First Weekend in the New House

Phew, this was a long weekend. I think we got a lot accomplished, but it's increasingly evident that we have a lot of projects and a lot of work ahead of us. The funny thing is that this house was pretty move in ready - at least compared to many of the others we looked at. Now, that's a little scary!

I also came across the rest of the pictures from the MLS listing before we bought it. Let me post those now, they are good for "before" and "after" comparisons.

Living Room:



Dining Room:


Self explanatory, but here's the kitchen:


I don't know why they showed a microwave and dishwasher in the photos of the kitchen, because there wasn't one! There were NO appliances in this house. Anyone else noticing a theme with the color (or lack thereof)? This muted beige color is throughout the entire house...walls, trim and even the ceilings. I HATE this color - it will be one of the first things to go!

Friday we cleaned the house from top to bottom. After about 8 trips to Home Depot, Lowes and Wal-mart (welcome to home ownership, I know) we started to get organized. One exciting thing was that we ordered all of our appliances. Some were in stock, some were deliverd on Saturday.

After giving precise measurements for the basement door to the Lowes employee and asking for the smallest washer and dryer available to get through the narrow old doorway, we were assured there would be no issue getting the machines into the basement. I wasn't so sure, but after asking about 3 times if he was "sure" and getting reassured each and every time, I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt. Too bad, the machines were still too big and we had to pry off (and break) the 100 year old molding from around the basement stairs to get the washer through the doorway. (I knew they wouldn't fit!! Next time, I'm going to make sure they listen to me.) So, now we have an extra project; fix the molding around the basement door. Hmm, that's looking pretty low on the priority list.

We did a lot though:

Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned
Started stripping the paint off the front porch
Cleared out all the leaves and debris from the backyard
Gardening/Picked weeds
Put down some grass seed
Tested out the washer and dryer
Cleaned the bricks on the fireplace
Unloaded a big truck of only about half of our stuff
Slept on an air mattress for the first time (not fun - worse than camping)
Cleaned out the shed
Found an awesome sandwich joint

Hmm, for some reason that doesn't look like a whole lot, but I swear we were non-stop and my legs are super sore from climbing all those stair stairs!