately I kept my balance and all went well.

Daniel worked on installing the flooring in the guest bathroom.  We typically tile in the bathrooms - Daniel is awesome at tiling - but couldn't find a tile we loved so decided to try something different.  The Restore had boxes of Allure Vinyl Plank flooring in "Iron Wood" color.  I'm usually not a big fan of vinyl flooring but this looked kind of cool and modern.  My biggest complaint about bathroom floors is how cold it is in the morning.  This seemed like it would be a bit warmer than tile so we thought we'd give it a try.  If we hate it, we can always pull it up later and tile.  So far I think it looks neat, and it's definitely "softer" and warmer than tile. 

So now I'd like to ask for YOUR opinion.  In our gray rooms, how would you decorate?  Would you stick to a mostly monochromatic theme or do a bold color to offset the gray?  The dining room will have white wainscoting eventually with a medium dark Pergo floor.  The bathrooms have the gray walls with white trim and now you can see the flooring color in the upstairs baths. 

I have a small painting that I bought from a street artist in London back in 2009.  It's a white canvas with a black outline-type painting of a couple walking down the street with Big Ben up ahead.  They are holding a bright red umbrella.  It caught my eye because of the splash of red on the black and white canvas.  Perhaps there's something there to work with.  What would you do? 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts to help us keep dreaming!

Day 17 - Stony Gray Beagle

Monday
New flooring install has begun!  The installers began laying the new carpet in the living room, office and second floor.  Since the laminate floors won't be installed until Wednesday, they will be coming back on Thursday to carpet the stairs and tuck the carpet edges properly everywhere it meets the laminate.  We chose a frieze carpet with a tan/brown fleck called Custard.  We installed this carpet into the old house right before we sold it.  I'm looking forward to getting to enjoy this new carpet a little longer!  Here's a picture from the upstairs landing.

Daniel and I headed to the house after dinner to keep up on the painting work.  Daniel rolled the kitchen, put a second coat on the entryway hall, and cracked open the Stony Gray paint to roll the dining room and half bath.  I was a little worried when he opened it because of how blue it looked!  But it just needed stirred.  I think it looks pretty nice!  We will be adding a white wainscoting to the bottom half of the dining room wall after we move in.  But that's a project for another day and another post.

I worked on cutting the hallway and office while he rolled.  The nice thing about no trim boards in the house is only having to cut in by the ceiling and in the corners.  I hate taping so I just do it freehand.  After painting so many rooms at the old house, I've gotten relatively good at it.  As you might recall, I had forgotten to cover the one ceiling fan in the house we are keeping before the texture guys did their thing.  So I spent about 30 minutes just cleaning the texture spray off of every square centimeter of that ceiling fan.  Fun!  Ah well, lesson learned.  I won't forget to cover it in the next house.

I knew it would happen at some point, and tonight was the night!  One of our dogs leaned up against a freshly painted wall.  Here's Venus wearing the latest color from our spring line, Stony Gray.

When Daniel took off some plastic in the kitchen, I got a good look at the cabinets he'd been painting at night after I was already home with Maria. I'm loving the color!  We are going to tile the counter tops as well to save some money.  Eventually we may install new counters but we'll see.  Tile will certainly be an improvement to the cheap Formica that is currently there.  We need to do a second coat of Espresso on the cabinets, just to make sure it holds up against the wear and tear of using the kitchen.

As soon as we get the painting done (just have some cutting and the two bathrooms upstairs left), we can work on putting the bathrooms together.  I'm looking forward to that!  As of right now, you just have to make sure you don't drink too much before you come work at the house...  Enough said.

Until next time, keep dreaming!

Day 16 - Now THAT'S how you clean a floor!

Saturday
Tonight my husband gets a back rub for all of his hard work on the house today.  We really wanted to get all of the areas that will be carpeted painted before Monday - the entire upstairs (minus the bathrooms) plus the living room and den on the first floor.  Lots of paint!  Thank goodness for Habitat Restore prices.  A 5-gallon bucket is around $55 which is much more affordable than the $20-$30 pricetag for one gallon at the hardware store.

