All moved in... and our derailment

We moved into our new house on saturday. We are now 48 hours past the time we STARTED packing our truck, so just over 35 hours past when we finally had every last box under this roof.
We also had invited friends/family over for a BBQ today. We thought that in a day and a half (Sunday and Monday morning) we'd be able to unpack at least the majority of the downstairs. Hahaha, what fools we were.
Yesterday we had a derailment which resulted in a minor renovation of our closet. And by minor I mean "removal of animal urine" and by renovation I mean "lots of coats of paint".
You see, the previous owners had stunning furniture. You probably remember that from our photos before we moved in. Big beautiful dark wood bedroom furniture. Stunning, really. Although they probably spent a small fortune on said furniture, they apparently didn't give a crap what happened to it. Because they allowed their dogs to pee all over it.
When their furniture was finally gone (the day we took posession), we noticed brownish/orange circles where the legs of the bed, dresser, bench, and armoir had been. We thought (due to the color and the lack of overwhelming odor) that the stains were from the finish of the furniture rubbing off on the carpet fibers.
Once we got the computer in the bedroom, we realized we were sorely mistaken. While laying on the carpet, checking my email, I noticed that my allergies were getting HORRIBLE and there was a weird smell to the closest brown spot.
Sure enough, it was dog urine. Their dogs had apparently marked every leg of EVERY piece of furniture in their master bedroom. So we went on to spot treating and used both OxyClean/Woolite Spot Shot and then later, Resolve High Traffic Foam.Then we shampooed the whole room after vacuuming. For the record, I do not recommend this method as it bleached out the carpet, but atleast I can go into my master bedroom now without sneezing up a storm. We do intend to replace the carpet ASAP, but since it's a 19x15 room, it's going to cost a pretty penny (approx $600 including pad and labor) to install new carpet in there. So we just needed to make it livable for the time being. Then we noticed that duke (our dog) peed on baseboard downstairs. Just a squirt as if he was marking his territory. Mind you, Duke has NEVER marked indoors in the 7 years we've had him, and he hasn't had an accident indoors in nearly as long (5-6 years). So we started looking around and sure enough, there were dried yellow "drips" on the white baseboards. UGH. Nasty.
So Lily and I ran to Home Depot while Daddy shampooed the carpet, and we stocked up on Kilz and Paint. I decided, though, that if I was going to repaint, I was going to do it the color I WANTED, not the color that was already there. Granted, the main color I wanted wasn't TOO far from the color they already had, but i'm happy with the difference anyway. Their tan color was much more brown based and looked grungy/dirty. Mine is more peach based, and I'll also be repainting all the shelving brown :) After that, I'll move to the master bedroom before painting the kids rooms.
This is our before


These are our after colors


I'll be back soon with some after pics :)

It's all ours!

We finally have possession of the house! YAY!
We went last night and brought Subway and had a picnic in the living room. :D
It was fabulous, and the kids got to play in the backyard for a bit. More on that in a bit ;)
For the time being, here is our empty house

Kitchen and Living Room:






Dining room:


going upstairs:


playroom/2nd living room:


master bedroom:


master bath:



master closet:


Laundry room:


Lily's room:




Brendan's Room:




the kids bathroom:




The half bath:






The kitchen floor (linoleum) has some staining. I guess I'm just going to have to suck it up an deal with it until we put in the new floor. It may be a while, though. We'll see ;)





So we had a nice little dinner all in the living room




Brendan enjoying his room


Lily enjoying hers



We also had some fun playing in the backyard




When we first walked out, we saw a mama bird flying away from a nest up in the top of our porch. Aside from the mama squawking away, I heard nothing from the nest, so I assumed it was full of eggs.

Since my vision is so bad, I took a photo so I could zoom in and see better


I shooed the kids out of the patio so the mama (who was circling overhead) could come back.


And then I snagged this photo right before we left for the night


So we have 4 new family members, and brendan wants to build them a bird house :) Can you tell he's my child?

we're closed!

As of friday, we are not only home owners, but landlords. LOL.
The current previous ;) owners are still living there through today, as a "temporary leaseback". IF they aren't out by tomorrow morning, they owe us $50 rent per day that they are there. But they got their new house today and expect to be out by tonight. I sure hope that's the case (though $50 would be nice. LOL).
In any event, things are moving right along on the packing, so that's great. We are nearly packed up (this weekend was a bust as I had a wedding and 3 photoshoots in 2 days), and the refinishing projects are moving right along. We have no more primer-white furniture, thank goodness. We are now on to either black and poly coated, or black, and needing poly. The table is what is left to poly, and tonight I want to drill holes in the drawers of the side table to install the new hardware I bought for it. I HATE having so many unfinished projects around the house, but at the same time, I know that I'm at a "hurry up and wait" spot right now b/c of us not having access to the house yet.

ouchhhh

Today I had to do the unthinkable... tear into the table I'd just finished. Ugh.
But it was for good reason (though that didn't ease the pain of sanding over the brand new paint job).
I was not happy with how the old holes had closed up from the hardware. I'd used a filler that I had on hand which ended up shrinking once it had been painted. So it had 6 little "dips" in the front of the drawers which were painfully visible.
Here is my before

See those nasty little holes where the hardware was? Yuck. They had to go.

So I dug the filler out, sanded them all down (important to be sure you have a smooth transition from the now-raw wood to the paint that you'll be leaving)


Cracked out or new partner in crime (Someone needs to get me a Minwax Tshirt or something. They have had half my damn income for the last month)


Filled the holes up


And now I just wait for them to dry so I can sand it down and re-paint.
Also, I bought the hardware today. But you've gotta wait to see that :)


By the way, Final inspection on the new house is tomorrow. Closing is on Friday and Keys are on Tuesday! YAY!

Go win yourself a $5 photoshoot!

It's progressing

Today was a busy busy day. I got in LOTS of priming before tomorrows rain.
I know it doesn't LOOK like it, but I swear it is progressing LOL

First is the chairs
From this:


To This:


Side Table
From This:


To This:





And finally, the table.
From this:


To This:


I must say, I was a little sad to cover up that table. I love that it reminds me of like an old farm house table. And all the varying colors of wood in the top remind me of a butcher block style table. But I know I'll be happy with it's done, so I just pushed through the twinge of sadness LOL.


And just for the record, Here is a photo that shows our current dining arrangements.
No, there isn't normally boxes and a hula hoop there. That's where we have to put part of our stuff that's ready for the move.


Total Dining Room overhaul price so far:
$122 at home depot in supplies
$75 paint sprayer
$10 side table
$0 table and chairs (already had them)
----
$207.00 total