JP and I finally took the plunge and purchased our first house. We initially started looking in 2009 but due to JP being laid off from Alabama Adventure we put our house search on hold. Prior to the lay off we had been looking for about 6 months and nothing seemed to work out. We initially put an offer on this house in Spring 2009. JP absolutely loved this house and labeled it "the barn."
Our offer wasn't the highest but we learned an important lesson. In a foreclosure situation, bidding slightly over the asking price can be beneficial. JP to this day is sad that he didn't get his "first love" and still gets upset when the word "barn" is said.
Moving forward to Spring 2011 we decided to start the house search again. After the first search we completely expected a long drawn out process. The first day we looked at three houses and the third house we decided to put an offer on. Again it was a foreclosure situation with several offers. We learned from our first experience and bid slightly over the asking price. This time we came out on top!
After what seemed like a million phone calls and problems dealt with, we finally closed on July 8.
Here is where I will document what everything looked like on day one. Hopefully, you will follow along as things are changed, and trust me there will be a lot of changes!
The Kitchen
This is what really initially attracted us to the house. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen with both of us enjoying to cook. A kitchen with plenty of room was a top priority and something that wasn't as easy to find as we thought it would be, so we new we had to check this place out when we saw the listing. Note: Because this house was a foreclosure there was no stove or refrigerator (in case you couldn't figure out what was missing).
If you look in the bottom left hand corner you can see the start of a countertop. That is the start of the counter space picture below. The previous owner took out the mini fridge, wine cooler, and ice maker. We have no plans of replacing those, but have some other ideas for that space.
The Den (or the Wood Paneled Room)
This room has been deemed JP's room. Initially,thought, it was deemed the "lets stack all our stuff in here until we move it to where it belongs" room. It is connect directly to the kitchen, as you can see in the picture above.
The Dining Room
The dining room is right off of the kitchen, with the door being next to the refrigerator. Wood floors were on our want list so we were pleased to find wood flooring throughout the main living space with tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. No carpet! Another plus of the house are the white plantation shutters. As you can see in the dining room, and will see in other areas of the house, there is a lot of opportunity for natural light in this house, which we love to take advantage of.
The Living Room
The Living Room is located across the hall from the dining room. The hall that separates them is the front entry hall. Although you can not see it from these pictures, I will take this time to point out what terrible shape the previous owners left the walls in. The living room is probably the worst! There are all kinds of holes and marks. In the kitchen, it is evident that one area of the wall was used a dart board- no joke. Fortunately though nothing a can of spackle and a good coat of paint can't fix!
Bedroom 1: The Master Bedroom
Unfortunately I did not take a before picture of the Master Bedroom, but that is ok because it looks pretty much like the other bedrooms, just bigger. It does have a small walk-in closet. By no means is it as big as the one we had at our apartment, however, it is much bigger than most of the houses we looked at.
The Master Bath
Although the Master Bath is quite small for a master bath, it is well done. The shower is very nice, although quite moldy and mildewy on move in day. No worries, that has been taken care of, as well as the drain that would not drain- both thanks to James Peter the handy man!
Bedroom 2: Guest Bedroom
The bedroom we decided to be the guest bedroom is the one on the corner of the house with windows on two walls and two closets. As you can tell, the previous owners kept most of the rooms a "might as well be white" color.
Bedroom 3: Office
The third bedroom has been designated the office. Unlike the second bedroom it only has windows on one wall since it is an interior room and one closet. Again we started with a very white like color. This also gives you a look at the ceiling fans that are in each room. Those will eventually be replaced, although not a top priority.
Guest Bathroom
This is currently my favorite room. Weird? Maybe until you know why it is my favorite. On move in it looked as if the grout between the tile was a dark gray. You can't really tell from this picture, but trust me.
However, after a mop I realized that the grout was in fact a very light almost white color. But the only way to efficiently get it clean was to get on my hands and knees using a tile brush to clean each inch of grout. I used baking soda (more on the power of baking soda later), and it really worked. I love looking at that tile now after all my hard work!
The Laundry
Off the hallway that leads to the bedrooms is a laundry closet. Although it is not my dream laundry room, it is much better than having the laundry in the garage like it was in JP's beloved barn.
The Garage
One thing we really liked about this house was the fact it had a garage which a lot of houses we looked at did not have. Not only did it have a garage but a two car garage. Between the two car spots is a workshop. The garage doors were not probably functioning on move in but JP has fixed them both!
So that is what we are starting with. We have done some work but trust me we have a lot we want to do. We want to paint all the rooms- mainly because of the holes and marks previously mentioned. There are a lot of little things that need to be fixed. As far as furniture we are pretty much starting from scratch with a desire to replace everything that we have since most of it is from college.
We have already been quite productive. Two rooms have been painted. We have purchased a fridge, but are still deciding on a stove. It is MUCH easier to live without a stove than a fridge. The grill, crockpot, toaster oven, and microwave come in handy.
Every inch of this place has been cleaned... and let me just say that Danny Tanner* did NOT live here previously, and I learned the power of baking soda.
Kitchen Cabinet Shelve BEFORE Baking Soda
Kitchen Cabinet Shelve AFTER Baking Soda
And finally, to keep this blog real, this is the current condition of our guest bedroom shower knob. When we purchased the house the master bath was missing one of the knobs. We thought we would take one off of the guest bath and put it on the master since they were the same knob. Well, it didn't work and actually broke the one we took off. So this is how you turn on the hot water in the guest bath. The master bath you turn on with pliers. We still need to get knobs!
Stayed tuned for more progress and ideas.
*Protagonist on 90s show Full House. Much of the humor surrounding Danny's character comes from his obsession with cleaning and cleanliness.
