Thursday, April 2, 2009

Major progress!!!!

We have water!!!!  The well pump was installed today. 
John(the plumber) has installed all the pipes through out all three floors.
Harvey's guys have already patched up all the sheetrock. 
Saturday John picks up the cabinets.
Tomorrow the tile comes in and we can pick it up!

It's coming along real nice. 

AND so much faster than I expected. 

Kids, kids and More kids!

Today SEVEN kids came over to meet Brad. I am so happy for him I think our street is going to be perfect for him.  All the kids came over to our house to meet us when they saw us outside. 
A whole group of them came over to introduce themselves to Brad. There were seven kids that came over tonight and they all live on the same side of the street. They range from 5th grade to 8th grade and both boys and girls. They said there were some 4th graders down the street too. 

Tonight when I went up to the house Brad was already over the neighbors house playing on the trampoline.  THen I heard a whole bunch of them running around screaming and playing. It was music to my ears! 

It is going to be a great place for Brad to grow up.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A dogs life.

Ok I think I have a new meaning to a dogs life.

I go up to the house the other day. John, Brad and Fred had been up there for a few hours with the plumber working on the leaky pipes.

John ( the plumber) says to me - Hey did you know the dog loves the Jacuzzi? I was like what?

Yep - FRED decided he HAD to be in the tub. ( empty of course since we don't have water yet)

John thinks that Fred got all excited when he saw himself in the large mirror behind the tub.

He thought he was going to have somebody to play with when he saw 'another dog'!

I can't wait to see what he would do if the tub was filled! hehehehehe

Monday, March 30, 2009

Like father like son....

OMG .... Brad is JUST like his father. That is sometimes good and sometimes bad! LOL!

We brought his bike to the new house so he wouldn't be totally bored spending the whole day there with John.
He was riding down the street and met the new neighbors. He has the whole story about them ( and I wonder what they know about us!)

He met the mother and the father too. They came out to talk to him.

Does that sound just like John or what???

My new best friends....

My new best friends are ... Home Depot and Lowes. Actually I really like Lowes alot more!

Yesterday I visited Home Depot and purchased a vanity, sink, mirror for the downstairs bathroom. I so want to start the painting and decorating and I am trying really hard to be patient. At least if I make a few purchases inbetween it holds me over.

I went with a cherry wood vanity and mirror with a white sink. The kitchen cabinets are cherry so I stuck with the same theme for floor 1.
On the way home from Home Depot we had a super bad rain storm with quarter sized hail. Luckily we were just down the road from the house and the vanity was boxed.

The plumbers worked on the heating system today! Day by day we get a step closer.

Soon we might even have water! The jerk that destroyed the house also destroyed the well. He pulled out the well pump and broke off some piece that we needed so now we need to have Angelo dig out the well pump area to replace the part. UGH!

Will post some pictures as soon as they become interesting to look at.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Freakin' Fred

I really do not know what Fred's problem is the last few weeks.  I think he senses the commotion of the move and we are not home as much as usual.  He has been a total pain the ass! 
He has been shredding the garbage all over the place. He goes into the food pantry and takes out food! He ATE through the bottom of a peanut butter jar to get to the peanut butter.  He pushes on the cabinet and knocks stuff off the top shelfs. He started ripping up the roll of toilet paper. The other day my friend, Cathy, made me chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing.  I brought them home and put them on the kitchen table.  Now remember, Fred is a small dog.  I had six cupcakes in a SEALED gladware container. When we came home there was a chewed open container on the living room floor. He at THREE cupcakes and then licked the icing off of the remaining three.  
Wait.... I am not done yet.  I had gotten a gift of a box of Belgium chocolates and they were sealed and wrapped with gift paper. I had them on the corner of my kitchen table.  My kitchen table is pushed up against the wall in the corner so that area of the table is not accessible from the floor. WELLLLL.... when I got home the box was chewed open and not. one. single. piece. of. chocolate. was. left.   Which MEANS.... he had to jump up on the chair and walk across my table to get to the candy. 

Thats the final straw.............. He is back to the cage when we are not home. 
He sure isn't going to like the new house  ;)  
It will have a garbage can with a lid and proper storage space so he won't be able to get into anything! HA!

Renovations - Day 3,4,5

I am so amazed at how quickly and smoothly the house renovations are going.  All of that pinky/peachy tile is GONE!!!!  I am so happy that I made the executive decision to purge that crap. It was one of the very few things that was NOT damaged in the house and John tried his hardest to keep it in there.  It was just . so. damn. UGLY.  It was six by six smooth tile that was off white with swirls in it that were pinky/peach.  It matched NOTHING I want to do and it is the first thing people see when the walked in the house.  It is the two hallways that lead into the kitchen and living room. It would have looked so stupid to have this awful tile connect to the new tile I am putting in the kitchen.  Well - I won that war!! 

Almost all of the sheetrock work is replaced/repaired.  Our bedroom ceiling was ripped out , insulation replaced and new ceiling up. 