Today Daniel and I (but mostly Daniel) worked on the following:

• Finished spraying all the ceilings
• Finished rolling paint on all bedrooms including inside the closets (cutting still in process)
• Rolled the living room, den and entryway
• Daniel's dad got the entry way and upstairs landing lights installed (pics to follow as I forgot to take them today)

I spent some time just cleaning up as well.  All the plastic that covered our windows and furniture needed removed.  It was covered in the texture and made a giant mess on both me and the floors when pulled down.  I threw it away in the dumpster.  Now the top layer of trash is all that painters plastic.  This may make the dumpster hauling truck an interesting site going down the road... I hope it doesn't all blow out!  That would make for a serious littering fine.

Unfortunately, today was a tough day for scheduling with Maria.  As I mentioned, our go-to babysitter had something come up that kept her busy most of the day.  I was able to work at the house from about 10:30-1:30, but that was it.  Sometimes, you just have to be the mommy.

My biggest challenge of the day was getting all those floors cleaned.  To be honest, I had no idea how to really get them clean.  Do I sweep, vacuum, mop, scrub?  I just wasn't sure what would work.  But this morning on the way to the house, something wonderful happened.  Daniel got a call from a friend offering to help clean the floors.  He's a pro when it comes to floor cleaning - literally, it's his profession.

He came by the house around 11 to look at the project, then returned with his work van.  He's got some serious equipment in there.

He ran that giant blue hose into the house and went to work on the upstairs bedrooms.  You won't believe the difference that machine made!

Here's a before and after shot of the nursery floor:

So obviously that cleaning equipment (plus the operator!) worked a miracle for us.  A GIANT thank you to our friend Rodney for his amazing work.  Seriously, he took a load of stress off my plate.  And it was thanks to the blog that he knew of our need.  Guess this thing really came in handy for us!

As you can see, the bedrooms had hardwood floors under the carpet.  While in the future we may consider refinishing them, right now it's just more work than we can handle.  They're pretty beat up and badly stained which would mean to LOTS of time spent sanding.  That's just not a project we're up for right now.  So carpet it will be for us come Monday.

By the way, after a second look today, I've decided I like the Autumn Mist color.  It's is a good thing too, considering how many rooms it's going in (almost all of them for now).  We're keeping it very neutral at this point.  Once we move in and I have some decor for the rooms, we may decide to change it up.  This will definitely do for now though, and I'm happy with it.  Looking forward to seeing how the Stony Gray paint looks in our bathrooms and dining room!

Until next time, keep dreaming!

Day 15 - Remodeling Stress

Friday

Ok so I have a confession to make - I'm stressed today!  Typically, I'm like an emotional rubber band.  Sure I get upset or riled up about things but I snap back to my normal self pretty quickly.  I don't let things get to me for long.  But today, I have to admit, I'm a little overwhelmed.

I didn't go to the house until after dinner today.  Due to some unforeseen complications, we were without a babysitter for Maria.  While it was nice to spend the whole day with her, it also meant I sat thinking about all the things that needed done at the house.  Thankfully Daniel's dad was able to go over in the afternoon and install the rest of the ceiling fans.  He's been a huge help getting that stuff taken care of while Daniel is at work!

To further complicate things, Daniel found out today that the carpet is being installed on Monday.  Monday.  As in the first day of next week.  We had thought it was scheduled for Tuesday, but I guess we wrote it down wrong.  If we delay the install, the next available date was April 2nd which is no bueno.  So Monday it has to be.

This means that all our rooms that will have carpet need to be painted before Monday - four bedrooms, upstairs landing, stairs, living room and office/den.  Also the floors in those rooms need scrubbed down as they are coated with lumps of texture and drywall mud.  Thus the cause of my distress.

Tonight we got all the ceilings on the 2nd floor and most of the 1st floor painted.  Daniel started rolling our actual color paint on the bedroom walls as well.  I just need to go in and do the cutting around the ceiling.  So we're not in bad shape.  Plus, if we really can't get it all done, it's not the end of the world.  Obviously people typically paint in rooms with carpet.  It's just so much easier when the floor is unfinished.  I can't even think about how I would feel if we accidentally kicked over a bucket on the brand new carpet.  (True story, an entire can of wood stain was knocked over in the basement of our old house on the off-white carpet.  It's still there.)

