March 18: The Move

The move: phase 1 of many, many trips.

I stayed home from work to start packing. I packed a bunch of boxes worth. I can't believe how much stuff we have. At least some of it is still packed: we have 15 bins already packed up and sitting on our balcony. I'm a little nervous to open them up. They've been exposed to the elements since we moved here last March. Oh well, it's stuff we don't really use anyway.

We also got our ducts cleaned today.

When Nate got home from work, we packed up our recliner and couch and brought them over to the house. Then we came back and got our bed and box spring and brought it over to the house. Mom and Dad are coming up this weekend and we want to start living at the house so that we don't waste time commuting. Plus, now I'm just getting really excited about the house.

March 17: Carpet!

Our carpet was laid! Nate went to the house to see it and was really happy. Then he drove to Osseo to trade our Maxima for a friend's truck for the day so we could move our big stuff over to the house! I'm so excited. I had a long day at work and had to stay late. When we got home, it was 8 so we called it a night and watched a movie instead of starting the move.

March 16: Pad

The pad for the carpet was laid! Nate said it really brightened the whole house. I can't wait for the carpet! Nate cleaned some more vents outside and then called it an early night.

March 15: Clean!

After work, I spent the evening scrubbing the whole fireplace. It was pretty dusty. I also did more touch up painting on the trim. I am not in love with painters tape. Paint can seep under it and it is hard to peel off sometimes.

Nate brought over his motorcycle, grilled us steaks, and vacuumed the whole house (vacuumed the concrete with the shop vac) so it's ready for the carpet.

March 14: Day of Work

What a beautiful day! It was 60 and sunny-- perfect day for working outside. Nate cleaned out the gutters and some vents on the outside of the house. He also cut down a bush and trimmed a tree.

I stayed inside and did some touch up painting and finished painting the trim in the bathroom.

Together we cleaned out everything in the rooms that were going to be carpeted.

Then Nate showed me his pride and joy: the crawl space. I totally don't understand his fascination with it. There was talk about making it a wine cellar, man cave... He's been trying to show me for a while, but I don't really like crawling around on my knees on cement so I've been avoiding it. I joked that if he had a "luge" on a track that brought me in there with the touch of a button, I'd be all over it. Anyway, I crawled in there and it is actually pretty nice. Every corner is bright, the floor is clean after a couple runs of the vacuum, and there is a ton of space! We can shove all of our extra things in there so our house can be immaculate!

March 13: Flooring!!!

We finally picked up the laminate flooring for our basement living room. I am so happy with it. I can't wait to see it installed. It is going to look gorgeous. Nate carried it all down to the basement. We also bought the sink for our master bathroom. It fits perfectly and is a huge upgrade from what was previously in the room. Nate also replaced some of the subfloor. Then we went to a men's gymnastics meet.

March 11: Two tons

Nate's personal victory: He had already discovered that our driveway had a third lane, and finally finished shoveling all of it. He figures he shoveled a *literal* ton of snow/ice today. Impressive. I believe him, too. The snow was piled so high. After that, he came back to the apartment and we had a nice relaxing evening.

March 9 and 10: Thankful for the help

Ken spent the day at the house while Nate and I were at work preparing things for when Nate got their. They put up foam insulation against the cement blocks in the crawl space and then ran the line for the kitchen stove. Now all the crawlspace needs is carpet, a couch, and a tv!

I went right to the house after work because we had a consultant from Home Depot scheduled to come and give us an estimate for replacing the shower in our master bathroom. In order for someone to come out and give an estimate, both homeowners must be present or else they won't even talk about it. Weird. Unfortunately, the person couldn't come so I decided just to leave and get some groceries and make supper for everyone.

March 8: Bed!

Nate's dad came back up with his truck, so he and Nate picked up our new bed! They also did some shopping at Home Depot for the supplies to run our gas line for the oven.

Nate's input. We also put up plastic in the crawlspace to seal off the insulation and keep it from getting in our hair while we move around in there. It's turning into a really useful space at this point.

I needed to catch up on chores so I stayed home to do laundry and dishes.

March 7: Saga of the 2x10

We put in another full day of work at the house. Mom, Dad, and I finished painting the guest bedroom (since it was a light color, I could roll it) and the master bedroom. All that is left is the laundry room, kitchen, and the three bathrooms. Mom and I can work on that while Dad, Nate, and Sam work on laying the floor next time they come up.

Nate picked up the grill from Sears and grilled us burgers!!! Lex and Mitch came over to eat lunch with us. The first burgers of the season always taste the best!

This is our office, aka gopher room.

