Day 12

I was too tired to post these pictures last night.  Almost all the drywall is done in the upstairs bathroom.  Yesterday they worked on our bedroom wall because there was a board rotted under the window so they had to rip it up and reframe part of the wall. 

Someone is supposed to come to the house today to look at the bedrooms that have painted over wallpaper on them.  I bought wallpaper remover so I wanted to try that out to see if it worked, before we paid someone to do it.  It doesn't work well on the painted over stuff, unfortunately. But we used it in the living room.  The wallpaper there was almost like a canvas and I was able to just grab ahold of it and rip off entire sections.  Then we put the remover on to try to get off the glue and another layer of wallpaper under that.  It works pretty well, but it still time consuming.  In the picture, the grey and white stuff is glue (except in the middle, it's plaster) and the brown is either drywall or wallpaper.  That part got kind of tricky.  I went with Josh after Penelope was in bed and Oliver fell asleep.  He woke up while we were still there though.  Josh is still going to get an estimate for the living room though, because around the corner there is wallpaper also, and ten-foot high ceilings.

 

They were also ripping up the floor in the living room and dining room so they took down the railings that block off the downstairs (playroom).  It looked pretty cool being open, but especially dangerous if Penelope visits again.

 

 

I was looking at the backyard the other day, and thinking what a mess it is and I need to do some serious landscaping once the weather warms up. The seller didn't bother to clean it up at all before.  There's some cinder blocks and a tire among other things.  The day before we took possession, he went out and killed a rabbit with a shotgun, gutted it, and just left the remains for us.  Thanks.  I'm glad we don't have to deal with him anymore.

 

 

 

Tonight, the plan is for Josh and I to go out and buy kitchen cabinets.  We found a pretty good sale going on this weekend so we aren't going to pass it up.  The kitchen hasn't been demolished yet and they won't be ready to be hung for a while, but we will just store them in the living room or something. 

 

 

 

Day 10

Yesterday was the first day that I didn't go to the house. And I went today at lunch time with the kids, but it's stressful because I have to hold Oliver and try to hold Penelope's hand because there are many things she can and shouldn't get into.  I took a blanket and laid it down in her future room and we had lunch there, but she was still distracted and wanting to run away.

Josh's dad is still working on the drywall in the upstairs bathroom and today Josh bought some wainscoting.  I think tomorrow they are going to work on plumbing both bathrooms. 

Josh totally gutting the downstairs bathroom and the 4th bedroom (future laundry) and knocked out the wall between them.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but I think the new wall will go to about where the toilet is.  Besides a walk-in/door-less shower and double vanity, I have no vision for the bathroom.

They are almost done gutting the house.  Just need to do the laminate floors and the kitchen now.  I'm getting excited that we are going to start building more and destroying less ;)

 

BEFORE

 

 

BEFORE

 

Day 8

Today was all about the built-ins.  Josh was working alone today so he was limited on what he could do.  He spent most of the time shoveling the driveway and sidewalk since we have 6 inches of snow.

While he was at the house, I sent him a text asking if he would be willing to make a built-in shelf in the bathroom.  The bathroom is pretty small, so I thought it would be nice for extra storage.  He sent me a picture back saying that he already thought of it and was measuring it out.  Great minds think alike!  He also cut out the built-in bookshelf in the living room, next to the closet.  I'm excited about that.

Day 7

Today seemed like kind of a calm day at the house.  Lots of clean up.  The garage has been cleaned and Josh found a squirrel nest in a desk that filled an entire trash can.  I did some sweeping in the kitchen and bedrooms.  More sucking up cobwebs in the basement.  I can only do that for so long before I get grossed out or the hose gets clogged.

 

Josh's dad worked on the drywall in the bathroom and they rebuilt the wall by the tub.  A few days ago, we saw some clearance tile at Home Depot that kind of looked like grey wood.  It was regularly $3.96 for a 12x24 piece and was down to $0.99.  We decided to jump on it.  There were only 29 left, so we got them all, figuring we would need about 21.  Instead of around $115, it cost $30. I'm excited to see how that will look once it's installed.  Sometime next week probably.  I also decided on white tile for the tub.  My mom thinks I'm so boring. Haha. :)  We will probably do wainscoting around the walls after everything is done and we need to buy a vanity and medicine cabinet also.  AND I don't know what colors to paint the walls.  Help me!  White bath, grey floor, white wainscoting... The bathroom set I have has purple in it.  I've only used it for 2 months at our last house before we moved.

