Days till we have to be out of our apartment: 0
Today carpet went in, which means we’ll drag our mattress into a room and crash here for the first time! The place is really coming together..
Quick move…
April 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Tonight we rented a U-Haul truck and a few friends pitched in to help us move. The nice thing about living in little apartments for so long is that you can’t really acquire too much extraneous ‘stuff’ — which made the move pretty reasonable. Here’s a shot of everything we own in the garage (since we can’t move it into the house till the carpet goes in Friday):
Renovations: Day 6
April 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Days till we have to be out of our apartment: 6
Everything’s taped up and the first coat of paint has been applied to most of the house. It already looks cleaner and brighter…which I love.
Back at the apartment we’re in the process of assembling and filling a jungle of boxes. It makes me want to build a killer fort.
Renovations: Day 3
April 21, 2010 By 2 Comments
Days till we have to be out of our apartment: 9
Today our paint guy did some drywall and prep work for the painting — including fixing the ominous water damage area, filling holes, and protecting select areas with plastic.
We were going to stay at our apartment and pack tonight, but when Kristie headed out to a meeting I decided to swing by the new house and start pulling out the bajillion staples left in the floor that held down the carpet pad. Most all of them required a flat-head screwdriver to pry up, and then pliers to yank out. I imagine it’s how dentists view pulling teeth — kind of tedious, but strangely satisfying. Here’s one of many rows that line each floor surface:
Kristie joined later and helped keep me on pace by removing all the pulled-out staples and debris along the way. This house has been a fun project to work on together already…which is a good thing cause there’s plenty more coming.
[AP - it was a last minute decision, nevertheless #shouldhavecalled]
Renovations: Day 1
April 19, 2010 By 7 Comments
Days till we have to be out of our apartment: 11
We got the keys to the house today and jumped right into things, seeing as we have to move in by next Friday, the 30th of April. In the afternoon we had Home Depot come by to measure for carpet, and then after work we met with a painter (Dave) that came highly recommended to us for drywall and interior painting. Luckily, Dave understands our time constraint, and is ready to get crackin’ as well. To keep things on pace he requested two things:
- Get the paint swatches to him ASAP
- Remove carpet and padding from the entire house to facilitate painting.
So we dropped by Home Depot at about 8:00 to get the color swatches and a utility knife, ran home to get music, a bandanna and rags, then drove back to the house to work until 11:00.
I’d never removed carpet before — but what I lacked in experience, I made up for in zeal.
In under 70 minutes, I ripped out, sliced up and dragged every inch of disgusting, soiled carpet and padding from the house to the adjoining garage. It was exhausting at that pace, but it felt so good to get it all out. Meanwhile Kristie wiped down all the baseboards in preparation for the painting.
I keep trying to prevent her from doing stuff like that, but she insists she’s fine, and has no problem walking away if it causes unnecessary strain. She’s inspiring.
Taking a breather on the aftermath:
It’s official, we’re homeowners
April 16, 2010 By 2 Comments
Editors note: Contrary to popular belief, our new home can not fit in the palm of your hand.
On Thursday we signed a stack of papers as thick as a novel and closed the deal. Even though it’s a scary step, we’re feeling good about the decision. The house was a a foreclosure that we acquired considerably under market value, our 15 year mortgage interest rate is near record lows, and we closed in time to get the $8k first-time homeowner tax credit.
I keep telling people that I feel like I’ve become an adult in the last 6 months. New job, new baby, new home. But then I remember I’m as much of a kid now as I was the day I met Kristie, and then everything’s right in the universe again.
We’ll be taking pictures of initial renovations, etc. and posting them here.
Bring it on, yard work.
Home Improvement With Spray Paint
March 22, 2008 By 5 Comments
My good buddy Fudge tipped me off that the Glenwood apartment complex (Glen-hood, to you locals) was giving away their old dressers (chests of drawers?) for free-ninety-nine because they were outfitting the place with new ones. So I managed to pick up two and wrestle them into the back of the Landcruiser. The first problem was that they were u-g-l-y. It was no wonder they were getting rid of them. And the second problem was that they were brown, and wouldn’t have fit with the style of our bedroom. So we took a trip to Home Depot and bought 7 cans of black semi-gloss spray paint, figuring that if it still didn’t look good after a few coats, we’d only be out a few bucks.
So after unscrewing all the drawer handles, dusting profusely and removing 3-year-old balled up socks from the neither-regions of the dressers, we got our paint on. It took all seven cans, but the results were beautiful. Here are a few pictures of the work in progress:
And here they are once we placed them in the room:
Oh and a bit of advice: If you try this at home, please know just because the spray paint is dry, doesn’t mean it won’t fill your place with potent, noxious fumes. Leave it outside for a day, I wish I had.