Our Old House, New

Happy Valentines Day Mr. Null

2010-02-14T08:00:00.001-06:00

We've Moved...

2010-02-05T01:55:00.000-06:00

Hi there!

Thanks for stopping by. We've moved the blog over to Wordpress.
Please update your links and visit us here: http://www.ouroldhousenew.com/

Ros

Weekend Project: A Bit of a Scrape

2010-02-05T00:02:00.001-06:00

So, as I mentioned in my earlier post the foundation people left several big holes in our floor when they left and now it's up to us to decide what we want to do about covering them up again. We've been told that ceramic tile is not a good idea as this house will most likely need to have the foundation "tweaked" at least every few years or so and tile will crack at the slightest slip past level. If we had decided to stay here I would have opted for hardwood throughout, but cost-wise that just isn't practical in the situation we now find ourselves in. So instead we are going with a top quality (not terribly ugly) linoleum tile (hah! oxymoron) in the kitchen and bathrooms, and we'll most likely do a laminate in the rest of the house.

In the concrete bald spot left by the foundation people in the spot where the fridge once stood, we noticed that this house has had at least 6 (that we can count) layers of new linoleum laid over the years. Now if you consider that the house was built in '85 it means that we're talking a new layer about every 4 years without a single person taking that extra step and removing the old layers before adding the new. Now ordinarily P and I would have done exactly the same thing and slapped our layer on top of the pile... alas the hole being completely stripped bare would have caused a noticeable dip underfoot. (I know this because my lazy nature caused me to check before going ahead with plans to remove old lino) Rats! Foiled again!

Admitting defeat we traipsed off to Home Depot to find the necessary lino removal accoutrements. We were advised by a perky sales clerk that all we needed to do was stab a few holes in the surface with a Stanley knife, spread a bottle of linoleum removal liquid, wait an hour and then commence scraping. P had a better idea. Something he learned while researching the project online (I know...) he wanted to try lots of soapy water... I don't know why I let him talk me into it... I mean, isn't soapy water also what you use to clean this kind of floor? How much soapy water is it going to take to loosen 6 layers of lino from their home of 25 years.

We did decide to get a... well... scraper I guess is what it's called. There were two options... the $8 version or the $30+ version. Here's where being thrifty sometimes bites you in the bum... "Why pay more just for the extended pole?", I asked. "I plan on doing it in small intervals anyway," P agreed. Together we chimed, "We don't need the longer handle!" And with that we walked out of the store with the $8 model complete with spare packet of blades.

Turns out, 6 layers need a heck of a lot more than some soapy water and a tiny scraper. We're definitely going to have to bring in the big guns on this one. We're going to need to get a few bottles of the toxic remover for a start, some spare blades for our Stanley knife, and at least one Big Boy Scraping Implement... Judging from the smell coming from under those layers, it probably isn't a bad idea to look into some Kilz or similar primer too... just in case we have a damp issue as I suspect. But most of all I sense the need to stock up on pain killers and Band Aids for surely we're going to need them before this project is over.

A New Dream

2010-02-04T10:40:00.001-06:00

I've been lusting after this house for months now. It's nowhere to be found online, but I am not complaining... less chance of it being sold by the time we offload the "pig". We don't even know if it's in our price range. We just know we LOVE it. We're trying not to think about it though, so back to our regularly scheduled programming.... :)

We're Baaaccckkkkkk!

2010-02-03T22:14:00.005-06:00

And our house is finally solid and the deck was saved. It only took 5 months, 15 holes in our floor, 3 different plumbers, 1 engineer, 1 soil lab, 3 insurance agents, 1 storage facility, 2 truck rentals, 1 motel room with 3 cats, and a partridge in a pear tree!

We've spent the last two days in the company of the world's chattiest plumber who informs us that not only do we have an 8-foot sag in our pipes under the living room, we also have a break in our 90 coming out of the kitchen... (Apparently 90 refers to the 90 degrees, the name of the separated pipe). What does this all mean? Well... basically we just moved home after spending a week in one of the most depressing motels you've ever clapped eyes on while the foundation was fixed. We packed up almost everything we owned and put it in storage to avoid the dust nightmare we were told would be happening back here at home. All the holes patched and concrete dried at last we moved back in last Friday and it's been non stop cleaning and unpacking since.

Today Jarrod (aforementioned plumber) went into great detail about how he would repair our plumbing issues. Guess what? They need to go through the concrete floor.... in the exact same spots recently vacated by our foundation people... GAH! Will it ever end? Hah...

Anyway... if you take a peek over at the To Do list on the right there you'll see that not only has the list been slimmed down significantly, but we've dropped a few points on the taste spectrum. :) You see, we've decided to get the heck out of this money pit before it sends us to the poor house. You betcha, we're slapping lipstick on this pig and getting outta here. That list over there is no longer a Must Do list, it's more of a general idea list. We're going to do the least amount necessary to get it sold.

So look forward to more frequent updates about our new projects, starting with a mini-kitchen makeover... coming soon!

I'd better get back to sucking up the last of the concrete dust before our lungs give up the ghost.

Easy Like Christmas Morning

2009-12-25T08:00:00.001-06:00

Merry Happy!

Autumn Greetings from Our Leafy Yard!

2009-12-05T22:31:00.002-06:00

Proof that my lovely husband DOES do yard work. :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:36:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween from our (spooky) house to yours...

Seriously... You want to do WHAT to our deck?

2009-08-08T12:04:00.007-05:00

These are words I wish I had said to our foundation repair estimator on Friday. Since we moved into this house in March we have noticed a number of hairline cracks grow nasty and more aggressive. Since July they have been absolutely incredible and really had us scared.

The plan was for my mom and step-dad to take a look at them when they were in town to let us know if we would be able to fix all of them while they were here. (These cracks had clearly been here for a while, and looked as though the seller had simply patched them for sale... the Band-Aids have started to lose their stick and now we have gaping wounds on every wall in every room of the house).

After some discussion we decided that the cracks were far too many for us to properly correct while they were in town and it was decided that the best use of their time would be to help us with the deck -- besides, we had the wood standing in our front yard already!

We decided to call in the foundation company who had done the most recent foundation work on the house. We bought the home with a double lifetime warranty as you may remember... the house had had to separate lifts in it's life. Once at the back and once up front... each of these lifts has a lifetime warranty. We finally had our guy come over on Friday.

He was a great guy, and very sensitive to our first-time-home-buyer-low-cash-high-stress-freak-out situation. He explained that after the last lift he had advised the previous owner to have the plumbing pressure tested to make sure that the property shift had not displaced anything under the house. He stated that he had told the previous owner that the warranty would be voided if he did not take care of the pressure test, and repair any plumbing leaks that may have occurred. He told us yesterday that looking at the giant cracks in our walls, it would seem that the previous owner did NOT take care of this... the middle of the house is sinking and the edges are bobbing up....

You can see where we're going with this can't you...

We quickly asked if that would affect our warranty? I mean... the foundation was the biggest question in our minds when we looked at this house. I still have copies of numerous emails back and forth to our agent and the sellers agent discussing our fears, and asking questions. We were finally told that there was a warranty on the foundation, and we were put in touch with this company who assured us that whatever may come down the road, we were covered as far as the foundation was concerned... cosmetic repairs were our own problem. Fair enough right? Well after taking some time to think about it we decided "better the devil we know (and have a warranty for) than the devil we don't know"... this is Central Texas and foundation issues exist everywhere in our area... at least this way we would go in knowing that it would be a problem, but having the warranty to cover the $20-50K foundation repairs that could be incurred. In all we decided it was a safer bet for us.

Fast forward to yesterday. We stood dumbfounded as Isaac explained that the warranty COULD be voided if the previous owner did not make necessary repairs to the plumbing. He suggested that we get a pressure test done to the plumbing before calling him to come back. We turned white as sheets and I swear I thought I was going to have a heart attack.... when finally he said, "Well, I mean I know this is not your fault. I just needed to mention that this is in the contract so that you know... if you were not such a nice customer I wouldn't need to make the repairs if the plumbing hasn't been seen to, but since it's not your fault and had nothing to do with you, I can tell you that I WILL fix it as part of the warranty and if necessary I will just go after him myself." It was at this point that Peter added, "If he didn't make the repairs (repairs never mentioned in the sellers disclosure) WE will go after him too!"

OK. So enough doom and gloom right? Let's say he DID have the plumbing repaired. Let's say this is just a shift in the foundation and they need to repair it. How do we do that? What are our options?

"Well," began Isaac, "we have two options. First, we could go around the edges where everything is raised and remove shims so bring everything down back in alignment... but if there is an issue in the middle it would continue sinking and might not be the best option. Or, we could rip up all of your floors, go through the concrete foundation and reach all the piers under your house and make necessary adjustments to level them. Of course, this would require that you move out of the house for 2 weeks. I would recommend that we just do the edges... but oh... I don't think that deck was there when the warranty was written up... Uh, geez... the deck needs to come off. We need to access the piers down that side of the house, and certainly when we lift the house the deck (which is attached by bolts to the concrete foundation) will lift with it... Yes. The deck will need to go."

!!!!!!!

Isaac leaves... we sit down and begin to panic. Naturally we each call a parent to share the disturbing news. My mom is understandably hysterical about the impending death of the new deck... We beat around some ideas for alternatives and come up with something... Moving out for two weeks is the least of our problems, we would be happy to do that. The deck cost nearly $7,000 plus a week of labor in mid-July Central Texas summer... i.e. H-O-T!! The $6,000 doesn't include the 3 cases of water, hospital bills incurred from my foot accident nor any of the other incidentals we picked up... I think ultimately we were closer to $10k invested in that deck... no WAY were we giving it up.

I left our plans with Isaac on his voicemail and he called us back with another option. He says that since the corner where the deck is is on the high side, we COULD just bring everything else up to match that side of the house. ANd to avoid needing to access that side of the house, we could just pull up the carpet (YAYYYY!!) and go throught he floors. Perfect!