This is our master bedroom. The color didn't turn out amazing in this picture, but it's a beautiful light gray.

This is our guestbedroom which hopefully will be used by each and everyone of you!

Nate's input: today Tim and I put an extra floor joist in the crawl space. Naturally it was a tight fit, but it came to be known that pressure treated lumber is sized differently than construction grade - naturally there would be multiple sizes of 2x10's... and neither is actually 2" x 10". That added some frustration to the day.

March 6: Fired

Let me just start out by saying, I'm used to my family "firing" me from certain tasks. For example, my sister fired me from addressing the envelopes on MY wedding invitations because my handwriting wasn't good enough and I wasn't properly centering the addresses (sorry to those of you who got my envelopes...thanks for coming to my wedding anyway). I am more of a big picture type of person and sometimes overlook details or get overwhelmed by all of them. So I should not have been surprised when I was fired from painting my own house. Dad and Nate had gone to Menards to get new subfloor for the bathrooms so Mom started trimming the second coat of the basement living room. I thought I could roll behind her once she got far enough ahead. I guess I was wrong. It is a dark color and apparently more finicky so you have to roll it just right. Fine, it was my friend Maria's birthday anyway so I just called her. "Mom said, it's not that I'm firing you, you were never hired, honey." I see how it is. I'm really not offended. It's just one of our family jokes. As an aside, you may notice that none of the pictures in this blog include me. That is because I am the family photographer, something I'll probably never be fired from. I'm trying to figure out if it's because I'm good at it or just that my family would rather be photographed than be the photographer themselves. Time will tell.

We did get a lot accomplished. Nate's parents came up and brought firewood so they built a fire. Nate and his dad cleaned all of the snow off of the roof. They also chipped ice. Nate's mom and I cleaned the kitchen cupboards and made them all shiny. My parents finished painting the basement living room and put the first coat on the master bedroom and the guest bedroom. I'm so pleased with the colors. Dad also repaired the bathroom walls. The previous owners had glued the towel rack and toilet paper dispenser to the walls. I vow to never glue anything to my walls. We all treated everyone to a nice supper at Tinuccis after a hard day's work.

March 5: Bummer of a day

I must say, this was not one of my favorite days in life. I woke up knowing that Mom and Dad would be putting my cat of 14 years to sleep. Poor Kahlua had been suffering from kidney failure and had been dehydrated in the last month of his life. Mom had been giving him an IV of fluid every day to make him comfortable, but he was just too sick. They did everything they could. Mom said at 14 he was like an old man and he was ready to go. They say you just know when your pet is ready to go and Mom and Dad got the memo. Dad held him as he went. Better to die in the arms of a loved one than to die alone. I was so sad all day at work. I remembered all of the good times I had with him and the joy that he brought to my life. He used to suck my finger when he was little. I was his person. He would sleep with me. One of my favorite memories was picking catnip and rubbing it on the carpet in front of our TV. He would roll around in it and be so happy for hours. Our relationship changed after I left for college. Then Mom became his person. He would snuggle with her every morning and evening in her chair. He was such a sweet cat and had a very calm and friendly personality. I loved listening to him talk. I just wish I could have said a proper good bye to him. He just deteriorated so quickly. We're all going to miss him so much. He was most assuredly a family member and one of my favorite childhood memories.

Mom and Dad eventually made their way up to Cities. They got to the house a little before Nate and I did. Unfortunately, our laminate flooring for the basement living room was late, so they just focused on painting. They painted the hallway and put the first coat on the basement living room. After supper, Nate and Dad put new insulation in the crawl space. We all got tired early so they came over to our apartment for a nightcap. By the way, for those of you who don't know, Nate is an excellent bartender.

March 4: More window talk

After work, I went to the apartment and made lasagna, banana bread, and brownies for the weekend. Nate went to the house and had 2 different window appointments. Wellington and Sears both gave us estimates. Those appointments really solidified our decision to not go with American Exteriors. Wellington is still the front runner, but Nate is strongly considering doing them himself since we're just doing inserts, not frame-out replacements.

March 3: More Paint

Nate chipped yet more ice and shoveled more snow. He even shoveled off the whole deck and patio. That was nice because we could see how big our patio is. We've only seen the house during the winter so we're curious to see what the patio and yard really look like.

We went to Sherwin Williams since Nate can get a discount through Marathon. We picked out a bunch of colors: kitchen, 3 bathrooms, master bedroom, and laundry room. Then we talked to the guy about the discount. It wasn't as great a discount as they made it seem. Paint is still cheaper and higher rated at Home Depot. We should have asked first. We went to Home Depot next. We picked out paint again for 2 bathrooms and the master bedroom. The color selection isn't as big, so we held off on picking the other colors.

