Moving Day =)

What a day...  The painters finished painting everything yesterday so I was able to move a lot of my things to the house today on my day off.  I'm exhausted!  It's all coming together so nicely :o)  Should be moved in by Saturday.

Pictures soon!

October Update!!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've last updated!!  So much has gotten done since my last update.  The tile is finished.... After days upon days of tiling on uneven concrete, dad finished the tile which looks GREAT.  Dad did an incredible job.  The wood in the master bedroom is finished as well and the baseboard is installed... (LOOKS SO GOOD!)  all that's left for now is hanging the chandelier in the dining room (Not just any old chandelier... THE chandelier.... I waited and waited for it go to on sale and I bought it at 50% off!!) and touching up the paint.  I should be moving in at some point next week :)

Tile looks amazing......

WOOD!

Filling in the laundry room which had a silly 2 inch drop

MANY more pics coming soon :)

Front Door (oooo La La)

 

 

Front door- Before

Front door - AFTER

Tile :o)

Laurie next to the new tile

Uneven Concrete... Boo.

Apparently the disgusting carpet that we tore out covered and hid a very "wavy" concrete floor beneath it...  Dad spent a good hour on jack hammering one corner of the living room to get it even with the rest of the floor.  He will have to pour self-leveling concrete in certain areas so when the tile is laid it is a nice even surface.

The bubble is way to the right and look at that gap.... No good!!

I volunteer to help keep the dust down with the vacuum while dad slices into the concrete

Lots of tile waiting to be laid!!!  It is porcelain made by Dal-Tile and gorgeous!!

When we get the white trim in it will look incredible...

Sorry to all of those who voted on the tile; once I had put both the light and dark tile up against the paint I panicked because they both looked terrible....  This Dal-tile was on sale at Home Depot so with a little convincing from dad I decided to go with it.  You can't tell from the picture but the beige in the tile matches the paint perfectly.

Excited this is finally happening!!

Flooring

I maxed out my one and only credit card on pallets upon pallets of tile tonight...
I was going to go with stone but the cost was double what I paid tonight, heh.  Pictures soon.

Paint Update!

I'm exhausted...

Just got back from tearing off all the plastic and tape from everything not painted, shop-vaccing the entire house, and helping dad remove all the closet doors.  It took about 45 minutes to un-tape everything... I can only imagine how long it took for the painters to tape it up!!!

Before...

After  :o)

I am SO pleased with the paint color

It will look better when I paint a couple accent walls (dark brown to the left)

Paint!

I swung by the house last night to see how the paint looked and... WHAT?!  PEACH!?  I didn't want peach!  I clearly ordered "smeared" which is a classy taupe color....  I had a minor freak out moment...  and when I went by again tonight it looked MUCH less peach...  I'm happy with it.  I'm assuming it took some time to cure more which could have affected the color since when I saw PEACH they had just finished painting it hours prior.

After all that deciding with the tile (I decided to go with dark, sorry Meggo) now that I have the two tiles up against the freshly painted walls, I don't like either.  My dad got me a decent price on some stone tile (yummy) from a buddy of his, so I really want to go with that if I can afford it.  Thank you for voting anyway :o)  There will be more polls to come, I'm sure.

Pictures also coming soon!

I Need Your Help!!!

New picture - without flash

with flash

(click picture to zoom in)






I am not sure which tile to choose... I've decided on the big 20", but not sure which color.  I took a picture of the two tile colors I've narrowed it down to so you could see what they look like next to the cream-colored couch.  I'd love to go with a darker grout because light grout tends to get darker in areas and with the darker grout I wouldn't have to steam clean it as often, so I'm kind of leaning toward the darker tile....  however, they are both beautiful... I'm stuck.  What do you think??

Which color tile?
	1 - Light
	2 - Dark

Playing with Power Tools

Hmm.... This will do for now.... but...

Power tools are where it's at  ;o)

Dad worked hard to get all the trim off while I took off all the outlet covers... with a screwdriver.  boo.

California Knockdown

Mom scraping away old popcorn ceiling!  (8/5)

Another day off from work...
(they seem to be so few and far between)...
So much to do, so little time!
I'm heading over to the house in a little bit to help dad install the well water pump for the sprinkler system...  Then help him move the gigantic wall unit (which is bolted to the wall) so we can do flooring soon.

Yum

All cleaned up.  She was so proud :)  (and sore!)

Ready for the knock down spray (8/12)

My first pineapple off of one of the 3 pineapple plants!! (Thanks Laurie)

Knockdown texture!  Sooo pretty.... can't wait to see it painted!  (8/13)

Bye-bye Popcorn Ceiling

Well, it's become apparent to me that the previous tenants were heavy smokers.  There were areas of yellow popcorn...  right over about where a couch would go... and most of the popcorn actually smelled like smoke.  Not judging any smokers out there, but for this asthmatic it's just no good.