So where are we now? OK. We have to pay for a plumber to come out and do a hydro pressure test on the pipes. (Around $500). Once we have the results of this test we will decide on next steps. If there is a leak under there we will need to have that fixed once the foundation is lined up again... and we will have two VERY mad people trying to find a certain Mr and Mrs G. Martin of Austin for answers... Hopefully it is simply a matter of getting the piers sorted out and we're good to go again... oh... well after we get the drywall patched, taped and painted...

We're learning a LOT about this whole house buying thing. I know for sure that the next time we are trying to buy a house we have many more questions we want to ask... and honestly, I don't think we will buy anywhere near this area again. We asked Isaac if he has much business in the area. He told us that our street is one of the busiest as far as foundation repairs. We asked, "Where do you NEVER have to go?" He said North-West Austin where he lived is pretty solid. SInce AUstin is out of our price range and Peter starts a new job in the town of Leander soon I asked about Leander... Isaac says he rarely if ever has any calls out there... sounds like a solid place to buy! haha We'll see how it goes.

What we have discovered is that the previous owner here just had the foundation repaired, brought some cheap labor in here to slap patches over the cracks, spray in some paint and lay cheap carpet and then get this baby on the market. Peter keeps saying that we should just "put the lipstick back on the pig and get the hell outta here!" I still think we could make it work and really make this a nice place for the next person. Besides... we're not going anywhere until the market starts picking up again.

My Parents House & Ikea

2009-07-30T14:28:00.006-05:00

Haven't had time to post a full photo story of our recent changes yet. Promise I will do that this weekend. In the meanwhile, here is a link to my mama's house in Canada. It just went on the market today, so she had some lovely pics to share with me, and I am going to share them with you too!

Photo Listing

Slideshow

P.S. No comments about the fake plants. I've heard (and made) them all before... bottom line is, they're in Calgary, Canada... plants don't like that kind of weather! At least they're good fakes! Love ya mom! hee hee :)

-------------------------------------------------------

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! New Ikea catalog just arrived! Time for me to soak in the tub and peruse the gorgeousness. :)

Holiday Project Sneek Peeks

2009-07-20T15:38:00.004-05:00

As promised, here are some sneek peeks of the two bigger projects we tackled (with a LOT of help) over the break.

Gasp! We have a deck!!!

Our oven/office is an oven no more! More detailed pics and "finished product" shots to come as well as a few smaller holiday projects we tackled.

Weekend Project: Zip, Zero, Nada... Or whatever I find to do that's free...

2009-05-29T17:32:00.004-05:00

Yep folks, it's that awful time of the month when I am stuck waiting for client's to pay so that I can pay my team... So no fun projects for us this weekend. Instead, we'll be laying low, pottering about the house and garden and dreaming up things to do next weekend. I don't like posts with no pictures on other blogs, so I thought I would sprinkle this post with a few fun snaps of the babies.

I am sure that I will find SOMETHING to occupy myself this weekend. There's a pillow I've been thinking of making with some scrap fabric I have. I COULD tackle the last of those boxes, or maybe I could reorganize our bedroom closets to allow maximum storage-ability. Who knows, I might even get back to operation popcorn, since I already have everything I need to tackle that project.... Hmmm...

Otherwise, the only thing I am planning on doing is re-reading the Twilight series as a refresher. I plan to do it yet again before the release of New Moon on November 20th. (Eeek!) Ahhhh yes, curled up in aurconditioned comfort with these two... bliss!

In some fun news my shades arrived yesterday and they are fab! I am a little unsure about the grey next to the beigey/brown of the shades. Here's a picture, although I should mention that they appear very blue in this photo -- they do not in person. Definitely a charcoal grey color in person.

I can't shake the feeling that I should have gone for the white curtains. What do you think?

Weekend Project Update!

2009-05-26T12:51:00.007-05:00

The weekend was a complete and utter disaster... Neither of my two to-dos are finished... Unfortunately I got sucked in to the wonderful world of QVC and HSN and spent most of the weekend vegging out watching people talk randomly about objects... Seriously, those channels are hilarious!

Anyway... we did get to Ikea and grabbed the curtains, as well as another piece for a super secret project coming up in July. The store was ridiculously full, and when we got there the queue went around the whole building to the front door. On a Sunday!! Does no one go to church anymore?

So while I didn't finish the spare room, I did manage to clear the bed, wash all the linens and set that up. But the other side of the room looks less pulled together...

This is our "still to sort" pile. Do I at least get points for being honest? haha

While I didn't get anything on the to-do list completed and spent countless hours laughing at home shopping channels, I DID manage a living room switcheroo that I am kinda proud of.

We went from this...

To this...

The clutter on the sofa table has since been cleared.

Andddd I finally styled the coffee table! W00T!!

See what I did to cover the lattice? Those are the beautimous placemats I picked up at Pier 1 and they work perfectly to distract away from the imperfect paint job. Love!

THIS is why I spend a third of my day straightening rugs! (And pillows on newly made guest room beds!)

Weekend Project: Finish Guest Room & Paint Cabinet

2009-05-22T01:11:00.003-05:00

This weekend I am headed to my favorite Swedish home store to take advantage of the crazy deals on offer. With Monday being a public holiday, we're looking at a lovely (albeit rainy) long weekend. But I am totally ok with that!

Rainy days will force me to focus my attention on things I can complete indoors. Can you say guest room? Yes. Come hell or high water this is the weekend I am going to finally finish that room.

I also plan to rehab an old cabinet that I've dragged across three continents with me. I love love love my Oregon pine antique book case, even with it's missing pane of glass and lack of hardware. The fake fiberboard back and scratched surfaces. It has character and I love it... but plan on totally cleaning her up over the next few weeks, starting with a good sanding and few layers of paint this weekend. Right now she is standing in the entry, but I plan on relocating her to the guest room. Eventually I hope to do something about the backing, replace the missing pane of glass and get some cute hardware deserving of her. We've come a long way together her and I and I am confident that with a little makeover we will spend many more happy years together with (hopefully) a lot less globetrotting.

Apart from the above, I am hoping to find time to clear out and organize my closet. Reorganize the pantry and clean the fridge if I find time.

Top priority are the curtains though...

Spilling on my Splurge

2009-05-20T14:01:00.000-05:00

As you know on Friday we had to make a trip out to San Antonio for visa stuff. It's quite a trip to get out there, and well... I wanted to make the most of it, so when we drove past signs declaring the San Marcos Premium outlet stores along the way I begged P to make a pit stop on our way back.

You see, I had secret insider knowledge on the San Marcos outlets... unlike our local Round Rock Premium Outlets - severely lacking in home decor stores - the one in San Marcos had not only Pottery Barn/Williams Sonoma outlet, but also Restoration Hardware AND Crate and Barrel SCORE!!

Of course, given our commitment to saving money and get our debt paid off by August the plan was merely to window shop, and return when the debt was behind us.... but y'all know me better than that!

By the time we got there it was already late in the day and we were hot, sweaty and irritated, so we decided to pick just one store and spend "a little money" as P likes to say.

I ran into Pottery Barn as fast as my legs would carry me. After reading about Katie's fab finds at her local PBO I was certain that here I would get the most bang for my buck.

I must say, I was pretty disappointed. The incredible deals that Katie finds regularly, $16 lamps, $7 placemats were nowhere to be seen. Instead, it looked just like a regular store, only the prices were moderately lower and the selection smaller.

(still need to remove tag from rug. Whoops!)

Determined to find a bargain I headed to shelves with bright red placards announcing 30% + discounts. And that is where I found these little beauties for $6 and $7 respectively.

(Please ignore ugly center piece, it doesn't work.)

I also found this cute table runner (at last the perfect length for our 6 ft table) for just $12 beans. And finally snagged the perfect father's day gift for my father in law from the Williams Sonoma section of the store.

It seems I need to spend more time figuring the place out and learning where to look for the excellent deals Katie Bower finds. But I am up for the challenge and am looking forward to our next trip out there... It's good to have a reason to look forward to a visit to your local immigration office for once! Honestly, I could have easily walked out of that store having spent A LOT more than the $30 I did.

OK. SO you're thinking... GEEZ Ros, $30 does not blown budget make! Ahhh, but there's more...

So on Sunday I was cruising my fave online stores, trying to distract myself from the idea of work the next day, when I decided to take another peek at JCPenney. Now, all in all, JCP is totally not our style and I rarely see anything there that even remotely interests me, but like I said, I was bored and in need of distraction.

As usual, I headed first to the clearance section and that's when I saw these! Yep, that's right, less 50%! After a quick Google of the phrase "JC Penney Coupon" revealed a further 15% discount available for the month of May these were in my cart quicker than Grease Lightning.

Grand total spent on 3 blinds for living room windows: $82
Grand total savings on 3 blinds: $92

Husbands comments? "Are you kidding? It would have cost you more NOT to buy them!" God bless him! :)

So, the blinds are the perfect color to go in the living room and were the perfect price.

Curtains were next on my to-do list, but the ones I wanted from Ikea are $30/pair so those will remain on the list until after my birthday as we renew our commitment to saving... PSYCHE!

Yesterday I receive my weekly Ikea sale email and lo and behold, but are the very same curtains I wanted for the living room not marked down to $9.99 per pair?!?!?! This is a-freeking-mazing! I am NEVER this lucky. I think the big man upstairs is watching over me.

Throw in the free Ikea breakfast and we're there with bells on, (right after we acquaint ourselves with a local church of course. We've much to be thankful for this week!)

Now on to the important question... I need your opinions... grey, white, chocolate or beige?
Remembering that we (currently) have a grey/brown sectional sofa, white accents and will have a combination of blue/grey and brownish paint on the walls. Here's the "color story" again to refresh your memories.... (Gah! I still love that phrase)

Paint

Shades
Table (must still update you on the "finished" look)

I created a poll on the right side -------> I need help!

Wordle + Printer = DIY Art

2009-05-18T19:20:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I gave you a sneak peek at today's project post. I am totally proud of this one! Seriously, if you're ever in need of inspiration head on over to Katie Bower, she'll soon have you floating away with ideas. Like this post about DIY art.

This weekend I went through some of her posts that I had previously bookmarked and was taken with her States of the Union post (link above) and suggestion of using Wordle to achieve a similar look to the pages she created. I sat down with "The Big P" and together we came up with a bunch of places that mean something to us. I pasted them into Wordle, hit randomize and watched the magic happen.

