I bought a house too! (well, almost)

[Roland98]

(And I'm selling one too. From 500 miles away. Beat that, Sock and TomJoe).

So, not quite as exciting as TomJoe's house. First, it's not my first home purchase, it's my third (crap, am I old). Second, it needs a decent amount of cosmetic work. Nothing big structurally or system-wise as far as I know (inspection should be done sometime in the next week or so to be sure), but it has some really hideous carpet/flooring and paint and stuff on the inside, and needs some gutter fixage/cleaning and shutter painting on the outside (and the yard needs raked). But since moving out the house I was renting with my ex-husband, I've been living in a very tiny 1BR house (with my two kids and two dogs), so I'm incredibly psyched to be getting out of here and into a new place of my very own.

It has some nice features, too. It's close to the kids' school, the library, the park; it has an extra room out in one of the (two!) garages that's almost finished and could serve as a guest suite, workout room, or library; it has a nice yard with big pines and some landscaping already done; and the furnace and electrical are both pretty new.

So, yay! If all goes well, I'll close on it early next month. PV's coming out here in a few weeks to check it out as well, since he'll likely get roped into helping with some remodeling and moving stuff. (I loooove you, baby....)

Front of the house:



Part of the side yard:



Yay!

[Julie]

Ohhhh thats cute!

You must be relieved to be getting into something proper sized!

[Prince Vegita]

Congratulations, baby. You deserve it. Maybe someday....

[Shelli]

[viscousmemories]

Great news! Congratulations, Ro.

[livius drusus]

How pretty! I love the small windows on the second floor. My parents' house has little half-windows like that only they're about knee-level 'cause the second floor is way shorter than the first.

Your kids must be as excited as you are to get out of the cramped apartment.

[godfry n. glad]

I can just feel the debt!


(That is a debt, isn't it?)

[biochemgirl]

It's very cute!

Congratulations! Now let the work begin

[Sauron]

More pictures, please.

Then we can all participate in the renovation and interior design fun!

[Roland98]

First--godfry, definitely a debt.

Originally Posted by Sauron

More pictures, please.

Then we can all participate in the renovation and interior design fun!

Well, gee, if you insist...(don't be scared by teh ugly! Both of my other houses were also pretty ugly when I got 'em and I fixed them up cheap).

First, the kitchen:





Needs a fridge; it goes off to the right where the pictures dont' show. The wallpaper is going to go, though I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with the walls. The cupboards are at least going to be repainted (and potentially replaced at a later date, but not now). Thinking about doing laminate through the kitchen and into the bedroom you can see in the back (with the hideous wine carpet).

Next, bedroom off the kitchen:



Carpet is gonna go, and again, we'll likely do something through the kitchen and into this bedroom (and potentially the bathroom and living room as well). First step is to see if there's any hardwood under the carpet in the kitchen/living room (the bedroom was a newer addition, so it's unlikely to have this). Not sure yet what I'm gonna do with the walls; again, the wallpaper/border is gonna go, but haven't figured out what I want to do beyond that.

Bathroom:



Same deal with the flooring and wallpaper--both are gonna go. Not sure what I'm going to do yet with the cupboards in there.

Living room:



Needs paint. The carpet is in OK shape, but again, we might just do the same flooring throughout the whole downstairs.

I hate the ceiling fans too, but those will probably stay for at least awhile.

The upstairs bedrooms (these will be the kids'):





Again, both will be painted or something. Carpet is in pretty good shape even though the green is hideously ugly. Might replace that if I can find something cheap; otherwise, it can stay for now. (That will be Zavier's room, and I'm sure he'll probably destroy whatever carpet I put in there anyway). Haven't decided on color schemes for either of those yet.

Spare room in the garage:



Again, needs finished, not sure what it's going to be yet. Has electric but not heat as of right now.

Feel free to give suggestions! I can keep this an ongoing thread as we get the house (closing is tentatively set for Feb. 8th) and start fixing stuff up.

[godfry n. glad]

Wow... Look at that wouldya? A house that's not filled with stacks of clothing, books, papers, chatzkis, and the detritus of everyday life.

We could provide examples of what we have...I'm sure I've got the tour of Ravenswood (aka 'casa glad') in digital pix. Then I could regale you with stories of terror, tedium and home renovation. Home remodelling on the cheap was one of Ivy's favorite pastimes.

[Roland98]

Originally Posted by godfry n. glad

Wow... Look at that wouldya? A house that's not filled with stacks of clothing, books, papers, chatzkis, and the detritus of everyday life.

We could provide examples of what we have...I'm sure I've got the tour of Ravenswood (aka 'casa glad') in digital pix. Then I could regale you with stories of terror, tedium and home renovation. Home remodelling on the cheap was one of Ivy's favorite pastimes.