Now that the popcorn is gone, the ceilings are being prepped for a knockdown texture today.  Once I get the old carpet out of the garage (hopefully today) I'll be able to clean it and have it painted so I can move all the house bits that are accumulating in my parents house into the nice clean garage :o)

Carpet, Tile, and Wood... Oh My!!

Flooring.

This is the current project.  Now that the carpet is out, it's time to pick out what I'm going to use for flooring.  A month ago, I had already decided on wood in the bedrooms, and tile (big gigantic tile) in the rest of the house.  I went 'tile and wood hunting' with mom today and I've found my big gigantic tile at Home Depot, and as for the wood, I am going to look around at some more places because it's very expensive.  The first sample I picked up and fell in love with was $11.99 a sq foot.... HA..... Not happening.  I did not know what kind of look I wanted until going to a couple stores today and I learned that I like that wood that has light and dark contrasts but on the lighter side.  So pretty.  And laminate is out.  Before today, I didn't know the difference between the look of laminate and wood.... Like whoa.  Big difference.  So I'll fork out the extra money for wood.

I've been getting house bits delivered to my parent's house almost daily... They just delivered an area rug I had ordered for the dining room.... I have my vacuum, Tupperware set, pyrex glass baking set, towels....etc.... Picking everything out is more exciting than I thought it would be :o)  And being the bargain hunter I am, I'm saving a ton of money at the same time which is equally as exciting.

My dad's buddy has been at the house patching up all the holes in the walls so next step is picking out paint... which is a REALLY hard decision.  I have a beautiful "dusty rose"-colored duvet set for my bed (when I finally purchase one) and I'd like the master bedroom paint to match the comforter...  The extra bedrooms, I'm not sure.  I want a red room, because that's different and fun... and I'm not sure about the 3rd room.  Lots of decisions!

More pics coming soon!!!

Tearing Out Carpet - Done.

After about an hour of cutting and tearing out the carpet (which was old and disgusting by the way) the house smells so much better.  That old musty smell is definitely going away...  Having the air running for a few days has helped with that, too.  Mom and dad did most of the work; this asthmatic girl stayed outside as much as possible as to not breathe in much dust.  Ty never did show up...  Maybe he will when we start painting.

You can see all the dust in this picture...yummy

Closing Day - Part 2... Okay, It's Hit Me :o)

I'm a homeowner.... heh.  Typing that made me smile.
Everything went smoothly; quick and simple...  A few signatures and that's it...  Now the REAL fun begins.
I'm starting with:  a washing machine, a couch, and pots and pans.  I need, um, pretty much everything else.  :o)
I won't be moving in for a while so in the meantime if you have any suggestions of where to get affordable house bits please let me know. (especially a TV to start...!  Oh, a bed would be good too...)

This is a HUGE step in the right direction for me.  The past few years haven't been the greatest and finally an accomplishment to be proud of.  Thanks to mom and dad for all your help, too!  I know dad's looking forward to making this his new project...  Helps having a general contractor for a father :o)

CLOSING DAY!

I just got back home from wiring the money and doing a walk through with my Realtor; I'm on my way to her office to sign all the closing paperwork, so this is REAL TIME, folks!  It is 3:45 and I'm eating for the first time today so I thought while I stuff my face with some bagel bites I'd update the blog.
I'm excited, but I honestly don't think it's hit me yet...  Maybe it will hit me once I sign all the paperwork and make it official.

Me and my Realtor, Laura

Ready for the official walk through!

My House - Before

As promised, the following pictures are of the house I am closing on next week.  These pictures show the house "as is" (after all, that's all part of buying a foreclosed house), so please understand I am well aware that it needs a lot of work.   I intend on taking pictures throughout the transformation process and posting them every step of the way.

Suggestions and comments are welcome...  I'm not very experienced in decorating or remodeling, but I am ready to learn.

Let the pictures begin...

Loving the green roof;  the gray and maroon house color, not so much...
Thinking of going with light beige with white trim.

Master bathroom

Master bedroom

Dining room... All carpet is being torn out, I'd <3 to go with bamboo flooring

 Sunken living room; which I dig... (pun unintended).
This will be my giraffe room!

Extra bedroom #1  (dolphins fan...?  heh get it)

Extra bedroom #2

Me!

Guest bathroom

My favorite part of the entire house... the back porch...

...because of the view.   I have lots of ideas for the backyard....

...ideas including fountains and fire. (I watch too much "Landscaper's Challenge" on hgtv

That is all for now!  It is going to take some time but with some hard work and a little TLC this will soon be my home <3