Movin' on Up

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...

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

Progress Report

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

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.