Another reason I'm feeling stressed is due to the actual paint itself.  Picking paint colors is worse than the actual job of painting to me.  I always worry, "What if I hate it after we've painted the whole room?!"  I'm not a great decorator, as you will soon see.  I don't have an eye for it so I don't trust my judgment on the subject.  Fortunately, we like to save money and therefore buy all our paint at the Habitat for Humanity Restore.  This is helpful to a paint-phobic such as myself because they only offer about 12 paint colors.  That keeps things pretty simple.  However, I still find myself doubting the color I picked!  It's called Autumn Mist, and we are going to use it in most of the house.  Again, trying to keep things simple, we planned on only using two neutral paint colors - a tan-ish color for most rooms and light gray in the bathrooms.  The Autumn Mist is looking a little more green than I was hoping for.  Here's a pic of it as Daniel looking adorable rolling it on and I'm standing in the doorway fretting.

Ah well, it's what we've got and we're sticking to it for now!  We'll see how it turns out.  On the bright side, I am very happy with the ceiling fans we picked for the bedrooms.  We are using all satin nickel fixtures in the house.  Our old house had a ton of outdated brass fixtures so I am THRILLED to have something more modern!  The blades are two-sided with a sort of light brown option and a dark wood option.  We decided to go with the dark side since the brown didn't match our furniture and the new trim will be white.

In conclusion, tonight I've discovered blogging is good for the soul!  After typing out tonight's post, I feel better - certainly less stressed.  So thanks for "listening" to my earlier rant.  It helped.  Thank goodness, for Daniel's sake!  I've found that stress makes me a bit of a mean wife, poor guy.  I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I snap a lot at him when I'm feeling overwhelmed.  He takes it in stride but I hate when I'm like that.  It's just not me.  

So now that I'm feeling back to my old chipper self, keep dreaming friends!  I know I will.

Day 14 - New Makeup Routine!

Thursday
Today was a "make your shoulders ache" kind of a work day.  I went to the house before lunch, after lunch and after dinner to paint.  My top priority - get the ceilings upstairs painted so we can take out the old ceiling fans and install the new.

My #1 illumination expert was there to help me this afternoon.  He took down the bedroom ceiling fans while I painted.  Does your electrician wear cuff links on the job?  I didn't think so.  You can't buy this kind of class.

I went to Home Depot this morning to get some more roller covers for this job.  I asked the paint counter folks what type of nap roller I would need to paint the textured ceilings.  They suggested the 1/2 inch.  I had the 3/4 in. in my hand but put it back based on their recommendation.  I wish I hadn't.  I rolled the dark blue bedroom ceiling until my arms ached and could still see through the texture.  The roller just wasn't cutting it.

That afternoon I got smart.  I brought out Daniel's Wagner Spraystation paint sprayer to give it a go.  Since we are just going with flat white on the ceilings, I used the Killz primer for the job.  It's white and will seal out any smoke residue that might try to seep out later.  (Side note: The house no longer smells like cats OR smoke, hallelujah!  Now it just smells like a construction site.  We're getting there.)

The Killz is kind of thick, so I watered it down for the sprayer - about 3/4 primer and 1/4 hot water.  Not sure if using water that was hot made a difference but logically speaking, typically things mix better in hot water than they do in cold.  Worth a shot.  Whether that helped or not, spraying the ceilings worked great!  The key with the sprayer is to take your time.  It doesn't spray on thick so you've got to move slowly to cover the area adequately.  I used a stepladder in the beginning but then got tired of moving it every few minutes and just held the sprayer as high as I could reach over my head.  It got the job done!

By the end of tonight, all 4 bedroom ceilings and both bathroom ceilings upstairs were finished.  Daniel came that evening after band practice and rolled the walls of the bedrooms and baths with the primer.  The second floor is now ready to paint!

