We're newlyweds-ish living in a former bachelor pad, no not The Bachelor Pad, trying to make our house a home. Of course while juggling full time jobs, a business out of state and two not completely sane people AND we just introduced a beautiful baby into the world! It results in a journey, our journey...
So…it’s been just over 2 weeks since we’ve had our keys. There hasn’t been nearly as much progress as I had planned but then again, that’s what happens when you’ve officially spent since that Tuesday trying to clean! I’m going to be totally honest, it’s been rough. The prior owner has caused some problems and words can’t describe the filth that was previously lived in. With the exception of Tuesday night, I’ve steam cleaned and chemically cleaned the tile floors and they’re still not clean, I’m pretty desperate and defeated!! The carpets weren’t much better, one of the rooms was used so regularly to allow the pets to defecate in that the carpet cleaning crew actually declined to clean it and instead gave us some carpet from another job for FREE! Trust me, that’s telling…can you imagine the convo, “So, sorry to inform you but you know how you’re paying us to clean your carpet? Yeah…unfortunately we won’t be cleaning one room and in fact, it’s so bad we will give you some of our left over carpet for free just pay us for the pad.”
We’re super excited about the house but it’s just so exhausting and strangely stressful, especially when you had grand visions of having the whole home ready and unpacked by now. Yeah…we’re crazier than crap I know!
We tackled a few things…
Painted Tenleys room from pink/brown to the gray that was in her room originally. It’s getting back to its old state, once we do I’ll post pictures of the room…
Changed the doors and locks with the SmartKey technology… pretty much we’re obsessed with it, especially since I happen to lose things on a regular basis (my keys are no exception).
Painted the ugly red wall with the yellow in the kitchen (we ultimately will change it but we have plans before we paint the whole kitchen/house)
Yes that is where they painted around the tv they had there…blue tape is permanently affixed at this point! …we’ve even tried sanding it off! And yes, that’s a toilet seat cover we were trying to figure out how to install, classy aren’t we?!
And installed a dog door…twice. Barklei and Zander were squeezing through the dog door like you’d do to stuff sausage into its casing and while they’re technically fitting right now…it was hilarious. However, with dogs that fluctuate in weight as often as Oprah does we had to install a bigger one. By bigger, I’m talking like the next size up…sounds smallish still right?! No. We went from our 14lb dogs squeezing through the dog door to being able to shove my younger sister (who at this point is 23) through. I guess it’s a sign that we clearly need a Labrador. …do you hear me Todd?!
Zander barely fitting through the dog door. He’s the skinny one, Barklei is the fat one so she basically required to be greased up!
And cleaning…lots and lots of cleaning!
As more things happen, like when I cut a huge hole through our fireplace, I’ll share with yall first, okay second…Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter get it first…shoot then that’s 4th for yall!
Things are pretty slowly moving. I’ll be posting soon (hopefully REALLY soon) about more progress or projects but now do know we have a whole in the house…one greater than a size of a human!
Martina -A word of advice: remove and replace the subfloor beneath the carpet that was so badly soiled the company refused to clean it.
Trust me on this one.
Carpet isn’t waterproof and wood is porous. Even if you paint the wood there will still be… Odors… Unless the floor underneath is cement, in which case you’re golden!
It reeeeeeally surprises/ grosses me out me what some people consider “sale ready” and feel for you having to tackle such a mess.May 15, 2013 – 6:29 pm
Welp, the old house has been sold…for a long time now, just shy of 3 weeks actually. We’ve been so blessed to have been able to live with my parents, they so graciously opened up our home to us…even the dogs, Todd’s stinking cat could not come (no tears here). It’s been a freaking crazy experience. The irony is that, my entire teenage life I tried to convince my parents that I needed to move out of my room and get to live in the dining room (makes perfect sense right, I mean it wasn’t being used). Of course, they never seemed to see my logic…now I’m the winner because Todd and I are in the dining room. It’s serving as our bedroom and living room…not quite how I visualized it back in my teenage days!
It’s been so stressful and to be totally transparent, tough on our marriage, but on Friday we signed our papers and yesterday we actually got the keys to our new home!! We’re so excited..and a lot bit terrified! This is the ideal neighborhood and school system for Tenley and that was our primary focus!!
First we got this…
…then we got these!!!!!!
It’s going to be quite the adventure because our styles, skill and mindset has totally changed. OH and I need to mention our budget, it’s going to get pretty flipping creative around here since we’re going to be house broke till I get my raise…in February! I’ve already set some goals…finish projects before starting them!! Impressive and probably impossible but a girl can dream right?! I have such ADD, like in real life so throw a husband, two dogs, and Hurricane Tenley into the mix and you better believe it’s going to get crazy!
Here’s a video of the house…I’m fully aware that I’m a horrible videographer, Cait much prefers Todd’s videos over mine! And at some points I accidentally cover the mic, I’m sorry!!!
We’d love to hear where you’d put the tv…we have plans but would love input!! Also, would LOVE ideas on what do to with the red wall…I have ideas but Todd isn’t quite on board yet (isn’t that how it always is?!) so help could be appreciated!!!