This beauty took only, ohhh 50 "randomizes" to materialize. (Followed quickly by two more close contenders). I printed all three and decided that this one had the greatest impact, framed it, placed it on the mantle and voila! Personalized art for the cost of about 30 minutes, an old frame, paper and ink.

Totally cute, right?

Weekend Project Update!

2009-05-18T15:35:00.008-05:00

So it's Monday and I am a day late on the update. As I said, it's been crazy around here with me playing catch up on the day I missed last week.

I made some incredible progress on the spare room. (Nope, still not "guest room" worthy).
So again, you remember the before:

Here is the "after":

Look! Much more carpet to be seen in this one. And I believe you can also see the blue of the sheet.

Here is the detritus after the battle:

SEE! I got rid of a bunch of stuff. Just not enough to completely free the bed, but getting there. In fairness three of the 4 boxes on the bed need P to take a look. Also, there is a bunch of stuff that will go out to the shed, just as soon as we get one... like the tent for example.

And honestly, I did get a little distracted...
This cute little rooster plate was sweet, but absolutely didn't go with our decor at all. It was a gift from my mom, and I was sure I could find a use for it, but it has spent the better part of 2 years in a box in the garage, until this weekend!

Armed with my new best friend a can of white Rust-Oleum spray paint and some scrapbooking rub-ons, I created....

a cute little plate to corral the hubs' keys, change and sunglasses when he walks in the door. (He has the annoying habit of emptying out his pockets onto the nearest surface as he enters the door). Ultimately, I feel that I could have used a bigger rub-on, I just didn't want to have something too ornate competing with the detail of the plate. One day I may scratch that off and replace with a nice vinyl "N" decal... but for now I am happy with it.

On Saturday we had gloriously cool weather and thunderstorms (and it's been pretty cool ever since). It was the perfect day to whip up some soup. Chicken and brocolli. Yum! Oh, I should come out with it and let you know that our new chicken stock (never tried it before) is so intensely salty that it completely overpowered the flavors and was much like eating a bowl of sea water... but it looked good, didn't it? I ate it anyway... nothing that some buttery bread and a splash of milk couldn't fix!

I also tackled this project (sneak peek below), but I want to do a proper post on this, so I will save it for a day when I have more time.
SO there you have it... our no-cost weekend project update. (Another confession... I DID end up spending money... although it was VERY well spent. Hint: There are some "giveaways" in some of the pictures above. More details soon, promise.)

Long Weekend = Lot's of Work to Catch Up...

2009-05-18T11:02:00.001-05:00

I have made progress!! But don't have pictures. It was too dark last night to take flash-less pics (and I detest the flash) so I decided to take them today... but with being away from work on Friday I have a ton of work to do. Will try and get a proper update posted by the end of day today.

:)

HOLY COW!!

2009-05-15T01:14:00.004-05:00

It's 1:30 am on Friday morning. We should be in bed dreaming about our awful road trip today, but we're up and our adrenaline is pumping. Why you ask?

At around 10pm we decided to call it an early night to rest up for tomorrow. Before we went off to bed I wanted to make sure that I had all my papers together so that there would be nothing they could ask for tomorrow, that I wouldn't have on me (You'd be surprised at the things they want to see). I gathered all my immigration files, did a quick check for our passports... and discovered that they weren't where they should be.

PANIC STATIONS!!!

We just spent the last 3 hours going through the boxes in the spare room taking each item out and digging right to the bottom in search of our passports... then we realized that our social security cards and birth certificates were tucked into our passports as well. I know... a tidy little identity theft bundle pack just waiting for someone to pick up.

My dear husband, always looking on the bright side (hah!) proclaimed this a good thing... if someone was using his social to pay taxes, we might get a refund this year! haha

I, on the other hand, could think of nothing but the 1 year wait to get a new South African passport ordered from the consulate in NYC. Except, I hear that the wait on passport applications from within South Africa are taking up to a year at the moment, so who knows how long this could take if I apply abroad!!!

We traced our steps and wracked our brains and finally remembered taking them to HR Block when we filed our taxes... then I remembered that I had taken all my business receipts on that trip... then I thought to check my tax archived documents and discovered that my 2008 business receipts weren't in there... and so thankfully we then had a bigger item to look for... a large clear plastic folder instead of two small books!

We headed back to the black hole to recommence digging when my incredibly smart husband thought to pick UP one of the boxes we had gone through three times and voila! The clear plastic folder was hiding underneath!!

SO we have all our important documents AND my 2008 business receipts. And, on the plus side, I managed to remove a further two boxes and one HUGE bag of unnecessary papers from "the hole". Progress people!!

If I wasn't fired up enough to get that room sorted out this weekend, this little incident was just the cherry on the sundae. We also realized how much old crap we're holding on to. I think the garbage men are going to hate us come Tuesday morning, because we'll be doing some serious purging this weekend.

I'll show you the pile of trash on Sunday! (It's pretty impressive already, actually).

Weekend Project: Spare Room, and Only Spare Room

2009-05-14T12:17:00.004-05:00

I know it's only Thursday today, but we have to take most of tomorrow off as we need to take a trip out to San Antonio to do some icky visa stuff. I can tell you that we need this trip like a hole in the head, however it absolutely has to be done. The trip out there and back, coupled with the wait time once there is about 7 hours and will leave us out of the office for MOST of the day.

I am kind of happy about this, and kind of annoyed. However, MOST of the day means that we are likely to have a couple of hours free on Friday which technically makes this a long weekend for us.

Now I am sure that with this being a long weekend, you're thinking of all the amazing projects we could tackle. Alas, we're on a saving kick now. This week we sat down with our finances, and for the first time in months tallied our total debts. We were shocked to discover that we currently owe double what we thought. We immediately set about drawing up plans for total debt obliteration and I think this 4 month plan will work well for us if we stick to a tight budget and put some of the house-y stuff on hold for a while.

Ultimately, there are plenty of odds and ends that we can do around here without spending a penny and I am looking forward to sharing some no cost before and afters with you in the coming weeks. I am debating whether to set a small weekend project stipend of $10 or so, for incidentals... but I am going to try like heck to do it all at no cost, at least in the beginning.

This brings us to this weeks project. Remember the spare room?
Oh hell, here's that picture again to remind you...

While I have made progress this week as promised. But it still pretty much looks just like the picture with tidier, more organized edges. Hah!

My mission for the weekend is to get that room sorted so that I can at last refer to it as the "guest room" in place of the "spare room".

We're going to be out of the office for most of the day tomorrow, but as soon as we get back, I am going on the attack!

Will be back on Sunday with a weekend project update. Stay tuned!

Yellow?

2009-05-10T19:51:00.005-05:00

Is it just me, or do y'all think that this area needs yellow accents? I've seen so much yellow around lately, and I love it, but just can't figure out how it will work with my taste AND I am sure that yellow is just a passing fad so I refuse to spend a fortune on anything yellow... but seeing those bananas in the green bowl on the table made me think... wouldn't a great wire, or otherwise sculptural bowl in a bright glossy yellow look sublime on that table? Or maybe a grouping of yellow candlesticks or something...

Gah! Not sure how that will work the the paint color on the opposite wall though...

This is the "color story" I am playing with... (Don't you love that phrase?)
Do you think yellow in place of the River Bank would look totally out of place in a room edged by Spanish Galleon? Any suggestions as to how I can change things out to suit? (Remembering that the dining area and living area are in one big space together, and my couch is a dark chocolate color (that really looks like a chocolate grey if such a color exists...)

Weekend Project Update!

2009-05-10T14:15:00.006-05:00

We made some progress on the porch this weekend! One coat of white trim paint down, one more to go... well, we're going to wait until after we put the new decking on the porch before we go with the second coat, in case of nicks and bumps during installation.

The bench looks fabulous out there, don't you think? I am a little nervous because the bicycle chain that we bought won't fit between the slats, nor the tabs I sewed into the cushions. Dumb me forgot to measure properly before buying the chain, but another one is not going to be hard to find I am sure.

For now, I will just hope for the best and pray that no one would think of messing with our cute little porch.

In other news I went ahead and painted the last of the coffee table paint onto the dining room wall and LOVE it! There wasn't enough to do the whole wall, and it still needs a second coat, but this gives me a good idea of how it will look when it's done and I love it! What do you think? I know it's not a great color for resale, but we can neutralize it when it comes time to sell.

So far the progress on the spare room is still limited. I did manage to empty two boxes and get them out of there, but if you could see the state of the room, you would know that this really isn't much progress at all in the grand scheme of things. It is literally wall to wall boxes, bags and stuff in there and we're nowhere near to calling that room "done" just yet. I want to make it my mission to remove at least one bag or box per day this week and see how I do with that. It's probably a good thing that my mom is coming out for my birthday in July as I HAVE to have the room finished by then, so that will light a fire under my butt.

Ohhh what the heck... here's a picture of what is becoming known as the black hole...
... don't judge me....

Weekend Project: Porch & Spare Room

2009-05-07T23:00:00.006-05:00

Hallelujah! It's Friday!! And it's time for another weekend project to-do list.

This week, we'll be trying to keep the costs down as we've kind of gone a little hog wild over the last few weeks. We have a big visa application coming up soon, so we need to hold back a little on the cash.

In this light, the plan for the weekend is:

- Organize the spare room.

Yes, I know this has been on the list for a few weeks now. But we have now identified the problem. We need to get rid of a ton of office stuff, papers and things that we don't need to hang on to. I also have a secret plan to share some of my rarely used scrapbooking supplies with a friend who actually scrap books and could use some to add to her stash. I know that I need to go through my fabric stash with a ruthless eye and throw out any, and all fabric I am unlikely to use.... ok, except for those pretty vintage sheets... I may decide to throw a quilt together at some point. LOL

- Front Porch Beautification

During our recent trip to Pier 1, we stumbled upon some cute outdoor throw pillows that I love, love, love. It brought up an idea I've been toying with to add something to our decidedly boring porch. Trouble is, my plan involves moving one of my fave pieces of furniture that really doesn't fit in the house to the porch.

