Making progress, slowly but surely

A few weeks since the official closing date and we have made some great progress on the house. Working backwards from last night's festivities... We got the computers back online in the new office. It was a scramble to get the room painted as both Deborah and I were going into comfortable workspace withdrawl. Now we can work in style. Pictures coming soon. Although the room is almost complete, there still is some work to be done. I plan on hanging the cabinets tonight and cleaning up some wiring, as well as installing the tv and the TiVo.

The girls' room is almost complete, just needing the new bunk beds to arrive (early next year) and to do some paint touchups and cleanup the hardwood floor.

The living room, dining room and our bedroom are all in ok shape now, although they still need their respective updating. The Christmas tree is up, making it feel more like home.

Once the office is done, I hope to get to 2 more projects... The playroom which will be a big one, and the master bathroom repairs (just enough to make it useable for the next 2 years, until we have the money to gut it and start over.)

More to come, but for now the holidays are coming, so best wishes to all and I will continue this and perhaps post some pictures on Flickr after Christmas is over.

Down to the wire

Two days left before the movers take our furniture over to the new house. Still to be finished are the girls' room, and the office. The entertainment center and the office at the old house still need to be disassembled as well.

There just isn't enough time in the day.

Hopefully the rest of the week will go along without a hitch and the closing on the old place will still happen on Friday as planned. Once we get there, the only worries we have are in the new place! It will be nice to not have to shuttle back and forth between the two houses and just crawl upstairs to bed when I am done working for the night!

Photos!

Here's a link to my Flickr page where you can browse photos of the house in all its renovation glory!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/373hcd/

The move, part 1

So we moved our boxes in today. And a whole lot of the outdoor stuff as well. The house (old one) seems a lot bigger now. And that is with our furniture here, which we will have moved on Wednesday.

For tonight, I called it quits early. I have been doing the night time work for the past week and decided to hand it off tonight. I won't have anyone working with me tomorrow so I have to be ready to go, including running up on the roof to repair where I removed the chimney from that awful wood burning stove I gave away. Thank goodness for Craigslist.

So things are coming along at the new place. Time is running out quickly and we are nowhere near completion of most of the projects we started. The girls' bedroom and the office are priorities now. I will work on both of them tomorrow. Then it is on to the shower in the master bath and then the playroom.

Signing off for the night. Back soon for updates, and if I feel adventurous, some new photos.

Work continues

So far we have done a ton of demo on the house. Here's what we have already accomplished:

1. All baseboards were replaced by the oil company this week.

2. The closet in the downstairs bedroom was ripped out to make room for our desks... The room will be our office.

3. The playroom was practically gutted. Half walls were ripped out, the stupid benches the previous owners had built (apparently to culture mold and absorb smells), flooring ripped up.

4. The girls' room is almost done. Just a little more trim work, touch-ups and installing the chandelier.

5. Started ripping apart the master bedroom shower stall. Need to replace the bottom of the walls since they are rotting out. Also need to replace the floor in there.

6. Removed all the old hardware on the kitchen cabinets and cleaned them all. Started to replace all of the old hardware.

7. Cleaning. LOTS of cleaning. The place was disgusting when we moved in. It stunk too. It was a combination of the dogs, the old owners, lack of cleaning and nasty carpets. Smell is going away quickly.

8. Chimney repairs were started. They will be finished this weekend.

What needs to get done:

1. The girls' bedroom needs to be finished first.

2. The office needs to be completed.

3. Our bathroom shower needs to be repaired.

4. The playroom needs to be rebuilt.

5. Wallpaper stripped in our bedroom and the walls painted.

6. Carpets shampooed.

And much more. Stay tuned!

Whoah, slow down!

So the last few days (since Thursday) have flown by. We need time... And lots of it. When you buy a house, you look quickly and make a surface evaluation of what it is going to need to be up to your own personal tastes and standards. It isn't until you get in and start looking under the hood that you realize just what you bought.

Let's go back to closing day which was Thursday. Think they got out then? No. Actually, they weren't out until 8PM Friday night. The movers had to take all their stuff down to "South Jersey" 2 times because the truck was too small. Now it is important to note that the sellers were convinced they were moving to south Jersey. Everyone else said they were moving to Riverdale, which is 5 minutes from here. I admit it IS south of here, but not what one would call south Jersey. And they kept lying about it all day. We believe the whole moving truck breaking down and south Jersey thing was their plan all along. We lost 1.5 good working days in that house because of their crap! They are out now and hope we don't run into them down the road someday.

So back to the house for a second... Yes the house needs a ton of work, but this is something that we are not afraid of. Juggling what gets done when is tricky considering I only have evenings and weekends to work on the place and we are moving our stuff in soon. December 9th, we have a team of close friends helping us move in our boxes and yard equipment, lawn furniture etc... We are having pro movers do the furniture on December 13th, at which time our focus switches to making our soon to be "old house" ready for the people buying it from us.

Figures!

Would anyone be surprised... We closed on the new place, finally! But of course the sellers' moving truck broke down even before it arrived. They won't be out until tomorrow morning. So much for getting work done today.

Murphy didn't buy this house, we did... Why the hell do we have to follow his laws all the time!

Night before the closing

So tomorrow is the walkthrough and the closing. I have visions of this guy directing the movers to load the sofa through the windows, instead of out the door. I wouldn't put it past him... Wonder what, if anything, he will leave behind. Those curtains better be out of there!

Now, it would almost be comical if his worthless 51" projection HDTV was dropped on the way out to the moving truck. I say this because he asked if we wanted to buy the thing for $1000 when I could have gotten the same thing at Walmart on Black Friday for about $500 new. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if he left it behind. It doesn't fit with our plans for the house, but I'm sure we could make it work somehow.

Anyway, I doubt I will get much sleep tonight. I will most likely lay in bed mapping out my day tomorrow, developing my plan of attack. Let's just say this house needs a bit of shock and awe!

The picture on the right is the before shot of what will be the girls' room. They want to share a room together so this will be the first room to be completed. Rugs, gone (hardwood underneath) trim replaced, wallpaper removed and color... LOTS of color. And those doors on the wall in the back corner? Let's just say that's gonna be really cool when I am finished.

Welcome to our new home!

OK. The Millers have moved again. Yes, 4th home, and this one has the most "potential" of the lot! Translation, it's pretty damn ugly. Is it mostly cosmetic? Well, sort-of, but that's once we fix the foundation issues...

What's the plan for the new place? Are we gonna sugar coat this one, or go all out? Blowing out walls seems to be in the cards... Vaulting ceilings, maybe.

This is where it will unfold. The blood, sweat and tears. Jeez! I hope some day I can just sit outside with a beer and enjoy the view.

Over time, I'll fill in the stories of what it took to get here, and where we are going with it. Someone better fill me in first, as I don't even know where to start!