We've Moved In!!

We have finally moved into our new home. There is still a lot of work left to do, but at least it is habitable. Heather has been doing a ton of unpacking, and so far the house has easily swallowed all of our stuff with room to spare. Last week we bit the bullet and bought a stove to replace the old nasty one the house came with. Heather and I spent part of the afternoon today doing some cleaning in the back yard. We have had to be careful after we discovered a huge honey bee hive inside our retaining wall in the back.

Our new range (and it actually fits!!)

The branch looked much smaller when it was still in the tree

New Refrigerator

I thought I would include a picture of our new refrigerator. It fits perfectly in its space without hardly an inch to spare. The installers refused to connect the ice maker line because of a kink, so I will have to get that taken care of as soon as I have a chance. I will get some more pictures of our other new appliances when they have been installed. We have our new high efficiency washer and dryer in the garage, but they are still crated up.

Nearing Interior Completion

Since our last post the house has been evolving rapidly. With major efforts by Heather and family, the painting is 99.9% complete. Without all of their hard work prepping the trim and touching up, there is no way we would have been able to get as far as we have so quickly. Last week we found that we were suddenly under the gun to get all of the painting work completed because the carpet install date was pushed forward over a week. The plumbing for the new water heater has all been installed and appears to be holding water without even a trace of any leaks. Most importantly, the carpet was finally installed today. It is amazing how finished the house looks with completed flooring. All of our carpeting concerns were laid to rest when we saw the finished product installed in our home. Here are some pictures we took of our work.

Heather hard at work removing all of the peeling paint

My first attempt at sweating copper

It's hard to believe there used to be wallpaper cars on the walls

The carpet really finishes off all of the hard work we have done

Mark Your Calendars

On December 20, 2008 Travis will be graduating from California State University of Sacramento with a Bachelors of Science in Health Science! He finalized his internship today, the last hurdle he had left, well other than the four courses he is taking this semester. But, after makings Dean’s list last semester I’m sure it won’t be a problem. I can’t wait to see him on the jumbotron at graduation!!!

Honey Where's the Tape Measure?

It has been a while since our last post and a lot of changes have been happening at the house. The hall bathroom was completely ripped out in an effort to take care of the somewhat extensive water damage and is now in the process of being rebuilt. As of today all of the drywall is back up and Heather's uncle was able to float the wall of the tub/shower. It is nice to finally see things being put back together instead of being ripped out. One thing I have noticed is that more time is spent looking for tools than actually using them. The tool belt is starting to make more and more sense as we continue with the remodel. I think Heather is going to go crazy if I ask her to get the tape measure for me one more time. We have also been able to get some paint on the walls of the living room, and we are very happy with the blue color that we chose. Here are some of the pictures that we have taken over the last few days.

The CAST IRON tub going back in along with some of the repaired rot

The gray shade of blue we chose for the living room

The moisture and rot resistant gypsum board going back in at last

Day of Triumph

Today the painting started in earnest. The existing paint in the home was a crazy combination of greens with shades ranging from mint chip to avocado. We settled on a nice neutral oatmeal color for the walls and a basic white for the ceilings. With much help from Heather's family great strides were made towards the transformation of our home. It is nothing short of astonishing the difference a coat of paint can make.

Banana Room Before (future office)

Banana Room After

Dining Area Before

Dining Area After

Out of the Frying Pan

With persuasion from Heather's uncle we decided to demo the hall bathroom so that we could survey the extent of the water damage. There were mosaic tiles flying everywhere. Luckily, there wasn't very much damaged to the structure of the house caused by the severely leaking shower. However, there was a little funk growing beneath the existing flooring...

With some reservations, we decided to install the kitchen/sun room door ourselves. Getting the door out was the easy part (thank you Mom and Dad for the tool set), but with a little perseverance we were able to get the new door framed in and operating well. I have to say it was one of the proudest moments of my life when the door actually started opening and closing without dragging on the floor and the frame.

Trying to get the shims in correctly

Before: single pane plate glass, rotting frame, and a blocked doggy door

After: dual pane safety glass, steel construction and functional frame

Demo Commences

With the installation of the tile just around the corner, we decided to focus our efforts of the day prepping the master bath. So far everything is going pretty smoothly with the demo. I don't even think there was any blood drawn. There are a few funny things with the subfloor, but nothing that can't be fixed with a little ingenuity and some deck screws.

No more pink sink!

Little Cheerleader!!

We were getting ready to go see our new house as homeowners for the first time and we had a little cheerleader cheering us on

Elise is just too cute!

New Locks!!

We received the house today and our first task was to change the locks! Travis did a great job of changing three locks. With our first task we reached our first speed bump and that is the fact that we need a new door from the sun room to the house. So that will be our next purchase....

First Post!

Well, as many of you know Travis and I are in the process of buying a new house. We are supposed to close tomorrow! With starting this new adventure we have decided to create a blog. Here is the first before picture of the house. There will be a lot of them to follow. In the next couple of week we have plans to really change this house and make it home.