Being a busy DIY Renovation Mom, it can be hard to find time to take care of my appearance.  I've been learning to take shortcuts wherever I can.  Today I discovered a brand new makeup routine that saves me time by doing my makeup while I paint the ceiling.  Presto!  Ready for date night with the hubby!

White eyelashes, white highlights and white lipstick are in style, right?  Even my contacts have small flecks of paint...  After a long shower, I still don't have it all washed off...  FYI when I went back after dinner, I got slightly smarter and wore a mask.  My lungs and throat are thanking me for the break from the fumes.

Keep dreaming!

Day 13 - Let them eat paint!

Wednesday

The painting has officially commenced!  While the walls on the first floor will not be textured until Friday, the second floor is done and ready for some serious painting.  

First on the agenda was sealing the cement board that replaced the moldy drywall around the master bath. A small bucket of shower waterproofing paint runs you around $40.  They call it "paint" but I would liken it's consistency to that of rolling chocolate pudding on your walls.  Weird stuff.  It's also a vibrant turquoise color that dries into a dark green.  I rolled two coats onto the cement board to cover it thoroughly.  No mold should be growing in this shower!

We are quite pleased with the results of the texturing.  As I've mentioned, the ceilings were an outdated popcorn texture before.  We now have knockdown on the ceilings (on the left) and orange peel on the walls (blue bedroom wall shown on the right) that will camouflage the drywall repair we've done.

Today we got the walls of the master bathroom, bedroom and another bedroom rolled with the Killz primer.  Unfortunately I was only able to be at the house for a short time this afternoon or I would've gotten more done.  Ah well, a start is a start!  We buy the Killz in giant 5 gallon buckets and are on our second bucket already (the first bucket was used to cover half of the first floor).  Daniel has this neat mixing attachment for his drill that makes stirring these large buckets a breeze.  We use it for both mixing paint and drywall mud.  So much easier than the wooden stir sticks!

In case you're wondering about my extremely fashionable skirt in the photo above, here's a closer look from before I started working today.  I have paint "samples" from every paint job I've done in the past few years collected in various spots on this skirt.  It's my paint scrapbook!  I was excited to get a little turquoise addition from the sealer.  It's the little things people.

While I did a great job (if I do say so myself) getting the windows and furniture covered in plastic before the texturing, I didn't think to cover any light fixtures.  We will be keeping the office fan and dining room chandelier as both are fairly new and in great condition.  Well they were in great condition... now it looks like I will be spending some serious time cleaning the texture mud off of them.  Oops!

 

Tonight while looking through ceiling fan options online, Daniel pulls up a photo of a very small 24 inch fan and says, "Why would they even make a fan this small?  It looks like a fat mosquito!"  So there you have it folks.  Do not put a 24 inch ceiling fan in your home unless you want it to look like an obese insect landed on your ceiling.

Keep dreaming!

Day 12 - Textured Memories

Tuesday
Today the texture guys arrived right at 8 am to get started on the walls and ceilings of the house.  The ceilings were a light popcorn that we are covering with a more updated knockdown texture.  Thankfully they will not have to scrape off the old texture as it was not very thick.  That certainly saved us on labor charges.  They weren't able to get the entire house done today so they will be returning at noon tomorrow to finish the job.  Having them at the house with every room taped off meant a free day for me!  I took full advantage of it since as soon as they're done I will be a painting maniac.

Since I don't have any real updates for the house today, I thought I'd do a "looking back" post remembering our last house and what a wild ride that was.  For those who are interested, read on!  Warning, it's a bit long. :)

When we first got married (six years ago in May), Daniel already owned a townhouse.  It was a great place for us to start off our marriage.  We lived there for two years before selling it in April 2010.  At the beginning of April, we were looking at houses every weekend.  I was working one Saturday morning when Daniel emailed me three properties he had set up appointments for us to go look at.  Nothing looked that great to me, but he was particularly excited about an older brick two-story he'd found.  I didn't understand his eagerness but agreed to check it out with him after I got off at noon.