Feel free! Like I said, I've done this for 2 houses now already, but now I'm kinda worried I'm gonna run out of ideas and just recycle everything I did before. New ideas are always appreciated, and I'm all about the cheap.

Liv--yeah, I don't know what the attraction was to those colors. I think the kids will be excited about their rooms; now that they're old enough, I'll probably recruit them to pick out some decorations or at least have some input into how they want their rooms to look too. And they'll each have a set of bunkbeds in there for friends to stay.

Sauron--hell yeah, all the wallpaper is going, including the borders. Not very much into flowery kitsch.

Not sure what the counters are made of yet, but they'll likely have to stay (for now, at least) unless we can find something decent but not too expensive.

As far as the carpet in the downstairs bedroom, it wouldn't fit in Zav's room, because Zav's room is long and skinny while the downstairs one is square. We might be able to use the living room carpet for somewhere upstairs, though, especially if we find there's hardwood underneath and tear it up. The spare garage room is carpeted, but it's kind of that thin, almost industrial carpet. Probably will leave that for right now, and it's larger than the bedroom so the wine won't fit in there either.

Having the same flooring would pull the kitchen, dining, and living rooms together and make them feel bigger.

Yep, that's my thought too. I'd love, love, love to have wood floors throughout, but unless there's already hardwood underneath, it ain't gonna happen because I just don't have the cash right now. We put wood laminate in my first house (second house did have hardwood, so we removed the carpet and restored that), and both ended up looking pretty darn good. Prefer the real wood, but the laminate would still look a lot better than what's there now. Tile I like too and we tiled our last kitchen and bathroom, but IMO this area is too large and it would be too expensive and too much of a pain--plus walking on tile is damn cold in the winter. (I know, you can heat it, but that also ain't cheap).

The bathroom is indeed in pretty good shape (and that's the solo bathroom).

For the spare room, I have a *lot* of books, and don't have any room in the house designated yet as an office, so I was thinking about using it as a library/office. Could even just get a loveseat sleeper sofa for it and use it as a library/office/guest bedroom, only problem would be that there's not a bathroom out there and it's about 20 feet from the main house.

Storage shouldn't be an issue. Closet space is pretty limited in the house (which is typical of a house this age), but there's a 2-car garage with "attic" space above most of it, so I'll probably use that for storage. There's also space in the small garage outside of the finished room that could be used for storage or finished off for something else, and there's a partial basement but it's not finished. Didn't see any dampness, though, so anything non-essential (or waterproof, just in case) could also go down there.

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by Roland98

First--godfry, definitely a debt.

Well, gee, if you insist...(don't be scared by teh ugly! Both of my other houses were also pretty ugly when I got 'em and I fixed them up cheap).

First, the kitchen:





Needs a fridge; it goes off to the right where the pictures dont' show. The wallpaper is going to go, though I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with the walls.

Thank you. I was afraid that maybe you *liked* the wallpaper, and I was gonna hafta smack you or sumfin'.

As long as you do something *light* with the walls, you should be OK. Since the cupboards are dark, you'll probably want to use the walls to lighten it up. You're getting rid of that floral runner too, right? Right? Cause that just screams "drug store potpourri and Thomas Kincaide", imho.

Why are the counters so green? Is that some kind of Corian or Formica? This guy from HGTV looks like he's working in your kitchen.

The cupboards are at least going to be repainted (and potentially replaced at a later date, but not now). Thinking about doing laminate through the kitchen and into the bedroom you can see in the back (with the hideous wine carpet).

You'll have to get rid of that carpet. But on the bright side, there might be enough for Zavier's room. If you really think he isn't going to care, then recycle it upstairs. Or in the spare garage room.

Next, bedroom off the kitchen:



Carpet is gonna go, and again, we'll likely do something through the kitchen and into this bedroom (and potentially the bathroom and living room as well). First step is to see if there's any hardwood under the carpet in the kitchen/living room (the bedroom was a newer addition, so it's unlikely to have this). Not sure yet what I'm gonna do with the walls; again, the wallpaper/border is gonna go, but haven't figured out what I want to do beyond that.

Those walls have potential. Are they wood? If there aren't wooden floors in the master bedroom, this might be the one room in the house to splurge a little bit and get some. It's a good investment in the home, and tends to help you sell the house later.

Of course, my preference would be for wood floors on the entire first floor, or else tile. Having the same flooring would pull the kitchen, dining, and living rooms together and make them feel bigger. Depends upon your budget, though. And also where you live - wood floors are harder to keep clean in some parts of the country; tile is easier in some places.