Now, the porch is covered, and rarely even gets wet when it rains (which, let's face it, it never does in Texas). My real issue with bringing it outdoors is that the South African in me won't shut up about the possibility of it being stolen off my porch. I know, I know... Round Rock is number 19 on the list of safest towns in the country so what am I worried about right? The bench I have in mind is gorgeous!! It needs some rehabbing, new poly stain, etc. But lately, everywhere I turn I see this bench on display in some magazine, or brochure, etc. It's a hot item, and I want to keep it in my possession, but I also need to make more room in our house.

Enter the master plan... We're going to Walmart to pick up a bicycle chain.... I have already sewn some loops into the back of the cushions, and we will (subtly) chain both the bench, and cushions to the porch railing. Problem solved! LOL Don't judge me! I am a product of my childhood environment.

And look, it's not just me... Here is a picture of my mom and step father's camp site in Calgary, Canada. See that picnic bench? They brought that with them... See the chain attached to the tree? They brought that too! (What you can't see in the below image, is that there is also a fully built shed and a plastic storage/seating bench too!)

Please note the deck in front of the RV... they built that too. You can't be without a deck for the summer,
even if it's only 3 months long in your town, and you'll only be visiting the RV over weekends!
What can I say, it's in the genes people!

I also have plans to slap some fresh white paint on the railings, and possibly also paint the living/dining room wall... But I make no promises on these two, the porch and spare room are main priorities.

My gorgeous rugs arrived today and I must say I am surprised. The leafy one is actually a totally different color to what I thought, BUT.. it's gorgeous and actually I like it more! I want to hold off on showing you pics until I have painted the wall in the dining area and done something with the table top in the living room. Pics on Sunday.

xoxo

It's the Little Things that Make Me Happy

2009-05-06T14:57:00.006-05:00

Like this for example...

When we had this house inspected our home inspector pointed out that some of the insulation on our a/c unit needed replacing right quick, both on the outside unit as well as inside.

We also needed some other a/c fixes and had a quote drawn up for this as well as the insulation repair. Well, summer got here quicker than we thought and we aren't ready to get started on the large a/c project just yet so the insulation remained untouched until a recent trip to HDizzeepo where I found this and for $2.25 I did it myself!

This was one of the first things we did to the house and it took only a few seconds, but I cannot tell you how proud I am of this little thing. Saved me $7.75 of the $10 the a/c guys were going to charge and I had enough to do both pipes AND have enough insulation left over to replace them next year as well if necessary.

:) We need to get planting and weeding back there...

A Bar in the Desert

2009-05-05T14:01:00.004-05:00

You know, I find decor blogs sooo inspiring. Lately I've spent WAY too many hours reading through archives of some of my favorites and I've picked up so many great ideas. Also, my Domino Decor book has been incredibly helpful. (TOTALLY love that book, just wish the free year's subscription to the magazine could actually still be honored. :( )

Anyway... we have this odd little corner in the living room. It's sort of in no mans land between the couch and the dining area, but has a prime spot next to the window. I've been wanting to do something with this area, other than plonking a lamp there where it is neither attractive nor necessary. I have admired Katie's bar nook over on BowerPower blog and tucked it away in the revolving to-do list that has taken over my brain. Then I stumbled upon this cute, keyoot idea in the Domino Book and put two and two together. (Bar tray on pg 69 for those of you who own the book).

{photography by Deborah Jaffe for domino}

We happened to be in Pier 1 yesterday for some placemats that I needed for another project -- pictures soon -- when I came across this beautiful little tray and eureka, a plan was hatched. (See those little birds? I am totally bird obsessed lately and don't care if they're passe')

Last night I grabbed one of our TV tables (previously used as guest room nightstands), plonked my little tray on top and grabbed everything I could find that was remotely bar themed. Yes, it's sparse. Yes, we only have one bottle of rum (Yeugh!). No, we still don't drink alochol. But I feel like this once awkward little corner now has a purpose, albeit one rarely used by us.

I've never been a big fan of formal living rooms that are only used for special ocassions and rare guests, and I realize that the bar is just a smaller version of a formal living room for our lifestyle. But I figure what the hell, the corner makes sense now and bridges the gap between the living space and dining space and best of all it's pretty, so there! haha

I love it so much I am almost tempted to crack open a bottle of wine or something just looking at it!

Rehabbed Mirror

2009-05-03T19:44:00.009-05:00

I said I would update you on the other projects I tackled this weekend. This one I am also VERY proud of... We inherited this mirror from my in-laws. (Hi!! *wave*) I love love love the lines of the mirror, however the finish was really starting to look ratty. The poly was chipping, it was badly scratched in places and the color was uneven in others. I believe it once as part of a dresser set, so it's no stranger to a "makeover" and I felt that it could use one more.

I couldn't find a recent "Before" pic, but I found one taken at our dodgy little apartment in Buffalo above. (Please don't mind the junk shop-esque reflection... it was a tiny apartment and I worked from home... space was at a premium there and that paint color was not our choice, but the landlady's.

Here she is ready for her makeover.

After a light sanding. (The black giraffe statues had a makeover of their own. It failed, but I am working on it. Update soon)

Taped and first coat of Krylon Satin White spraypaint.

And here after a coat of poly. Ahhhh... isn't it beautiful! So fresh and clean looking!
The original plan was to turn it into a blackboard for the kitchen. I wanted to use black magnetic paint, but realized that we don't have a window in there (yet) and adding a black item to the already dark laundry nook wouldn't do our light issue any favors. So instead this little beauty will hang there as a mirror and reflect light from the sliding doors opposite into the kitchen.

LOVE it!!

Weekend Project Update!

2009-05-03T18:53:00.008-05:00

It's Sunday and finally time to show you the finished coffee table!! I am soooo happy with how this turned out I could seriously cry... I am not kidding.

Here we have the table sans glass in our crappy patio area (yes, I know it's a sty... we're working on it!)

I sanded the whole table lightly to smooth rough spots and create a "key" for the primer and paint to stick to.

Here she is all primed... it was about this time that I posted my feelings about the lattice work and how I hope to never have to deal with it again.

This was the first coat. Don't you love that gorgeous shade of grey/blue? It's Amphibian by Behr. I chose it on a total whim when the Home Depot paint lady looked at me askew after I requested Behr's Dense Shrub... She handed me the paint deck and told me to take it outside to get a better idea of the color in natural light. I am SO glad she did, or I wouldn't have found this gorgeous color!

After 2 coats of Poly, here is the finished product in the living room. I've not set up any table scape as yet.... Want to be totally sure that the Poly has dried before I go setting anything up. The last thing I want is to have things stuck to the surface.

So there you have it! My beautiful $15 coffee table rehab totalling just under $30 all told. Best of all, this color has inspired the whole living/dining color concept. More about that later. For now, behold the beauty....

P.S. Any of you veteran Craigslist furniture rehabbers ever tempted to send a picture of the refinished article to the person you bought it from in the first place? I am sure he thought we were some scrubs buying his beat up old $15 table... little does he know, it looks better now than it did when it was new.

What do you think? Did I make a good choice on the grey? Would you have done the lattice differently? I have some other ideas for ways to fix it, but I am going to live with it like this for a while and see how I like it before I go about changing.

ETA: I forgot to add the final, final pic complete with placemats to distract from the lattice.

I X Lattice! $%&#!!!

2009-05-03T00:03:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to myself... Never, NEVER ever fall in love with ANYTHING that needs painting and has any lattice in it whatsoever.... From now on, if you need to paint it, and it has lattice, run, don't walk away from it!

On the plus side, painting is going well. Halfway done with the table so I am on track to hopefully have a "reveal" pic for you tomorrow.

The BEST part is... I found the perfect, perfect shade of grey AND I decided to try it out on one of the walls in the living/dining area and it ROCKS! It's a bit dark for the whole space though, so I went and picked the most stunning main color that works with this as an accent. I am totally in love, and feel like rushing back to HD to grab the paint so that I can put it up NOW! But alas, I need to wait on wall repairs before I do that... although... I could just get a little extra and do a patch job later.... hmmmmmm

Weekend Project: Furniture Rehabbing

2009-05-01T14:34:00.004-05:00

Well, it's Friday again and you know what that means? It's weekend project time!!

So here is our plan of attack for the weekend. Again, I make no promises that everything on this list will be done... this is just the "ideas" list.

- Painting new coffee table
- Paint decor items & possibly lamp
- Finishing garage door insulation
- Start painting wood trim exterior
and the ever present... Organizing spare room

Wish us luck!

New Rugs -- Squeeeeeee!!

2009-05-01T10:54:00.004-05:00

I want to give a big shout out to Heather of at home with H for sharing the wealth today. I recently saw this post on Baltimore Rowhouse and lusted after their gorgeous dining area rug because it worked so well between the white chairs and dark wood table which is exactly what we're dealing with. If you read this post you will see that they paid the unbelievably low price of $123 from rugsusa.com - TOTAL steal right?

So I rushed on over to rugsusa.com only to find that this rug was no longer available. This morning in Heather's post about some great Urban Outfitter finds I nearly wet my pants with excitement to find an almost identical gorgeous rug available for just $39.95... you read that right!!

While I was there I picked up a gorgeous grey chenile rug for the living area at $49. Not 100% sure it will work, but for $50 it's worth trying! Otherwise it might end up in the guest room which could use a calming influence color wise.

LOVE me a bargain on a Friday! W00t!

Color Me Bad

2009-04-29T14:41:00.003-05:00

Still playing around with ideas for the table. But Lu came up with the genius idea of possibly painting it charcoal grey to help bridge the gap between modern and traditional by giving the traditional table, more of a modern "edge".

I think I really like this idea... but now I am torn on which exact shade of charcoal grey. (You had to know this was coming).

I think that Lu meant something along the lines of this little fella's coloring.

But a quick squizz in the Behr.com paint lab I discovered this little paint chip:
What do you think of the last two? I think that Evergreen Bough (bottom) might be too green. But Dense Shrub could do the trick.

Or should I just stay with the regular dark grey color of the Behr bear?

I shot an email off to that master of makeovers Kate from CentsationalGirl.com to get her advice on color. Will let you know what she thinks!

