So I hear you bought a house...

[FrekeChild]

It's been an incredibly long day, but I'm so glad you guys bumped this thread! I've been wondering how everyone's houses are doing!

Cliff's notes:
1. We need a new side door. The one that is there is not fitted properly and the last owners cut the bottom out of it and installed a wannabe dog door. My oven repair guy and I had a good laugh about it when he took a look at it. (More on him later.)
2. Our yard looks a LOT different from the last photos I took. I'll have to take pictures, maybe tomorrow after the gardeners come. Anyone want any citrus fruits? I have about 600 tangerines and 200 oranges that are getting ready to be harvested. I've given up on the grapefruit, I don't like them anyway and the tree is COVERED in spiderwebs.
3. We also need a new front door. It also sucks, and the last owners painted latex paint over a stain, so it's peeling terribly.
4. Need to get our front yard palm trees fixed up. They look pretty terrible. I think that's next on the home repairs list.
5. Our oven pooped out on us. $1000 for a new small built in oven, if we want a new one. Apparently they don't make the parts anymore, and since the oven is only 6.5 years old, and they are legally required to make the parts for 7 years...I'm going to be pushing for a new oven from the company. Which they will probably give me because the electronic panel on our oven was recalled, and the retrofit panel is no longer being made...so what other option do they have?
6. My husband really wants to renovate the kitchen - it sucks as it is. It's barely functional. But I am just soooooo not into it. It'd mean tearing out the tile, and that sounds like a huge headache.
7. SPIDERS. EVERYWHERE. Not as bad inside, but I don't let A really go loose outside because they are just all over the place! We had at least one Black Widow in our front yard, and our backyard has a ton of ivy...Ugh.
8. I bought another dining chair! I inherited the table and one chair from my mom. She had bought the chair and fixed it up, and kept it around (the table had other chairs that she had paired with it). Then when we moved here, we bought another chair. And now we have a third. I would love to find a 4th, but that's proving to be difficult because of my strict budget parameters from my husband and my aesthetic. The chairs do not match, obviously. One is wood with a brown leather seat, one is teal microsuede and the last one is a charcoal fabric. I kind of want a hot pink chair (Cost Plus?) but I think my husband would kill me. hahahaha!

I had thought that we had picked a house that was reasonably free from big projects...I'm quickly learning that that is never the case.

This thread needs more pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...way longer than I meant it to be. Bedtime...

ETA: Did you guys know that outdoor door installation costs roughly $450 PER DOOR?! That's $900 WITHOUT THE DOORS FOR TWO DOORS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[monkeyprincess]

I really haven't bothered to take pictures of the house, but here are a few recent pics from my phone that give you an idea of what our new house looks like. It is painted the color throughout and has the same plantation blinds throughout. At some point, I think we'll do some painting to change the feel of the rooms up a bit but for now we can live with it. The house has a a lot of windows and tons of natural light which was a must for me as our old house did not have nearly enough windors. Most of the main floor has these wood floors, and the upstairs and basement are carpeted. The one of the outside shows our front yard. We have a grassy berm across the street and across the street from that is an elementary school. You will also see that we definitely need new living room furniture and a better desk for what is now the office!

 

[aviastar]

I want to play, too! My husband and I don't technically own our house; he bought it with his parents before we started dating so we live in it, it's ours, but the paper work probably won't get switched over to be in our names for another year.

We have a little (1,000 sq feet-ish) 1840 log cabin on 3 acres. It was a disaster-literally- when DH started. In the year before we met and started dating, he did a complete gut and restoration. There was no electricity, no running water, and the yard hadn't been touched in about 30 years. He bought it thinking that the house might have to go and he could start over on the property, but lo and behold the asbestos shingles all over the outside had perfectly preserved the original exposed log and board and batten! So he got to restore rather than rebuild.

It's come a long, long way and we still have miles to travel- just like all homeowners! But my parents are DIY-ers and built their house, and his parents live in an even older house than ours, so we went into homeownership, and especially old homeownership, with our eyes wide open.