We ate at Chipotle and brought the paint back to the house. I went back to the apartment after this and Nate stayed at the house. He ran lines in the crawl space so the whole huge area is lit up with the flip of one switch!! Before, only the entrance was lit. He was pretty happy with his accomplishment; always excited to learn something new. The extra light will really help when he puts the new insulation in and runs the line for the kitchen stove.

March 2: Mission accomplished

Nate had chipped a lot of ice and shoveled our driveway. I met him at the house and we carried a lot of the bathroom stuff out to the garage. We haven't gotten a dumpster yet. Right now we just load everything into the garage. When we're done with all of the construction, we'll get a dumpster and get rid of it all at once.

We drove to Penney's and found a comforter! Just what we wanted: a simple gray one! It is a really pretty gray and will look wonderful in the room. Then we went to Sears again to look at appliances. Nate had found a fridge and washer on the website so we were hoping to see them in person. They didn't have them so we decided to wait. We went to Bed Bath and Beyond to find a duvet cover to go with the new comforter, but they were all pretty expensive and not what we wanted. Thus ended our night.

I wish there was more time in the day to get things done. It seems like we only have about 2 hours after work to devote to the house. Then we have to eat and clean up and go to bed. If we're lucky, we get some relaxing time.

March 1: Saga of the Comforter

We need to find a comforter for our master bedroom. We want something gray and simple looking. Can't be that hard right? Well, we went to Target, Herbergers, Bed Bath and Beyond, Macy's, and Sears. Nothing. Everything was too floral, expensive, or young. I couldn't believe it. We've got trusty Penney's left to check, but there's not one in the area so that'll be another day. While we were in Sears, we found a superb deal on a grill so we paid for it and Nate will pick it up this weekend. We spent the whole evening shopping and didn't get anything done on the house.

February 26-28: Mini Vacation in Duluth

One of my favorite places to visit in this state happens to be Duluth. Nate and I spent four wonderful years there together and fell in love with the city. We go up every winter and ski at Spirit Mountain. We were excited to get away and take a break from house work.

On Friday, we went skiing with our good friend Amanda and then had half price appetizers at Applebees. We finished the night by warming up in the hot tub at the Radisson.

On Saturday, we ate breakfast at our favorite coffee shop in Duluth: Bixby's. We love the egg/sausage/pepper jack cheese on a bagel and the cinnamon and sugar bagel. We usually get both and share. Then Nate got his hair cut at his favorite place: BAM Style. Then we packed up our hotel and went skiing with Adam, Samantha, Alexa, Mitch, and Alek. The weather was beautiful and we had an awesome time skiing in sweatshirts. I had our camera and took some videos and pictures. Then we went back to our relatives' house, Dave and Louise, and had homemade chili. We sat around and talked for the rest of the evening and had a fabulous time.

On Sunday, we went to church and then ate at Pizza Luce. Then Adam, Sam, Alek, Nate and I went to Gooseberry Falls and explored. After that, we ate again at Betty's Pies.

It was a wonderful weekend; exactly what we needed. I love spending time with my siblings. We all get along well and have a blast together.

February 25: Windows

We knew right away that our windows were not amazing. Someone from American Exteriors had come to our door while Nate was home and wanted to do an in-home presentation and estimate. If we used their company to replace our windows, they would give us a discount and we'd have to put their sign up in our front yard and write a review for their website. We figured we might as well hear them out. They came at 7:30 and started out the presentation by walking us through the quality of their windows and doing a price comparison between their windows and the market average for other companies' windows. Of course they were lower priced and higher quality. He showed us the windows and did an energy efficiency analysis which showed us how much money we could save by putting in better windows. He went through the history of the company and finally got to the estimate part. The estimate was pretty high so we figured out how we could do a few at a time and still get a discount through their program. They stayed until 10! I was so annoyed that it took so long. I still had to pack for our trip to Duluth the next day. We told them we'd think about using their company. Nate and I really never jump on things like that, especially when it involves a lot of money. Nate did some subsequent research and price checking and now we think we'll either go with Wellington or Nate will replace them himself and still qualify us for the tax break. We'll be making a decision on that in the next few months.

February 24: Other bathroom

We both met at the house after work. I worked on painting the laundry room trim. Nate ripped the upstairs bathroom apart. Now we have two gutted bathrooms ready to go!

