Saturday, May 5, 2012

a post that's not about my daughter.

surprised?  shocked?  me too. 
i mentioned we closed on the house on monday but between charlie being gone, work, and that girl named avery, today was the first day that we made it over to the house.  we were meeting some people in the morning for estimates but we were also trying to figure out exactly what we needed to get done before we moved in.  now if you want the short version, there's a lot to do.  if you want the long version, keep reading.  

so things that we need to get done prior to moving in:  
1.  repainting: the master bedroom, avery's room, the half bath, full bath upstairs, and preferably the entire first level.  basically, the entire house except for the basement and the third bedroom. both really need to be repainted but since we're not immediately using those rooms i figure we can get to it eventually.  

2.  replacing the floors: the carpets are gross.  really gross.  we're hoping to do hardwood on the first floor because it's so much cleaner and then just replace the carpet in the bedrooms.  unfortunately i realized after looking at carpet that the carpet i like is the most expensive.  go figure.  

3.  installing a radon mitigation system:  the radon levels in the house was 0.6 picocuries above the action level, which is practically nothing.  the good news is that with levels that low after installing a mitigation system the levels in the house should be at or below outdoor levels.  and we're also installing a radon barrier.  people think we're a little crazy. 

charlie is currently obsessed with the outside of the house, which while it definitely needs a lot of work i'm more worried about getting the inside ready to move in and somehow getting all of our stuff a mile up the road.  

i'm sure our neighbors already think we're crazy because this is what they saw today.  we showed up at the house in the morning with a dog and a baby.  the second i let henry out of the car he spotted a rabbit three houses down and took off after it.  already we're the neighbors with the bad dog.  i got him back and stuck him in the yard where he whined.  after a bit we left and went to home depot and came back with  carload of random things.  so clearly we're the people who have never had a house before.  one of the things i wanted to do (eventually) was cut down some of the shrubs in front of the house.  we got some clippers at home depot and started to cut the bushes down.  after about 3 minutes they broke.  charlie spent the next 30 minutes sitting on our front porch trying to fix them.  with a hammer.  we finally left.  charlie returned the clippers at home depot and we went to lowes to buy paint and a lawnmower.  charlie came back with more clippers.  cut one of the 3 shrubs down from about 5 feet to about 2 feet. and then left.  

we met our neighbors that live next to us who seem nice.  the guy came over and introduced himself and we talked for a bit.  henry of course was quite excited to see another person and at one point i thought he said to henry 'i must smell like parrot'.  i figured it was an expression.  then later we were attempting to figure out the sprinkler system which meant that charlie, avery, henry, and i were all crowded around behind some bushes and our neighbor walked out to grab the mail, with a parrot perched on his shoulder. well henry looked up and his eyes lit up like a kid on christmas morning.  a bird!  so close!  luckily i grabbed his collar, but then our neighbor looked up and saw us and henry and said 'oh, i'll put the bird back in the house'.  very odd.  we're lucky our first meeting didn't end with henry eating his bird.  

now for some 'before' pictures of this house.  they're pretty terrible because they were taken with my phone while i was holding an avery.  

shrubs before.
there are three shrubs in front of the house.  
the right one is now about 2 feet tall.  the rest have yet to be chopped.

living room before.
the living room.
it is tiny, really tiny.  like 13 x 13.
the curtains must go and we're hoping to have hardwood in this room.  and brighter paint.

family room before.
family room. 
hoping to put hardwood in here as well.  

kitchen before.
kitchen.
not a huge fan of the backsplash but whatever.  the sellers left the island which was nice since we were planning on getting one anyway.

half bath before.
the half bath.
this is a half bath/laundary room.
we're repainting this a green/yellow.  grellow.

yard before.
backyard.  
dead grass, weeds, and overgrown bushes.
charlie pulled the weeds.

Untitled
half of the bath upstairs.
brown was not a good color in here.

retreat before.
part of the master retreat.
the sellers used this as a closet.  we're going to use it as our office.
we need to take the shelves down before we paint.  i'm not a huge fan  of the orange/yellow in here.

master bedroom before.
master bedroom and a henry.
same color as the retreat. 

avery's room before.
avery's room.
the sellers had a son a few months older than ave.  they were moving back to st. louis to be close to their family.  

3 comments:

Alex said...

I think it is a very pretty house! I love the kitchen. Congratulations!

PS - I available for help with home improvement work next time I come to visit :)

Kat said...

Yay congrats! Can't wait to see it! I'm useless when it comes to home improvement but I'm awesome at playing with puppies and babies if that would free you up a bit ;)

Kat said...
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