I’m a jerk and here’s a picture of a load of bricks. Scratching your head yet? Well… Here’s the story…
My hubby (and I…) bought a camper just before all this coronavirus stuff hit the roof. The sad fact of the matter was, we had discussed this last fall, but then nothing more was really said. Then come January, I was told by a couple of different people (none family members or him) that I was buying said camper. I got a little annoyed because we really hadn’t decided one way or the other.
Then he bought the camper, hauled it to our house, and parked it. The goal was to remodel it and have it ready to go by last weekend when we were supposed to have our Trails for Kids fundraising horse ride. Well, the ride had to be postponed as we all know. And the camper wasn’t ready anyway. (more…)
I saw this meme and it cracked me up. Seriously… I think my husband kind of feels this way with everything I’ve made him do since this whole quarantine time. I haven’t sat still once. Not once.
That included this weekend, but this weekend’s project wasn’t my idea. It all started last weekend. Let me set the story…
Last weekend I decided to get the weedeater out. It was messed up so I had it sitting on the bed of my truck. My truck was parked about where this trackhoe thing is in the picture below. I stepped in a bunch of water and it smelled like a sewer. Not a good sign. When hubby got home I had him check it out. The next day he called a septic pump to come clean the septic out. We hadn’t done that since we bought the house so we figured it may be full. (more…)
The weather is getting nicer outside. It makes it perfect weather to go outside and dance in the water hose. Oh, wait, no, I’m not 5. We have well water and that stuff is cold. If you’ve never played in well water, it’s friggin cold. I got the opportunity to hold the water hose while the 5-year-old in my house danced in the water hose water. It was her idea, not mine, just for the record.
Hubby was recharging the AC unit so that it could keep up cooling the house. After he got that done, the next thing I knew he got out the drill and was removing boards from the side of the house.
This spring has been quite interesting, to say the least. Between school being postponed and doing some work at home for school (challenges)… and the fact that the oldest daughter’s school was canceled while the youngest was on Spring Break. And all the reports of the coronavirus… aka COVID-19. So much uncertainty.
But one thing that has happened I think for a lot of individuals is we’ve been given the gift of time. Something we all beg for. Everything is canceled. Can’t do anything. So why not work on that “honey-do” list.
One of the things I’ve been wanting to do is landscape our house. There have been a million reasons why I haven’t. Actually, if you look at that picture above… there to the left side of the picture, that left side of the porch… last year I planted perennial flowers. What is a perennial flower?
A Perennial Flower/Plant is a flower or plant that live more than 2 years.
While we’re at it… what’s an annual flower?
An Annual Flower lives for just one season/year.
The flowers I planted there by the porch DID NOT come back. Bummer. Here is where I tell you that I have a degree in Agriculture and I’m pretty sure I have a black thumb. My background is animal agriculture. Although when I was in college I loved the agronomy side of agriculture (plants, soils, horticulture) to the point I almost switched majors to be an agronomy major. But still… growing things is not my strong suit. I struggle, but that doesn’t mean I don’t try.
So why not give landscaping a try? I actually had to take a landscaping class in college so I got the basic gist of how to landscape. The rest comes from trial and error and the internet.
First things first
Decide on the area where you are landscaping. It is a good idea to use something such as spray paint to outline your area. Another good tip is to pay attention to your sun. Study for a few days, weeks, whatever your time frame you can so that you plant flowers that are based on the lighting.
So I outlined my area. We planned on making a walkway as well as having flowers/shrubs. Next came brainstorming on how I was going to make a retainer for my material and then what kind of material I was going to try and retain.
So many questions have to be answered before you can start. (more…)
Woohooo… go me, right? Oh… but… here’s where I mention that I baked an Angel Food Cake IN. MY. OWN. KITCHEN. WHAT!!??!!??
Yes! You read that correctly. I baked a cake in my kitchen. In my oven. So super exciting if you ask me!! Today I think I’ll focus on said kitchen. Then the next post will be about said Angel Food Cake. Deal?
So… here’s a little back information for you about me and Vanities because I’m sure you wondered… My whole life I’ve never had a vanity with drawers. There, I said it.
Growing up at my parent’s house and now back there again, my bathroom sink doesn’t have drawers. I do remember when my parents were building the house I asked for vanity sink drawers, but it didn’t happen.