February 22: Barter system continued

Our furnace guy came back today to put a part in the furnace and hooked up our dryer. Now both are fully functional. Nate helped out and was able to learn quite a bit. I stayed home to do dishes and clean. I also made homemade chicken cordon bleu.

Fireplace

This fireplace has been the center of hot debate between Nate and I. At first we had agreed that we'd reface it with slate and put a wood-burning stove insert in it to make it more efficient. The insert may turn out to be unnecessary. Nate had a chimney sweep come over to clean the chimney and while inspecting it, he praised the construction of our fireplace and said that it was just fine the way it is. The door on the fireplace is a really high end door too. The problem is: I don't like the gold on the door. The house was built in the 80's, so all of the fixtures and hardware are gold. I much prefer brushed nickel. So, I beg him every day to paint the gold part of the door black. This little change will totally transform the room. And make me a happy wifey. He is hesitant, maybe later - it's not necessary before move-in. I know we can paint it for a few dollars and make it look like a million bucks. We continue to debate this. We have decided to keep the brick and not reface it. At first I didn't like it because the brick is brown, but the grout is dark gray. I wouldn't have picked that color grout. Our solution is to paint the wall gray to make the brickwork pop.

February 21: Barter System

During our inspection, the inspector told us that he wouldn't live in the house withot having the furnace taken care of. It hadn't been cleaned since 2001 and showed it. This did concern us so we got a new filter and a carbon monoxide detector immediately after taking possession. I was telling one of my directors about this and she said she knew someone who could look at it for us... her husband! He is HVAC certified and could at least clean it for us and give us his opinion on how soon we should buy another one. Sweet.

I thought he might be able to clean our furnace, hook up our gas dryer, and run a gas line for our new gas stove all in one day. Ha ha ha. Well, I thought that since I didn't know how much work would be involved. He did clean our furnace which took quite a while because it was filthy. He had to buy some parts for our dryer hookup so he wasn't able to get to that. The stove would just have to be another day too. We were so thankful that he came over to work on our furnace. His prognosis wasn't too hopeful... That's okay, we can take care of that this fall. In exchange, we would babysit their two adorable little girls a couple of times... and give him beer. I love the barter system.

Other happenings of the day include: I finished scrubbing the master bathroom shower and scrubbed the basement shower. I also started priming the trim in the laundry room.

Nate finished taking all of the insulation out of the crawl space and helped Troy out with the furnace. After having the fireplace professionally cleaned, Nate started our first fire in the fireplace!

While shoveling snow, Nate talked to one of our neighbors he'd met when looking the place over before we bought it. He owns a carpet business and said he'd give us an estimate for the carpet we want. He beat Home Depot's price as well as two other's, so we found this to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Besides, it's nice to work with the smaller operations when possible, even though Home Depot is currently one of my favorite stores.

February 20: I Been Everywhere Man...

Saturday morning. We relaxed for a couple hours after waking up which was nice, and necessary. Long day ahead. Around 11, we took off for Dock 86. This is a wholesale furniture store, so we were intrigued. We'd never been there before. We needed a bed frame and will need a couch. We looked around and I found a beautiful bedroom set that I like. We just have our bed on the floor; so it would be really nice to have it in an actual frame. That is our lowest priority right now. We did end up finding some cool art. Nate picked something out for our bedroom and then we took off for the next destination. BTW, Dock 86 is just a division of HOM furniture..

We went to lumber liquidators to get laminate flooring for our living rooms. They had a lot to choose from and we found something for the basement right away. It is a really blonde, thick laminate and nothing else was even comparable. This was an easy decision. Except for the fact that it had the padding attached to the bottom, which wasn't what we had wanted originally - but it's a higher quality pad so it should be fine. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any laminate that we liked for the upstairs living room. It was hard to find something to match the existing oak elsewhere in the house.

Then we went to Home Depot and looked at lighting for the kitchen. As I had stated in a previous post, our flourescent light had to go. A knowledgable man at Home Depot planted the idea of putting in recess lighting in the kitchen in Nate's head and we loved the idea. It'd look sweet. We didn't buy anything, we were just gathering ideas. We did find hard wood flooring that would match our upstairs living room perfectly though!!! It was on sale so we got temporarily excited about it! Through the course of our shopping and talking to people about what we'd need to lay hardwood, we learned that you can't lay it on a particle board subfloor. We'd have to redo the subfloor in the living room, so we decided to just keep looking for laminate. We also picked out our carpet and priced that out.

Then we went to a flooring store and priced out carpet and looked at laminate. We made the executive decision to just put carpet in the upstairs living room. It would be way less stressful and would still look good.