We drove to the house and turned down the street to find an odd sight.  The pavement was new and the street was lined with lots for sale.  There was one new ranch at the very end of the cul-de-sac and the house we were going to look at sat halfway down the street up on a hill.

"Where's the driveway?" I asked as we parked in the street waiting for the realtor.  The curb ran in front of the property with no break to drive up the drive marked only by well-worn tire treads to the concrete pad outside the garage.  This indeed was an interesting house.  Once the realtor arrived we climbed up the "driveway" and went in through the peeling double front door.  The house had been unoccupied for a while.  Walking in was not at all what I was expecting.  It was covered in large floral wallpaper from floor to ceiling in most of the rooms.  But there was something about it.  It felt right.  We ventured upstairs and entered the master bedroom.  As soon as I saw the master bath, I knew.  "This is it Daniel," I said and the look on his face told me he felt the same.  We drove straight to the realtor's office and signed an offer letter right then.  We had found our house.

When we first took possession, the grass was about two feet high!

What happened next was a roller coaster ride of emotions and legal complications.  The house was a short sale.  The last owners to live in the house had sold it in 2006.  They owned all the property around it at that time which was a beautiful acreage which had a stream running through it, a separate garage with living quarters, a barn and a tennis court.  The family sold it all to a contractor who put in the street and split the land into lots to sell off one by one.  He sold the home, at a ridiculous price in my opinion, to a man who owned another house.  The deal was that the contractor would do the needed work on the house (put in a driveway for example) for the buyer before they moved in.  Then the contractor went bankrupt and all plans were disrupted.  The house went unfinished, the buyer never moved in and found himself with two mortgages.  Before being foreclosed, the buyer decided to try to sell the house for about 60% of what he bought the home for. 

So we put our offer in and waited to hear back.  Our offer was the first on the property as it had only been listed a day.  The owner accepted within two weeks, but now came the hard part - the bank.  Would the bank agree to take our offer at such a high loss to their books?  We decided this house was worth waiting for to find out.  So we moved in with Daniel's parents to wait for a decision from the bank.  Our house was sold and the new buyer took possession in the beginning of May. 

One Monday in May, Daniel got a phone call.  The bank accepted our offer, even though higher offers had come in from other buyers.  Apparently this bank believed in first come first serve.  We were elated!  One caveat - they wanted to close at the end of the week.  Fortunately we had already been pre-approved so paperwork was already in motion.  However, before the mortgage company would sign a loan with us they wanted certain things done including turning the water back on (the house had been winterized in 2008), repairing the deck, putting in a driveway and filling in a woodchuck hole next to the house.  Of course the current owner was not going to lift a finger to do these things so it was all on us. 

Our mortgage broker was amazing!  She lined everything up faster than I could have imagined and had people out at the house fulfilling each request.  We put in a gravel driveway, screwed down some loose deck boards, had a pest company catch the woodchuck and turned the water back on.  To our dismay, the house had not been winterized soon enough.  A pipe had burst and it rained into the kitchen when the water was turned back on.  No problem, the plumbing company could fix that. 

It was Thursday (we were set to close Friday) and I was headed to the house with my cleaning supplies bucket.  I was too excited to wait until closing when I knew I could get in now and start cleaning.  The plumbers had just fixed the burst pipe and were pulling out when I got there.  I drove up the new gravel drive to see Daniel coming out of the house.  He was locking the door behind him when he got a phone call.  His face fell and I knew something wasn't right.

Here we were the day before closing and the mortgage company had discovered a $50,000 tax lien against the property.  We were devastated.  What did this mean for us?  We had just spent $1200 on a house that didn't belong to us and we find out we can't close the deal?!  We were told they were going to try to find a way around it.  We would just have to wait and see.  I was incredibly disappointed but determined it would work out. 

I went to the internet, looking for answers as to how we could work around this.  I researched a loophole that had been created in the tax laws due to the recent housing crisis.  I'm sure I'm lacking legal terminology here, but basically if a house was being sold for less than the mortgage amount to prevent foreclosure (i.e. a short sale) and the tax lien was secondary to the mortgage lien, then the tax lien could be released from the property to allow it to be sold while the lien was held against the debtor.  This seemed to fit our situation perfectly.  I talked to our agent who went to the mortgage holding bank.  They said they would attempt to get the lien released on those grounds.  Success!

