So we bought a new house, which is great on one hand because I was sick of renting. Who wants to give $980 a month to someone else and not have anything accrue in equity?? blech. Anyways, so we bought this house which we got for a great price $202, 000. Its a three bedroom, 2 bath ranch on a HUGE lot, 50X250!! Wow, thats crazy for New Jersey eh? The only thing is, this house has to be totally GUTTED! The place was built in the forties and it shows. The bedrooms are tiny and the bathrooms are worse, and whoever the plumber was should be sued cuz they put galvanized pipes in with copper ones and they all oxidized and now we have to replace ALL the pipes because there is no water pressure and all the water comes out yellow. Gross. I can't even shower here, I drive the 5 blocks to my sister-in-laws house and use her shower.
Right now one of the bathrooms is gutted completely. The down side to having the bathroom gutted is that its the bathroom attached to the master bedroom, or at least whats supposed to be the master bedroom and so we are sharing a room with the baby. Talk about a cramped space! There is barely enough room to walk around the bed, we also had to take the closet doors off just so there would be enough room to put the dresser in there.
We also have all of our food and dishes in rubbermaid bins in the kitchen because there was rat droppings in all the cabinets when we moved in. I FREAKED out, and no there are currently no rats or mice in our home, just the droppings left from years ago that nobody bothered to clean up. So we have to replace all our kitchen cabinets because I refuse to use ones that had droppings in them.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, the first couple nights in the new house I heard this horrible noise coming from the attic. I told my husband it sounded like a cross between a cat and a pigeon. I know, I know, what the heck could THAT sound like? Well look up raccoons and you'll know what I mean. A RACCOON!! Yes I know, how the heck did a raccoon get in our attic? Well I'm not sure, maybe I should have asked the family of squirrels that chewed through the bathroom ceiling and turned our shower on! But we got that taken care of too.
We also couldn't have food in the house for the first two weeks because the fridge and stove were both BROKEN. I blame the two weeks of takeout for my extra 10 lbs of weight that I swear I lost after the baby! And I couldn't do laundry because the washing machine busted, so $3000 in appliances later I can at least get by now. Although my husband insisted on getting gas appliances even though there wasn't a gas line run to the kitchen and we had to wait for his father to drive the two hours here to run a line for us.
And after all of that its the small things like watching my husband attempt to rake a 50 X 250 yard with twenty trees on it that cracks me up. (It took two days and in the end we had to go buy a mulching mower with a bag attached).
Man I swear this house is going to be the death of me.
29-07-2010
On another note the renovations on our kitchen and bedroom are almost done!! YAY!!! No more washing dishes in the bathtub!!! The sink and dishwasher were supposed to be installed last weekend but the guy's wife had a baby!!! lol SO now I'm waiting until Tuesday! At least it will be done before I start my new job on Wednesday!!! SOooooo busy....
19-08-2010
I'm trying sooo hard to get some renovations done but I'm just soooo exhausted I can barely get enough energy to make something to eat and go to work, let alone paint and spackle and sand and all those other things that need to be done. And now I'm on a tigher schedule because my husband decided at the last minute to refinance our mortgage, which will save us like $600 a month which will be amazing! We will actually be able to put money into savings rather than barely getting by paycheck to paycheck! The only problem is that we have to get our house re assessed because of our improvements and half the stuff isn't even done yet!!! We still have an entire bathroom to gut and redo and we still have to finish the OTHER bathroom which still doesn't have a toilet or drywall or a vanity or even a door!!! blech.
12-10-2010
Time seems to be just flying by and it seems like our house renovations are NEVER getting done. I feel like the baby will be here before this stuff gets done! lol, Since the last blog we have drywall up and mudded in the dining room and the one bathroom. But he hasn't sanded the bathroom yet and we still have to lay the tile floor in the bathroom and refinish the floor in the dining room, and mudd the last coat in the kitchen, and then paint EVERYTHING! And we were going to be getting the roof redone and the furnace replaced before winter and so November is kind of the last month for that, and even that is pushin it a bit.
On my end I still have not had time to finish painting Lily's room, although now I have to try and incorporate the new baby into that room too. My hubby is set on having Classic Winnie the Pooh for the new baby (little man), but all Lily's stuff is Ladybugs... how in the world am I going to make that mesh well together???? They will only be sharing a room for maybe 4 years and then the two girls will be in together but until then I have to come up with some kind of solution. We also have to get Lily a toddler bed soon, I figure if we get it for her for around her second birthday, that should be right when the baby is out of the bassinet and needs the crib... so fingers crossed that it works out that way!!
We got our house assessment done and it came in way above what we needed but the stipulation is that we finish ALL the renos first, which won't be done until the spring. If we get done all the interior things over the winter, and the roof and furnace in November; then all that is left to do is the windows and siding in the spring!! YAY!!