Admittedly I do like the steadiness of Todd’s videos, but your narration is so much funnier! I’m going to have to watch them again later to see if I can hear the parts where you covered the mic, haha.
Also, a house can never have too many linen closets. Apparently.
I like your plans for the TV, but I’m curious to hear other ideas!May 1, 2013 – 10:34 am
Cait, I honestly am clueless about why there are so many closets! Dude! I was totally banking on you haven advice on the red wall. The TV on the fireplace is a no go. Sooo sad so it’ll be against the other wall, it’ll work out better for our future plans!
I was just walking up the fabulous yellow and red stairs to the sketchy bathroom at work and though “yellow and red… oh, I didn’t even mention the red wall, crap!”
I actually like the idea of the red wall as an accent wall (as the former owners did), just not red. Would love to see it stenciled/wallpapered (the removable wallpaper, though even that makes me cringe a little), or maybe wood clad (a la Emily @ Merrypad’s shiplap in the dining room, entryway, and master). Tile might even work, since it’s in the kitchen. I don’t remember whether you plan to remove that ledge-bit, but I think it would open up the area, and make it even more of an accent/eat-in area. (Also, I have no idea what on Earth you would put up there…)
Huge bummer about the fireplace/tv idea. Any chance you could mount it on the wall opposite the window? Obviously the wall the former owners had theirs on would work, especially if you had a sofa table behind the couch. Do you guys have a sectional sofa, or am I imagining things?
Well things are going so quickly on the moving front! We’re back to the dark days (that’s what I’ve named the time while Todd was dragging his feet to decorate) except, in addition to nothing on the walls there are boxes littered throughout the house. It’s lovely…if we were a mouse or a hoarder.
So far Todd’s packed the majority while I have kept Tenley out of the way, unless he’s watching her while I sell wraps and run amuck…then he’s also still packing. Martha Stuart has nothing on him…minus cooking, crafting, baking and gardening.
So he sent me this picture and text and it was just perfect!!
With this caption…
“So…I’m packing stuff up and I set the tape down and can’t find it. I asked Tenley to help fond the tape and she brought me this. Too cute.”
That’s our little DIYer!!!
Here’s a shot of the storage and Todd clearly loves his truck!!!
I’ve been slacking on this and I’m sorry! We’ve been busy house hunting (ie. heart breaking), keeping the house maintained, dealing with a sickie (Tenley had RSV and now a cold), packing, and working. It’s been INSANE. We pretty much never eat as a family…it’s been a fend for yourself night pretty much since we put the house on the market. Wife/Mom of the year right?!
So on to Tenley…
She’s a beast, weapon of mass destruction, or hurricane!
Seriously…all apply to her! She’s still not sleeping through the night!! But she’s the most fun little person ever and we’re obsessed!!
As far as talking is concerned, not much has changed. She’s going to be a late talker, she’d prefer to point and squeal but she understands everything! We’re constantly blown away! With her cold and RSV she’s become a pro at blowing her nose, well at least that’s what we tell her. She will grab the kleenex and blow out for you, it’s impressive…Todd still hasn’t gotten that one down. Speaking of a cold/RSV…it’s made us really prove how much we love her, we’ve been using the NoseFrida instead of the bulb to get her snot…it is so amazing but man can it be gross sometimes!
Yes…you literally snuck the snot out!
On to pictures of Tenley!!!
Tenley riding Buster (Nana and Papa’s dog)
Tenley’s now in love with wearing hats! Making mommy and daddy proud…that’s a SF Giants hat!
She loves reading and absolutely loves her daddy! Why yes, Todd is wearing one her of old beanies from when she was a baby!
Todd and I just signed our counter offer, to be honest, I don’t understand why we countered since we didn’t actually counter anything. Basically, we signed our acceptance. There were tears. I was a mess, I’m shocked and mostly because of what I said before…
…this is the home we came to once married
…where we brought Tenley home to
…where we brought our puppies home to
…I wasn’t finished.
…the house we made our home
Crap! This is harder than we thought! WAY harder! We’ve been praying like crazy that if this isn’t supposed to work out it’ll be totally clear to us.
Keeping the house show ready has been darn near impossible with Hurricane Tenley. Last Saturday, while I was at work, Todd was trying not to panic while Tenley was destroying the house as he was cleaning up. She likes to take out all her toys, our clothes, her books and all the lids in the kitchen…she’s a beast and leaving landmines throughout the house doesn’t bode well for our attempts to show the house.
We were completely blown away by how quickly its gone! Friday we listed the house and within the first few hours we had an offer! Not any offer was less than asking price, in fact with the exception of one, they all exceeded the asking price! TOTALLY not what we were expecting but it’s totally been something we’ve come across as we’ve been hunting around for our new house! I can say at this rate we will be living with my parents come April 10th…we just keep praying that we find our next home soon and that if we don’t everyone walks away alive!
A fun little video of Tenley wearing my shoes for the first time…you know, to keep things light!
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