Craigslist Treasure Hunting

2009-04-28T15:24:00.008-05:00

Look what is on it's way home right this minute?

Ok. I know what you're thinking... You're thinking, "WHAT are you thinking?" Am I right?

Ok, hear me out!!

This classic lined, beveled be-glassed beauty was only $15 and I have big plans for her future. We need a new coffee table. I had a few in mind, but they were all too cold and modern for our taste. Now, I know, we have the uber modern sectional couch that we love... but that doesn't mean we can't play a little mix and match does it? The "vision" for the living room is evolving every day and we want something more classic, and perhaps traditional than what we are working with now. My plan is to go with the flow and buy what I find beautiful and edit when we're done. If that means we lose the couch then we will cross that bridge when we get there. For now though,
I think we can make it all work together.

Stay tuned for the mind blowing (I hope) after pics of the table next week.

P.S. Please know that the above pic was taken from the Craigslist listing and is NOT our living room. kthxbai

ETA: Holy Cow!! Table is here and it's GORG! The bottom shelf has woven wicker/rattan-ie stuff on it. Totally chic! Love it! There are some scratches and spots of discoloration, but nothing that some paint or stain couldn't solve. Wouldn't you know it... a quick scan of Craigslist this evening uncovered this little beauty: http://austin.craigslist.org/fuo/1144900821.html I think I like this version more than the one we got!!! Oh well...

Now, my question for you is... white paint or chocolate stain?

In the light of the evening the wood appears darker, and I have to say that I do really like the look of it, but I need to remember that we're going to have lot's of white pieces around the room (living/dining) and I want to keep the balance. Honestly, I think that the lattice work would look much better in chocolate stain than white paint. What say you?

Weekend Project Update!

2009-04-28T14:50:00.009-05:00

Ok, so I know some of you have been standing by since Sunday waiting for the updated pictures. Unfortunately, there really isn't much to see this week. Not because we didn't DO anything, but rather because what we did appears so incredibly unremarkable that it's almost not worth showing. LOL

So you may remember that our mission was to continue sprucing up the garage/office. (Almost ready to start calling this the office and not the garage.) Here are some pics to remind you of the before:

Then last weekend, we did the floors remember?

This weekend, our plan was to tackle the walls by painting just plain primer for now to brighten things up (we can't Paint Paint because the walls need some serious work). I also wanted to clean up the peg board and put it to use. And lastly, we wanted to insulate the garage doors more.

Here's my gorgeous other half painting on the primer:
Seriously... is there anything cuter than a man with a paintbrush in his hand? I think not!
(please note that that was one sprayed on coat of Krylon Avocado Green. We laid a further 2 coats on later).

Here is the finished product... look ma, things hanging up and not on the floor! (Well, you can't see the floor and you won't until the room is finished.) Yes, I know the pegboard could use another 2 coats or 20... but seriously, the Krylon is more for outdoor use! We were totally paint bombed into quitting... and the room still reeks of spraypaint 3 days later! We may need to revisit the peg board this weekend.

And here are the new almost insulated garage doors. I say almost because we need to go and get more panels to cut and fit into the gaps. Strangely, just these half covered panels are already making a difference in here. I am so excited to get the rest of them on, and have the ceiling sorted out, we won't know ourselves!

Still need for this room:

- Area Rug to break up the grey and add warmth to the space.
- Really fabulous desk lamps
- Cable tidies for all the wires
- Walls repaired
- Ceilings properly finished
- Fabric panels for the garage door
- New, bigger window
- Proper lighting
- Tuck ugly outlet wiring behind drywall
- Art
- Shelves & storage
- A shed... no, not for inside the office, but to place outside the house so that we can get the mower, Christmas decor, camping stuff, etc out of here.
- Peter's new TV console for his Xbox and accoutrements

There... that's not much right? LOL

If all my clients pay this week, I hope to have some much more exciting, BIG impact projects for you this weekend. *fingers crossed!*

Weekend Project: Office Paint & Insulation

2009-04-24T15:35:00.003-05:00

Well, it's Friday again and you know what that means... time to get our weekend project on the table. You may remember that last weekend, we tackled the garage and spare room... well more the garage than the spare room truthfully.

This weekend, our plan is to insulate the garage and get some paint on the walls to make them look less... what is the word I am searching for, um... manky? Yes, manky is a good word to describe them. We're not going with our final paint choices mind. The walls in here are still in really bad need of repair, so we will just be slapping up some clean white paint to tide us over for now. To brighten the space and add to the "garage no more" look we are shooting for.

The office walls are in a bad state of repair and could use some patching, we'll be painting around those spots for now until the rescue team in the form of my mom and step dad arrive in July. They're nothing a cleverly placed pot plant can't hide anyway.

Also coming up is the peg board rehab. We have a great peg board in here, but it needs a coat of paint and sadly... no pegs! It's time to remedy that and get some of our garden tools up off the floor and stashed away.

Other plans are to photograph the last of the items going on Craigslist and get them posted this weekend so that we can make more space.

If we're lucky and have some extra time, we are also going to dig through the spare room and try and get that more organized as well. Now that last weekends garage toss pile has kindly been removed by Round Rock Refuse, we're ready to load up our bins again with all the extraneous bunff we've got cluttering up the guest room.

We'll also be measuring for our new fence as we're all set with the plans to rip out the old fence to make room for the beautiful deck this summer.

Wish us luck! Look for your weekend project update on Sunday evening as usual.

Kitchen Inspiration

2009-04-24T13:57:00.002-05:00

This Makes Me Wish We Had Mud to Deal with...

2009-04-22T14:26:00.003-05:00

Totally cute! But more importantly, totally eco friendly. *Note to self: MUST get cute gumboots!*

Happy Earth Day Peeps!

We've Got It Covered...

2009-04-21T17:09:00.004-05:00

Well, I had hoped to wait till both sides were complete before posting this, but I am at a loss for something new to post this week and we have decided to wait on hanging the other blind until we can get our hands on a stud finder (where was this miraculous tool when I was single *da-dun-dump!*)

I think this might be one of my favorite things that we've done and it was probably one of the simplest. Following the idea shared by John and Sherry of ThisYoungHouse.com I got a great deal on these bamboo blinds from BB&B and they were one of the first things we ordered when we moved in.

Peter still thinks this was totally unnecessary as he says you can barely see the cupboards unless you're IN the laundry area... but I know they're there.... Here's that same space sans blinds... You tell ME if the difference is worth it?

Weekend Project Update!

2009-04-19T18:05:00.013-05:00

Well it's 6pm on Sunday and while we've done a BUNCH of work, we've not completed everything on our list. (But we did a great job of everything, so I am ok with it).

Saturday went perfectly to plan. We cleared boxes, donated to charity and emptied all but Peter's table out of the garage.

We vacuumed, and swept and vacuumed and swept till we were happy that every last speck of dust had been removed, and then set about painting. The painting part went really quickly, I think it took us just under 2 hours start to finish and we did a great job! There are parts of the floor that had deep set grease stains that just wouldn't lift, so the paint is blotchy in places, but this afternoon it was dry enough for us to replace our furniture and start moving things back into the office, and get set up properly. I must say, the walls now look absolutely awful. With the floor looking so fab it really draws attention to the awful wall situation in here. But we'll get to them soon enough.

For now, we're just happy to have a clean office to work in. We started off throwing down the paint flecks that came with the paint, but after doing the top step decided that the look was more "garage" than office and that the grey floor actually looked perfectly good without them. I had to make a quick decision as the paint was drying fast and decided to scrap them for the rest of the space. Ultimately, I think the specks would have detracted away from the different concrete textures, and the oily patches, but all in all the room looks less like a garage now... moderately...

I have been toying with the idea of giving you a new picture of the garage with the painted floors, etc. But we have more plans for things we want to do in here next weekend, and I think I would rather wait until we have them done before I share the full view, so for now, here is the floor.

'Scuse the foot, but I had to put something in the shot, or it would have been a big grey square.

This foot, I assure you, was unintentional. But here you can see the two different floors. Speckled
floor is on the raised portion of the floor, the plain grey is the rest of the room. You can also see one of the
greasy marks on the top left.

In other news, while we haven't totally conquered the box room, I did manage to set up a little crafty area in the guest room closet. It's small, but adequate and works well for me. I have a little piece that I can do what I like in, and my gaudy collection of crafty bits and pieces now all have a home out of sight. And such a CUTE home too! OK. So guests don't exactly have the roomiest space to hang their clothes when they come and visit us, but it's not like we have a ton of overnight guests, and most of the stuff can be packed away when guests come to stay.

Please pretend not to notice the linens about to topple off the top shelf.
We're still working on a "system" to keep everything in order up there.

So there you have it! Our weekend's work. I did also get one hung blind out of P, but honestly it was such a mission I haven't dared to ask for the second to be hung... I'll hit him up for that this week sometime, and then show you pics when we have less stuff piled up in the garage. My other mission for this week... take pics of and list all the leftover furniture on Craigslist/Freecycle and get RID of them!

Weekend Project: Garage & Spare Room Domination

2009-04-17T22:42:00.003-05:00

OK. So we need to admit that our office is still a pig-sty and the spare room is still just a room with a bed and a ton of boxes. We plan to remedy that this weekend.

Here's our plan of attack.

SATURDAY:

First up, we're throwing out all the boxes already unpacked. (I am SO mad that our local recycling service doesn't accept cardboard boxes. REALLY lame in my opinion).

Second, we're making a run to Goodwill to drop off the "Donate" pile that has been growing in our garage for MONTHS. (Yep, we MOVED our donate pile with us.)

Third, we're moving everything else out of the office for the rest of the day/night. And then painting the floor as we planned to do before we moved our stuff in. Kinda wish we were painting the walls at the same time, but I take what I can get.

SUNDAY:

Fourthly, we're moving all the office furniture back into the garage.

Fifthly, we're moving all office related stuff out of the spare room and into the office.

Sixthly, we're finishing off my crafting space and linen cupboard in the spare room.

Seventhly (?!?), we're cleaning, and setting up the spare room.

Then we're done!

