Monday, March 23, 2009

Almost-After pictures

Okay, so I wanted to wait until we were really DONE to post but I just can't help it! I'm in love with our new floors. Here are some pictures. Now, the floors were JUST installed so they are still a bit dusty. We pan to mop and shine them after we get all the moving-in finished.

Here's the living room. It used to have the yuckiest carpet. Now look at that warm, cozy room! I love the paint and wood combo.


The stair rail hadn't been re-installed when I took this picture. But it is back on now. We are still waiting for the wood trim. It is currently on back-order. Our current plan is to keep the hallway wall white, but we may end up painting it the same sand color later. We'll see.

It was overcast and rainy when I took these pictures so my apologies for the poor lighting. Anyway, this is the space between the living room and kitchen dining nook.

Our red kitchen! The trim still needs to be painted. Ben purchased a power roller to paint with and it was handy because it didn't require any real prep work (taping, etc.), which is why there are white strips in the corners and top and bottom of the wall sections. We'll be filling those in this week. Please disregard all the tools and supplies on our kitchen counters! ;)

Here's another view of the kitchen and the two red walls! It's very red but we love it! Even Ben, who was hesitant about having red walls, loves it!

Finally, here is the newest addition to our little family- PENELOPE! She doesn't look like she's very happy in this picture, but trust me, she's a sweetheart. She is all about the snuggling and was actually walking toward the camera to snuggle up to it when the photo was taken.


Her sweet profile.


I love this picture. Ben and Penelope are snuggle buddies. Penelope fills the craggy holes in both our hearts!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Before Pictures

I know I posted this in the previous post, but here's the front of the house again. It's not a very bright picture since we were checking out the house as the sun was setting. But don't you worry, I'll be posting lots of pictures of the house over the next while.


When you come to visit, knock on this door. Or ring the doorbell. Both work. Can you see a red door? I can't even though I want to. Eh well. That will be decided later. These pictures, as I've mentioned before, we're taken in January when I first looked at the house while Ben was in Canada. My plan was to email him pictures just in case I needed to buy a house while he was gone. Good thing I didn't have to!

Anyway, The house had been owned twice when we bought it. The original owners rented the house out, and there's some cosmetic problems with it because of the renters. The second owners, who we purchase the house from, were corporate. They pretty much went in and painted the whole house and maybe fixed some stuff (but not a lot, judging from the things we need to fix- anyway). They purchased it about the time the housing market started to crash in Utah. So- it went unoccupied for a long time. The paper you see taped on the front door basically says that the house has been winterized and not to run any of the water.

I pan to eventually put a small bench or chair to the left of the door.


When you walk in the house, you walk directly into the living room. It's a smaller room, but I like that. It's a more formal room and we won't be doing anything too major in it. Our plan is to rip up the carpet in this room and down the hallway and replace it with wood laminate. We will also replace the laminate in the kitchen (which you will see in a few pictures). Hopefully doing so will actually make the front room seem larger. I hope to also hang a large mirror on the wall across from the stair rail.

Ben has already started to paint this room. We are painting it a pale sand color but keeping the white trim. You'll see some after pictures of the painted room (hopefully with better lighting) soon!


This picture is of the dining area of the kitchen and was taken while standing in the front room. I like the bay window. (realtor cameo on the left!). We will place our round kitchen table in the bay window area.


The wall on the right will be painted the same sand color as the living room, and the wall on the left will be painted red. I'm so excited to have a red kitchen!


The two walls in this picture- stove and refrigerator (which we need to buy) will be painted red.
And the flooring will be replaced.


The picture below is of the master bedroom. The side wall is all closet and on the right is a window. The room will fit our california king-sized bed, which is nice. No walk in closets, which is sad, but it does have a master bath. I can't believe how many houses I looked at did not have a master bath! The current plan is to paint the walls blue but put beadboard paneling on the lower portion of the wall. You can see a sample here but just imagine, instead of yellow, a seaside blue paint! I think it will look really pretty.


This next picture is the downstairs living room. The tile is very nice although not professionally installed. It is pretty though, even if it isn't something I would pick out on my own. This room will be the "entertainment room" and on the far wall there are 10 outlets! I can't imagine needing them all since we aren't too big into gaming or TV or whatever.