 

 

There is painted over wall paper in all three bedrooms, the hallway and we got lucky downstairs with two walls of wallpaper NOT painted over. The picture below shows a few hours of scrapping and chipping.  I tried that solution I was talking about- water/vinegar/fabric softener.  It works better but only in small sections.  It still seems like it is going to take forever.  Luckily, Josh said he knows someone who would be able to do it for us.  Obviously we would pay him for it, but that sounds so much better because I'm not very good at it.  I don't see much work after all the time I work on it.  Ok, and honestly, I haven't worked on it that long, maybe 45 minutes combined because I get frustrated and leave. But still. I can't imagine doing a whole room.

 

 

They were doing more downstairs bathroom demo and we decided to make a built-in bookshelf in the living room.  Pretty exciting stuff going on!

Day 6

I tried to run over in the afternoon to work on the wallpaper while Penelope was napping.  My mom stayed home and watched Oliver. 

I took a steamer over there and we couldn't get it to work.  It seemed like it would work.  It was heating up, but nothing happened when we pulled the trigger.  So we have to figure that out.  Scraping off painted over wallpaper wasn't going well.  There are three bedrooms like that and a hallway.  It's going to be such a pain.  Our next idea is a water/vinegar/fabric softener solution.  Hopefully I can test that out soon. 

I decided to do something more useful and went in the basement and started sucking out the cobwebs with a shopvac.  They guys also started demo in the downstairs bathroom.  The removed the entire hallway wall.  They are also going to knock out the wall that connects to the fourth bedroom downstairs to make the bathroom bigger.  Otherwise, we would have two tiny bedrooms. 

I had to leave then to get back to feed Oliver and they had just started to install the bathtub.  Every time I go over there, something is changed so I can't wait to see what it looks like when I go back this evening.

Bathrooms before pictures

Downstairs bathroom

Both have heavy cast iron tubs.  Hoping to scrap those.

This bathroom will be extended and have a walk-in shower.

 

 

 

Upstairs bathroom which is currently gutted and being rebuilt

 

The worst part about all of this is a handicapped man was living here up until June.  So these were his living conditions.  He used the downstairs bathroom.  Then his daughter lived in the house for a few months after he died.  I can't believe that someone could live in these dirty and outdated conditions.

Day 5

Josh didn't have any classes today so he, his dad, my dad worked on the house all day.  They are still doing the upstairs bathroom mostly.  Honestly, I don't know what all that entails, but I see a difference. They did remove the fourth wall with the stubborn wallpaper. One less thing for me to do.  The subfloor is down and the insulation is up.  Josh had been to Home Depot three times today (and me twice) and we went at 8 pm tonight to buy a bathtub, among other things.

Josh's mom and step dad came over to see the house for the first time and brought pizza.  So, for the first time, we had company over. :)  It was quite a full house with 7 adults and 2 kids. 

 

Tomorrow is bathtub installation, running plumbing, hanging drywall and gutting the downstairs bathroom.  I'm exhausted just listening to their agenda.

 

 

Day 3

Lots more bathroom demo today.  Going to start shopping for tubs, sinks and vanities by the end of the week.  We can salvage the toilet. One wall will stay, depending on how stubborn the wallpaper is.

 

Other things that have been accomplished today on my end

 

Ordered a dumpster that should be delivered tomorrow so all the drywall and whatnot won't be piling up in the garage. 

 

We are doing concrete countertops in the kitchen.  They are way cheaper and look just as nice.  You can make them look like marble or granite and add different colors and such.  Well today I ordered the molds for them so the edges of the counter won't just be squared off.  They will have a nice and smooth design.  I need to order pigments to add to the concrete, but I think I need to know how much counter space we will actually have first.  I'm thinking a slate grey.

 

Tomorrow the boys are working on plumbing and electrical.  Fun fun. 

Day 2

We got our propane delivered so we can heat the house! The company said they don't do next day delivery but they must have been able to squeeze us in since we were totally out.  Josh said the delivery guy seemed annoyed.

 

The guys also started ripping apart the upstairs bathroom.  I have before pictures, but they are on my mom's camera so I have yet to upload them.  Don't worry, you aren't missing much. 

We also found some hidden gems from the previous owner.  In the downstairs bedroom (future laundry room) there was about 5 empty tins that housed bottles of whiskey and a few books found in ceiling.  One was something like, "The secret to sexual pleasure."  I'm sure the copyright was before 1980.  The guys also found a picture of a swimsuit model behind the mirror in the bathroom.  It's probably been there over 20 years.

The tool shelf in the kitchen.

My dad doing demo in the upstairs bathroom.

She calls it, "My new house"

 

Penelope loves looking at the Mickey Mouse barn from the front window.  Every window in the house, she is looking for the Mickey Mouse barn.

It's ours!