Then we ate at Chipotle and went back to the house. We measured all the rooms in the house that would get carpeted and ran the numbers. Home Depot would be the cheapest. We'll order that tomorrow.

Then I got the privelege of scrubbing the master bathroom's shower with CLR. Nasty stuff. But it does work.

I put another coat of paint on the guest bedroom.

I can't remember what Nate did, but I'm sure it had something to do with his pride and joy, the crawl space.

Then we had a major discussion of our living rooms. Which would be the TV room and which would be a sitting room. Both are wired for in-wall speakers, but we're trying to figure out where we can get the best furniture set-up. No decisions made.

Bah, so tired. Let's go home.

February 19: Gutted

Nate gutted the master bathroom! He took out the sink, shower door, and toilet. Now it's just a clean canvas that we can do whatever we want with!

Thus, the source of my stress. Nate did clean it all up though.

I have a big project at work so I stayed there late to work on some stuff. Then, I went to the apartment and made supper and Nate came home to eat and watch the olympics. So bummed we haven't had more time to watch! I didn't even watch women's figure skating which is usually my absolute favorite sport during the winter. At least it isn't the summer olympics. I certainly couldn't miss gymnastics.

February 18: Prep work

After work, Nate drove to the house and ripped up the master bathroom floor. Under the linoleum, he found plywood, another layer of linoleum, and then more plywood. He took all of that out and then studied the subfloor. It had a weak spot so he decided to replace that area as well. We're down this far, might as well give it a good foundation. He then used our new shop vac to clean up.

When I got to the house after work, I taped off the window in the laundry room. The wood trim is sun-scarred, so we're going to clean it up and make it a pretty white!!! Then we heated up soup in our microwave.

Then we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to look at comforters so we could pick a paint color for the master bedroom. We'll get a new bed, so while we're at it, we might as well get a new comforter too. I was excited. We were looking for something simple and elegant. Probably just one color... in the gray family :). We actually didn't find anything we were interested in. Everything was either the wrong color, too girly, or too young. Bummer. I so very much love to cross things off my list. It was getting a little late, so we went back to the house and grabbed our stuff and called it a night.

Nate gets off work at 3 so he can put in a decent amount of hours in at the house. I on the other hand get off more like 5 or 5:30. By the time I get to the house and we figure out what to do for supper, there isn't much time left for work before we come home and get ready for the next day.

February 17: Break

Sometimes I just need a break from the house. Right now it feels so much like a construction zone that it doesn't feel like home at all. I still refer to the apartment as home. Plus, I still have to keep up on cleaning at the apartment so it's nice to spend an evening there every once in a while. I inevitably get stressed out at the house with all of the work that needs to be done yet before we move in.

Nate stopped at the house after work and shoveled. Then he gutted the master bathroom- it needed help. It's small, which is fine, but it was dingy too. The tile in the shower was super dirty, so we'll have to see what a thorough scrub will do for it. The linoleum was ugly, the sink was scuzzy, and the toilet was beyond help - it's all ready to be ripped out. We have big plans for this bathroom.

February 16: Niches.

Nate's work is really close to the house, so everyday after work, he stops at the house to get more homework done. Nate shoveled more snow and put screws in the subfloor to get rid of some squeaky spots. We met each other at the apartment and ate a quick supper.

After dinner we went shopping. We went to Home Depot to order the tile for our master bathroom. Then, we went to Lowe's and bought a stove, insulation for the crawl space, and some light fixtures.

We have definitely given a lot of business to Home Depot, Lowe's, and Menards. We have found that they all have different niches. We've been going to Home Depot whenever we need the raw materials for a do-it-yourself project. The staff know about all the areas in the house. We got all of our paint, plumbing materials, tile, fan, and will get all of our lighting stuff there. Menards has been awesome for miscellaneous tools and we will also get our sinks for the bathrooms there. Lowe's is where we've gotten most of our appliances. We did also get some appliances from Sears. It's nice to know exactly which store will have the best quality and the best deals on whatever we're looking for.

February 15: Appliances and Beds

We went shopping... again. We went to Appliance Smart in hopes of finding a really good deal on appliances. We still need an oven, fridge, and washer. We didn't find what we wanted. Bummer. Then we went to Sears and did find what we wanted, but thought we could maybe find a better price elsewhere. We held off. Mattress Giant was having a President's Day sale so we checked out the beds there. Their prices are high! We went next door to Slumberland and found exactly what we were looking for for much less, awesome. We ordered it - success for the night. We do so much price comparison and shopping around that it makes me so happy to finally purchase something knowing we got a good deal on a good product. Most places count on impulse buys or high-pressure sales tactics.