I am finding that I get a great deal of satisfaction and joy out of working in my yard- it's surprised me, but I just love building up the gardens from nothing and that's our major focus every summer- the yard. Now that it's getting colder, we've got the insulation guy putting together an estimate for us to work on the crawl space/basement, some plumbing projects, and a mason is on the books for February to come and patch/re-do all the chinking in our main room and reface the fireplace.

I'll have to sit down with DH's computer to get some of the truly gnarly photos of where this place began, but this is our little slice of heaven this past summer:

 

[monkeyprincess]

Aviastar, I remember you talking about your log cabin before. Very cool to see a picture and to hear about what you are doing. I have a lot of respect for you because I frankly wouldn't even know where to begin!

 

[FrekeChild]

I'll post some pics! I give you "fall" in Southern/Central California!

Plus my dining area.

 

[FrekeChild]

And just for fun, the underside of part of the tangerine tree....

And our patio posts. Which need to be repainted. Add it to the list!

 

[JGator]

One of the nice things about our house was that the kitchen was remodeled a year ago so we have new tall cabinets, granite, stainless steel, etc. Here is a cool feature of a spice rack built into the cabinets - our daughter K discovered it tonight while I was cooking. I will have to post some pictures of our Fall leaves on the ground in our backyard tomorrow.

MP, I love your stacked stone on the front of your house. I also really like the windows, light fixture, stair rail, etc. All things that show it's a modern house! You are so lucky to not have a long list of projects. We are fortunate to have an updated kitchen, new Trex deck, and nice new French/Marvin doors out to the deck, but we have a lot of original "features" from 1989!

Aviastar, your log cabin is beautiful. It looks like you have a huge yard. I really like gardening too, and our house came with pretty nice landscaping - there are a ton of different plants and trees in the yard. I need to learn what we have other than the obvious ones like roses. The previous owners have an architecture diagram of the lot with plants and trees listed, but I don't think everything is exactly as they had planned.

Freke, I'll take some fruit! Too bad you are on the opposite side of the country. Your yard looks great, and good luck finding your 4th chair. Sounds like a fun adventure. Do you have a Habitat for Humanity Restore where you live? That's where we found our dining room hutch for a steal.

Jfo, sorry to hear about all your projects. They sound expensive. That's got to be stressful. Sounds like you got a lot of furniture which is great progress. We still need a dining room table. Our street is a cul-de-sac, and across the street we have a 2-year old and a 5-year old and a couple doors down they have 3 boys and I think the youngest is 3. Otherwise, there are a few original owners with kids in college, and our next door neighbor on one side is in Junior High (I told her she's our future baby sitter). The subdivision has 300 houses though, and there are definitely kids K's age in the overall community.

 

[jfo]

Freke, it looks like you have a quite a list of to do's too, but your place looks fantastic! I love your outdoor space. The amount of spiders you have kind of sounds like no fun though...

aviastar, what a wonderful home! I love that you and your DH are DIY-ers. I'd love to see the before/afters! My DH and I are completely clueless, so we're struggling a bit!

MP, LOVE your new house! It looks beautiful and Ev is ADORABLE. I am so glad that you were able to get this gorgeous new house in a great neighborhood and nearby school.

JGator, what a cool hidden spice rack! I'm still hoping that someday I'll have a house with my dream kitchen. The one we have now is leaps and bounds better than the one at our apartment, but it's still small and to expand the kitchen would not be worth it in terms of the $.

I realize that I really don't have any good photos to share, even looking through my phone. I'll have to make an effort to take a few.

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday!

 

[OUpearlgirl]

I will resurrect an old thread! Love seeing all of the beautiful homes and "projects."

We bought our house in late June. It was built in 1984 and has wonderful bones, but definitely needs some updating. So far we have painted just about every room (and even some outside!), put in new carpet on the entire second floor, and retiled the shower in the master bath. We still plan to replace the vanity, toilet, and floors… but the new shower is a good start.

**Edit - Sorry, the second picture somehow won't correct itself and sit straight up! Maybe it's drunk!

 

[aviastar]

OU- I love that new shower! What a lovely update!

We have our basement work in progress right now, I'll have to go snap some pictures while it's empty and naked. We got a text from the installer last week when they were ripping out all the old insulation, "No mice, snakes, or other animals while we were working!" Well, that's good, cause I have opened that door many times to find a black snakes hanging in my face. Perfectly fine with me- they keep the poisonous snakes out and the mice down!

