some good news :)

We've had more work to do than we realized, which is delaying our move, and in turn stressing me out!

We just got back in touch with the Webster Groves inspector, and the following can all be considered positive :)

1. Good: The downstairs half bath does NOT have to be functional. We can cap it off for now, and redo it at a later date.

2. Better: Most of the electrical is being done today. We were told we needed to ground all of the outlets in specific rooms, which was going to require drilling through concrete (all the external, load bearing walls), and was going to cost an arm and a leg. Mr. P found an alternative solution and the inspector OK'ed it.

3. BEST: We can move all our things in ASAP, as long as we're not "living" there until we have the occupancy permit. Obtaining the permit may take less time than expected, as we've really busted our butts lately...BUT, in the event it takes a while, my folks have (generously) offered to let us use one of their spare bedrooms until the permit is issued. SOOO, we won't have to pay both rent AND mortgage come September.

Other: Did I mention that Pop, one of my resident rock stars (Mom P is also included in this list), was able to fix our fence and save a couple hundred dollars?

Teaser

It never hurts to look at everything together just to see what a mess I'm creating :) But really, our color scheme seems to be working out quite well.

Before you gasp and call me crazy, keep in mind that the house is fairly small, and we're working to lighten the space a bit to make it feel larger and more cohesive.

COLOR SCHEME:


All paint is Valspar, from their Earth Elements collection.
1. Winter Sky (being used above the chair rail in the dining area, will be used in some of the kitchen)
2. Blowin' in the Wind (being used below the chair rail in the dining area, will be used in some of the kitchen)
3. Oasis (this is our living room color, which was completed this weekend and turned out fantastic! Especially with the fresh white ceiling and trim, along with the wood floor)
4. Shadow ("master" bedroom color...master being more of a descriptor than an actuality - love it, which I may have already mentioned)
5. Swoosh (second bedroom/guest room - I have big plans in here, but not sure yet how they'll pan out)
6. Whirlwind (hallway, third bedroom, and probably bathroom - these all need to be painted something fierce, but I'm sticking with something very simple and easy to work with until we have a better idea of what we want)

Our true goal is to create a living space that is both attractive and calming, which is much-needed after the past few months. I'm looking forward to living in a cozier, friendlier environment. One of my fears was this was all going to appear "tan, tan, and tanner" in the house, but each color has a distinct shade, and we've broken it up with some fun in the living room. So far, so good...my favorite aspect so far with the paint colors is that they all change depending on the amount of light in the room.

Today, the new furnace and A/C are being installed. Wednesday, electrical. Plumbing to be announced soon :)

House-related Rambling...

Our neighbors have 11 chickens (used to be 12, but a possum ate one), raise bees, have 4 cats, 2 dogs (Rhodesian Ridgebacks - I love them!), and one adorable adopted daughter. Not to mention the heirloom and organic gardens that take over a large part of their yard. Amazing.

I have to wonder whether every home-buyer, at some point or another, wonders whether they bought a lemon. Not seriously, of course, but right now things are definitely frustrating. We're still trying to get a lot of stuff done before we can get our occupancy permit and actually LIVE there.

New HVAC system being installed on Monday morning. Met with electrician #1 yesterday afternoon, #2 is coming this morning. We'll have to weigh the differences. Still need to find a plumber, but now a much more pressing issue...our kitchen sink pipes fell apart on us last night. The sink was stopped up, pipes weren't sealed correctly, water EVERYWHERE. Finding the humor in it all.

Last night Mr. P and I decided that a good motto for us would be "Are you F***ing kidding me???" just because of the situations we've been in over the past 7+ years. We always make it work, but also know the next obstacle is just around the corner.

Mr. P's been busy during the day at the house, and I've been there every evening since we closed (minus Friday nights) working on things here and there. Painting trim is a bitch, but it really does look a lot better than the 50s style boring wood underneath...and it brightens the space quite a bit.

I'm hoping Mr. P can get the living room ceiling done today, so I can get started on the walls. Painting walls excites me, painting trim annoys me, and my one attempt at a ceiling was an epic FAIL, though highly amusing. I looked as if I had pigeon poop all over, including chunks in my hair. BRING ON THE WALLS :)

Overall, as each room starts coming together, the place truly does feel like ours, and I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. It's like when you do a deep-clean, and things always look worse somewhere in the middle of the process.

Need to find good, inexpensive carpet for the hall and bedrooms. Gotta cover the nasty asbestos tile. Recommendations?

My hope is that people will find the humor in all of this along with me, laugh with (or at) us, and know that this is nothing if not a labor of love. Would I do this again? Probably not...but ask me down the road years from now when we're buying our next home after we've turned this one into something worth writing about :)

County =/= Country

I've been spending a few hours each evening after work doing a few things here and there at the new house. This evening, Pop was helping out with a new deadbolt on the front door, Mom P was there to help with some trim.

All of a sudden, Pop starts speaking. (I was in another room up on a step stool so I have no idea what's going on.) He's kinda chuckling, and I was confused. After coming down from my up-high painting perch, I talked to Pop to figure out what was up.

Apparently, some of our new neighbors have chickens. Yep, CHICKENS. In WEBSTER GROVES.

Neighbor-man casually asks if we've seen his chicken. Mentions that sometimes one will get out, and if we see it, to just holler. Um...OK?