Oh wait... if I ask really nicely, I am hoping that P will help me hang the blinds over the shelves in the laundry area as well. Might be pushing my luck with this, but a girl can dream can't she? LOL

Shedding Some Light on the Situation

2009-04-16T17:48:00.008-05:00

We're soooo excited! The electrician made a visit this morning and made all outlets GFCI, upgraded the trip wire (or something...), installed an extra outlet in the garage, pointed out that my dryer socket DID in fact match the plug... (LOLZ!) and last, but certainly not least... he finally hung our West Elm Capiz Chandelier. Just LOOK at it in all it's sparkly, tinkl(e?)y glory!

Something to note for those of you out there who have bought this chandelier...

1) It doesn't come with a ceiling plate. We had to reuse the brass one from our old chandelier. Not pretty, but it will do for now.

2) As it is designed to be a "plug-n-play" lamp, the wiring side of things is a little more technical than you'd think.

3) When cutting into each little plastic wrapper on the strings of shells, be VERY careful not to snip the fishing gut on one that has already been released. (We lost one string in the unwrap process).

All in all, I am VERY happy with it. Because we don't have a separate dining room, the chandelier grounds the area and makes it feel more defined. I also like the play between the stark, dark table, the "classy" chandelier and the modern white chairs. The chandelier brings just the right touch of drama to the space, and makes it feel special. Now if I could just find a bowl that fits the scale of the new dining table, and something for the wall to further define the area I will be happy.... Peach paint, textured walls, vertical blinds and popcorn ceilings are still there unfortunately, but we'll get there eventually. It took us a year to finally have a home to put the chandelier up in, whats a few more months to give it the surroundings it deserves.

Keepin' it Real...

2009-04-15T01:16:00.003-05:00

We've Finally Made It!

2009-04-11T17:39:00.002-05:00

Yup... we've been recognized at last!

On our latest run to Home Depot -- for primer, paint and sandpaper for the ceilings (we decided to bite the bullet and paint) -- the check-out guy [AKA our fifth best friend in Round Rock] recognized us and said, "Hey you guys are doing a lot of work. We see you here a lot!"

That's right... we're now officially DIY'ers. When the peeps at Home Depot recognize you, you KNOW you've hit the big time!

Weekend Project: More Poppin'

2009-04-11T14:44:00.002-05:00

On Friday evening we ran over to Home Depot to grab supplies for this weekend.

Today we picked up where we left off and are spending the weekend scraping more of our ceilings. The kitchen is now done, as is the entry way. All we have left are the bedrooms, one bathroom and the great room, but due to the steep ceilings, 15 feet at their highest point, there is no way for us to reach, even with our new ladder. We're going to have to come up with an alternative for this room... Typically, it's the popcorn-ed room that bugs me the most and it's the one room I cannot fix.

Now we have a decision to make... do we sand and paint them now, or do we smooth the walls and THEN paint? What do you think? Ultimately, you should paint ceilings before you paint walls, right? But what if you need to re-texture those walls before you can paint?

Honestly, while I don't like textured walls, they wouldn't bother me so much if they were uniformly textured throughout, but alas they are not. The previous owners did some AWFUL patch jobs on the drywall. The corners are just terrible, as is the peak of the arch in the kitchen. In fact... while removing popcorn, we also discovered that some walls had been "patched" using regular silicone caulk, meant for bathrooms!

I have a strong feeling that we need to leave the ceilings until we smooth the walls out.... trouble is, it's going to take us AGES to get them smooth. And it's going to involve a lot of sanding! Ugh... Part of me just wants to re-drywall the whole thing. LOL. Wishful thinking right!

Well I mean... how expensive is white ceiling paint going to be? I suppose we could just go ahead and paint them and if they get "dinged" during the wall smoothing process, we can just patch paint. Yeah... I think that's the best idea!

We're Taking a Break...

2009-04-07T21:13:00.002-05:00

Diesel sleeping on some new paint rollers from Home Depot.

Somethin's Poppin'!

2009-04-06T22:41:00.004-05:00

Here's your popcorn progress update:

So far the guest bathroom and passage ceilings are done... but we're not even half-way. Still the entryway, the great room (argh!), both bedrooms and the master bath to do.

We discovered some... uh... creative drywalling. In the passage, instead of taping the top edge of the wall, but we discovered that someone thought caulk would do the trick just as well. So of course, after scraping the caulk out of the gap, it looks like we're going to need to retape that wall-ceiling join. Not bad though.

The system we used tonight was just straight water and a scraper. It was effective enough on the unpainted popcorn, however the painted popcorn (in every room but the bathrooms) it required a lot more scraping than we were expecting.

This weekend, we're going to try something different:

Watch at about 2 minutes in. Keep your eye on the bubble. OMG!! We're trying warm water, vinegar and a proper sprayer in place of the pump action water misting bottle.

Anyway, the two "finished" rooms need a bit more work. We're nervous about getting the drywall too wet because we don't want any chance of mould. Looking at the various videos I've watched, I see most people wetting things MUCH more than we have. Going to get a bit more aggressive this weekend, but will put a fan on the area as soon as the popcorn has been removed.

Anyway... that's enough of adventures in popcorn country for one day.

Popcorn Be-Gone

2009-04-06T12:23:00.008-05:00

We just sprayed a little water and grabbed a spoon to check if we can scrape the awful popcorn from our ceilings and whaddaya know... We CAN!!

We're so excited about this! Popcorn ceilings are just so unattractive and we're popcorned throughout the house. It will require a lot of patience, a lot of arms above the head, some scrapers and a spray bottle.

Here's what we're dealing with...
Oh... I know what you're thinking... WHAT THE HELL WITH THE CRACK!!
Looks bad huh? Well, never fear. We aren't that stupid. We bought the house knowing that it had had complete foundation makeovers twice in it's life, (and we have lifetime warranties on both). Once in the front, and once in the back. This caused the middle to show a few cracks. We have it on excellent authority that the cracks we are seeing are because of the split lift, and are nothing to worry about at all.

Bottom line... we KNOW there are going to be some surprises after we remove the popcorn. We KNOW we are going to have to have a Taper on speed dial.

And we KNOW we want that popcorn gone!

Shopping List:

- Pump spray bottle
- Two large paint scrapers
- Dust masks
- Step ladder
- Drop cloths

I can't wait for the weekend!

Kitchen Inspiration

2009-04-05T01:06:00.008-05:00

So it's late and I need to get to bed, but I HAD to share some inspiration pics for our kitchen.
I'm a little worried that it may be a bit of a green overload -- I don't want it to look like a St. Patrick's Day Parade. But the colors in there need to compliment the rest of the house where green hues will be featured A LOT. The bottom line is... the kitchen has no window (yet!), it's dark and dreary at the moment, and could use a bright, fresh, clean look -- without being too clinical in all white.

This tile (the glass subway tile in a sea green color):

Picture Source: DGRTiling.com

These knobs/pulls:

Picture Source: MakingItLovely.com

This wall color (Luurrrvvee the splashes of red):

Picture Source: DesignSpongeonline.com

This color on the cabinets (maybe darker on bottom, lighter on top?):

This counter top (still undecided, but we want an acrylic Corian or Silestone in a green-grey):

What do you think?

Weekend Project: Curb Appeal

2009-04-04T19:19:00.016-05:00

Well, we did it! Our first project is now complete... well, it's almost complete, we still have a few other things we want to add before we can completely cross it off our list, but we're just happy to have made as much progress as we did for as little moolah as we spent.

Behold, I give you Operation Curb Appeal.

Here is the not-to-bad starting point.

Here are the spoils of our $200 Home Depot shopping spree.

Here is the (almost) finished product.

I think it's a huge improvement. Everything just looks "fresher", as though our house spent a week at a spa and returned to us well-rested.

Here's what we did:

Replaced the builders standard, totally 80's house numbers for these slick brushed stainless ones.
Replaced the beat-up mail box.
Inserted solar powered path lights in a brushed stainless finish.
Planted the front bed with some annuals, perrenials and ground cover with interesting leaf shapes and colors.
Added a bouganvilla plant for some height. Our hope is that it will grow up the soon to be placed trellis and cover up some of that drab grey brick wall.
Lastly, I cleared an easy water run off round the sides of the beds, so that water can easily drain away rather than sitting and creating a big muddy mess.
As a finishing touch, we added a hanging fern to soften the porch and
Threw down a bright, fresh welcome mat to finish things off.

What is still on the cards:

Repainting the house in a sage green color, with a red front door.
Adding a bright red bench.
Replacing those ugly, outdated light fixtures for contemporary brushed stainless ones.
Planting the facing bed.
Replenishing grass seed.
Maybe adding a third bed in front of that little retaining wall
Oh, and fixing the retaining wall where it has come loose.

We're really happy with our first little project. I know what you're thinking... "What about the inside?" Well, we hear ya. BUT, with closing costs, tax being due and my upcoming visa renewal we need some time to save up for those larger projects. We do have some big'uns on the cards for the summer. I will let you know more as we get to them. But for now, our el'cheapo first project was a good one for us to tackle.

Our front yard is the first thing people see when they get to our new house. It was an instant facelift! We feel that it was the best way for us to spend our $200 for the most bang. What do y'all think?

Movin' on Up

2009-03-24T19:19:00.001-05:00

Peter lifting me over the threshold. Not the stuff of Hallmark movies, but we aren't ones to thumb our noses at a tradition. :)

And So We Found a Newer House...

2009-03-24T13:30:00.002-05:00

... we closed on March 24th, 2009. We LOVE it!

Progress Report

2008-06-06T11:01:00.004-05:00

Well, last week we put in an offer on 500 Lucas. It was a Friday and high school graduation day. In Palacios this is a big deal, and the seller's agent's son was graduating, so the offer could not be presented until Monday morning.

Monday morning Sheila presented the offer to the seller's agent who then attempted to contact the seller to let him know. Days past and eventually last night (Thurs) we decided to put a deadline on the offer. We ADORE this house. It's PERFECT. But we just can't waste any more time.

This morning Sheila informed the seller's agent that we have a deadline of 5pm today or we withdraw our offer.

Well about 30 minutes ago Sheila called us to let us know that she had good news and bad news.