Moving on to the dorms at school… The sink was sort of free-standing in a way. It just hooked to the wall. It wasn’t completely down. Plus the one in our room I had to share with a roommate. It was the kitchen sink as well as the bathroom sink. It also had… you guessed… NO drawers.
We had community bathrooms in the dorm I lived in. They didn’t have drawers either. I was like vanity drawer deprived.
It just so happened there was an auction for home remodeling the Saturday after we bought our house. How convenient. It also happened to be one of the coldest days of the year thus far, other than when we had snow back in November.
The girls went with us. Poor them! We finally sent them out to the truck with the keys and my phone (Tbug had hers) for entertainment. It wasn’t going fast and boy was it cold. I think Cold is an understatement at this point. Holy cow!
They had cabinets, flooring, wood, paneling, sinks, fans, you name it… We walked away with the tile for the backsplash of my kitchen, which apparently at this point I can’t find a picture of. I didn’t have my phone (read above paragraph) and hubby never sent me the pictures I took :).
We called it quits long before the auction was over. It started at either 9 or 10. We left at 1. It was cold and boring, and the things we wanted still hadn’t sold. I talked to a couple who went to these often and they said that one of the previous auctions lasted until after 7pm the last time.
I’ve been back and forth and back and forth again. Do I want to post all while this is happening or not? So many questions. I finally decided I’d love to have a journal of it all and why not post it here. So we’re going backward, back to November 29, 2018, to be exact. That’s the date that we closed on our house.
Hubby and I may have been a little excited to sign on the house if you can imagine. We got to the place early and there is a coffee shop around the corner so I convinced him to get coffee. A morning coffee date :). He also sent our realtor a message asking if she’d like coffee. She said she was good. Can’t say we didn’t try.
I’ve been back and forth on do I share these before pictures now or wait until I have finished pictures of each room. Now or wait? Hmm… now or wait? I couldn’t decide. Finally, I decided… I guess now. A lot of people have been asking me what the house looks/looked like. Let’s just do this thing.
Here is where I also state that the house was described in terrible terms to us. If you look at these pictures, the house really isn’t “terrible.” We are remodeling it. In fact, as you saw the other day I had a kitchen/bathroom combo. Luckily, that has gone away. There is now a dividing wall again. We even have a bathroom floor!! There’s no plumbing so don’t plan on using the bathroom or kitchen for that matter any time soon.
My bathroom vanity is now in along with the sink. I have a bathroom mirror. We know what potty (yuck I hate that word… haha) we are going to get, but we haven’t yet. Our bathroom won’t have a bathtub, just a shower but we know what we want.
Kitchen appliances have been ordered as well as kitchen cabinets. So we’re making progress. Oh… my bathroom faucet should be in any day. The shower um… spout (word??) is in. So we’re making progress.
So without further ado, here are the before pictures I actually took before we even signed for the house. They had accepted our offer at this point, but we hadn’t signed. Our realtor came out and let us in so I could get some measurements and I went ahead and took pictures too while I was at it. This was the Monday before Thanksgiving.
Bedroom 1 (only because it’s the first one I’m showing you :))
So here’s the good thing about this bedroom… our plans are to repaint the walls, tear up the flooring, new lighting/fan, get rid of the window AC unit, and do something about the trim. Oh and curtains or something for window covering. Otherwise, it’s not in terrible shape.
Thursday morning… November 29, 2018, a day I never figured would happen. It was an uphill struggle the whole way. I had a meltdown a few times along the way. We all did. It was frustrating as hell (pardon my language). If you’ve ever thought about buying a foreclosure house, my thought is… DON’T. Okay, maybe that’s being a bit melodramatic.
I was told if it was worth it, keep fighting. There were days I questioned my sanity and wondered why I thought it was worth it.
With all the buy/flip shows on HGTV and DIY Network, everyone seems to want to buy houses and flip them these days. That wasn’t our goal… for the most part anyway.
Remember back to September 2016, we sold our house. In fact, we moved out on our Anniversary weekend. That weekend felt like a slap in my face. These last few years haven’t gone anything like I thought they would. I can guarantee they aren’t anything like 25-year-old Nicole thought they’d be. Maybe that’s the fun in life… maybe not. I’m not really sure. But… needless to say, we sold our house and moved back in with my parents. That was just supposed to be a stepping stone to the next thing. (more…)
