Painting the House

So, for some reason, I can't tell you why, I have no idea, I decided to paint the outside of the house.  We had talked about waiting till next year, but I just could't wait.  When starting a large project as this it is best to do the hardest part first.  Or least the least desirable part first.  So, I started with the shed and then moved onto the back of the house.

Shed, before.

Back of the house, before.

The shed in progress.  I chose paint colors close to the original.

The old paint was very faded.  The red reminded me of lipstick.

Back of the house, in progress. 

Before.

After.

Sometime along the way the kids asked if they could help.  I said yes before realizing that the only color they could reach was the red.  Clearly I wasn't thinking that one through!  I felt like I had turned a toddler loose in a bridal shop with a red Sharpie.

After.

The difference is amazing!  

Soon I will have pictures of the front.

Roof - before and after

You have to look close at these pictures to see the difference in the roof before and after it was replaced.

One of the problems with this house and assumably the reason the previous owners couldn't afford to keep it up was a leak in the roof.

Two solar panels, a satellite dish and an antenna left too many holes in the roof.  One of them had rotted and allowed water into the house.  If you look behind the chimney you can see the tarp.  Our lender would not allow us to buy the house unless we repaired the roof.  Taking into account the large discount our insurance company offered if we were to replace it we chose to do the whole thing and be done with it.

In progress.

Done!

Office/School Room

Here we go!  Before and after pictures!

This room sits to the left right inside the front door.  Perhaps it was a formal living room or dining room, I have no idea, but it makes a fantastic office/school room for us.

The picture window has a beautiful view of the front yard.

Getting ready to paint.

The carpet was old, old, old and very faded.  The walls were perhaps the original dingy white.

After

Shaunda and Tracey helped me paint, thanks girls!  After the paint we had new carpet installed.

Here it is with furniture and kids hard at work at school.  It is one of my favorite rooms in the house.

Kitchen on Haven dr.

So, this kitchen remodel took 2+ years and most of you have already seen the end product but in the nostalgia of moving out and cleaning it up I was reminded of how far this house has come in the last 8 years we have owned it.  

The Kitchen

Before

Before

Painting cabinets is something very time consuming and I don't ever care to do it again.  Each door had to be sanded, primered twice, painted with two coats of paint then glazed and topped off with two coats of polyurethane.  Did I mention I now hate painting cabinets? 

Before

But, this is the end product.  

The walls before.

The walls after.

The half wall between the living room and the dining room, before.

Nathaniel helped in the demolition and enjoyed every second of it!

After, minus the half wall.

The floors before.  

Clearly carpet in the dining room with three kids was NOT working.

The floor after.

Painting the peninsula.

Removing and replacing the counter top.

After!

The end product.

Summer 2015

After a crazy hectic few months we are now coming up for air!  Even though it is mid October and the Summer has long been over it feels like it just ended.  Partially because the weather but mostly because we have been working our tails off for months.  It all started back in the spring when we approached a real estate agent about buying a new home.  We told her that we were in the market for either a new rental or a new home for us.  Whichever we found first we would buy.  After several months of shopping we found the Horseshoe house (named for the street it is on).  It was in near perfect shape and located in a nice neighborhood on a dead end street.  Its curb appeal and location made it a nice rental.

The Horseshoe house

So, after a contact was agreed on we started the closing process.  A week and a half from final closing a house came on the market that we had been eying for months.  The house on 103rd.  It was going up for an online auction.  Quite embarrassed I called our banker and asked if it was even remotely possible to buy two houses at the same time.  He took another look at our finances and gave us the go -ahead.  We were quite surprised and kept expecting someone to stand up and say it wasn't possible.  We secretly though we were insane. 

We entered the auction for the house on 103rd and won it.

The 103rd house.

After the auction we closed on the Horseshoe house and started readying it for tenants.  We had recently hired a property management company and once our work was completed we handed it off to them.  It was promptly rented in a little over a week.  Buying the Horseshoe house had been easy.  Buying the 103rd house was a nightmare.  It was a foreclosure and had been neglected for some time.  We were buying it "as is", in other words the sellers (a bank) would not fix anything up.  We were still allowed an inspection, however nothing would be fixed for us.  The biggest problem being the roof was in need of repair.  Three days shy of closing our bank refused to give us the loan unless the roof was repaired.  We told them we would promptly replace it as soon as we owned the place.  That wasn't good enough.  We were told to repair the roof or we wouldn't get the loan.  Fine, we would replace it, but we were making a gamble in paying for a roof on a house we didn't yet own.  At first paperwork delayed us, then the weather but after a week of nail biting the roof was complete.  Then began a week of finger pointing between the two banks and the title company as to who wasn't ready for closing.  By then our trip to Colorado that had been planned for 9 months had changed several times over.  After doing everything short of throwing an adult size temper tantrum we gave up and left for Colorado.  It took the powers-that-be another week and a half to finally be ready.  Chad came home a couple of days early and signed the closing documents with a Power of Attorney.  By then the closing date had changed 7 times!  I arrived home the next day and we started work on the house.  We painted the bedrooms and office and had carpet installed.  After that we started moving in.  Once moved in we turned our attention to the house we just left on Haven dr.  It needed to be remodeled and put up for rent leaving us little time to settle into our new home.  So here we are in mid October, the old house on Haven dr. is remodeled and is ready to go.  We are exhausted, but happy to be in our new place and finally able to focus on it.  There will be many, many remodeling blog entries coming soon.

And that is the story of how we bought two houses in one summer.  Go ahead, call us crazy, we won't disagree.