Color

I am totally amazed at how easy it is for a color to...change color. Paint will look totally different depending on the time of the day. Changing lightbulbs make colors look completely different too. This can be good or bad...

It was hard to decide if I liked a color because I would like it more or less at different times of the day. The most striking example of morphing color is in our kitchen. I tried to take a picture of it to visually explain. The railing in our living room really perked up after we painted the walls brown. The wood has a beautiful hue that really pops. Normally I'm a fan of dark wood, but this honey oak looks good. But, we have the same oak in our kitchen and the walls are a weird green and the lighting is a huge flourescent light on the ceiling. It makes the wood look totally sick and dirty. What a contrast!!! We considered refacing, but realized all we have to change is the lighting and wall color. That'll save us a lot of money. Nate's excited to change out the lighting, and I'm excited to see the difference.

This picture is me standing in the kitchen and looking out towards the living room - notice the difference in the wood color? That's the same wood and same stain!

February 13: Longest Day

Nate and I got up early in the morning to go shopping at a Menards in Eden Prairie that was going out of business. Doh, they would move all of the big ticket items to a new store before they marked everything down 40%. We should have known. Oh well, we got a bunch of random little things and a garage door!!! That was a great deal. Then we went to Home Depot and got a new fan for the living room.

We went back to the house and Mom and Dad had painted the living room brown teepee. Success!!! It looked way better. Everyone was relieved.

I worked on scraping the wallpaper in the laundry room. Nate and Dad hung the new fan and the new light fixture!!! The living room and foyer are done and look awesome. I was so excited. Nate and Dad even hung my art! Unfortunately, we used 3M command strip hooks to avoid nail holes and 20 minutes later they fell. At that point, the scaffolding was already put away. Bummer. Guess we'll do nails after all. I was so hoping to have something completed, so I was a little disappointed when the art came crashing to the ground.

Isn't it funny how paint changes in different lighting?

February 12: A pivotal day

I came home and saw the new tan color on the living room wall. I was super bummed. It was totally green. Lesson learned: pick a color from a paint chip, not a magazine. It was so different. Mom and Dad agreed, we had to do something different. We debated about what the next color should be. We could get the same tan that we were putting in two bedrooms, but that didn't work here either. I found a different paint chip and after much painful discussion and polling, we decided to go with the new color "brown teepee". I felt terrible that they had to keep painting over it, but they wanted me to be happy. I was hoping that brown teepee would be the one. I felt really bad though, because Mom is afraid of heights and to paint part of the wall, she had to be on a ladder on scaffolding to reach it. Sorry Mom!! The picture is her painting over the grayish brown.

Nate and I finished pulling up staples and then Lex and Mitch came over for supper. We had BBQ and beer. Yum.

February 11: Staples :(

Today Mom and Dad put the first coat of paint on the living room walls. It was too gray. The idea is that the foyer would be a dark brown, the upstairs living room would be tan, and the basement living room would be gray. You can see all three colors when you first walk in the door, so we wanted to make sure all the colors worked together well. But, the living room tan was way too gray, and not a pretty one. It looked like putty. So, we picked out a color from one of the Behr mini magazines. I was so excited about it!

After that tough decision was made, I pulled out staples from the old carpet... in every room. Slow job. I pulled them up with a screwdriver and then yanked them out with a pliers. I was very slow at this. Nate came to help and we got into a rhythm. He would pry them up really quickly, so I just picked them up with my hands for the most part. We got most of them up.

Nate also pulled insulation out of the crawl space. Thus began his odyssey to make the crawl space the sparkling jewel of the house (more on this later). There was talk of making it a wine cellar or just a "man cave". The insulation wasn't put in correctly, wasn't the right thickness, and had generally become nasty - so it all came out.

February 10: Foyer!

Today Mom and Dad surprised us by having the foyer painted! Even though it wasn't exactly the color we had picked out on Mom's color deck, it was beautiful. It really made the oak floors and trip *pop*. It's a nice shade of brown and looks very dramatic with the high ceilings. We went with a satin finish paint because it is the easiest to clean. Nate walked in and thought it was too shiny, but it was still drying / curing and has turned out great. Another FYI, we thought about putting eggshell paint on for the second coat, but aparently, you can't put eggshell over satin because it won't adhere properly.

I washed the tall windows while the scaffolding was set up, finished priming the guest bedroom, and also did a first wash on the hardwood floor in the kitchen. So dirty. I washed it, but I don't think I'll be able to really get it clean until we're all moved it and everything is delivered.