Two weeks later the bank decided that the tax lien is not their problem.  They were not going to try to have it released.  The only way we could buy the house is if we were to pay off the $50,000 ourselves.  Um, no thanks.  Again, we were devastated.

Two more weeks later and they called to say they have filed the paperwork to request for the lien to be released.  Talk about getting yanked around - these people couldn't make up their minds!  So they filed the paperwork and the lien was released.  We closed on the house on July 31st with immediate possession.  It was truly a miracle that we got the house after all we had gone through.  We knew God had helped us.

We decided to work on the house before moving in since an empty house is much easier to work with.  We tore down wallpaper, repaired the damaged walls and painted some of the rooms.  Daniel put new tile floors in all the bathrooms.  Many things we decided we could live with for now as we were eager to move in.  You can see pictures of the house here on Flickr as it was during the time the work was getting done and after.  Later updates missing from the photos - concrete driveway, large rock retaining wall along drive, landscaping updates, shed built, all carpet on 1st and 2nd floor replaced and the nursery update in a Paris theme for Maria.

After we moved into the house in September, the city dropped another bombshell on us.  The house was built on a well and a septic system.  Since we were inside city limits, wells were not permitted and septic tanks were only allowed until they needed repaired (at which time you would have to hook up to city sewer).  At the same time, we found out that for our mortgage, the septic tank had to be inspected before they would file the documents.  So technically we were living in a house that we didn't own on paper, although they were conveniently still collecting our monthly mortgage payments.  Funny how that works. 

To save money, the septic inspection company told us we could dig up our own septic tank.  Naturally it wasn't marked and since the land had been split up, it wasn't even on our plot anymore.  A family from our church came out on a hot Saturday in September to help us dig up the septic tank.  Derrick and his son Jude helped Daniel outside while his wife Lynette and daughter Faith (the now teens in the previous post) helped me inside the house.  They were out there over an hour digging holes with no progress on finding the tank.  Derrick decided it was time to ask for help.  He went over to a tree to take a break in the shade and prayed, "Lord, we really need your help finding this tank.  Please guide my shovel."  He went back into the yard and sunk his shovel into the ground... and hit concrete.  God always cares, even about the small things like a septic tank hidden in the yard.

After that we struck a deal with the contracting company who now owned and was trying to sell the empty lots after the bankruptcy of the original contractor. Since our septic tank was on one of their plots (not exactly a nice selling point), they would give us a substantial price break to hook us up to city water and city sewer, per the city's requirement.  However we did stick it to the city just a little bit by keeping our outside spigots hooked up to the well to water our yard.  Free irrigation for life!

We did many more upgrades and enhancements to the house, too many to count.  The one I am probably most proud of is the beautiful fireplace upgrade Daniel did in the basement.  Again, there are pictures here on Flickr if you'd like to take a peek.

We had many adventures in that house and built three years of wonderful memories.  It was the house we had our first child in and it will always be close to my heart.  Our dreams and visions may have caused us to move on, but a piece of my heart will always be in the walls of that home.  It's a part of me now.  I hope to pour a bit of myself into each home we work on together as a family.  A home is a special thing - something I never want to take for granted.  We are thankful for the opportunity we have to build a home together.

Keep dreaming - I know we will!

Day 11 - "Dad, you taught me everything I know about exterior illumination"

Monday
Monday afternoon I had some new helpers at the house with me.  Faith and Jude, two awesome teenagers from church who are on Spring Break, and Daniel's dad came with me to help with some final touches to get the house ready for the texture guy to come.  I made sure Jude got to use a power tool or two so he could feel like the man of the house. 

