Outside Progress

With the weather as nice as it has been lately, we've started to work on the outside of the house. Thanks to a ton of help from our parents and their construction background, we've been able to get a tremendous amount done. You can see in the before picture below, TLRH had large overgrown bushes and an awning in the front.

The bushes were literally about five feet in circumference and taking over most of the front of the house. These have been almost completely cut down to expose the front. We will eventually rip out the roots. From what we hear this won't be an easy task to accomplish! 

Over the weekend my dad helped to take down the awning. Disassembling it didn't take too long and it really transforms the house, updating it and giving it a fresher look.

Our initial plan was to paint the house because the current paint is peeling off in sheets on the sides and in the back. But we've opted to side it, which we were advised was much easier upkeep and lasted 100% longer. Thanks to the generosity of our parents, they have helped us with the cost as a wedding gift. Thanks Mom and Dad! (There's no way we could have done it on our own!) It will be a while until the siding is up, but here are a couple pictures of the progress.

We'll keep things updated on here! In the mean time we'll keep plugging away at the inside. It still needs a ton of work! 

Painting the Bedroom

With one room painted, we were eager to start on the next one. Deciding on the bedroom, we went to Home Depot and picked a few samples.

We ended up with the far left blue (Russian Blue). Luckily there was no carpet to rip up in the bedroom, so we could get to work right away.

Before pictures

Note the griminess

Starting with the ceiling, we painted for two days. Surprisingly this room seemed to take longer than the first. That could have something to do with it taking two days to finally decide on the paint color....

Cutting in the edges

Finished Product!

Hurrah for Working Laundry

One of the first priorities after getting the house was undoubtedly having a working washer and dryer. Paying $10 in quarters for two loads of laundry was growing slightly tiresome and waiting to do laundry for as long as humanly possible was not shaping up to be such a great idea = scary, gigantic piles of laundry or wearing dirty clothes. 


Unfortunately, the dryer we purchased with the house was broken. After contemplating the best way to go about fixing this, we were surprised by a friend who was about to get rid of his old set and offered them to us. Thank you Rick!

See the old dryer to the left and the working one on the right

It took a little effort, but we were able to get the working dryer into the basement. Before the installation, we ran into a couple of minor problems: dirty/moldy walls and a missing exhaust pipe.

Cleaned w/ mold cleaner

Sweeping dirt

Exhaust pipe hooked up and working

We still need to do some cleaning and need to reposition the washer and dryer against the walls, but in the mean time we are  successfully washing our clothes. Hurrah!

Ripping up linoleum - Small project

Although we've been over to the house every day this week and will probably continue this trend, there are only so many hours (after work) left in the day for renovating. So during the week we're keeping it to small projects, saving the big ones for the weekend. 


Our first small project was to rip up the ugly linoleum in the front entry way.

Note : Crow bar at the ready

Unsure of how it was attached to the floor and hoping that it wasn't glued to the hardwoods, we began to chip away at the corners. As luck would have it, it came up fairly easily.

Linoleum debris

After prying up many nails and ripping out lots of old smelly linoleum the entry way was finally cleared out! (And yes, it did smell pretty awful)

Ta - Da!

Final Results

Weekend #1

This was the first weekend getting into our new house. Exciting, but certainly a little daunting. The to-do list seems never ending. Trying to keep in mind that we still have about two months (the end of April) to get things in shape to move in, we set to work!

Here are a couple 'before' shots of the livingroom. 

It took a few tries and several samples from Home Depot, but we chose Sandstone Cove for the walls and Powdered Snow for the trim.

Aaron Prep-ing some of our supplies

Ripping out the carpet

Removing tack boards

Walls mostly painted, trim still needs paint

Finished!

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

First project = Completed!

Finally Ours

Friday was our closing date! 

Its an amazing feeling! 

Now the fun begins...