Our new garage doors have been installed!

We immediately noticed a difference in the temperature of the front bedrooms. The garage is warmer, and we don’t have to worry about leaves, rain, and snow getting inside anymore. I’m sure we will also see a difference on our heating bills this winter.

We need to sand down some of the stair treads this week. Aside from paint touch-ups and cleaning a little mildew off the master bathroom ceiling, we haven’t been doing much with the house. Our washer and dishwasher stopped working on Thanksgiving. We had to call a repairman for the washer, but the dishwasher was too expensive to repair. We are going to list the old one as-is on Craigslist after the holidays. I’m just glad to have a functioning (and warm) household again!

I have been making some updates around the house. I installed pendant lighting in the kitchen. I thought it would be similar to the track light sets, but it had to be hard wired. This meant I had to remove one of the kitchen fixtures and install a low voltage box. Our kitchen looks a lot more modern now. The counter area where the microwave once was placed is now a place for our cofee maker and some decor. I purchased some framed prints for that wall which reflect the coffee theme, so those should be here soon. I also replaced the peg board / key rack we had for years with a dark wood board with magnetic steel on one side and a chalkboard on the other.

The dining room didn’t seem to flow well with the other rooms, so I made a few small changes. I added a tablecloth, new curtains, a picture frame and new plates on the rack. I shopped carefully, and all of these changes were very inexpensive!

I am going to paint the doorways and doors in the upstairs hallway as soon as Micah has another day off. My back is getting better slowly but surely, so we will be able to do the outdoor work very soon. Another big project I’d like to tackle is the laundry room. We would just need to panel two of the walls, the ceiling, and paint the cement wall behind the washer and dryer. We had a problem with suds backing up
through the floor drain, but that seems to have gone away since we bought a new washer (the old one that came with the house died). If it continues to stay clean and dry, Micah can install some flooring there. We’ll see! It’s difficult to make time for these things since Micah works so much and I am busy with the kids, but it will all be updated in due time. I will post new pictures of the dining room and kitchen once the final touches are made.

We finished as much work as we could on our own, then called for the professionals. The sink and shower were not working in the downstairs bathroom. The flange for the toilet broke when they put in the new flooring. We later found out that it broke because it was rusted. We have a hose hookup in the garage that was leaking right into the bathroom. We knew about it, but didn’t realize how long it had been going on. When the plumber removed the pipe, it had tape and glue all over it. A previous owner clearly didn’t want to call anyone! Now, everything is fixed. We have new faucets, a new toilet, and the hose connection looks great.

Our new plumber is also a “handyman”, so he was able to give us an estimate on the garage ceiling. We decided to go ahead with it. The previous owner added insulation but ripped out the sheetrock in the process. As a result, the ceiling was just a bunch of hanging, exposed insulation. It looked horrible! They’ve been here all day installing new sheetrock, and we agreed to pay extra to have it painted. They’re also going to patch up the wall around the hose attachment.

We finished the landscaping in the back yard. We used 30-gallon lawn/leaf bags to dispose of all the weeds and dead branches we found. In the end, we filled up 12 of them! It looks great, though. To finish things off, I added a lamp post in the middle of the rocks and replaced the wall fixture near the sliding doors.

The house is really shaping up now, and we’ve made it our own. I’m still decorating a bit. The dryer is starting to make annoying squeaking noises, so I think it’s time to get rid of it and bring in ours. I still like the washer they left here, though. I don’t know how old it is, but it works better than any washer I’ve ever used!

My parents are coming over for a visit in the end of June. They have a pressure washer, so we are going to use that to clean the foundation. After that, we’re going to start painting! The cement shouldn’t be very difficult, but the rest of the house will be a tedious job. We’re going with beige, and have it narrowed down to a few choices:

They’re all similar, but we want to go with something neutral that won’t look outdated in a few years. The scan looks kind of pink, but it has a more (boring) grayish tone.

I have to admit… We don’t know much about home improvements, but we’ve tackled some basic projects around the house. Here’s a list so far:

It was not an easy move to coordinate, but we finally closed on our house and will be moving in this Saturday. Moving out-of-state for the first time is not easy, but I did a LOT of research and figured out everything I’d need to do first. Our car insurance didn’t offer coverage in NY, the utilities were completely different, and I needed to tie up a lot of loose ends here. I’m just glad I learned all of this before we were in NY.

I had hoped we could move gradually (in two spurts, maybe one week apart), but we had a lot of trouble getting the seller to agree to a closing date. Now, we’re going to have to balance cleaning the house to get it ready, two truck trips one day apart, unpacking, and painting bedrooms. Micah took a week off, so he’ll be around to help with the kids and get some of the preliminary things done.

Our appliances (range, range hood and refrigerator) are arriving the following weekend. In the meantime, we’ll have to live with the old ones that were left behind. It will be the first time we’ve ever had new appliances, so of course I’m excited. I will never again have to scrub someone else’s old grease and mold out of a circa-1970s refrigerator! That was one of the truly difficult aspects of renting an apartment.

Our internet and cable service will be installed on Tuesday, so I won’t be online until then. Someone like me might normally have a problem with that, but I’ll be far too busy getting settled in to notice! It will be a relief when we can get back to normal. The girls seem confused about all the boxes and know something is going on. I’ve tried to explain that “Molly and Mia are going to have a pretty new room”, and that “We’re going to move to a big house”. I think they only understand the word “house” in terms of dollhouse, so it just won’t hit them. Micah wonders how they’ll react when they see the house for the first time, but I doubt they’ll really understand that we’ll be living there until we are unpacked.

Speaking of Molly and Mia… Their birthday is about two weeks after we move in. We don’t know anyone in the area yet, so we can’t have a party. My parents are leaving for a vacation that weekend, so there’s no point in making the trip all the way back to Boston. However, since they’re driving to Florida, they are going to stop by on their way to visit. The date also falls on my birthday, so it should be nice. We are going to buy some “Blues Room” themed party supplies and order a cake. The cake alone should be exciting enough to a couple of two-year-olds, but they’ll be even more excited when they see all the gifts we’ve been putting aside for them!

This site has been up for a while without updates, but I anticipate that I’ll be adding lots of pictures and other new information around April 24th. Thanks for stopping by!