New Home

Time can hardly be scattered on the luxury of doing a blog post. If I don't retreat with a little writing therapy, my mind might just explode. With that in mind, here's my disclaimer, it's a sloppy post.

We have the keys! It's our house. A 1923 Craftsman Bungalow situated right off the square of a quaint little town. Within steps of our big enclosed front porch are brick streets, a gazebo, and a fountain. More importantly, as Mister and I become part of the elderly, we are within walking distance of all our needs. The vision of two old duffers strolling over to the local restaurant for coffee makes the notion of getting old seem charming.

Then, boom, my harmonious vision is interrupted with the work ahead of us in the next 3 days, and certainly the next year. This house has sat empty for almost a year. Unlike many of the homes we've shopped over the past 6 months, most of the interior is in fine shape. The utilities have remained turned on so the house does not suffer from weather related issues. Thieves have not ravished it and no bums have made it their flophouse! Yet, the prior owner left the house to deteriorate over time.

The very first order of business was extermination. Our bug guy sprayed everything today. The home inspector found carpenter ants. Bees and wasps have nested here and there. Hopefully when we walk in tomorrow we find dead bugs. I have my shop vac ready to roll. Sorry bugs, ya gotta go!

Part of our price offer included that we would clear the house of the possessions left behind by the owner. An owner who seemed to have a fetish for saving boxes of sticks in the garage. Sticks which were precisely cut to the same length. Twigs, I'm telling you. I mean there is a fireplace... so I can understand wanting to have kindling for winter fires. Sixty boxes of kindling stacked in the garage is a bit OCD if you ask me. Nonetheless, I hauled the disgusting boxes out today. I feared the presence of snakes nesting among the boxes. Mice, yes, snakes, no! Next on the list of filth removal is mice and squirrels nests.

I am painting such a lovely picture huh?

 Really, the outside is overgrown. Two huge unsightly pine trees tower over the house. We suspect these are part of the squirrel highway. Mister and Aimee both suffer from allergy to pine. We are chopping those bad boys down as soon as possible. Both garages are having the roofs replaced. Aside from that, our work is mostly simple cosmetic projects. For starters.

Mister and I have made a pinky promise to each other. Once the house is cleaned, freshly painted and the basics are operational, we are doing one room at a time. As, we tackle the projects, I'll share them with you.

Tomorrow we are ripping out the carpet from 4 bedrooms. The living room is part carpet and part ugly Home Depot looking ceramic tile. Ripping that out too! One thing I am most excited about is the chance to make this house completely not status quo. I will not be installing anything modern like looking. Well, you will see. I'm going artsy fartsy with this place. Carpet is modern. The bedrooms will have carpet, and the living room. That's a matter of comfort in the cold Ohio winters.

The living room staircase wall.

One of the built ins beside the fireplace.

Stairs that are just the right amount of steepness.

The whole house is getting disinfected tomorrow. Before Monday, we will be painting 6 rooms."That's insane", you say. Well, carpet is coming on Monday, and the moving van on Tuesday so we had better get cracking.

After this initial wave of ripping and gripping, we have a few real remodel projects we want to do. Here's a breakdown of upcoming projects to take place over the next year.

• You know how we love to travel. In the spirit of this, we want a compass painted on the hardwood floor in the dining room.

Look a cool built in cupboard in the dining room. Needs a little lovin'

The dining room. Check out the groovy furniture left behind. Free if you want it. Come and get it!

• Oddly enough the full bathroom is downstairs and a half bath upstairs. A shower will be installed upstairs, basically a total bathroom overhaul. Both bathrooms. I'm telling you this house hasn't had any updating since the 60's. Which is kind of a good thing.

The full bathroom opens up into the kitchen, and  a doorway into Misters office. (Which technically is the master bedroom downstairs)

• My most desired project is to turn one of the smaller bedrooms into a laundry room on the same floor as the bedrooms. After living in a split level and humping laundry up and down 3 flights of stairs, I want my washer on the same floor as our bedrooms. Not a simple project. But, a written in stone requirement.

I love how two of the bedroom doors are situated. The door on the right will be the laundry room.

• The kitchen. You might be shocked to see the kitchen I'm leaving behind and the rustic kitchen we are moving to. Ha, I will be building this area from scratch. Not in the big box home improvement store way. We are going to hit the auctions and flea markets and keep it simple with the theme of the 1920-1930's time period in mind. With modern appliances though. For starters, the kitchen will be clean. My paint color for that room is Lime Rickey from Sherwin Williams. I'm using lots of stainless steel. Aside from that, I want to live there for awhile and get a feel for the space before I go changing and planning everything.

I love the built in spice cabinet. Also, the windows are staying. We are not doing replacement windows. The charm is in the original craftsman features, like the windows.

Here are just a few random photos. Time is running late for me. 5AM wake up call is just a few hours away.

Front Porch

Side of the house

We are leaving behind 3 acres. Three acres of time consuming mowing. Not to mention driving into town every time we need a gallon of milk. We will be living on half an acre. A nice deep lot. Enough room for gardening, and no hours and hours of mowing involved every summer. The biggest plus side of all. Monthly bills will be dropping to a third of what they currently are. This will make saving for the old duffer days a whole lot easier.
Well, there you have it. The new location of the Columbia Creations laboratory...muwahaha.