The water pressure tank was installed.  John wanted a big one since we have 3 bathrooms, dishwasher, etc - so I think John Miller got tired of hearing John say that and bought the biggest one which is commercial sized. 

John Miller has also started installing the heating system and will order the boiler this coming week. 
 
Brad LOVES running the tractor around the property. John cut down some trees and brush and Brad has been tying to the back of the tractor and hauling back to the woods.  On his way back down to the house he ties old tires from the pile that was dumped there to the back and brings them down to the big pile that needs to be disposed of. 

OH and Harvey has taken all the garbage off the property!!  They owners left the garage filled with crap and all the old rugs ripped out of the house.  He did it cheaper than what we would have had to pay for a dumpster!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Day 1 (and 2) of renovations.

Renovations have started already!!!!!!!  The afternoon before the closing I bought the flooring!  I got Pergo Oak floors for the living room and dining room and tile for the kitchen area.  I let John pick out the tile for the upstairs bathroom. I gotta let him pick a few things and that was not as important to me as the downstairs. I was shocked he agreed to buy the flooring already since it is actually the last thing that will get done on the inside. I was telling that to my friend and John said that it is because he is so freaking tired of being drug around to flooring stores and if he just bought it he wouldn't have to go to anymore!

I also placed the cabinet order. I found a place on craigslist that sells direct to the buyer.  WHAT A DEAL!!  I got high end Madison Cherry cabinets with the knobs and soft close draws for cheaper than the low end crap from Lowes.  

Tuesday - Harvey fixed the whole roof already. And Wednesday they already started the sheetrock!  

Can't wait to get started on the fun parts!

It's all mine!!!!!

Monday - March 23, 2009.

We signed on our new house!!!!!  It's all mine now.  I can't believe it has finally happened and nothing bad got in the way.

At the closing the listing realtor said she couldn't believe that the bank accepted our offer. SHe said if she knew they would have accepted an offer that low then she would have bought it herself!


Sunday, March 8, 2009

SOLD!!!!!

Gasp!!!!!! We SOLD our house. I keep waiting for something bad to happen because everything has gone perfect and smooth. It isn't supposed to be THIS easy.
It a matter of three short weeks we decided to start looking for a house, found a house, toured a house, placed a bid, had bid accepted, told somebody our house was for sale, and sold our house!!

I can't wait to get started on my new one!!!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Planning

Wow! I have SO many choices to make. It is a bit overwhelming to come up with a color palate for an entire house! I have never remodeled more than one room at a time and now I have to do a whole house. Oh but I am so very excited - its better than Christmas! 
I will have plenty of before and after photos to share.  We had the contractor there yesterday and the plumber. 
Just cant WAIT for the closing so we can get started! 
Right now I have some colors narrowed down.  Brads room is going to be gray and blue. (Yankees colors) Top half of his wall gray and bottom blue.  Kitchen is going to be a coffee color, family room an olive-ish green. The dining room a burgundy and the living room a dark tan or gold color.  The foyer is going to be cream colored ( have to match the tile in the foyer).  My room is going to be blue and brown and the guest room is going to be dark lavender. 

So far that is the choices. I will be curious to see how many of those get changed as the time gets closer. 


GREAT NEWS!!


Friday finally came and the realtor called John. THEY TOOK OUR BID!  I am still in a state of shock.  I am going to live in a real house with three toilets, closets, a garage and large yard and my dream of a breakfast bar.  We have alot of work head of us, but I am so excited and looking forward to all the plans and dreams to be fulfilled. 

Am I dreaming??

Ok. I am not sure if I am dreaming, but if I am don't wake me up.  I have wanted a 'real' house for many many years now. BUT, I also like how cheap I live now. It enables me to go on many vacations and buy my son and the family lots of cool toys.  I never want to work to pay a mortgage soooo... we have stayed in this house for 21 years.  Until NOW that is!  I am so excited I can hardly stand it!  
Saturday, February 14th John said that maybe we should start to think about moving to a bigger house. It is a buyers market out there. Well, thats all you have to do is say something to get me motivated. On the internet I went immediately.  Saturday night and Sunday was spent searching the real estate ads for something beautiful, yet affordable. Any of you who know John know that the normal persons affordable is NOT his.   Anyway - I found this really big, nice looking house online.  The price didn't exactly match the size so it caught my interest.  John being the cable guy knows all the roads around here and knew exactly where this house was. We took ride up. The neighborhood is nice, the property is awesome, the outside of the house looks great. It is a foreclosure and the listing says that it needs an entire interior. Monday morning we get a realtor to take us in.  The inside is destroyed completely.  BUT-the house is jsut about exactly what I would have picked had I had a choice.  It needs TONS of works. They ripped out the heating system, took the well pump, ripped the kitchen cabinets off the walls, took the appliances, punched holes in the walls, and it had a hole in the roof.  We offered them one hundred thousand LESS than the listing and all week I waited for the reply. I really didn't think there was ANY way possible that they would accept that offer and I really tried not to fall in love with the house and the ideas of what I could do with it.