I still feel really unprepared for this baby but I'm still chalking it up to the fact that I can't even start organizing the baby's stuff or the room or anything because the room isn't painted yet and Lily's stuff isn't even organized yet. Everything is just shoved in bins and boxes in the closet and in the basement until I get that room painted... what a pain in the butt!! I wish my hubby would just say "here let me do it!" or "here let me watch the girls so you can get it done!" then I could just bang it out and it would be done!!!
Ugh I hope things work out... I'm so tired of all the bull...
Update Oct20/10
So the bathroom is sanded and painted and my hubby went and got the tile, but he hasn't started putting it in yet. Lily's room is sanded but I haven't gotten it painted yet as I was trying to finish the bathroom so he could lay the tile! Our new furnace and air conditioner got delivered this week and the guy is supposed to be here Saturday to figure out what he wants to do, and then he's supposed to do all that next week. So all thats left before the snow is the roof guy and all our interior projects. Although if the furnace guy is going to be redoing everything next week then we are going to have to get a new dumpster for all the old vents and stuff. ugh. I just wish this bathroom was DONE!!! We haven't even started gutting the other one!!
15-11-2010
So its already halfway through November and it seems like the time is just flying by!!! Our plumber still has not shown up to install the toilet and vanity in our bathroom, and the guy who owns our rented dumpster hasn't called us back or shown up in over a week and he's supposed to be picking up the full dumpster and bring us an empty one, BUT.. my hubby got the tile done in the bathroom, YAY!! And I got the nursery painted and all the stuff up from the basement and washed and put away, I even got a closet organizer from walmart for half price and got it installed too!! The only thing I can't find is the cover for the baby swing, I must have shoved it in a box with christmas stuff so I'm hoping I find it when I start decorating.
Speaking of Christmas... I put up my tree!! well the tree itself is up and I got some lights on it but I don't have any decorations on it yet.
30-11-2010
So our bathroom is done!!! HOORAY!!! lol its so nice to not have to run across the house in the middle of the night to pee!!! And now we can start gutting the other bathroom!! Well.. we could if the guy would come get that damn dumpster!!
So my tree is all decorated and I brought up all of our decorations but I can't finish decorating until the dining room and kitchen are painted and before they can be painted they have to be sanded, and before they can be sanded they need the second coat of mudding. I have been working at it this week and they are almost done being mudded, I just get so out of breath when I do it. I figure I have the rest of this week to get the mudding done, and then this weekend I'm planning on sanding it. As long as I get everything sanded before Monday then I can paint while DH is at work. I can't do it when he's home because I don't feel like arguing with him about paint colors. lmao
I'm not sure if our refinancing will go through before the bub is born seeing as we still need to replace the roof/windows/siding.
Too much stress!!! ugh
14-1-2011
So its a new year and I realised I hadn't updated my blogs in a while so I figured I would get right on that. I still have soooo much to get done before this little man gets here and I really dont think I have enough time to do it all. We still haven't gotten our house refinanced and that is supposed to be done in March but we have to have the renovations done before that and right now we're at a stand-still because of the snow. We have to wait for some snow to melt so that they can bring the new dumpster, and then we have to gut and refinish the second bathroom, put in new windows and siding (which can't be done until March anyway), AND we still have to redo the roof because it never got done in November. Those are just the bigger things, other than that I still have to paint DD's room and the hallway and the kitchen too, although I have to finish mudding and sanding the kitchen before I can paint and I have to take down the old panelling in the hallway before I can do that too. ugh. We also still need to refinish the dining room floors, but hey at least our one bathroom got done and the furnace and ducts got replaced and I got the dining room painted!! My goal is to have the kitchen done by the end of January, I'm just getting so big now thats its soo hard for me to get anything done around here.
4-03-2011
I still have stuff I need to get done before this bub is born. I have to finish up some touch up painting in the kitchen, and I need to finish cleaning off the porch and fix the screen that has a big hole in it. Although I can't really finish cleaning off the porch until the roofer is done because he keeps his supplies there while he's working. He was up today and actually worked all day and got almost done. The company shorted him two pallets of shingles so he has to pick those up before his can finish the rest of the roof. There is just a little section at the front of the house overhanging the porch that needs to be done. My dh has been going outside doing tons of yardwork too so I'm relieved it looks so much better out there!
We still have to gut and redo the one bathroom, get new siding and windows, but other than that our renovations are just about done. The big things anyway, we still want to refinish the floor and put a tile backsplash up in the kitchen, then there are some areas that need trim and baseboards put on. Overall we are just about done though. That means hopefully soon we can refinance the house and save some money!
Before And After Photos:
This was the den which we turned into our master bedroom.
This is the master bath AFTER photo, need to take some more so you can see the shower as well.
These are the before and after photos of the living room.
These are the before and after of the dining room.
These are the before and after of the kitchen.
This is the front of the house.