Nate took back the tile samples we had checked out from Home Depot. Home Depot is awesome by the way. They have knowledgeable employees working there and you can get real advice and have them come out to your house and give free estimates for this and that. You can also check out samples. Nate priced out carpet at a couple places, but he started working nights so he went to the apartment early and took a nap.

It felt like a really productive day because we got color on the walls!!!

This is how the foyer used to look. Nasty gold light fixture that is too small for the space, nondescript color that does nothing for the height of the walls, and the living room is the same color. The space looks completely different now!!! Way better and way more inviting.

February 9: More shopping.

Mom and Dad painted more ceilings and primed/painted more trim. Mom also took the boarder down in the upstairs bathroom and the guest bedroom. Nate and I picked out more paint. At this point, we had picked colors for the foyer, upstairs living room, downstairs living room, two spare bedrooms, and our office. We're getting somewhere. It is so hard to pick out colors for every room in the house. All of the colors have to be Nate approved, but we agreed on a sweet color for the office. I like the colors we've picked out. We went to Menards and got a light fixture for the foyer and then went to Home Depot to get more paint. I should add that Behr paint is among the top rated paints according to Consumer Reports. Buyer beware: it is super thick so it takes more than you think to cover a room and the color selection/matching leaves something to be desired, but the price is definitely right.

February 8: Ceilings

I was pretty antsy at work, so I left at noon. I went to the apartment, made spaghetti, and then drove to the house. Mom and Dad had started painting ceilings and even put some primer on the walls, i.e., the blaze-orange KTM room. Mom and Dad had recommended we paint the ceilings and we are soooo glad they did. I guess fresh paint on the ceilings can make a BIG difference!

We decided to paint the trim in the bedrooms since the previous owners had spilled paint on them. This was the perfect reason to paint them white as we had planned. I cleaned the trim so the primer would stick and then started peeling glow-in-the-dark stars off the ceiling in two bedrooms. FYI, it's not a good idea to put those things on popcorn ceilings. I will never put those up in my house again (yes, I did have them when I was little).

Nate figured out how to light the water heater pilot so we would have hot water for washing out brushes and then shoveled some more snow.

Nate and I decided on colors, so we went to Home Depot to get paint. We picked out colors from Mom's Benjamin Moore color deck because Home Depot said they could match it with their Behr paint. Not so much. It was a little off, but I thought it would be okay, so we took it home.

It was dinner time, so we ate the spaghetti. Thankfully, there's a microwave at the house, so I make meals ahead of time and then just re-heat them. Another positive - it's cold outside, so I can leave food in my trunk or in the garage until we get the fridge.

Our normal routine for this week was: work, work on the house, come home and make food for the next day, and get to bed pretty late...

February 7, 2010: Carpet

My family and I spent a lot of the day visiting with my aunt, eating pizza, and playing the Wii. We got to the house around 3:30 and Sam, Dad, and Nate set about removing all the carpet and pad in the whole house before Sam went back to UMD. This was very necessary. Although the carpet was structurally sound and a nice color, it had stains in every room - even in the closets (how do you get stains in the closet?). They pulled it all up so we can start over with clean carpet. We are planning to live here for a while, so we are getting berber carpet that will still look good years down the road. So, the basement living room will be laminate and the upstairs living room will either be laminate or hardwood (carpet now because they used particle board subfloor and we wanted to preserve the oak). While they were pulling up carpet, Mom and I went to Home Depot and bought a ton of ceiling paint, primer, white paint, and looked at potential colors for rooms. Then we had everyone over to our apartment for Nate's ribs. The big job starts tomorrow.

February 6, 2010: Shopping

When we bought the house, I thought we'd be able to spend most of our time working on it. Instead, we spend quite a bit of time shopping for it. We have a detailed plan for each room, and thankfully, we agree on a lot of these plans. So, when it's time to shop, we're looking for something very specific to meet our needs. We never impulse-buy the first thing we see; we price check and compare quality before we make up our minds. While successful in saving us money, finding the best product, and making us happy, it is time consuming.

We set out on our shopping journey:

First, we went to a fireplace store for research purposes. We want to use the wood-burning fireplace to heat as much as possible. At this point, we considered a wood-burning stove insert. We found one we liked in case we do end up going that route.

Next, we went to the Re-use Center to see what we could find. We found a lot of white crown moulding that could work in the basement.

Then, we went to Menards and found the sinks we want for our upstairs bathroom. Nate's all about a calm house - no loud, bright colors - just clean, relaxing, zen-feeling rooms.