• Faith covered all the first floor windows in plastic
• Jude removed the towel bars and toilet paper holders from the guest bath
• Jude sanded down the walls and ceiling areas that had been repaired
• Daniel's dad took care of the electrical stuff, taking down the light fixtures in the entry way, powder room, kitchen and landing
• We also moved all the tools and equipment in the house down to the basement  and covered the dining room table and china cabinet so they wouldn't be sprayed with texture

I included a picture of the kitchen ceiling fan that we took down just because I think it's ridiculous.  It's got to be the world's smallest ceiling fan! 

We took down any lighting that had a large base.  We'll be replacing all the ceiling fans upstairs as well, but we left them for now.  I just wanted to be sure the larger base items got the texture sprayed underneath so we wouldn't be stuck forced to use another light the same size.  Having never dealt with electrical before, I was a little hesitant to start messing with the wires alone.  After watching my father-in-law, I think I could handle it now :).  I couldn't resist titling this post with a line about "illumination" from Daniel's favorite Christmas movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. 

I was glad we took those lights down when I saw this underneath.  Was the ceiling really painted that color or is it just that stained from the nicotine residue?  Yuck either way.

We also had our plumber back at the house to replace the walls around the shower.  When removing the old tub, mold was found in the walls so they were cut out along with the insulation.  They replaced the insulation and put up new cement board for us to tile over.  We will need to seal it first before we start tiling.

Daniel went to the house in the evening to put the finishing coats of mud in a few places that were still not quite up to the standard we wanted.  Unfortunately, that meant he had to go back this morning to sand it down before the texture guy arrived at 8 am to get started.  He's a good man! 

Once this texture job is done, that's when the ball really starts moving!  I'll be swimming in paint by the end of this week as every ceiling and wall, including inside each closet, needs to be painted before next Tuesday so we can start the flooring installs.  Eesh, I'm getting a little anxious just thinking about it, but I'm also excited.  It's going to come together quickly after the paint is done so hold on to your hats folks, we're in for a ride!

Keep dreaming big and we'll get there together!

Day 9 - Home Reno Causes Premature Graying

Saturday

New power tool for me today folks! I went to the house solo while Daniel stayed with Maria this afternoon. He had already worked hard at a church work crew this morning so it was my turn to do something productive. 

While at the house I used Daniel's Makita Random Orbital Sander. I'd never sanded anything before so it was a new experience. I was surprised by how heavy the sander felt. Not unmanageable but just heavier than I expected. All the better workout for my arms! By the time this house is done, I should have quite the biceps. 

Today I sanded down the bumps and creases in the mudding job Daniel had done in the powder room and guest bath. Boy that dust sure is awful! We had respirator masks at the house but I didn't have any safety goggles handy. After my contacts got a few pieces of dust on them, I put on my sunglasses to work. Sanding Unabomber anyone?

The sunglasses helped but of course made it harder to see what I was doing, but I made it work. Our texture guy had expressed some concern over the rooms where we had taken down the wallpaper. He said the glue residue may make it difficult for the texture to stick to the walls. So I also lightly sanded the walls in the dining room to prep for him. 

By the time I finished the job the sander's battery was dead. I decided that was a sign so I called it a day. Good thing I kept today short because apparently the stress of the new house has caused me to prematurely gray! 

Ah ok perhaps it was just the drywall dust. Whew, thank goodness. 

Until next time - keep improving!

Days 5-8 - Drywall, Dirty Windows and Toilets in the Bedroom

*I must mention a correction to yesterday's post as I was mistaken about which tool Daniel used to help us get the tiles off the master bath walls.  He used the Makita Rotary Hammer with a chisel bit.  It's also a pretty neat tool and ate that tile right up! 

Tuesday
Tuesday I took a break from the house during the day.  We were close to needing to start turning our underwear inside out and Maria looked a bit nervous every time I left the room.  So we spent the day together doing laundry, and I didn't go work until that evening.

After dinner, Daniel, Josh and I went to the house to get serious about some drywall repairs.  This was my first experience with drywall, and I was excited to "do it myself".  Josh and Daniel fixed the gaping entryway ceiling hole and the wall in the eat-in area of the kitchen while I worked on the powder room.  THIS is when I used the Makita Multi Tool I mentioned yesterday.  While I realize you can cut drywall with a simple razor, it's much more fun with a power tool.  Daniel gave me a "tutorial" and I painstakingly measured each piece.  I'm slightly anal about stuff like that and I didn't want to mess up my first time.  The boys also got the drywall hung upstairs before calling it a night.