GOOD NEWS:
We finally heard back from the sellers

BAD NEWS:
They think the house is in foreclosure and so cannot be sold by them, as they are not the current owners of the property. They will be looking into this today and if possible will try to get it out of foreclosure so that he can sell.

So who knows how this will play out today. We're going to wait till 5pm with bated breath. In the interim, we'll take a look at some of the Palacios surrounds and see if there's anything else we like out there. This is so sad, but it COULD also play out to our advantage. We will have to see.

Try on a Floor

2008-05-20T23:07:00.005-05:00

This is probably a well-known tool for most of you, but I just discovered it this evening and I love it! Shaw Floors will help you to try on a new floor -- carpet, tile, hardwood AND laminate!! (and if you're on a PC you can try on wall and trim colors too!)

Much nicer than my scrappy Photoshopping! Just look at these results!

Stair Update

2008-05-19T14:18:00.007-05:00

*All pictures with kind permission of Melissa Colton*

Don't you love this project? I regularly read Sugar City Journal and have always admired the kids clothes that they design. But today Melissa posted this incredible project to renovate stairs with low/no cost.

I am totally in love with this project and will definitely give it a try on the stairs -- if we buy 500 Lucas, of course. I think it's a fantastic way to uplift and freshen those dull dingy stairs. Also, it will be much brighter once we have opened up the side wall to the living room. We're trying to take it away from the underground tunnel feel and hopefully make it light, bright and fresh.

I especially like Melissa's addition of family pictures "hidden" in the damask pattern. Sooooo personal and thoughtful and just plain pretty!

Ladumaaaaaaaaa!

2008-05-19T12:34:00.006-05:00

I regularly check the sales/clearance sections of some of my favorite furniture home stores and I often spot bargains just begging to be snapped up. A couple of weeks ago I spotted this gorgeous capiz light fixture at West Elm on sale.

I had also seen a similar one in John and Sherry from This Young House's bedroom and thought it looked beautiful in there. I saw the price drop to $59 and was tempted to buy it, but we're kind of on a saving streak and trying to conserve funds for any incidentals we might come up against with the house purchase so I stayed away. But then... on Friday when Sherry posted about the West Elm steal, I started to panic that hundreds of TYH blog readers would rush westelm.com and it would be sold out in minutes.

I made a deal with myself... if we went through to Palacios and didn't spend the night -- thereby saving the $60 lamp cost, AND the light was still available when we got home, AND if after seeing the Lucas house in person I had found the perfect place to put it, would buy it. So yesterday, while going through the hundreds of photo's I took from the trip I spotted at least three places I would love to put the fixture I decided to take the plunge and buy the darn thing before I lost my nerve.

So here it is... we bought the mocha one because it best suits our desired color scheme. Isn't it gorgeous?? Is it too much to be used as a chandelier over a dining table? I also thought it would look great as a low slung light over a side table in the living room, it would look wonderful in our bedroom and actually... it would work great on the landing at the top of the stairs... or maybe even one of the bathrooms... a pretty light to look at while soaking in the tub... I am pretty sure it will go in the dining room... but I like that I have plenty of other options for it as well.

Now that I have secured one for myself, y'all can go crazy!

Dream Bathroom

2008-05-18T20:38:00.006-05:00

So, you know this post where I photoshopped (poorly) the master bathroom renovation? I know, it sucked. But here... I found the PERFECT room to model it on!! Right down to the skylight.

Isn't it dreamy? Don't you love it!!!

500 Lucas Upstairs

2008-05-18T20:12:00.004-05:00

Top of the stairs
Linen cupboard at the top of the stairs
First bedroom
Second Bedroom
Second Bedroom

Master Bedroom
Master Bedroom
Master bedroom

And here's the You Tube video of the upstairs. Again, very dark... in fact darker than downstairs video was. But I think you get an idea of how it's laid out.

500 Lucas Downstairs

2008-05-18T15:43:00.008-05:00

We love, love, love this house!! It's perfect. There are some trouble spots and things we're concerned about. There's A LOT of work that needs to be done, but all the basics are in place.
We love THIS HOUSE.

Here are some of the pictures we took. I have split them into 2 posts to save space. This is the downstairs, the next post is the upstairs.

The Front Door

Entry HallEntry to dining/living/kitchen area
Kitchen/Dining/Living Area
Kitchen (looking into sunroom)
KitchenKitchen (Yup... 2 different kinds of cabinets)
Hallway
Laundry Area
Bathroom
Craft Room, downstairs bedroom
Living Room (as seen from entryway)

Living room looking into hallway

Sunroom
Sunroom
Stairwell

Here is the video we took of the downstairs on You Tube. The house had all the blinds closed. They were a bit pokey so we had to just leave them be and unfortunately video filmed on a photo camera aren't the clearest. But I think you get the basic idea of the lay out.

1108 4th Street

2008-05-18T15:32:00.003-05:00

This house is incredibly cheap for 5 bedrooms, but when you see it in person you will understand why.

It's
A
STATE!!!

There's cr*p everywhere. There's mold growing on the carpets. There is a homeless guy living in one of the rooms. Under the house are some stray cats. The plants are growing through cracks in the roof and windows. Someone wiped their bum on a wall and is peeing in a bucket in one of the rooms. Now you can imagine in the Texas heat how the house smells. UGH!!

It's ridiculously cheap, but it's WAY more work than we can do. We'd be unable to live in it for at least a month or two while we bring it back to habitable standards. Ideal for a flipper. Our agent suggested an offer of $40-50,000 and she said he'd probably accept it. Tempting, but ugh... we want a fixer... we don't want a demolish and start over-er.

Here are the two pics and video I took.

213 Commerce

2008-05-18T10:56:00.006-05:00

This was the first house we looked at yesterday. It appears from the front to be teeny tiny, but inside it's really quite big. Although the owner could do with some de-cluttering and you know... small things like picking up the piles of laundry everywhere and packing groceries into cupboards. A run through with a broom wouldn't go amiss either.

Here are some of the pics of the outside, as well as the You Tube video showing the inside. It's very dark as the windows were covered over with tin foil. But you get the idea.

House Viewing

2008-05-16T23:12:00.001-05:00

We're going to view 4 houses tomorrow. Here's the list with links to their slideshows -- if any.

500 Lucas (our favorite)
4 bed, 2 bath, 2,083 sq ft

409 Johnson (Tenant has asked us not to take pictures of his possessions ?!?!?!?)
3 bed, 1 bath, 1,008 sq ft - Just reduced by $10,000

213 Commerce
3 bed, 1 bath, 1,426 sq ft

1108 4th Street (No slideshow, but here's a picture)
5 bed, 2 bath, 1,456 sq ft

210 Commerce (Can't view this one, tenant's child has strep throat)
3 bed, 1.5 bath, 1,606 sq ft

We're most excited about 500 Lucas, but we want to give the others a fair shake as well. We'll see how it goes...

More Mortgage Issues

2008-05-16T22:06:00.001-05:00

Argh! Wouldn't you know it... It seems we didn't wait long enough. Our second mortgage advisor got back to us today to let us know that Peter still doesn't have a credit score, and that mine seems to have slipped in the last 6 months. It's still good, it's just not excellent as it was in November. We MUST have co-signers if we are to get a mortgage. So now on to plan B. This time, however, we are prepared. if plan B fails we still have plans C and D to fall back on... they're desperate... but we WANT a home now.

Mortgage Misery, Part Deux

2008-05-05T21:23:00.002-05:00

We had a call back from the mortgage broker today. I laid all our cards on the table so we could get his honest, straightforward opinion on whether he feels that we are ready to apply again.
Basically, his feedback was that we are silly to only apply for a mortgage now that P works from home -- we should have done it while he still had a full time job or else, I should consider paying him a wage every week to help us with the application.

He also said that while my writing many things off as business expenses (I seriously didn't write off anything that WASn't business related, I'm too honest to mess with that stuff), but because it looks like we really didn't make much money last year... this will count against us when we go to apply.

Also, because the conditions will only be removed from my visa in June, he suggests that we wait until June before we apply.

He also advised that we start the application process for those additional first time home buyer loans in the mean while so that we know what figure we need to aim for when June rolls around.

He said that IF both P and I have credit scores of 740 and up each we may just squeak through with an approval. Now... do we apply for every single one of the credit cards we receive offers for each week (8+) and build up a serious credit rating? Or do we just stick with what we've got and spend a whole lot through the card and then pay a whole lot through the card? Last time we applied for a mortgage I had a great rating. I was just under 740 which isn't bad for someone who only got their first credit card last year huh? Too bad it didn't count at the time... but this time... THIS time it will count! Well... provided I get the new green card in time.

It just kills me that we have to stress out this much about getting a mortgage and yet we are paying WAY more than our potential mortgage would be in rent every month... throwing money down the drain. Argh!!

Mortgage Misery

2008-05-03T18:48:00.005-05:00

We've decided how we're going to fund the house purchase... there are some first time home-buyers assistance programs as well as incentive programs offered by Matagorda County to encourage young people to move to the area. These additional programs will make this whole process much easier on our wallets, but pretty difficult for our mortgage broker.

We have decided to ask around this time and get recommendations before we just go with someone. Last time we were burned with an awful guy first, followed by one who definitely kept us in the loop, but honestly he wasn't interested in helping us fund our low-income house and wasn't prepared to spend too much time on it at all.

This time we want to find someone with the following:

1) Experience working with FHA loans
2) Experience working with additional funding sources
3) Experience working on securing funding where one of the parties is not a citizen
4) REALLY want to get people into homes,
5) Not just worried about what his commission is worth.
6) Keeps you informed of what's going on with the applications

Our realtor doesn't have anyone that meets these requirements, but someone in her office recommended someone who worked with her on a recent sale involving all kinds of government aid as well as an FHA loan so we've given him a call. Of course, we called him on Friday morning and haven't heard back from him yet.... NOT a good sign.

Oh well, we will continue our search next week and see how it goes from there.

Just Can't Stop

2008-05-03T00:48:00.005-05:00

Seriously, I am unstoppable... Here's another poorly Photoshopped side by side of the upstairs bathroom re-do. (The existing bathroom is so hideous I could cry!)

Is this green too green? What do you think?