Here's a quick snap of our (unconventional) tree this year and the fireplace and chinking that will be worked on in February!


I love seeing everyone's projects!

 

[packrat]

I want to play, too! My husband and I don't technically own our house; he bought it with his parents before we started dating so we live in it, it's ours, but the paper work probably won't get switched over to be in our names for another year.

We have a little (1,000 sq feet-ish) 1840 log cabin on 3 acres. It was a disaster-literally- when DH started. In the year before we met and started dating, he did a complete gut and restoration. There was no electricity, no running water, and the yard hadn't been touched in about 30 years. He bought it thinking that the house might have to go and he could start over on the property, but lo and behold the asbestos shingles all over the outside had perfectly preserved the original exposed log and board and batten! So he got to restore rather than rebuild.

It's come a long, long way and we still have miles to travel- just like all homeowners! But my parents are DIY-ers and built their house, and his parents live in an even older house than ours, so we went into homeownership, and especially old homeownership, with our eyes wide open.

I am finding that I get a great deal of satisfaction and joy out of working in my yard- it's surprised me, but I just love building up the gardens from nothing and that's our major focus every summer- the yard. Now that it's getting colder, we've got the insulation guy putting together an estimate for us to work on the crawl space/basement, some plumbing projects, and a mason is on the books for February to come and patch/re-do all the chinking in our main room and reface the fireplace.

I'll have to sit down with DH's computer to get some of the truly gnarly photos of where this place began, but this is our little slice of heaven this past summer:

OMG I love love love your place! I love that it looks like a barn...before we got married we spent a lot of time driving around looking at barns b/c we'd hoped to either build a log home or a barn home. Neither worked out for us, sadly.

 

[aviastar]

Thanks, packrat! I had looked at another log home about a year before DH and I started dating and didn't end up pursuing it, for multiple reasons- the lot was super small and it relied on wood stoves for heat; things I could deal with but on my own the level of work needed was high and the location just didn't do it for me, so I passed. But it was always in the back of my mind how much I loved the idea and the lifestyle

Fast forward a bit and here comes DH- already living in a restored cabin on 3+ acres, with a view, oh...the view! It was love at first sight. Took a little while longer to know for sure about DH himself, but I knew that house and I had a destiny together from very early on!

If I am recalling correctly, you ended up with a beautiful property, too- how about some pictures of your gorgeous yard?

 

[packrat]

Gosh, I could just look at your house all day, I swear! Yours was meant to be, sounds like! When we were looking at colors for siding our house, those were the colors I wanted to use, even tho ours is just a ranch style, b/c it reminded me so much of a barn and JD's like um...yeahhhhh no. He thought people would make fun of it. Ah well, when the lottery comes thru for us, look out!

Awww thanks! We're awful proud of how ours has turned out over the years. We were hoping to get the outside *finished* this coming Spring so we can somewhat "relax" and not have all kinds of outside projects going on, just concentrate on the inside, but I dunno if it will happen. I'll link to my thread from last summer, if that's ok? [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/packrats-yard-pics-2013.191711/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/packrats-yard-pics-2013.191711/[/URL] The before pics just completely slay us-we giggle over how much it's changed.

 

[monarch64]

Gosh, I could just look at your house all day, I swear! Yours was meant to be, sounds like! When we were looking at colors for siding our house, those were the colors I wanted to use, even tho ours is just a ranch style, b/c it reminded me so much of a barn and JD's like um...yeahhhhh no. He thought people would make fun of it. Ah well, when the lottery comes thru for us, look out!

Awww thanks! We're awful proud of how ours has turned out over the years. We were hoping to get the outside *finished* this coming Spring so we can somewhat "relax" and not have all kinds of outside projects going on, just concentrate on the inside, but I dunno if it will happen. I'll link to my thread from last summer, if that's ok? [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/packrats-yard-pics-2013.191711/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/packrats-yard-pics-2013.191711/[/URL] The before pics just completely slay us-we giggle over how much it's changed.

Packrat, I've been looking at your house/gardening threads for years now and I never get sick of them. Just amazing. I am incredibly jealous!!!

