Sunday, June 26, 2011

Our New House

Ok, so it's not necessarily a new house, but it's new to us! Yes, we bought a house and moved in the last day of April. It was quite the exciting time. Our very first house.

Everything happened so fast. It all started around Christmas when we found out that we would be having another baby. We knew we wanted to move out of our 2 bedroom apartment and with such cheap housing all around us, it just made sense. Our mortgage is only $200 more a month but we have two more rooms and 1,000 more square footage. Plus a garage, backyard, and a playground right past our backyard.

We looked around for a couple of months until we made the offer on this place. It was a bank owned property listed on a Friday (luckily I decided to check the latest listings right before I left work that day), we saw it on Saturday morning, made an offer, and had our offer accepted on Monday.

These pictures are taken during the very first week so I need to update them now that we've really moved in and started decorating but the second the house gets clean, Bobby destroys it again. He will literally follow you, untidying the things you just tidied.

So this is what the family room looked like from the dining room when we first bought it. Unfortunately, when the HOA turned the water on, they didn't check the house and the water spicket for the refrigerator was loose and just flooded the main level. We showed up at the house to check on it and as we walked in the front door, we were greeted by a rushing water down the hallway. It didn't accumulate much because it went down the vents and into the ground but it was still terrifying.

Bedroom downstairs that is considered the master bedroom. We're creating a master bedroom upstairs so we can be close to the boys. This room was soaked and we've replaced the carpet. It's a great guest room because you have your own bathroom so come on and visit!

We were not allowed to do anything to the house during the closing period so we had to wait about 4 weeks until we could lift up the floors and check out the damage from the flood.

The boards were warped so we knew we would have to replace the surface, but we were not sure about the chip board beneath it.

Ya, that would need to go. So gross.


Thomas and Jonathan enjoyed helping in the destruction... for about 2 minutes.

It was wet and very hard to pull up. We didn't get too far that night but luckily Hod went to Home Depot in the morning to grab some roof shingle stripper things and those worked like a charm.

Here's the room we're staying in right now. Bobby will most likely move in here once our new room is ready and then Will will probably move in with Bobby when baby #3 comes, in like several years.

We re-carpeted the entire house and painted it as well so we don't have that sweet color in there anymore.



The new baby's little room.

We have a nice, big open ceiling over the family room. Painting that was quite a chore.

This loft area is now gone. We've taken out that weird wall/ceiling thing, knocked out the wall on the left, and will use this space to build us a bathroom and laundry closet.

This will be the master bedroom soon.

That closet is gone and will be the entrance to our bathroom.



We enlisted a few people to come and help us rip up the floor. Thank you so much!


Once the wet wood was up, then began the tedious work of removing as many staples and nails as possible so the floor wouldn't be as creaky when we put it in. If we look delirious, it's because we were.

Here is that same area with the painted walls and new vinyl.

Up there you can see we knocked out the wall. And by "we" I mean Donkin Construction.

Check out my flagrant painting mistake on the ceiling. I was a little too zealous. Those wood panels have since been painted white to match the rest of the trim.

Well, I'm posting this late and it's tough because the house has changed so much. I promise to get newer pictures up soon.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Jackie's Bday Party



Bobby loves sitting in Grandma's lap, especially when there are treats involved


You know you're a Mom when people give you outfits for your kids on your birthday

Bobby will let you put glasses on his face...for about 2 seconds

Jackie showing the cake some love

The Big Baby


Jackie at 5 months