In the picture you can see (L-R) our Realtor, Jennifer Gilchrist, and my step-mom and my dad. They came with me to look at houses while Ben was in Canada. When we have more money, we plan to buy a sectional couch and some area rugs.

This next picture is of the same room, but the other side. The open doorway to the far left is the door to go upstairs (where the kitchen, living room and and 3 bedrooms are). The hallway in the middle-right of the picture goes to the other two bedrooms- one of which is the craft room- as well as the 3rd full bath.


Below is the 3rd bath. The shower is a mess, even if it does look pretty. Whoever did it was not a professional and hence did not slope the floor. That means, water does not drain. So, we have to redo the shower. We want to salvage as much of the tile as we can, but we will make it not as deep. We'll tear out the wall on the right- thus extending the laundry room (Do you see that little closet to the far right? Yeah, that's the laundry space.) The tile you see for the shower is just the entrance. The shower goes all the way to the left wall.



This is the craft room closet. The picture does not do it justice! The thing is huge and all shelves. I guess there will be no excuse for the room to be messy, right? :P

This last picture is just one of the corners of our backyard. In fact, it is the smaller corner. The shed was there when we purchased it and we have plans to finish it (before the wood rots) this spring. You can see a peek of the RV pad and "patio" under the snow. Ben plans to build an awning over the cement this spring as well. This picture was taken from the master bedroom window. We are so excited to have a yard in which to entertain and garden!


There you have the before pictures! I haven't taken any pictures of the other bedrooms yet but if I do I'll post them. There are 3 upstairs and 2 downstairs. Our plan is to make one of the upstairs bedrooms an office and keep the 3rd open for now. :) The two downstairs will be the craft room and a guest room. I also didn't take any pictures of the bathrooms. Bathrooms are bathrooms. You can imagine what they look like.

More to come! Thanks for looking.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Why I haven't posted

Happy News! Ben and I bought a house! It all happened so fast and we are currently trying to make a few cosmetic changes before moving in.

Ben and I knew we wanted to buy a house whenever it seemed fiscally possible. That seemed so far away. However, with the higher pay each time he went to Diavik (Canada- Arctic Circle- Diamond mine) we were able to have a good down payment. While he was away I was in charge of looking at houses. Our realtor was absolutely fabulous, so if you're looking for someone, let me know! Anyway, Ben returned on Friday, February 6th. That weekend we went up to Midway to spend some quality time together after his long absence. The following Monday we spent the day looking at some houses, one of which I fell in love with and hoped he would too. And he did! Immediately after looking at the house we made an offer! This was Monday, February 9th. The offer was accepted on the 11th and then we started going back and forth working out contract details with the seller. We received the final contract on Thursday, February 19th and closed on the house Tuesday, February 24th!! How fast is that? It was meant to be!

What's funny is that the house is in an area we didn't originally want to live. We were hoping to find a house closer to my sister and brother-in-law, who live in Sandy. Our house is much more west. Conveniently close to my work (the drive is like 3 minutes!) but inconveniently farther away from my beloved sister and niece. *Sigh* What is distance when it's family, right? But, I've digressed. Even though we originally didn't want to live there, as I was looking at houses I would drive past the neighborhood on my way home from work and the thought kept popping into my head "I NEED to look in that neighborhood for a house." Day after day the thought would be there and I never did look. Fate made sure I got there when the house we bought showed up on a list our realtor sent. Imagine my excitement when I realized it was in that neighborhood!!

Here's a picture of the front. I have some other pictures of the house, which were taken while Ben was in Canada, but Ben's made notes all over them. Once I have some (without the unnecessary notes) I'll post them. I want to do a before and after post anyway, since we'll be changing the flooring and painting. I'm so excited to decorate!!



Cute, huh? I hope to paint the front door red. The house is on a little less than a 1/4 acre lot, is 2,135 sq ft, 5 bedrooms and 3 full baths. The downstairs has the most awesome bedroom with a huge closet FULL of SHELVES!!! CRAFT ROOM! Yippee!

So that's what we're spending our time on. It's really hard to make projects in our cramped office right now when I know there is a huge room that I will soon have all to myself with triple the space!

Oh, and what's even cooler is that one of the girls in my demo group lives in my neighborhood! She has her own blog and you should check it out! She's awesome!