Try on a Floor

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

*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!

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

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

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

Master Bedroom
Master Bedroom
Master bedroom

500 Lucas Downstairs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!