We're Not Aiming For the Truck

I've blogged A LOT about my house recently. It's therapeutic for me. I won't be able to call it my house much longer. Shoot, maybe even tomorrow. January 31st was supposed to be our closing date, but we hit a snag with the appraisal. It is valued perfectly fine for what we are asking, but some very unlovable FHA guidelines threatened to not fund our buyers if we did not remove and properly dispose of the presumably lead based paint off the garage, and add another step to the cement stairs off of the exterior entrance in the master bedroom. It's all a little crazy, and unheard of. Even the agents were perplexed, but we did everything they asked, and now we are just waiting. Waiting in an empty house that feels awfully drab and echoes like deep dark cave. I can see why staged homes sell better.

And why is our home empty? Well, we had planned on moving and already made arrangements with my family and the moving truck company. So we packed a weeks worth of clothes and just about everything else went with my parents up to Kentucky. The cool thing about it is that I always pictured my usual procrastinating self panicking at the last minute, trying to box everything up and get it out of the house, while the new home owners looked at their watches in disapproval waiting to get in. Going about it this way means I know it's done and it was all done with time to spare.

Z has handled all of this very well. He knows we are moving to Kentucky , he understood why we had to box his toys up He even helped load the truck and got to go for a little ride in the big rig. He has enjoyed the whole experience through and through as if it were a special treat.

This is a cute clip of Z carrying one of our Christmas yard penguins onto the truck. He wanted to help and he took his job very seriously.

The funny thing is I said he could bring something with him for the big car ride and he chose his Cars 2 toys, however I had discovered that Buzz and Bulls Eye were packed in one of the suitcases, then Woody was found in a kitchen cabinet. I guess Buzz and Woody are coming with us too. It's just like the end of the first movie when Woody says "Uh, Buzz You missed the truck." and Buzz says "We're not aiming for the truck", and they land right next to Andy in the van.

It shouldn't be too long before the toy story gang gets to ride in the 4 Runner next to Z, but when exactly that is, I guess we just have to keep waiting to find out.

Before and After: The Exterior

Before:

Unfortunately I couldn't find any pictures of our house when we moved in other than this one that is still existing if you looked it up on google maps.

Since then we added a cedar fence, a wrought iron gate, did a ton of yard work including taking out and adding trees. We also put up a gable, and recently had a new roof put on, along with a fresh coat of paint.

After:

There are SO many things I have loved about this back yard. I will miss the rose bushes that I had clipped from for my friend when she was in the hospital. I will miss the Gladiolas I had photographed for a college project, and the Daffodils that come up right around my daughter's birthday.

I will miss the pecan trees that I was so eager to harvest from that my in laws gave me a nut cracker, and I put it to good use. I will also miss all the beautiful crepe Myrtle trees, which our city is known for, and I loved them even after my son fell out of one and had to get 5 stitches.

I can't forget the fig tree that my mom and I made jam with.

or the smell of Wisteria especially when I was pregnant.

and my favorite, the Redbud tree!

All this talk about plants make it sound like we lived in the master gardeners utopia which is not the case at all. Our back yard was pretty simple. We didn't do any gardening we just let the plants do their thing. These perennials, which were part of the package when we moved in, were faithful to bring us delight year after year. I guess if you were to sum up what I loved the most about this yard, I would have to say- Life!

Before and After: The Master Suite

The Master Bedroom & Bathroom

Before: Get ready for ugly, ugly, and more ugly.

Bedroom

Bathroom (that's carpet and some kind of funky stick-on plastic pink tile. YUCK!)

Not even a shower

After:

What I'll Miss: Our bedroom is pretty dang big for a starter home. I'll miss that. I will also miss the hardwood floors. I will never forget the day we tore the carpet up in this room. The original floors were in perfect condition in there. The light poured in as my mother in law and I looked at all of the hard work we had just accomplished and I just about cried. It was beautiful. It was beautiful even before we had done anything else, just removing that filthy decrepit monstrosity made a huge difference.

But I think what touched me the most was more than just the flooring, it was seeing potential. Because potential is quite a beautiful thing, when you catch a glimpse of it.

Before and After: Kitchen

I've blogged about it quite a bit about our big kitchen remodel and even have a video tour posted online!

Because of that I won't spend too much time talking about every little upgrade and amenity, but I will show you what I have for before and after pictures because I can't help myself.

Who cares if we had no dishwasher and a stove that had to be lit by hand for 5 years, not to mention we lived with a kitchen catastrophe for half of 2008. There was NO kitchen. We lived off of a refrigerator and microwave in the living room and washed our dishes in the bathroom sink until the project was finished.

None of that even needs to be mentioned when you look at the end result and just pretend that it all magically appeared like *POOF*. Are you ready for the poof factor? Okay...

