Out with the Old in with the New

We moved in all our things over four days with some help from family and friends.  The move forced us to reflect on our relocation the previous year.  When we came down from Washington we fit everything we had in the world into an 8'x5' space, the overflow was either jammed in our Mini or sent to Palouse Treasures (the local thrift shop).  This time we rented a 14' truck and in no time we had that thing packed like a can o' sardines.  About four more trips with our cars and the apartment was cleared out.  The only thing we had to abandon at the dumpster was an old office chair. We moved the furniture into the garage mostly and the boxes into the dining room.

And then the work began. 

They say on HGTV to live in a house a while before making any changes, because after you have lived in it you will know better what changes need to be made.  Yeah, screw that.  I know myself better than to believe that crap.  If we don't do it now it ain't never going to happen.  So the Tuesday after we got the keys and the second day of actually living in our house, our house, oooouuuurrrrrr hoouuuuuusseee (I still LOVE saying it!) we had carpet installed in the TV room and Millie's room.  We got it on Craigslist special from an out of work flooring contractor.  $635 for the two rooms and the remnant removal.

 The old stuff, uck!

 The TV room stripped with just the fresh padding.

 A peek at the beautiful hardwood floors before they get covered up again.

 Ahhhh, nice fresh carpet for Millie to scoot around on!

TV room complete with fresh carpet, fresh paint, lazy boys and media center. 

Just missing one thing...yeah... the TV.

The next project was emancipating the hardwood floors in the living room and hallway. In one night I ripped up the living room and rolled the musty, old, shag carpet up along with the pitiful, disintegrating, yellowed padding.  I managed to tear up most of the staples and one wall of tack board before calling it a night.  The following day Adam helped out, he ripped out the carpet in the hallway and the remaining tack board, what a guy!  : D

A lot of dust came up with that carpet.

The hardwoods look pretty good, there is a little water damage in a couple of places but it's nothing that we can't live with for a while.  The plan being that when we remodel the kitchen we can refinish the floors then, right? Righhhhhhhhht. 

After three weeks of living in our house we figured it was about time to get our hands dirty.  Tiling the hall bathroom sounded like an easy "weekend project".  Uh-huh. Will helped me take out the toilet and Adam removed the vanity.  But, yeah, I totally underestimated the amount of elbow grease and will power that it would take to rip out the old laminate.  As per usu I was able to start the job over my weekend and Adam was able to finish it on his weekend.  Then I went to Lowe's and grabbed grout, a grout kit, and some "self-leveling" quickset =  $70.  We laid the quickset one night and started tiling the next.  It worked pretty well, me laying and Adam cutting. We grouted the tile the day after that and by the weekend were able to replace the toilet. The quickset didn't really "self-level" to expectations so the tile isn't super level but it looks pretty decent, at least for first timers.  

 

Before...During...After

Now that we have the floor tile done the next step will be tiling the tub surround.  We picked out some nice glass tile the other day on our lunch break.  All that's left to do is find some time.

The Keys to Paradise

I waited all day with bated breath.  I called my realtor twice before she kindly told me that she would call me when the transaction went on record and the keys were delivered to her office. Around 2:45 pm Joan called and said she would meet me at my house with the keys at 4 pm. Our downstairs neighbors at the apartments were moving too and needed a break from packing so I invited them to come and see the house. We caravanned over there and right at 4 pm I was turning an old tarnished brass key in my very own front door lock. I gave my very first tour of my new home, right then and there.

That night I could hardly sleep, I was so excited to get in and paint!

