Ground 0 - New House, New Vision

Well we've done it.  After close to a year of trying, we finally sold our old house and purchased a new fixer-upper.  And when I say "fixer-upper", I don't mean just taking down wallpaper and freshening up the paint.  I mean a house in such a condition that twice now we have had different workers assume it was a foreclosure.  No, surprisingly, people did actually live here like this!  To give you a feel of the condition of the house, we'll start with some pictures.  Don't be alarmed.  We are living somewhere else temporarily until our work on the house is complete.  We would never allow our 5-month old baby into a house in this condition.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for you), pictures do not come with a smell.  So use your imagination as you view these.  Close your eyes, and picture walking into the dirtiest, smokiest bar you can imagine.  Got it?  Ok now imagine it hasn't been cleaned in at least 6 months.  Smell that?  Ok, now add 10 cats.  {Sniff}  Ah yes, there it is.  The smell of our new house.  Here it is, home sweet home.

The Outside - Hard to believe, but the outside is in near perfect shape.  New windows, recently painted and a sturdy roof.  It's the one part of the house we don't have to do any work to!

 Entry Way - Living room on the left, dining room on the right, powder room at the end of the hall

Living Room - A nice big space.  The picture doesn't quite depict just how filthy the carpet is...

Office/Bonus Room - Off the back of the Living Room, this room has a built in desk and bookshelves

Formal Dining Room - Yay, wallpaper, my favorite! (sarcasm)  Note the lack of flooring... that's an exposed sub-floor.

Kitchen + Eat-In Area - Featuring the world's smallest ceiling fan and more exposed sub-floor in front of the dishwasher

Kitchen - Of course they took the only newer appliance with them, the refrigerator

First Floor Powder Room - Yes, they even smoked in the restroom...

Upstairs Landing - Four bedrooms upstairs, watch out for the stairs with those missing banisters!

Master Bedroom - Thank goodness for double closets.  I don't share well.

Private Master Bath - The toilet appears to have not been cleaned since 1995

Master Bath Tub/Shower - Hot water control missing... dead bug in the drain included with purchase of property

Bedroom 2 - Daniel loves blue... but not this much

Bedroom 2 Closet - That's a couch in front of the closet.  As our realtor pointed out, "Well at least you know you can fit a couch in here if you want to..."  Good to know

Bedroom 3/Nursery - This is the smallest room so it will become the nursery for Maria

Bedroom 4/Main Guest Room - Why yes, that is lime green sponge-rolled paint on the ceiling

Entryway - This lovely hole is right in the entryway hall.  The pipe got fixed, the ceiling did not...

So there you have it - that's our home!  There is also a good-sized basement but since we won't be touching that for a while I left out the pictures.  The basement contains the laundry in an unfinished area and two "finished" (as in wood paneling with holes in it finish) rooms, one of which is a conforming bedroom with a closet and egress window.  However without a bathroom in the basement, I doubt anyone will ever stay down there.

Now you're probably asking yourself - why on earth did they buy this house?!  Good question!  When looking for what would be our new house, we found ourselves caught between two options.  1) Buy a perfect "forever home" with matching fixtures and live there forever or 2) Buy a fixer-upper to pay off and turn into a rental home.  After prayer and some testing of the waters, we felt led towards option 2.  So our goal with this house is to fix it up to a nice home (not top-of-the-line though because remember, rental property) and rent it out while we purchase another home to live in and hopefully, fix up again.

I thought our family and friends may enjoy seeing all the work we put into the house and progress we make each day.  Thus the birth of this blog.  I hope you enjoy seeing the fruits of our labors as much as we are enjoying building our "sweat equity" into this home.  Watch for the next post with progress photos coming soon!

Happy remodeling!