The R's of our new house

I've noticed that quite a few things going on in our house right now can be summed up nicely by words that begin with the letter R.  Renovate, repair, replace, rescue, reinvent.

We renovated the bathroom, removing all the mauve tile and the moisture damaged walls behind them, as well as the tub, toilet and vanity.  We replaced most of these items.  A new sink and vanity, an upgraded tub.  Help was graciously provided from my father-in-law and brother-in-law in replacing the floor and running new plumbing and electric.  We did manage to rescue a couple of things from the bathroom, both to cut down on costs and to keep some of the charms of this house.

As a cost saving venture we kept the closet the way it was instead of installing a new system.  I stripped the mauve (are we sensing a theme?) wallpaper off the pine board shelves, but while solid they were both a bit smelly and sticky so it took some scrubbing with vinegar and a last ditch rub down with goo-gone that has left them nearly new.

Both Richard and I enjoyed the style of the medicine cabinet that was installed in the wall above the sink, but the orange-ish wood work of the frame was a little too dated for our bathroom reinvention.  It took a couple of well timed hot as blazes afternoons to sand down the wood frame, clean out the inside and the glass shelves and then paint the frame to match the rest of our black and white bathroom.

After sanding off the previous finish so the wood grain would show through the new paint I taped off the inside with blue painter's tape and a thick garbage bag.  Then I used my go-to spray paint of choice Rustoleum in Satin Black.

And here's what the finished product looks like in the only odd angle I was able to take a picture without including the mess that is the bathroom door.  It is most certainly a 50's piece, and I think the black really makes it pop with all sorts of mid-century goodness in our white updated bathroom.

Progress feels good.

Playing House and other eventful things

Our house is slowly coming together as we finish projects and keep unpacking one box at a time.  On top of all our projects and settling in we're trying to pack in all the fun we can before the summer officially ends and Richard is back at school.

Our friend Matthias is staying with us for a while and not only is he quick to help out but it is really wonderful to have the chance to visit with him after such a long time.  All three of us (plus Wicket) went up to Oshkosh for Gallery Walk this past Saturday.  There was very little walking to be done for us as we would move only a few feet before Wicket had charmed someone else into petting and playing.  We did visit Atomic Katz and saw Pam's new jewelry, and met with Pam and her husband Joe at Peabody's for a drink after the walk just before heading home.

On the home-front the bathroom is now completely functional but still needs a few finishing touches before it's really done.  Just some baseboards and a few paint touch ups and I may even be ready to share pictures.  So now the kitchen overhaul begins.  The cabinets were delivered earlier today, and we've already begun the demolition.  Fortunately the Richard and Matthias will be doing the heavy lifting and cabinet removal tomorrow while I'm at work.

This weekend Richard and I journey up to Green Bay for a wedding, making it the first time we will leave Wicket overnight with someone.  Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly, both at the wedding and for the little pup.

Little time, lots of life

Life has been so busy that I've scarcely had time to sit down.

As soon as we had finished moving out of the apartment and into our new house we headed south to visit family.  We spent two weeks visiting and traveling, and headed down to Cape Canaveral to see the very last Shuttle launch.  It was all amazing!

Now we're home, I'm back to work, Richard is back to coaching, and we're both working constantly on making this new house into our home.  We're working constantly because as soon as one project is done the next one is ready to be started.

The new bathroom is almost complete, just a few more touches, and some floor molding and I'll be ready to share some before and after pictures.  And then we'll be ready to tackle the kitchen, which contrary to prior plans is now receiving a complete overhaul.

House!House!House!House!

Well it's been quite a long month so far, and we're not even done yet.

Last Thursday, May 19, Richard and I closed on our house!  We're now officially home owners, and we're tackling everything head on.

There have been some unexpected developments... such as the wallpaper someone apparently painted over in the kitchen. We've already demolished the bathroom, it was the original 50's pink bathroom and while it was cute... well, it needed some updating and it turned out that every wall had water/moisture damage because the room was never properly vented. So we're tucking in and getting to work, which is just a round about way of saying we'll be super busy for the next month and a half.

We'll take a brief reprieve next Sunday to go to the first Maxwell Street Days of the 2011 season.  And I am so excited for the official beginning to the flea market season.  Maybe now that we have a house we'll finally find that chrome kitchen table we've been searching for.

Hopefully I'll get some photos and updates about the house up in the coming weeks, but I'm not making any promises.

Our house... but not yet.

A few weeks ago we were told that the bank had unofficially accepted our offer on the house and that we just had to wait for them to send over the paperwork so we could close. That was three weeks ago and we haven't heard from the bank since and things haven't moved any further on the house.


I did get into the house a couple weeks ago with our floor guy and got to do some inspecting of our own. Since the last time we were there many of the things (but not all) from the closets and cupboards had been dumped into the trash can out back and it remains to be seen if anyone takes it to the end of the drive to be picked up. The yellow plates from the kitchen walls (see here) have been ripped down and we assume disposed of.

The bad news was that there was new damage to the house. Someone (we're unsure if it was the bank or a break-in) popped out the lock on the side door to the garage breaking the door, the frame, and part of the garage wall in the process. The bank put up a padlock so fingers crossed it doesn't happen again. When they finally winterized the house in early March, after winter was pretty much over, they removed the water meter which is par for the course, however they did not cap the pipe or even put a bucket below it to catch dripping water so there is now a king-bed sized puddle of water across the basement floor. Once we get in and get the water turned back on we'll see if any of the pipes burst during our long and cold winter.

The water in the basement coupled with the old couch that seems to be soaked in cat urine do not bode well for the clean-up process. We had really hoped to get in before it got too warm so the stink wouldn't be magnified. At this point we'd really just settle on closing before the end of April so we can take advantage of the tax credit. If it drags on much longer than that I don't really know if house ownership will be for us. We may just have to settle for continuing to rent where we are or renting somewhere else.