Avia, your house is awesome as well! I love it!

 

[packrat]

Thanks Monnie! Were we closer, we'd come help w/your yard if you'd come coat shopping w/me!

OUpeargirl, I love the tile in your shower. Is it brown or gray grout?

 

[monarch64]

Thanks Monnie! Were we closer, we'd come help w/your yard if you'd come coat shopping w/me!

OUpeargirl, I love the tile in your shower. Is it brown or gray grout?

LOL! That would be great, wouldn't it?! I AM gonna pick your brain about hostas one of these days!

 

[packrat]

Anytime girly!

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Thanks Monnie! Were we closer, we'd come help w/your yard if you'd come coat shopping w/me!

OUpeargirl, I love the tile in your shower. Is it brown or gray grout?

Sorry for the late reply! Thanks.. It is gray grout. When we redo the floors we're going to go with gray and white marble hexagonal tiles, and the vanity top will also be gray and white marble.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

I'm currently on a light fixture kick. The day we moved in I knew we'd be swapping out almost every one in the house.

I hate this one in my kitchen. Besides looking cheap and totally 80's, it doesn't really provide a lot of light.

Any suggestions for something simple and traditional, but still looks updated to this century? TIA!

 

[dani13]

Oup, I love light fixtures, so here are my suggestions!!


Traditional: http://www.destinationlighting.com/storeitem.jhtml?iid=P831072


A little funky, but adorable: http://www.potterybarn.com/products/olivia-star-pendant/

More traditional:

http://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1157672&categoryId=cat1701013

 

[Loves Vintage]

I'm not so great at picking out specific fixtures, but this is a neat site: http://www.schoolhouseelectric.com/lighting/pendant-fixtures.html I really like the shade with union 6!

 

[OUpearlgirl]

I'm not so great at picking out specific fixtures, but this is a neat site: http://www.schoolhouseelectric.com/lighting/pendant-fixtures.html I really like the shade with union 6!

OK, I love stripes and that is just too cute!

 

[Gem Queen]

It would be fun to know what city and state these pretty houses are in!

 

[FrekeChild]

Hey guys! Glad to see this thread is still around! We've been in the midst of a toddler room revision - someone got strong enough to climb out of her crib, so that forced our hand to buy her a mattress and convert her crib into a full size bed. And in going to the mattress store, we ended up buying a new bed for us too, so now, we moved our old queen bed into the guest room and now we have a king size bed! But that means that most things have been put on pause.

We've had really warm temperatures, so I ended up buying a pot and some vegetable seeds. I'm guessing that this will probably not go that well, but it's worth a try with our weather. If the veggies end up not working out, I'm sure I can grow some flowers in the pots instead.

We had bought new towel racks and bathroom accessories a while back, but hadn't put the time into installing them. I ended up grabbing the drill and going to work on that the other day. The old ones were the cheapest ones they make and they are in both bathrooms, and so not attractive. Shiny chrome, yuck! So I got some that are more modern and brushed nickel, since we don't plan on staying here forever, I think it's a reasonable, but not super modern look for resale. I hung up some "robe hooks" next to the shower - with the way our bathroom is arranged, the towel rack is literally all the way across the bathroom, so you really had to grab your towel before the shower so you don't freeze/drip water across the room when you get out. Neither bathroom had hand towel racks, which is totally weird to me. And I bought new hand towels, but no pics of those yet! I also spackled, but now I need to do some touch up painting. Hey, check out the old yuck yellow paint color! I might have several coats ahead of me...

We've also bought a new dining room chair (with a toddler in mind) and I've hung some pictures/decor, but a bunch of the pictures I took seem to be missing. Oh well, I'll take more later. Besides replacing some cheaper items, and needing to get my husband a small desk for the playroom, I think our house is fully furnished.

I'm hoping to get a fan for A's ceiling by about April, when temps can start hitting the 90s. Other than that, everything else can wait. I'm keeping my eye out for decor for A's room - the bare walls are bothering me!

 

[ringbling17]

Oupeargirl, I moved to NJ at the beginning of 2012. Where in NJ are you? I live in South Jersey, Mullica Hill/ Harrison Township. Do you like it? I miss NY a lot sometimes. All my family is there and it's hard to meet people bc our houses are farther apart. But the kids love it and I do enjoy the added privacy.