The next stop was the Ashley furniture store to see what they have to offer for our living room in the basement.

Finally before returning home, we went to Lowe's and found a Bosch dryer on clearance. Apparently, it had been scratched, but not in any meaningful way from our inspection. It was a fantastic price, so we snatched that up.

This is about when my parents got into town!!! They are here for the week to help us work!

This is the bathroom that we want to look like a high-end hotel bathroom. Well, as much as space allows. We're getting rid of the wallpaper, any wallpaper in the whole house for that matter. Nate's going to gut the bathroom including the weird linoleum floor. We want double sinks and mirrors since there's plenty of space for it. This bathroom may be our pebble-tile bathroom - I'm very excited.

February 4 and 5: Locks

Our normal routine has been that Nate will get off work at Marathon at 3 and then go over to the house while it is still light to work on it. I get off work a bit later so I'll either go over there and work or I'll go to the apartment and try to keep that somewhat clean and put together. Plus I can make supper. If I go to the house to work, it seems like we resort to eating out for supper or eating really late at night. Our house only has a microwave at this point. There's no fridge, but luckily the garage is freezing so we can use that as our fridge.

One of the first things Nate accomplished was changing the locks. He picked out a very nice brushed nickel look that we'll carry throughout the house. After a few obstacles, Nate got the old locks out and rekeyed every lock to the same key. Our driveway hadn't been shoveled all winter so there were layers and layers of snow and ice covering the whole thing. He bought a shovel and ice chipper right away and went to work. After clearing the first lane, he would allow the sun to melt a bit and then he'd chip away at it. Each day our driveway would get a little bigger and now that's all said and done we can fit three cars side by side. Perfect for company.

February 3, 2010: We bought our first house!

This blog is being created in an effort for us to remember everything we do on our house and encourage fellow do-it-yourselfers. We have just purchased our first house which happens to be a foreclosure. It has good bones, but it needs heavy cosmetic work. We are undertaking a facelift in each of the 12 rooms. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, eat-in kitchen, two living rooms, laundry room, and crawl space. We're excited! I should have started this a month ago, but alas, here I am now. Better late than never. We've already done a lot of work on the house so I'll start over with the day we bought it and retrace our steps. Hope you enjoy!!


Nate is the calm and steady one. The best word I can come up with to describe Nate is steadfast. He is not easily shaken. He can handle this. He loves physical work and doesn't mind spending every day at the house to work on it. I am easily stressed, quicker to make decisions, a planner, and a big picture person who sometimes overlooks details. Hopefully we can make this work!!


2/3/10. Cashier's check, brand new pens, IDs, directions, list of places we've lived for the last 10 years (which was quite a few): check. Did we forget anything? We stretch out our wrists; we hear this is a long process that usually induces temporary carpal tunnel syndrome. We walk inside and meet our realtor Ross and mortgage lender Greg. We're pretty stoked and a little nervous. During the walkthrough, we noticed that there were several notices on the house about bills not being paid. We're hoping the title company's search will turn all of this up and get them paid. We discuss this with the title agent and she writes up the agreement to have the sellers pay the bills. Sweet. We sign a ton of papers and are only there for about an hour. Not bad. At the end, they didn't even have the keys to the house. Our big moment was when Ross gave us the lock box code. I was really hoping the title company would be used to first time homebuyers who are expecting confetti, a cake, a song--something to celebrate such a milestone in our lives. Nope, I guess that is up to us. So, we went to Red Lobster, compliments of Nate's parents (Christmas present). Then we went to our new house!! We looked around and took it all in. It's really hard to think of this as home because it needs so much work. We went through every room and measured so we knew the square footage for new tile, carpet, and wood or laminate. At this point, we are hoping to get all of the rooms painted, lay laminate in both living rooms, redo the bathrooms, and do major cleaning all before we move in at the end of March. I think we can do it. Good thing we have handy parents.

Nate's version of the story so far:Comparing this house to the others we had already seen, this one was by far the least involved as far as renovations were concerned. "Heavy cosmetic work" I would translate as needed a thorough cleaning, stem to stern. If we weren't as clean and tidy as we are, we could have bought some appliances and moved in - but we wanted it done right from the day we walked through the door to actually start living there. Why renovate right before you move out? We want the house to be care-free for years, so we're going front-heavy on the reno. My highest priority at this point was - the driveway. It hadn't been cleared in months, so there was 6" of ice with ~12" of snow on top. I'm still working on clearing the driveway, but the last week of 40* days has definitely helped me out. I found grass on the left side, but there's still another lane to go on the right.