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Showing posts from July, 2011

WARNING: Gross Home Improvement Post

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So for the last few weeks we've been masking the smell of our master bathroom toilet with air fresheners, spray, candles, etc.  But neither of us could take it anymore.  It smelled like old pee.  Yes gross, but one of the fun things about being a homeowner.  After some research and asking around we decided to replace the wax seal ring that rests between the actual toilet bowl and your floor.  It wasn't a hard project but a gross one.  Thank god for rubber gloves, face masks, sponges and an insane amount of cleaning supplies.  We forgot to grab the camera until mid way through and then we also forgot to snap a picture of the nice clean new wax ring but here are a few 'during' process.  Basically Rollie lifted and held the toilet while I did the dirty work.  He claims this is even since he electrocuted himself trying to figure out our light switches and covers....hmmmm...ok! Old gross wax ring...and dirty floors and wall Toilet hanging out in the shower yep tha

Week 3-4 before and work in progress pics

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Here are a few pictures of the tasks we accomplished over the last week or so: hallways before... hallways/trim/walls after...(color: sand drift Lowe's valspar) Patio furniture!! Love it!! Trimming the trees...look at that vineyard! Cleaned up the existing garden box...need to get planting! Another pictures of the view :) Living room before... Living Room in progress family room before... before...finding painted over wallpaper :( Work in progress...need sofa table behind couch with some lamps, artwork and new pillow covers (already ordered!) little closer look
Week 3...going on week 4 :) Can't believe that we've only been here for a little over 3 weeks...it seems like much much longer.  We are tired but still trucking along at 110%.  We've really accomplished alot in the last week.  Here is our old 'list': -Organize garage/tools (Anne, Rollie's stepmom was nice enough to drive up this past Thursday and bring us a bunch of Rollie's dads old tools...these will definitley come in handy!)   done last night :) -Figure whole house paint color out and paint   (all but living room painted...planning on doing that tomorrow, color: sand drift lowe's valspar) -fence, wood is here need to figure out the design -fix master toilet, supplies bought need to do tomorrow -buy & install interior doors (we want white to match all the trim we are paiting...not the dark wood that we currently have)   (plan scratched...old doors back up and will eventually paint white) -buy and install new screen doors -contact paper shelves

Week 2

Well so far our plan of making a to-do-list on Saturdays for the upcoming week has worked out pretty nicely.  We accomplished ALOT last week and it always feels so good the cross things off the list.  This week we are going to focus on the following: -Organize garage/tools (Anne, Rollie's stepmom was nice enough to drive up this past Thursday and bring us a bunch of Rollie's dads old tools...these will definitley come in handy!)  done last night :) -Figure whole house paint color out and paint -fence -fix master toilet -buy & install interior doors (we want white to match all the trim we are paiting...not the dark wood that we currently have) -fence -buy and install new screen doors -contact paper shelves in guest bath and organize -dump run/pick up (there is a massive pile on the side of the house going on) -find patio furniture -finish hanging lights on patio -clear out boxed in garden area in back yard, plant some herbs Of course pictures to come :)

Master bedroom

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Its not exactly done, but when is a room ever done?!  I made a trip down to Ikea today and forgot how completely overwhelming that place is.  I mostly focused on some finishing touches for our master bedroom (with the exception of art work and baseboards)  We are probably the most excited about the fact that we hung some curtains and are hoping to sleep past 5:30am tomorrow morning, our bedroom is east facing.  Here are some up to date pictures of the master...not done yet but looking a lot better than the rest of the house... before...just over a week ago today 7/15...sorry for the odd shadow from the fan bought a new rug at ikea, $19.99 steal! better shot of the rug bought matching table lamps, also $19.99 each at ikea.  I also added a lighted mirror for my vanity ($22.99 target) and a candle holder from ikea ($2.50) for my make up brushes. new curtains and rod for the sliding glass door...also ikea new curtains from ikea too ($19.99 for two huge panels...need

Week One

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Wow...we knew this house was going to be alot of work but things are taking a bit longer than we expected.  It doesn't help that we both work full time jobs so we've been working on the house from 6pm-11pm everynight after putting in 8+ hours of work/drive time.  Regardless we are still ecstatic.  Over the past few days and nights we've accomplished the following: -brought in the big furniture from the garage (thanks to Bri and Brian) -put felt pads on all the furniture (making sure not to scratch our beautiful new floors) -prepped the rest of the walls for painting -bought a recliner (yeah for Rollie...don't worry its a pretty one) -started to clean windows -painted our master bedroom (valspar stone mason gray) -demo'd our master closet (it was a hot mess of random wood planks, shelves and rods) -primed all the dark wood trim in our master bedroom -painted the master closet white (thank you to Jessica and Justin for helping with this task and the 3 before

Homeowners

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We finally moved in!  After yet another crazy stressful week last week we finally got keys to our first house this past Tuesday.  Tuesday night we proudly opened the door for the first time and celebrated with a bottle of veuve...mmmm :)  Jessica was our first visitor and helper.  We spent a good 6 hours ripping up carpet, pad, and staples in order for both the carpet and hardwood installs to begin first thing Wednesday morning.  Wednesday I stuck around our loft waiting for the movers and to do our final walk through with our property manager, while Rollie headed over to the new house to greet all the install people and start cleaning.  At one point we had 3 carpet guys, 3 hardwood guys, the 2 of us, 3 movers and 2 fridge delivery guys in the house.  The carpet was done by mid afternoon and looks and feels great!  That night we took a well deserved break and met Austin and Laura who were in town from Michigan for diner at one of our favorite spots, Bruno's on 4th. Thursday morni