I should add that, growing up, my neighbor had both chickens and a couple of roosters. She also raises bees and sells the honey. This was also in the county.

I never thought I'd be living so close to domestic fowl ever again...and it's somewhat comforting.

Post-weekend house update

Lots of good, some bad, but all in all, still exciting.

I left my camera at the house, so unfortunately, no photos today. The GOOD:

Master (I use that term loosely) bedroom: painted. Valspar "Shadow" which, depending on the light, appears a grey/blue/green color. FABULOUS. Also, trim has been primed.

Dining room/area: painted. Valspar "Winter Sky" above the chair rail, and "Blowin' in the Wind" (I think!) below. Trim primed, two coats Ultra-White semi-gloss, and tape will be taken off this evening. It'll be nice to have this room (pretty much) done - at least everything but new flooring.

Living room: was painted a light grey by sellers. I'll keep it for now, until I have enough time to give thought to it. Trim has been mostly primed, and I'll finish priming this evening.

Bathroom: tile floor complete. We went with a clearance tile from Lowe's called Keyera
which has a bit of brown, a bit of grey, very neutral and should work with whatever we end up deciding to do color-wise. Chris has done a phenomenal job on the floor and tile baseboard. Today, the toilet and sink should be installed.

OH! And on the sink note, we returned the vanity and went with a pedestal sink. There's a goofy vent that was hidden in the original vanity, and for better air flow we decided to go with the pedestal so as not to have to install new duct work to move the existing vent.

The BAD: we already have a neighbor issue. Due to the grading of our lot, water from their property flows directly onto ours. It's not that big of a problem yet, except they have multiple gardens in their yard...which they watered continuously ALL WEEKEND (literally, at least 10 hours on Saturday and at least 8 on Sunday), and all the runoff came directly to us. We've got a bit of standing water, and a small spot in the basement that needs to be fixed ASAP. All this after we had a french drain and window wells installed on the west side of the house, only to have their crap affect the south (front) of our property. FARK.

I think that just about covers this weekend. Keep an eye out for more updates, and pictures if I can remember to bring my camera home!

What were we thinking?

Well, WE were thinking that I love a good project. And we're pretty sure that Mr. P's happy to be along for the ride. Looks like a bright future of sharing some ideas, tackling projects together, bickering like old married people, and share our love with...a building?

I've decided to whet your appetites with a few of the listing pictures of our house. Some of you have seen these already, but they're new to the blog. I can only imagine the reactions we may incite, and Mr. P and I are totally prepared for any comment that comes our way - we remember the reality of these pictures all too well.

The house - getting sick of this one yet?


The front door, ugly screen door, and itty-bitty mailbox:


The living room...in all its glory:




The kitchen...from the side door/living room:


...from the dining area:


The dining area/eat-in kitchen:


The bathroom:


I've only got a few more of one of the bedrooms and the back deck. Nothing too exciting. But some of these are downright scary, to say the least!

At this point, the house is pretty much a blank slate. The roof has already been done. The plastic tiles and most of the wallpaper in the kitchen have been removed, plaster fixed, and primed. Dining room carpet gone, walls primed. Living room (ghastly) has had carpet removed (we discovered great hardwood flooring in here!), the mirrored, red-painted panels removed, and painted a light grey. The bathroom tiles (also plastic) and swan shower door have both been removed. Again, plaster repaired and primed. All bedrooms are primed - one was originally turquoise, one fuschia, and one this weird peachy color. All had wallpaper trim.

The fact of the matter is that cosmetic work can do a LOT to change a place. We couldn't be more excited to have bought in Webster Groves, and even more so to begin the long road ahead of turning this house into our very own home.

Homeowners!

Mr. P and I finally own the home we offered on almost two months ago.

Keep in mind, it's a bit of a fixer-upper. I'll show some pictures here and there, but for now there isn't much to see! So far, we've got a new roof that I couldn't be happier with.

Mr. P and I have a lot of projects in mind, but we're trying to keep things less overwhelming by taking everything one step at a time...in this case, our first BIG project will be the bathroom.

Pretty much going to demo everything (see if we can salvage the tub - fingers crossed!). New tile on floor and walls, new vanity, new toilet, etc.

Last night was our first foray into the world of potty-purchasing. There are way more options than necessary! We knew what we wanted, but it was on the third shelf up, so we needed help from the folks at Lowe's. Unfortunately, the one person who could help us was working with another couple...for 45 minutes :( So I sat and waited. In that time period, I determined that most of the easily-accessible models were bisque/biscuit colored...I can't help but wonder why anyone would purchase a toilet that's already the color of a dirty toilet? (No offense intended if that is your choice, but I would love to hear the reasoning.)

We finally walked away with this:


While waiting for the guy to help us out, we ran over to the vanities and grabbed this sucker:


It's nothing fancy or special, but the bathroom is pretty small and we wanted something simple and effective in the space.

My goal is to purchase this medicine cabinet to (somewhat) coordinate, but I'm not in any hurry:


For such a small room, there will be a lot of white to try and lighten up the space. We're having small disagreements about the paint color (once the rest is done), but I think we'll have a fair compromise soon.

So that's it. Our first house. My first home-reno post. Expect more projects to come, lots of frustration through the learning process, some pics here and there, and lots of excitement through it all :)