Decor Dilemmas

2008-05-02T15:43:00.008-05:00

Yes, that's right... I can't help myself... I am already dreaming up fun things we could do with the Lucas house. I've been photoshopping (badly) some of the few pics we managed to pull from the slideshow to keep me busy until May 17th (this date may need to change -- we just received word that my permanent residence interview is scheduled for the 15th in San Antonio so we'll either make it a longer trip, or we'll go to Palacios next weekend <-- bet you can tell which one I am rooting for huh?

Just look at the before and afters for the kitchen/dining area. (My photoshop version is not yet complete... but you get the idea of where I am headed with it, non?)

OK. Those hideous cabinets will make way for a swank kitchen bar. Because there are no real windows to the outside in this room, I would like to make it as open plan as possible, without sacrificing cabinet space in the kitchen. For the floor I would extend the dark stained bamboo from the kitchen right through (the whole house if I had the $$) and I would add white trim around the windows and doors, and beef up the skirting boards to something thicker. (I detest shrimpy skirtings). It's amazing what incredible things a crisp white trim and ceiling can do for a room. I would obviously replace the light fixtures with something more up to date. And lastly adding some recessed lighting across the ceiling and some pendants over the soon-to-be breakfast bar will bring this room into the 21st century and make it a great room!

Any one have any other suggestions?

Please don't laugh at my awful Photoshop skills!!

Upon Further Research...

2008-05-02T14:27:00.007-05:00

We got home and raced to check both "Lucas" and "Johnson" out. We found slideshows online and pored over them one by one. Again, Ros preferred Johnson.

Click on the picture of each house below to be taken to the -- slightly dodgy -- slideshows.

500 Lucas

409 Johnson

We researched the Palacios ISD, the Palacios civic data, town history, future developments, financial assistance for first time home buyers and we actually got a kick out of being such grown-ups. We now know things like -- what is expected behavior at Palacios schools, what are the class sizes, what is the town's median income, what is the town's population, what sorts of property developments are planned in the future that could affect our property value negatively or positively and last but by no means least what kind of aid programs are out there that will make our first home purchase easier and less daunting financially.

Over all, we're happy with all of these areas of research. This is the right place for us to raise our family, and a great place for us to invest our money -- long-term. Most of all, we just love that the town is small enough for now that we will be able to make a mark on it. People are so friendly and welcoming that we cannot wait to make new friends in the area and really start living the sea-side life. (We're even thinking of buying a boat some day... we'll keep you posted, it's going to be a while...)

We finally got to the point where we wanted to share pics of the houses with family and friends. Ros posted them on her blog, Peter talked family through the slideshows online. Everyone was enchanted with the small town look and feel of Palacios, but it seemed that everyone had conflicting opinions on which house looked best.

For the most part, feedback was pretty tough. They're old houses, they need a lot of work.. we realize that.. but in exchange for a little sweat, we would be getting a brilliant house, in a great town that we can potentially live in forever. In the end, the "realists" agreed with Ros about 409 Johnson looking like a more solid investment, while the "dreamers" took one look at the red door on 500 Lucas and were as smitten as Peter was.

Ros' mom made one comment that really struck a chord with Ros, "Get the most house you can for the money." <-- now, what she meant by that was, by the nicest, most put together house you can afford on your miniature budget... but what Ros heard was, "Take another look at that big one... you KNOW you love the red door."

So she promptly did. Here's what she thought... The Johnson house is move-in ready and -- while it could use, new paint, new carpets and new fixtures in some rooms... for the most part it's cute and ready for action.

The Lucas house is a wreck... it needs a lot of work, but dammit won't it look incredible when you're done with it? Lucas is the house we can really make our mark on. Johnson is already "marked" with someone else's taste.

The Johnson house has just enough bedrooms for us to squeak by with an office and a bedroom for a baby if we get that far in the next couple of years. But once we're dealing with a toddler it will be time to move again.

The Lucas house is more house than we will need for a while, but it could easily accommodate two adults and potentially two teenage boys if needs be. It won't be overly spacious, but it will do.

The Johnson house has a room for a guest, or couple to stay over with us. With Palacios being a vacation town we are hoping that family and friends will all come through at some point and stay a while with us.

The Lucas house has enough room for a couple of guests to stay a night or two. In fact... with a day bed in the sun room, we could probably accommodate 3 or 4 couples and or a bunch of kids.

The Johnson house is more "modern" and in fact because of it's layout Peter refers to it as "the mobile home house" because the layout resembles a mobile home to him.

Lucas on the other hand has so much character it hurts. Ros can't stop thinking about how great it will be to peel back those wallpaper layers, rip up that carpet to see what lies beneath, replace the 1980's light fixtures and fans, and completely and utterly demolish every inch of that kitchen and start anew.

At the end of the day we know we aren't handy people -- well, we wouldn't really know even if we were... we've never challenged ourselves in such a big way. But we like the challenge of Lucas at this point, so we're going to go for it!! (Well, after we've actually seen the inside in person that is... *blush!*) We're scheduling viewings with Sheila for May 17th and we are starting the search for the perfect mortgage guy to help us with funding.

Meeting Sheila (and the first home contenders)

2008-05-02T13:04:00.008-05:00

Our trip to Palacios was a short one unfortunately. We got to town at around 11am and drove the town center end to end, popping down a few side roads to see what we could find. We stopped at the Outrigger Restaurant where we chatted with the waitress -- who instantly identified us as "out-of-towners" and asked us how we liked Palacios.

After chatting with her about everything from the school system, to housing, to how she -- as a transplant from Montana -- liked the town. She raved about it, telling us about the great activities for kids, music events, outdoorsy things for people to do. One thing she did mention as negatives were that there's only one grocery store nearby and it's closing soon for renovations, and there aren't a whole lot of young people.

We left the restaurant and took a walk down one of the piers into the bay to see how the town looked from the water. TOOO cute!! Seriously wish we could afford one of those water facing properties... they aren't actually too pricey for what you're getting, but unfortunately, they're a little above our budget.

After our trip out on the pier we stopped by the only realtor's office we had managed to locate online. There was only one lady in the office (odd for a Friday at lunchtime I thought), but she was so warm and welcoming you'd have thought there were three of her.
Sheila Valcik of Re/Max Coastal Properties [Now Full Stringer Realty] was definitely the realtor for us.

She took the time to talk to us about the area. She discussed the school system, the community, her experiences being born and raised there. She also took the time to give her husband a call to chat with me about the internet service options that are available in the area. She handed us a pamphlet with their active listings, and a map to guide us around town. She showed us slideshows of various properties online and talked about some of her newer listings.

Before we knew it, we'd been in there for about 40 minutes and could easily have stayed another 40 with pleasure. But there were houses to be seen and pictures to be taken, so we set off map in one hand, listings sheet in the other and camera... uhm... in another set of hands...

Our drive around town brought two clear favorites.
500 Lucas (Peter's fave), 409 Johnson (Ros' fave). Here are the stats.

500 Lucas

Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Misc: Sun Room, 2 Storey (sp?), 1940
SQ FT: 2,083
Lot Size: 75' x 150'
Price*: 95%
(*Relative to our budget limit)

409 Johnson

Beds: 3
Baths: 1
Misc: Screened Porch, 1960
SQ FT: 1,008
Lot Size: 100' x 150'
Price*: 80%
(*Relative to our budget limit)

We each immediately picked a favorite (based solely on the exterior).
Peter chose "Lucas" because it has lot's of rooms and he thinks it would be excellent to have rooms we don't use much. He loves the look of the building as it's similar to homes in Buffalo and Kent that he saw growing up. It's a block or so closer to the bayfront than the other. He liked the thought of having a larger home so we wouldn't need to move for a long time.

Ros chose "Johnson" because the exterior is freshly painted with new-ish roof tiles and a well maintained yard. The yard is big. It is one block away from the only Elementary school in town and would be convenient when we have kids. It is a single storey (sp?) home so no lugging laundry baskets up and down stairs. It has just the right number of bedrooms and no unnecessary rooms that need cleaning.

After checking out some other more "desperate Dan" houses in the area we headed home to upload and review the pictures we had taken.

Next we will show you some inside shots of these places, and how more thought and research changed our minds a bit.

Palacios Pictoral

2008-05-01T21:35:00.011-05:00

1. P1050582, 2. P1050577, 3. P1050564, 4. P1050557, 5. P1050560, 6. P1050561, 7. P1050553, 8. P1050552, 9. P1050573, 10. P1050547, 11. P1050588, 12. P1050592, 13. P1050565, 14. P1050578, 15. P1050587, 16. P1050590, 17. P1050560, 18. P1050584, 19. P1050588, 20. P1050586, 21. P1050580, 22. P1050554, 23. P1050556, 24. P1050567, 25. P1050570, 26. P1050591, 27. P1050562, 28. P1050555, 29. P1050550, 30. P1050545, 31. Back, 32. P1050544, 33. P1050575, 34. P1050543, 35. P1050548, 36. P1050549

Click on the mosaic tiles above to see larger pictures, or on the corresponding picture number to view it in Flickr.

Let's Start at The Very Beginning...

2008-05-01T20:28:00.006-05:00

A very good place to start, indeed.

We've always agreed that one day, our ultimate dream is to buy a home near the sea -- any sea... for that matter ANY large body of water would do. A few weeks ago, out of interest, Peter enlisted the help of our old friend Google, (we call him "G"), and used the maps to scour the Gulf coast searching for little po'dunk towns that may possibly be affordable places for us to live, (even if we couldn't afford to buy a home of our own).

Peter hit paydirt in March when he discovered Palacios and took a cruise through some local real estate sites, and discovered that... hang on... that is TOTALLY do-able! We can afford that house! He called me over to look at some of the properties he had found and I believe my first words were, "OMG that house is the cutest! That price can't be right? What's wrong with it?"

So Ros jumped on the phone -- doing what she does best -- and called the realtor's office to get more info. Nope she said, nothing major wrong... it could use some updating, but otherwise it's in good nick.

Now... we have been planning a trip down to Houston since January because Peter bought us tickets to see In Flames so we decided to swing through Palacios on our way home.

We think our pics from the trip deserve their own entry, so Ros will post those next.

Thanks for stopping by,