Progress!

So in the last week or so I've decided to keep reminding myself of the saying, "Slow and steady wins the race." Mostly because our progress has indeed been slow and arguably steady (I'm fudging on that one a lot...). Here is what we've gotten done:

Adam mowed the lawn for the first time! And yes, I was standing out there taking pictures of him (which he loved, of course). Unfortunately, our lawn is about 80% grass and 20% bare patches at this point, so by the time he was done he was COVERED in dirt. I had to laugh, although he didn't find it as funny. Not surprising, his future yard work plans include putting some new grass seed down so we can actually have more of a lawn and less of a dirt pit. According to our neighbors the previous owners didn't really like to keep up with the yard/landscaping. Shocking, I know.

We actually finished raking out this entire bed! It's officially the first project we've started AND finished at this point. Well, if you don't count the other beds that still need raking that is....we ended up getting 24 bags of leaves out of this one alone. Thank God for Adam's mom owning a truck!

Somehow I got stuck inside even though it was gorgeous weather....so I primed all the back sides of our cabinet doors. This was my first painting project in the house. I'm not very experienced but I think I did pretty well. It took 3 coats of Kilz to cover the black paint...now I just have to do the other side! I also really enjoyed using our sun room for this. With all the windows open it was actually really nice. I can't wait to use it for relaxation instead of work!

After finishing the cabinet doors I moved on to the upper cabinets in the main part of the kitchen. I made Adam take a picture so we could document all of our hard work. I look like a cheese ball. I know.

I got all of the upper cabinets primed with the first coat by the end of the weekend. I was pretty proud. I also could no longer grip after I was done holding onto rollers/brushes for two days straight. My forearms were killing me! I also managed to somehow give my hamstrings a workout, not sure how. All I know is that they were (and kind of still are) super sore too. Guess all this work is a good workout huh? Or maybe I'm just getting old. Oh, and you may notice those excellent tiles that were on the wall as a back splash are gone. Mom & Dad, you'd be proud. I made a heat gun out of my hair dryer and pried them right off. Go me!

And finally, these are the remnants of our first meal in our new home! We thought about taking a picture while we were still eating but we were both so exhausted we couldn't muster up the energy to do it. And yes, we ate on the fireplace. And yes, those are our current household decorations. Every home needs a minion, right?

Wallpaper may have been invented by the Devil

Plan A for weeks 2/3: Remove all wallpaper

So weeks 2 & 3 have been pretty slow going. Apparently houses take a lot of time, energy and money...who would have thought. We were making some head way on the wall paper situation, as you can see in this section where we removed wall paper behind the fridge. Not too bad for our practice section huh? Yeah, we were pretty proud! We were super excited about our progress and minimal damage to the wall.
And thennnnnn....well you can see in the picture to the left. Clearly there is a bit more wall damage and much to our chagrin we discovered that our lovely predecessors decided to remove the wall paper in some spots, to leave it in others and on top of that in multiple places there are 2 layers of wallpaper. Who does that?! WHO! So once we started seriously pulling up pieces of the wallboard we decided to halt and consult a professional before we completely destroyed our walls. Pretty much we are going to have to remove all of the wallpaper and then the walls will be re-mudded (is that a word? it is now.) and sanded smooth. So yeah...not exactly as easy as we had planned.


Plan B: Take advantage of lovely spring weather
So while we were waiting for our professional to consult on the walls, Adam and I decided it was time to get outside and capitalize on the gorgeous spring weather. It has been absolutely beautiful here, not too hot, not too cold. So we got to work on raking out the flower beds. After a week or so of working about an hour every night, this is the result. We are pretty darn proud!

Now, I know you may be thinking that this doesn't look like a lot to accomplish. I forgot to take a before picture of that bed, but it essentially look like the one below. I'm not sure the picture can do it justice...there were about 6 inches of leaves piled up on top of the pine straw that had originally been laid down. It was a lot more work than it looks like!

Just for another point of reference, here are the bags of all the leaves we raked out of that bed...and we aren't even done yet! Adam and I definitely have our work cut out for us and will be getting plenty of good exercise in the near future!

And so the fun begins!

So we have completed week 1 of our housework. We won't be moving in for about 6 weeks since we still have the lease on our apartment until the end of April. We decided to take this time to try to knock out some work and figured tackling the kitchen first made the most sense. It is going to be a massive project and once we move in it'll be hard to work on it (most know how grumpy I get without access to food at all times).

So here is where our fun started. Day 1 consisted of getting all of those lovely black cabinet faces down and taking off the hardware. Adam's parents were nice enough to come help us which helped us learn lesson #1 of housework:

Many hands make for faster work, but also mass confusion.

We were trying to keep all of the hardware organized to some degree so we wouldn't kill each other when it came to reassembling things. Let me tell you, with 4 people all delving in at the same time, this project became mass pandemonium. Of course me, being the organizational freak I am was about to have a heart attack. It also didn't help that when I asked Adam to bring Ziploc bags to keep everything organized I failed to mentioned that we needed the whole box (didn't think that needed to be said...but that's another issue). So we had approximately 4 sandwich sized Ziploc bags for about 30 doors worth of hardware. Needless to say we had to improvise. After we completed taking everything down I was ready to give up entirely and rent forever. I texted one of my best friends to ask her what the return policy was on houses...apparently there isn't one.