For your lights, I would try Lowes or Home Depot. Especially if you plan to resell. The new owners might come and change everything anyway. We replaced our island pendant lights with crystal ones from Lowes and I have never gotten so many compliments on lights as I have with these. Plus, they were so cheap. The ones I replaced were three times the price of the new ones. The old ones probably matched more with the kitchen, but I wanted something sparkly.

I am still trying to convinced husband to put up our dining room chandelier from our old house. The former owners left us their chandelier, it's pretty, but I prefer ours.

We did some small home improvements like painting, changing carpet and lights when we first moved in.
We also did a lot of backyard stuff in 2012 during the summer. Added pavers, landscaping, pool fence and swing set area for the kids. Plus furnishing the house although we were lucky that we used all our old furniture so we only need some rooms fully furnished.

In 2013, we added some more landscaping pavers to the front of the house and we recently replaced the granite on our kitchen island. I wanted to be able to sit around the island. I tried to match the original color but they no longer had it, so I went with black instead.

Our most recent home improvement project was the stairs. Rather than Christmas presents, we went with replacing the granite island and having a small ledge table made and putting in iron balusters. We are not completely done, the guy is coming back today to fix the last one.
Lately, I have been in a strange picture posting mood, so here are bf and after pictures of the stair balusters.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Oupeargirl, I moved to NJ at the beginning of 2012. Where in NJ are you? I live in South Jersey, Mullica Hill/ Harrison Township. Do you like it? I miss NY a lot sometimes. All my family is there and it's hard to meet people bc our houses are farther apart. But the kids love it and I do enjoy the added privacy.

Your stairs look fantastic!! I love all of the millwork in your home.

We also live in South Jersey! We live in Evesham Township. I love it, but we were in the middle of nowhere before, so being close to Philly and a train ride to NYC is a huge improvement.

 

[ringbling17]

Since you are planning on getting stainless steel appliances, I would wait a little bf changing the light.
The appliances will change the whole look of the room.
Also, I saw you liked the drum light in your other thread. Just make sure it's easy to clean if you get fabric bc dust tends to build up on it and inside it and make sure the lightbulbs are easy to access. I dislike the lights where you have to unscrew the cover bf you can reach the lightbulb.
We have a family room light that's like that and it went out a few months after we moved in and we still haven't replaced the lightbulbs bc it's so high we can't reach it which means we can't unscrew it to get to the lightbulbs.

Hmmm, another project...

 

[dani13]

Hey Butterfly!

When did you move to NJ? I was wondering where u went! What happened with your job? That was a big move!
Hope all is well!!

 

[ringbling17]

Here's a bf and after of the kitchen with the old lights, granite and knobs. I would love to have a white kitchen, but that's not in the plans, lol!

The island top we replaced bc no one could sit around it and I like cooking and feeding my kids around me. But, my aisles are narrow so I could only make it a little bigger. It's enough though that the kids can sit there now.

I tried to match the original granite but since its a few years old, they no longer carry it.
My cabinets have a thin black line running on the top edges of the crown molding, so I went with black granite called black galaxy/ star galaxy to kind of match it and changed my knobs from nickel to rubbed bronze.

It's taken a few weeks to get used to the contrasting granite look, but I do love it. It just works so much better for my family and if we ever sell, the new owners can always replace it with the old granite.

 

[ringbling17]

Hi Dani! We moved here Jan 2012, so two years ago exactly. How have you been?
I took the job at the smaller hospital. I rescinded my application for the hospital in Philly.

I do regret my decision though. The new hospital is small and I don't have the acuity that I had in NY. I miss the hustle and bustle. Plus, I hate the complaints when people here complain about their assignments, kwim. Sometimes we come into a one patient- open crib/ r/o sepsis assignment and people complain that they're up for first admission. But I'm stuck there for at least another year since I took their bonus.

I apparently have two usernames that are Buttefly17 and butterfly 17. At one point I asked moderators to merge my two accounts but I don't think it could done.
Both have the same password as well so I thought I should use my old one bc it shows the original date that I signed onto pricescope, back in 2003.

Sorry for the thread jack!