Bathroom:



Same deal with the flooring and wallpaper--both are gonna go. Not sure what I'm going to do yet with the cupboards in there.

Bathroom looks in good shape. Is that the general bath, or the master bathroom?

Living room:



Needs paint. The carpet is in OK shape, but again, we might just do the same flooring throughout the whole downstairs.

I hate the ceiling fans too, but those will probably stay for at least awhile.

The upstairs bedrooms (these will be the kids'):





Again, both will be painted. Carpet is in pretty good shape even though the green is hideously ugly. Might replace that if I can find something cheap; otherwise, it can stay for now. (That will be Zavier's room, and I'm sure he'll probably destroy whatever carpet I put in there anyway). Haven't decided on color schemes for either of those yet.

Spare room in the garage:



Again, needs finished, not sure what it's going to be yet. Has electric but not heat as of right now.

Feel free to give suggestions! I can keep this an ongoing thread as we get the house (closing is tentatively set for Feb. 8th) and start fixing stuff up.

Do you need the space for anything? A home office? A pantry? Place for the kids to play? Library for books? Extra storage? Mother-in-law room? Wine storage?

It's a great thing to have an unfinished room like that; huge plus for you, and especially on the resale value.

[livius drusus]

Oh man, those green and wine carpets are very reminscent of an office I worked in once. I think they were popular designer choices not too long ago.

The space is great, especially the kids rooms with their cool ceilings.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Congrats, sweetie!

[ms_ann_thrope]

Congrats, Roland98! I'm sure you will have much fun making everything just perfect!

[California Tanker]

<sigh>

For the sake of a daft qestion, where is it?

I need to earn craploads more money so that I can buy a place somewhere.
Maybe somewhere near Reno... Don't need much. Just a couple of acres, and a safe.

NTM

[Roland98]

Oh yeah, I forget sometimes that not everyone knows where I live. Small town in Iowa, between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. And thanks, C-C and ms_ann.

[Shake]

Originally Posted by Roland98

Oh yeah, I forget sometimes that not everyone knows where I live. Small town in Iowa, between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. And thanks, C-C and ms_ann.

Ahh, you read my mind. I was gonna ask whereabouts that was. Congrats, Ro! Very happy for you! I bet the kids will love it!

[Petra]

Wow, nice place! Congrats!

I agree with the decor having to change, but love those old bathroom cabinets - they'd look great with that distressed painted look - like French provincialish, if you know what I mean (sorry, I'm no decorator - I know what I mean, but buggered if I can explain it in decorator terms too well).

How's the gardens and outdoorsy stuff? Got much land?

[Roland98]

Originally Posted by pepperspray

Wow, nice place! Congrats!

I agree with the decor having to change, but love those old bathroom cabinets - they'd look great with that distressed painted look - like French provincialish, if you know what I mean (sorry, I'm no decorator - I know what I mean, but buggered if I can explain it in decorator terms too well).

Thanks! Don't know what you mean, though--can you point me to any pics maybe?

How's the gardens and outdoorsy stuff? Got much land?

It's in town so not any acreage. The lot is, I think, about 60 x 120 feet, so room for the kids and dogs to run around, and for the kids' swingset and stuff. Not too bad. Hard to tell about the landscaping right now; they obviously have some things growing but being winter and all, I'm not sure what it all is. I'm much more into just flower gardens than vegetables or anything like that, so I'll probably see what pops up the first spring/summer and then rip em out if I don't like them.

[Petra]

[QUOTE=Roland98;337325Thanks! Don't know what you mean, though--can you point me to any pics maybe? [/quote]

Hmmm...bear with me - I'm trying to find pics that show what I mean - most pics I've seen so far don't really show it very well.

It's in town so not any acreage. The lot is, I think, about 60 x 120 feet, so room for the kids and dogs to run around, and for the kids' swingset and stuff. Not too bad. Hard to tell about the landscaping right now; they obviously have some things growing but being winter and all, I'm not sure what it all is. I'm much more into just flower gardens than vegetables or anything like that, so I'll probably see what pops up the first spring/summer and then rip em out if I don't like them.

Ooops, I forgot it was winter over there. Not really much point in thinking about gardens or outdoorsy areas during winter.

[Petra]

Here's a website that goes into the different wood finishings a bit, but I still can't find pics that acurately show just what I mean, but this should give you some idea.

http://www.generalfinishes.com/tips/...tm#Distressing

ETA: Here's another: http://www.unfinishedfurniture.org/ce_dec_finishes.html

[Prince Vegita]

I know what you mean, I'll pass it on. Good idea.

[pescifish]

Looks like a great place, Roland98!