 

After two months, all the papers are signed and money exchanged, so this is officially our house!  I never thought the day would come. 

Day 1 is already filled with troubles though.  The heating is run off of propane and when I called the company to set up an account a few days ago, they said we needed to call to order for delivery when the tank is at 30% because it takes 5-7 days to deliver.  Well, come to find out, the tank right now is at zeroooo.  So now I'm waiting for the company to call me back to see when is the soonest they can come out to fill it.  Josh said the water in the toilet bowl was frozen, so he's worried about pipes freezing and bursting.  It's temporarily running off of a small propane tank for a grill.

Hope this isn't a sign of things to come.  But I haven't been inside for 2 months so I am excited to go back in.  The first thing my dad and Josh will work on is the doors and changing the locks, then gutting the bathrooms.  My job is getting all the painted over wallpaper off the walls. Ugh!

Stay tuned!

The process of buying a fixer-upper is a nightmare.

Getting this house has been the biggest headache ever, but I'm certain that we are almost there and should have the keys in less than two weeks.

We started looking at houses 3 months ago, just before Penelope's second birthday.  I think we looked at about 7 total.  We were just about to make an offer on a finished house.  It had 4 bedrooms, an office, 2 1/2 baths and a playroom.  I was in love.  The problem was, it was on a land lease, so we wouldn't own the property and had to ask permission to do certain things.  It was also right off the highway.  Looking back, I don't think we could really afford it.

My dad was driving down their street and saw a sign for an estate sale.  He kept telling me we should see if the house was for sale.  Since it was out in the country, we would probably like living there more.  Our realtor knocked on their door and their door and the owners said we could come and look at it, but it needed a lot of work.  We went though the house very quickly and I thought it was a waste of time.  I already had my heart set on the other finished house and this one did need a lot of work and he was asking way too much for it.  My dad still liked it and said if we got it for the right price, it would be worth it.  I finally told him, "No, Dad. We are not getting that house."  But the more we thought about it, the more I think we wouldn't be totally happy with the finished house because it was right off the highway and we didn't have much land.  After Josh got out of the military, we said we wanted to get a house in the county and renovate it.  And that's just what this house was.  Right before Thanksgiving, we decided the max we wanted to pay for the house and made an offer of $28,000 below what he was asking.  The seller came back with his bottom dollar, which was $4,000 more and we agreed.  (After talking with the bank, it was only appraised for $1,000 more than the amount we agreed on, so not sure where he got his original number.) 

We entered the home inspection phase and found a fair amount of issues, mostly with the septic.  The pipes underground were busted and nothing was going to the septic.  That was the first time I thought we might walk away from the house.  That's a pretty expensive issue and that wasn't the only thing wrong with the house.  But I kept hoping the seller would agree to fix it, because how can he expect anyone else to buy a house with that issue?  He agreed to fix it, but basically said that was all he was going to do and he wouldn't fix anything else.  (This house was his father's estate and he passed away, so we can understand why he didn't want to put a lot of work into it.)

Long story short, we had multiple issues with the bank and 3 holidays that set us back.  One bank wanted us to fix the issues before giving us a loan. We still don't understand how that's possible.  Fixing a house that we don't own? So we said forget you.  Another bank asked us to get estimates from contractors on everything that needed fixed.  At this time, the seller was getting annoyed that everything was taking so long (it had been a month) and basically stopped responding for two weeks.  This is another time that I went back to Zillow to look for other houses because I didn't see us ever getting the house.  Then finally we got some good news from the bank and the seller finally started communicating again and signed a contract extension.   We should have the money from the bank a week from today and the seller will be back in the country from a business trip the following Monday. 

So after going back and forth for two months, we are almost certainly finally getting this house and I can breathe a sign of relief.  So I'm back to Pinterest for everything I want to do to the house.

This is going to be a total Do It Yourself project.  My husband is going to do everything with help from our dads and a few other family members.  We don't expect to move in for a few months still.  Living with my parents (and sister half the time) in a three bedroom house, is getting cramped so I can't wait to finally have our own space, even if it is only a mile down the road from them.  I am also so excited to have 2+ acres.  I have been dying to have a chicken coop and fresh eggs for a while now. 

When we still lived in Missouri, our house number was 1303 and we moved down the street to 1308.  The house number for this house is 1313.  To me, that is a sign that this is supposed to be our house.  And it's a miracle that my dad drove past a sign that said "estate sale" and our realtor knocked on the door to see if they were going to sell it, and over 2 months later, it's essentially ours. 

After all this, I'm sure I do not want to move again for quite a long time. 

I hope this will be the most boring post on here.  Everything else should involve the actual renovation and decorating!