Caulk master

This house needed a lot of caulk work. We resealed all the windows and doors. We caulked any crack or gap. I watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPGKdwnHhaE to learn how.

 

Here's my first caulk line. I've done about 100 more since then.

 

After removing old caulk

Tape line and caulked

 

Removed the tape

 

Another great caulk line

Yes we have popcorn ceilings. No we are not removing them. Since our house was built in 1977, it has asbestos in the popcorn ceiling. It would cost about $10,000 to remove it because we would have to hire a team. They'd have to wear oxygen masks/ventilators. They'd have to create a vacuum in every room and a large tube going out the window for most of the ceiling to go out of. Too much work and money. Plus popcorn ceilings may come back in a few years. ;)

 

Before I caulked the top

Before and After

Painting the big room

We are painting almost every surface of our house. Ceilings, walls, trim, doors. It's a big project. A lot to do and we are doing it ourselves. Minus our big vaulted living room.

We got a couple quotes for the living room and went with the cheapest.

 

Here they are working.

 

 

There goes the yellow...:)
 



Before and After

 

The painters were impressed with the colors I chose. They thought I had picked them out of a magazine. They said it looked like a showroom in here now! YAY!! Means a ton considering how many rooms they paint and see. :)

 

 

 

 I love our dark beams now!!

 

First things first

The first thing I wanted to do when we got into the house was take down this red striped wallpaper in the dining room. It wasn't too difficult. It came off pretty easily so I just kept tearing and tearing. It took about 5 hours.

 

 

And made a BIG difference.

 

The next project was hiring someone to fill in that wall. We wanted to get rid of the wet bar and make that room a food storage room/large pantry. 

 

Apparently that wall wasn't built very well when they built the house. The left side was lower than the right. The top was shorter than the bottom. The handyman had a hard time cutting the sheetrock just right.

Here it is all sheet rocked. 

 

He then puttied and textured the wall.

Here is the final filled and painted wall. :) Now we just need to add shelves inside and a door in the doorway.

We bought a house!!

It was an interesting process buying a home. Many times I was confused and terms didn't make sense. I had to talk to lots of people, lenders, realtors, utility agents, insurance agents, people at city hall, etc. I very much dislike talking on the phone, especially to people about this type of stuff. I had to get over my fear and just call all the people on my list.

We were given an amazing realtor named Matt Twomey. He walked us through the process wonderfully. I walked through homes with Matt and TJ during the week, sometimes 5-7 a day. And then we'd take Todd through our favorites on Saturday. We started looking around Thanksgiving and went home for Christmas mid-December.

I had one house that I'd found and wanted to put an offer in on before we went home for Christmas. It had everything we wanted. 4 bedroom, 2 bath, over 2,000 sq ft. It was a great layout, a perfect sized backyard, in a great school. It had been on the market for awhile and I truly didn't think it would still be there when we got back from Christmas. Matt and Todd were against that idea and Todd said, "If it's meant to be our house, it'll be there when we get back." PSH! You can't throw that on me.

We wait. I watch my phone. Every email from Redfin, Zillow or Trulia, my heart drops as I scan the email for the address saying that that house is gone and under contract. I never got that email. Thankfully.

At the end of the Christmas vacation, I called Matt and said we needed to look at the house one more time and then we'd make an offer. Todd said he wanted to look at a few more, just to be sure. Just to make sure there was nothing else out there and that we'd seen almost every house we could. Then we'd know and feel comfortable with our decision. I told him HE could look if he wanted to. I was done looking. I'd found our house. He found 2 more homes to look at.

We walked Apollo (the home I KNEW we were buying). We couldn't find the light switches for 2 rooms. We walked the house and there was a lot wrong and weird about it we hadn't seen before.

Deep down I knew we wouldn't get that house. My mind wanted it but there was something or someone telling me that it wasn't going to be our house. I was ignoring that feeling knowing that it was the best house I'd seen. I wanted that house so badly, but knew it wouldn't happen.

We saw 2 other homes that night. And we liked both of the other homes more than Apollo.

We walk into Blake (the home we bought). I had seen this house online but the photos were terrible and made the house look small and nasty. We walk in and were pleasantly surprised. Todd had an opinion. He was excited. He had ideas to improve the home. He was energized and present. I hadn't gotten much out of him in any of the other homes we'd walked. This one was different.

I went and saw the house in the light the next day and we made an offer. After a little negotiation we came to a great price and everyone was happy.

We closed on Feb 12th.

Closing was NOT even close to as bad as people say. No, my hand did no cramp up. No, my signature didn't deteriorate at the end. Yes, it was fun. Yes, it was exciting. I didn't know we were almost done. It went by so fast.

Todd and I are homeowners. We are having fun fixing and painting our house. I'll keep posting before and afters and the progress we are making on the home. :) I can't wait to see how it all looks done and when we are moved in.

Pulled up to the title company. :D

Our new home