OK, so I was being a bit over dramatic on the first day (shocking, I know), but the real fun started on day 2. We began prepping the cabinets for painting and while doing so, we made our first excellent discovery. That amazingly gorgeous lime green paint in the kitchen that we thought we were going to just paint over? Yeah, apparently the previous owners decided that painting over the old wallpaper was a great idea. This wouldn't be nearly as much of an issue if it weren't for the fact that clearly they tried to rip off some of the wall paper and then gave up. So, our walls are incredibly bumpy and have random lines all over where the wallpaper seams show through. You can even see the line going all around the room where the border is. All I know is it's a good thing we didn't make this discovery until after the home was purchased. This was, of course, my reminder to expect the unexpected when it comes to home ownership. Now, I realize that this is a minor pain to deal with comparatively, but I still felt like this.

So, on to our work over the weekend. After coming to the realization that there was far more wallpaper to be removed than we had previously thought, we sprung for a wallpaper steamer. Apparently it's a much more economical decision to buy one than rent one (unless you have a 2ftx2ft square to remove and that's it). The fun really began when Adam and I started our teamwork of removing the wallpaper. We decided to start practicing behind the spot where our fridge will be. We figured we'd mess it up and this way no one will see it.

We actually were quite good at wallpaper removal (no, we will not come do yours), which was surprising. I oscillated between feeling like it was "so fun!" when pulling large pieces off to "are you sure it isn't too late to back out of this?" every time the paper was being stubborn. Adam also made the mistake of allowing me to be the one to hold the steamer at first. This resulted in Adam having to remind me over and over and over that steam is really really really hot and apparently, it does not feel good on your hands. Bless him for not killing me after burning him for the 80th time while completely disregarding all prior direction he had given me. Each of these encounters were followed with snickers coming from the breakfast nook as Adam's mom helped to sand the cabinets down. Hey, at least she gets some entertainment in return for her labor, right?

Another unfortunate discovery came when we realized those awesome vinyl tiles (or whatever the heck they are) that the previous homeowners thought they would apply terribly as a back splash were attached to the wall with some sort of industrial grade adhesive. I'm fairly certain that it was a bit overkill...but then again I'm no pro like they clearly were. So after pulling one off and creating a bit of a hole in the drywall (oops!), we had to regroup. I think we can get them off by slowly melting the glue with the steamer...it seemed to work on the small section I tried. We'll keep you posted on that one...

So, after week one and about 8 hours of work we have accomplished:

• Removal of cabinet doors/hardware
• Prepping of cabinets so we can start to prime
• Removal of wallpaper behind the fridge (almost...we got frustrated and stopped just short of being finished)

Wow. That list looks really short. This is going to take forever! Good thing we have 30 more years to work on it huh?

So we're adults! Or are we....

For some reason unbeknowst to us, a bank has decided to loan us money to buy a house. We have your typical 30 year mortgage which, when you think about it, is slightly terrifying. Neither Adam nor I are 30 yet. We have no way to actually comprehend how long 30 years is. I can't even plan what I want to do next week let alone 30 years from now! But I digress...

I'll start at the beginning and give the brief rundown on how we got to owning a home. Long story short, after we got married (another indication that, perhaps, we are indeed adults) and we returned home from the honeymoon, we took an afternoon to "window shop" and check out what houses were on the market. Our close friend just happens to be a realtor which turned out to be quite a help. The second house we looked at Adam loved and I hated. Of course, my hatred was based solely on hideous paint colors and a myriad of cosmetic issues....seemed like a good way to judge a house in my mind, no?

OK, so Adam (aka the voice of reason) noted all of the practical (read: boring, yet quite valid) reasons why this house was a good deal. It was a foreclosure which means we get it on sale! Of course he had to go there, he knows I'm a sucker for a good deal. It's in a great neighborhood, look at the large trees! Etc, etc...slowly he chipped away at my arguments about paint colors and the work we'll have to do to it. I agreed, albeit reluctantly at first.

I do have to admit though, it grew on me and soon I found myself emotionally tied to a house that we were fighting to get a contract on. A word to the wise here: foreclosures are a great option, but be prepared for far more anxiety than you bargained for. By some grace of God (and much great guidance from our friend) our offer was accepted and once inspections/appraisals were done it was smooth sailing. Sort of. Closing was scheduled for February 25th. Since it was a foreclosure the sellers weren't physically there. Thus, somewhere between February 25th and 28th when they faxed the final paperwork, we became the proud owners of our new home.

So, here beings our adventure into adulthood...or at least homeownership. We hope you enjoy keeping up with our progress on the house through this blog. We figured that since our families and friends are spread out so far and wide that this would be a great way to keep everyone in the loop.

For those of you who have not been able to see the house in its raw form, here are some pictures. Fun times huh?