The Current State of Things

Hello, folks! It has been a hectic two weeks around here! On May 11^th we officially took possession of our house and slowly began moving in. It was wonderful to hear many words of encouragement from you all and I look forward to sharing this home ownership experience with you! I learned in college that the public aspect of keeping a blog really pushes me to present my best, honest, creative self. I already am, and know I will continue to be, proud of all the improvements we will make over the course of our time in this home.

Anyway, we had 12 days before we needed to be out of the apartment. I was hoping to take a couple of trips between the apartment and the house each day to move things and clean before we started living in the house full-time. But, various appointments and other errands limited me usually to one trip per day. However, Drew and I made a rule: If you go from the apartment to the house, you have to take a full load of stuff with you. Smart decision on our part. Our first truckload contained our heaviest boxes that were full of books.

On May 14^th I had a carpet cleaning company come out because, as you know from my last post, the carpet was super stinky thanks to all the cats and dogs that had been living in the house before us. Initially, the carpet cleaning seemed to result in an improvement. At the very least, the wet animal smell was unnoticeable to me from downstairs. Sadly, halfway up the stairs the smell became noticeable again and some of the bedrooms seemed to get worse. We even found cat litter in “the cat room,” so how clean were the carpets, really? After waiting on it for a week to see if the smell would improve as the carpet fully dried, we had to make a big decision. I asked Drew, “Will you be able to sleep in a bedroom that smells like this?” Evidently, the answer was “no,” and the day before we moved our furniture, we had new carpeting installed in the three bedrooms. It was tough to bite the bullet, so to speak, but it really was necessary, and there was no more convenient time to do it than when the upstairs was empty. What a difference that carpet made! The animal smell in those rooms has been nearly eliminated and walking into them is like stepping into a totally different home.

I love the name of this carpet color: Cuddle!

In the middle of our two-week moving time frame I began training for my new job and we attended Drew’s sister’s college graduation. They provided a nice break from moving, but once we returned, we had to push the pedal to the metal to finish moving. I moved so much stuff on that last day that Drew described me as "a beast." Darn right! We ended up turning in our keys 30 minutes before closing time on the last day of our lease. Success!

Locked up for the last time!

Not the first meal I cooked at the house, but the first time we ate there when it was our only home! Yummy salmon!

Boxes, bags, tools, and pieces of furniture are strewn about the whole place and no room feels completely unpacked yet, but we are slowly getting there. We plan to tackle many large projects in the near future, but one of the easiest, fastest, ways to make this house our home has been to focus on the little details that were missing or neglected when we moved in. I am so lucky to have married a very handy man who is not at all intimidated by the challenges that come along with the character and charm of a fifty year old house.

Our grass is now many shades greener and there is more of it, thanks to my awesome husband!

There are still other things growing in our lawn that aren't grass, like these beautiful flowers.

We are systematically replacing these ugly door knobs with darker, classier, door knobs.

My wonderful husband agreed to install white outlets for me! So far they are in the master bedroom, and eventually we'll get to the whole house and then work on light switches. 

The one plumbing job with which I have experience: changing out shower heads.

Old and nasty.

New, clean, and awesome!

Our rubber duckies look great in the master bathroom.

Getting all the right tools to install the shower curtain rod was a multi-day process, but we are very happy with the end result. It is one of those curved shower rods - we highly recommend them.

Our linen closet is more like a linen cabinet and the knobs on the doors injured my fingers and finger nails, so I ousted them and replaced them with these beauties that won't hurt me! Hopefully they grow on Drew in the coming months.

I have a feeling this will be one of my favorite spots in the house.

I can't wait to hang lots of wreaths on the coat closet door! The flowers on this one are from our wedding.

We had a pest control treatment recently, and apparently the bugs are getting driven out of their hiding places. So, when I saw a carpenter ant on our bed, I naturally pulled out my camera.

That little guy was really fast!

Since I spent all morning working on this post, I guess I should probably get my butt off the chair I am sitting in and start unpacking some more boxes!