Powder Room - Before, drywall was cut off due to mold.

Powder Room - After new drywall was hung (mostly) by me

Eat-In Kitchen Area - Daniel and Josh working on the other side of the wall

Makita Multi Tool in action.  It worked great for cutting the drywall cleanly

Just showing off... That's some precise measuring right there!

Wednesday
Wednesday I spent about 4 hours at the house trying to prep for the walls and ceilings to be textured.  Even though we're not living at the house, all of our furniture was moved there so we wouldn't have to pay for 2 moves.  Of course when the texture guy comes in, that stuff will spray EVERYWHERE.  While it does wipe off with water, I don't really want to be cleaning every crevice of our furniture after he's done.  So I moved any smaller piece that I could pick up by myself down to the basement.  Everything else got wrapped in plastic.  In the bedrooms, I just wrapped the group of furniture together in the middle of the room since it was only a few pieces.  In the living room though we had way too much so I wrapped each piece of furniture individually so it could be moved around when the crew textured the ceiling.  Fun stuff.

I also went around pulling out any screws or nails from the walls.  There was a screw that had been painted over in the living room that I couldn't get to budge with a screwdriver.  I texted Daniel and he said I could just yank it out with a pry bar.  The results were a little unexpected...

The "Innocent" Screw

The resulting hole

Seriously, who uses an anchor that big?!

 We also had some items delivered from Lowe's - exciting!  The Pergo floors have to sit in the house for a few days to "adjust" before being installed.  They will be laid in the entry, hallway, kitchen and dining room.  Some combination of this vanity will be in all 3 bathrooms.

Daniel came after work and put the first coat of mud on the walls.  He's polite so he didn't even bat an eye at the gaping hole I left in the living room wall.  He just slapped mud right over it.  Good man.

Thursday
Thursday I decided to continue to prepare for the texture guy as most of our projects are on hold until he does his thing next Tuesday.  I started upstairs with the intent to cover the windows with plastic.  When I got on my stool, I couldn't believe how filthy they were up close.  You could barely tell they were supposed to be white!   Cigarettes leave a nicotine residue on the surfaces of rooms that are smoked in.  Since everyone in this house had smoked, all the window frames were covered in a greasy light brown residue that also caught all the dust in the room to leave the windows pretty gross.  I spent a couple hours just on the second floor thoroughly scrubbing the inside of each window (especially the frames) then hanging the plastic and sweeping the floors after.  The picture didn't quite capture how bad they really were but you get the idea.  The outside of the windows can wait, for now I'm only concerned about getting the inside ready to live in.

Before

After

 Daniel stopped by before band practice to put another coat of mud on the walls.  One thing we've learned is the more time you spend adding coats and sanding the mud, the better results you'll get.  No more rushing through for us!  Having a lot on your To Do List is not an excuse for doing a substandard job.

Friday

We are almost at a pause point with the house until the texture is done.  We can't prime and paint until the texture sprayed.  No laying floors until we paint.  No vanity and toilet installs until the floors are down.  You get the picture.  So today I only went to the house to let the dogs out.  They are adjusting well and enjoying their new fenced in backyard.  Daniel went over for about an hour after work to sand the walls and apply another layer of mud.  Here are some photos  I took of the mud job after the first coat earlier this week.

I alluded to it in the previous paragraph but to say it plainly, we currently have no toilets installed in the house.  So if you're going to come help, don't drink too much water beforehand... 

New spot for the Master bath toilet? Pretty convenient location as it's right about where our bed will be.

So that's most of what we've worked on for the past 4 days.  I tell you what, this working at a construction site is tough on the body.  I've got one armed scratched up and stopped counting my bruises when I got to 10.  I do bruise very easily, but I think this might be a record.  Ah well, all in a days work!

Come back and see us again soon so you don't miss any of the action!