Well, it's official. The new start I mentioned in a previous post finally happened and Tim and I are now new home owners!!! In 33 days, we went from being given two months' notice on the house we had been renting to owning a home. It all happened so fast, that it seems surreal.
I am very happy with our new home. She needs a little elbow grease and "sweat equity" to make her truly blossom, but I think our family will be very happy. She comes with 1/2 an acre of level, cleared land (which isn't easy to come by in this area) in a charming rural neighborhood. There are several fruit trees and an abundance of rose bushes, plus lots of other garden touches the just need some pruning and attention.
We got the keys on Friday afternoon and worked with my in-laws until after midnight to get walls washed and ready to paint. It was long, arduous work that was made worse by the fact that previous owners had dogs that used every door jamb corner in the house to repeatedly mark their territory. It was on the walls and soaked into the carpets, making the house smell terrible. We found out from neighbors that stopped by to introduce themselves that the last owners kept pygmy goats, in addition to breeding beagles. Apparently, they sometimes left the doors open and the goat would come in the house. Now, I'm not saying that goats and dogs can't be clean and wonderful pets, but judging from the smell of the house, a clean and sanitary living environment wasn't a high priority. Yuck!Fortunately the hours we spent cleaning walls paid off and things smell better.
On Saturday, Barrett, Tasha and Tasha's mother came over to help. We spackled, sanded and taped all day long, just to get to the point where we could prime the walls. The 2 teen-aged boys used about 1,001 staples and tacks in their walls. frequently opting for a staple gun as their weapon of choice. Someone also was content with painting over large dollops of spackle without sanding it down, or leaving massive, gloppy drips of paint to dry on the walls. We also taped off miles of trim and ceilings. At times, I thought the prep work would never end. Fortunately, we were able to get it all ready and my father-in-law sprayed the whole house with clean, white primer. The difference was remarkable and things smelled even better.
Eventually, we were able to break out the long awaited paint. It was so gratifying to see it going on the walls. Tim and I spent hours going over our choices and thought we picked good colors, but there are always those moments where you hold your breath and aren't sure. Once the colors were on the walls, and had a chance to dry a bit, we were delighted. The front room is a warm, rich, sandy brown. We painted the ceiling in that room a warm, off-white. Tim wasn't sure about it at first, but once the wall color went on, the room was transformed. It's so welcoming and we can't wait to see it all finished. The hall and master bedroom are a fantastic color that is grey, green and taupe all at the same time. It blends well with the front room and I'm so proud that we were able to pick colors that worked so well together. We're not going to paint the kitchen or bathrooms right now. We decided
to tackle other rooms that needed it more, first. We still have 2 rooms
left to paint and then we can start ripping out the nasty 1970's era
brown textured carpet. I think once that's out, we'll be rid of any
lingering doggy/goat smells.
We let the kids pick the colors for their own rooms. Isabelle picked the loveliest pale chiffon pink and was so happy that it matches her sheets. She insists that she want blue accents, too, so we'll have to see how we can work that in for her. She was disappointed that we weren't able to get hers painted this weekend, but we had some problems with the poor job of the existing paint and needed to do some extra work. Aiden was all about intense color. He always went for the darkest and most vibrant color on any swatch, so we tried to steer him a bit lighter, so that the room was not overwhelmed. As it is, he ended up picking a bright blue that really pops. It's probably brighter that Tim and I would have gone for, but Aiden really liked it. He was happy that his room was the first to get painted and kept checking in to see how it was going.
We've got a long road ahead of us, but it's exciting to be able to do this work on a house of our own. We have lots of dreams and projects to make this slightly run down house into a lovely home. With lots of elbow grease and a ton of help from friends and family, I think we're going to be able to make a lot of those dreams come true.