The next morning I dropped Millie off with her aunt and uncle and headed for our house.  I started by spackling dents and scrapes in the walls, then moved on to the wallpaper border in the master bedroom. The wallpaper was old enough that it came down with relative ease and all I had to use was a squirt bottle full of warm water.  I took a break and walked over to the neighbors to collect the paint that I stored in their garage.  Gene was eating breakfast and didn't have his hearing aids in so even though I could see him and I was knocking and ringing the door bell I didn't get his attention.  I went around back and his wife was out with their dog, Coco.  I introduced myself and asked if she could open the garage.  She complied readily, adding that her name was Emmy.  In the garage she filled me in on a little history of the neighborhood, burst into tears at the mention of Dorothy (the previous owner of our home), and informed me that under the mottled brown/orange/gray shag carpet there were hardwood floors.  After moving the paint from garage to garage I moved on to mixing paint for Millie's room and succeeded in creating a rich fuschia.  The paint mixing was followed by a realization.  I didn't have any paint pans.  Crap!  Luckily for me Chris was on his way to bring me lunch and offered to pick some up.  So I started with a brush, painting the hard-to-reach areas. 

Pretty soon Chris arrived laden with burgers, fries and paint pans.  It was his first time inside, so he took his camera and snapped off some shots.  We ate and then investigated the hardwood floors, oh, and our findings were beautiful.  They spawned further investigation which resulted in a full on demolition of the faux wood paneling and marbled mirror wall in the living room.  Chris took off after an hour or so and I finished the bottom half of Millie's room. 

In the garage I mixed up the top color, a soft yellow.  I was 80% done when Adam arrived with the young owner of said room and Greek take out . We had a nice picnic in the backyard.  Adam took over the painting for a while and I watered the lawn with Millie.  It was nearing 7:30 pm and she was none too happy to be receiving peripheral splashes from the hose.  I handed her off to Adam and sent him back to our dinky apartment.  I stayed and finished up the paint job in Millie's room, then I went through the house and made sure all the paint supplies were away and all the paint cans had their lids, at long last I shut off the lights and stepped onto the porch to lock up fumbling in the dark with the unfamiliar and yet wholly comforting keys.

Signing Away Your Life

I logged on to the Mini Financial site yesterday morning to view our payoff amount, to see if the check had cleared.  But, no, the balance was still there.  A little later, still there. Around noon, it was still there.  I began to wonder if my compulsive statement reviewing was doing any good when I logged on to find the site was unavailable.  An hour later I checked it to find the same message, then it clicked, hmm if they were making changes then the site might be unavailable.  Ten minutes later I was asking a Mini USA representative to e-mail an official letter declaring the sum paid in full and our financial obligations terminated! 

Today, Adam called in sick (with intergrity unmarred because he is in fact sick- with whatever end of summer flu bug that is going around) and I canceled my afternoon shift.  We waited all day for the Title company to contact us with an appointment time.  Then at 1:29 pm, as we were driving to the bank to submit the wire transfer for our down payment, we received notification through our realtor that our appointment was at 3 pm.  The transfer went smoothly and then we had some time to kill.  First order was getting a light lunch, Brugo's on the corner of Kietzke and Virginia, yummy!  Best cheesesteak ciabatta of my life!  Then some browsing at Borders, may it rest in peace. Finally, 2:45 pm rolled around and we excused ourselves to be a little punctually premature.

Joan, our realtor, met us at the Title office.  We waited about ten minutes and then I received more than enough opportunities to perfect my new signature.  The Title officer, Susan, was wonderful, nice and gracious.  She was thrilled to pieces with the fact that Millie was sitting on her desk munching on a rice cake and rifling through the loan documents as she explained them to me and Adam.  And Millie for her part was just as wonderful.  Yes, there was a time when she managed to call another Title officer via the intercom.  Followed by the decision to make Susan's business cards rain all over the table.  But for the most part she was her angelic self, cooing and gumming her rice cake in peace. After an hour and a half of sign here, date here, initial here.  We were done!  And the best part!  Our mortgage payment on our 1300+ square foot house (complete with front and back yard and one car garage) is going to be five bucks LESS than what we are paying now for a 900 square foot apartment.

Tomorrow, we get the keys...


Here are some teaser before photos of our new home.

 Millie's Room

 Laundry Room

 Kitchen

 Master Bedroom

 Master Bath

 Office

 Hall Bathroom

 View from the Driveway

 Patio (back entrance)

Garden and Storage Sheds