Saturday, May 28, 2016

Quick Update

We officially took possession of the house yesterday, although we won't be closing for about a week. Both should have happened on the same day, but closing was delayed, and the sellers were kind enough to allow us to start moving in on our originally planned date.

We're moving all our stuff on Monday, and spending yesterday, today, and tomorrow cleaning and going through stuff. There's a lot of stuff still in the house, because we came to an understanding with the sellers that they would rather not take most of their furniture and other things, and we'd be happy to take what they don't want and yard sale the rest to raise more money for improvement projects.

So when they moved out, they basically took their clothes, pictures and some personal items, and basically left everything else, so it's a ton of work. Yesterday we amassed a huge yard sale pile, found a few treasures for ourselves, and threw away fourteen bags of trash. And that was only from one bedroom, one bathroom, half the kitchen and half the garage. We still have more than half the house to go through, and the attic. An attic which is full of stuff and broiling lava hot right now. That'll be fun. But we're glad we have it, because we plan on finishing it eventually.

So, we're back to work today, to acquire more treasures and sore muscles. Woot!

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Let's Do This!

Our family moved from Utah to Tennessee a few months ago. Then we bought a house. Now we have a lot of work to do.

We want to blog about our projects and progress as we update, add to, and improve our home, partly for ourselves, and partly to share some of what I'm sure we'll learn as we embark on our DIY adventure. Stay tuned for updates (probably at least weekly, if not more often) as we get this party started!

So, without further ado, here is our new house! (Interior pics are down below, too)

We've been so blessed in so many ways with our move from Utah to Tennessee. Everything has fallen into place in such a perfect way that we know, without a doubt, that this is where we're supposed to be. Heavenly Father's hand has been so evident in our lives lately that I can't start talking about any of this without acknowledging Him for everything.

Some background on our house:
It's a 30 year old house that's had one owner since it was built - a really sweet older couple who are now moving in with their daughter. They've done great with keeping the house up mechanically, and replaced a lot of things like the roof, windows, HVAC, etc, which is great because the house is in wonderful shape.

Aesthetically, on the other hand, the house looks like what it is - a grandma and grandpa's house. So there is a lot to do to make it our own and bring it up to date. Which, I'm not gonna lie, we're kind of really excited about. We haven't had a house for the last three years, and even before that, our only other home was one that was pretty new when we bought it, so we haven't had many chances to get on board the House DIY train, even though Mike is super handy at fixing and building stuff.

We're moving in about a week, and have already spent countless hours wandering Home Depot, pouring over how-to articles, and agonizing over paint chips (I think we have over 50 of them floating around the apartment at last count).

So, here are some "before" pictures. These are the pictures from the MLS listing. We're excited to get in there and get going!


Living Room

With a wood burning fireplace - yay!

Other side of living room with stairs up to an unfinished attic.

Kitchen. Obviously.

Laundry room.

Kitchen again.

Dining Room. And wallpaper.

Hall bath. And more wallpaper.

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

2nd Bedroom

3rd Bedroom

Back of house.

Backyard! We've got about 3/4 of an acre, which is awesome!