Before

The kitchen as it was when we bought it in 2004

Sink

Breakfast nook

After

Sink

Breakfast nook.

*** Ta Dah***

Before and After: Bathroom and Laundry Room

Bathroom and Laundry Room

Before:

After:

Of all the before and after grand reveals this one is probably the least eye catching. The thing about home renovations though is that there is more to it than meets the eye. When we moved into this house it wasn't up to modern standards at all and one of the first things J did was gut the shower so that he had access to all the plumbing underneath the house. This "shower" was a catch all closet for things like my coupon stockpile up until we put it on the market.

Another aspect of the house that I never really had the chance to enjoy is the utility sink. J installed it at the very last minute. There is a funny story behind this counter top though. J being the resourceful little pack rat that he is used our old kitchen sink along with some wood he salvaged at a junk yard. He was supposed to be getting rid of stuff at the dump, but ended up coming back with a bunch of wood that was taken out of a strip club. When J showed me his beautiful craftsmanship he informed me that it was reclaimed from the cabaret. Reclaimed and redeemed I added. He agreed.

Before and After: The Dining Room and Hallway

The Dining Room and Hallway

Before:

What We Did:

The first thing we did of course was tear out the carpet. We didn't tear down all of the walls in these two areas because we only insulated exterior walls. We did however patch up some holes, refinish the floors, paint, add new crown molding, light fixtures, and window treatments.

The cool thing about the light fixtures is that when we knew we were going to sell the house I came across a yard sale a couple blocks from my house. They had a whole stash of new oiled bronze light fixtures. The lady told me her something about her son being an electrician and some yadda yadda that I didn't completely get, but what I did understand was that this meant jackpot for me. I texted J a picture to make sure he approved and he said to load them up.

I spent $30 and replaced all the old lighting in our house just like that. The only problem was that the chandelier in the dining room had no globes. However, I was pretty excited when I came home one day to find that J had installed the chandelier with 5 matching globes that was an exact match with the amber glass from the other lights that we had purchased and he got them for 75 cents each at a local thrift store.

He's handy and thrifty (that's my dream guy).

After:

What I'll Miss:

I will definitely miss all the built in stuff like the book shelf in the dining room and phone nook at the end of the hallway. I wish I could just take them with me, but then obviously they would not be built in anymore would they? Oh well.

Before and After, Part 2

The Bedrooms

Before:

What We Did:

We did pretty much the same thing in all the rooms. Took out the carpet, stripped the windows, tore down the walls. Then we insulated, put up new sheet rock, mudded, refinished the floors, painted, added the trim, crown molding, and updated light fixtures.

After:

What I'll Miss:

One of the things I think I will miss the most about these rooms are all of the windows. I had to fight tooth and nail to keep those windows. They are one of the things that made me fall in love with the house in the first place. And while they may not be the most energy efficient, in a town that is known for its historic homes and climate changes that aren't severely drastic, we can get away with keeping them. I also love our Ikea blinds which sadly are staying with the windows. My brother asked how we were able to find custom sized blinds for these antique windows at Ikea. I naively assumed we lucked out, but I was wrong. J cut the blinds to make them fit the specific sizes. So anyway, I thought I would set the record straight on that.

This photo is of baby SJ looking out of her bedroom window at the snowfall last year. I don't know a lot about the buyers of this house, but they are a young family and I am so excited for all of the moments that they will share looking out these windows; at the birds, at the sunset, at daddy's car pulling in the driveway. Blessings on their family.

Before and After, Part 1

I posted an album on Facebook of the before and after photos of our house. I was so overwhelmingly encouraged by the response. My favorite comment was:

Unfreakingbelievable! Seriously, one of the most amazing renovations I've ever seen. You should submit this to a show or something. Way to go!

I don't know about a Television show, but a blog series maybe? Over the next 2 weeks that I have left here in this house I want to highlight some of the work we've done in the past 7 years. Let's start with...

The Living Room

What It Was Before:

What We Did:

We gutted this entire room. Took out the carpet, stripped the windows, ripped out the tile, tore down the walls.

Then we insulated, put up new sheet rock, mudded, refinished the floors, painted, added the trim and crown molding. We also retiled the fireplace using black slate which matches the flooring in the kitchen . It all sounds very Extreme Home Makeover, when in real life this process took 7 years! We did a little at a time and didn’t finish until it was for sale. Reality shows are nice, but reality checks are even better.

What it is now:

What I'll Miss:

There are a lot of things I love about this room, but I guess one thing that stands out is the fireplace. It's gas and we've never used it, and for the longest time it had no tile and it needed to be painted. It was the ugliest focal point to ever grace an even uglier room, but it held our artwork, stockings, and family photos with pride. I don't know if we will have a fireplace in our next home, but I hope we do.