Open House

Mark it down!  You're all invited to check out the house live and in person on September 10!!  We're be having an open house (with ice cream sundaes : ) that Saturday from 6:00-8:00 pm.  Feel free to stop on by!  If you need directions, let me know!

Hostile Takeover!!

Let the baby invasion begin!

Today we acquired our first batch of baby gear (if you hadn't heard, we're expecting in December : ).  A good friend's sister-in-law was getting rid of all her baby stuff that is only a year old & very gently used.  We scored a major deal!!  I'm preparing for this tiny person and all the "stuff" that comes with him/her to takeover our house, but for now this gear is in the basement so that we can enjoy our grown-up house for a little while longer.

In other news, we (and by "we" I mean Pete & my dad, as I have taken up permanent residence on the couch) have begun work on the deck. 

The railing came off pretty easily...let's just say that it wasn't attached very well.

The "addition" part of the deck also came down pretty quickly.  It was basically a master class in how not to build a deck.   

We'll be putting a patio in the area where the deck "addition" was.

We left up the original deck framing and will be putting new timbertech boards on it.

Dad & Pete extended the original framing by about 4 feet.

In other, other news, we are still waiting to finish our refinance that we started about six weeks ago.  We were sailing to close after our stellar appraisal when the brakes were put on in a rather scary way.  Here's the thumbnail sketch of what went/is going down:  Turns out our house was foreclosed by MERS (mortgage electronic registration system), which is basically a service company that banks use to manage their mortgages.  A lawsuit was filed in November against MERS alleging that they are not legally allowed to foreclose on properties because they don't hold title, and a bunch of other legally stuff.  This spring, the Michigan State Supreme Court ruled against MERS, saying that they are no longer allowed to foreclose by advertisement, which is basically the most common type of foreclosure (this was how our house was foreclosed).  So, when the bank went to get title work and title insurance done for our refi, their title company saw MERS in the title history and freaked out.  We are one of the first post-MERS owners to attempt to refi, because you have to wait 6 months after a purchase to refi, and we started the refi process at right around 6 months.  Literally, no one in the "business" has had to deal with this situation before.  We were waiting for a while, but were getting concerned with the lack of answers to our questions, so we decided to consult a real estate attorney that my good friend put us in touch with.  He said we had "reason to be concerned"...yikes!!  We were stressing for a couple of days, planning on what improvement items we could rip out and take with us if we lost the house, and basically losing sleep over all kinds of other "worse case" scenarios.  After a couple of days of sorting out paperwork, the attorney got back to us and suggested that we contact the original title company/insurer who did the work when we bought the property and ask them to write the new policy since their necks are on the line from the first sale anyway.  Pete called them and they said they'd be willing to do that, but that this shouldn't be a problem for any other title company to do either.  Because we purchased the house before the lawsuit and the ruling, and after the house had been foreclosed (legally at the time), the ruling doesn't apply to us.  This is what we've been saying all along!!  Now we're just waiting for title work to be completed again...where we were three weeks ago before this hoopla got going.

Stay tuned, faithful followers, for an open house invite!  We're hoping to host a little party here once we have a deck... : )

Value Added

We recently had the house appraised to refinance it with a conventional mortgage.  The report came in today, and...drum roll please...we more than doubled the value of the house from when we bought it!  The current appraised value is $98,500 MORE than we paid for it!  Which is awesome on many levels....
#1 - Through the refi, we can get all the money out of it that we put into it fixing it up, plus have almost 30% equity already. 
#2 - Even in a down market, real estate karma has finally paid us back!  (See first blog post to read about the spanking we took selling our bachelor & bachelorette pads.)
#3 - An outside observer has validated our work and considers our house "well maintained & highly marketable"...yeah!
#4 - Five+ months of work was worth it!!!

Oh, Happy Day!

It's been a while, but work hasn't stopped.  It's just not nearly as exciting.  But, now that it's warmer and (sort of) dry, we've begun to tackle the great outdoors.  Several weeks ago, Pete, his dad, and his dad's truck yanked out the ugly old bushes.  We were left with this...

...minus the old bushes, which are now at the dump.

But today, thanks to several hours of work, assisted by Lisa, my dad and Aunt Maxine, we now have this...



We planted a ton of perennials, which I'm hoping will fill in like an English Country Garden, and also spread two yards of mulch.  I am thrilled with home much we accomplished today!

And not only that, but we also cleaned up the neighborhood sign, which is on our property.  Since there's no home owner's association, we figured it's our responsibility and have adopted it. 

The backyard is still proving to be a challenge.  We have a drainage issue (see below), but Pete has a plan of attack for dealing with that. 

Today, Pete began digging up the grass along the back fence, which is going to become our seasonal vegetable garden.  Because it's veggie planting time, this project has taken priority over other backyard doings.  (drainage fix, fence painting, and deck rebuild are still to come)

This is the goofy looking tree is the one that broke in half and fell the week before we closed.  We were told that often a new lead branch will take over, so Pete tied two branches together to encourage that process.  Right now, it just looks like a crazy misshapen tree-like thing.  Hopefully, someday it will be a nice, normal looking tree again.

Oh, happy day!  Our new couch arrived about 5 weeks ahead of schedule!  Yay! 

It is practically perfect in every way...except one.  It is a two-piece sectional and the two pieces don't exactly line up in the back, which is a major bummer because the back is visible. 

This seems like a major manufacturing error to me, so we will be in contact with the salesperson and store soon to figure out what can be done to remedy the situation.

But, other than that little bummer, we love it and you can't see the back when you're sitting on it, so from here, it's all good!

INTERNET!

We have re-entered the 21st century!  We have internet and cable TV once again.  I am currently watching Parks & Rec while blogging.  Life is officially back to normal.
Since my last post, we've finished the fireplace and built-ins around it.  We've finished the half bath on the main floor.  We've hung more art and window treatments.  I've started some new crafty projects.  Pete's begun to tackle the yard.  Lots of good stuff... : )

When the house was vacant, neighbors from across the street kept the front lawn mowed, but ignored the backyard.  It was a field.  Lisa mowed it last fall, but our lawn mower died in the process, snow came and we surrendered.  This week, Pete repaired the mower with his own two hands and spent 3 DAYS mowing the lawn.  Thankfully, it is finally at a more appropriate length and the lawn mower still works.

Here are some pictures of other doings...

The Kitchen: new items of note - faucet, stools, rug

Crafty Project - Magnet Board:  Turns out that our fridge is not magnetic, which is perfect because I already had this little project in the works.  We bought a piece of sheet metal that is typically used for air ducts, and Pete built a frame out of some window casing which I painted with our trim paint.  We then attached the metal to the frame, and voila!  Super cute magnet board.  Now all of our "fridge clutter" is tucked away in the entry corner, but is still somewhat artistically displayed!

Living Room: The top picture is of the fireplace and built-ins.  Pete hung the tv this past week and it all pulled together nicely.  The left bottom picture is of the patio door.  I cut the tab tops off of a cheap pair of IKEA sheers and put drapery clips on instead.  The metal circles slide much better on the rod for easier access in and out of that door.  The bottom right picture is the awesome area rug we found on CLEARANCE!!!  I had my eye on this one (from Lowe's) for awhile.  The last time we were at Lowe's, I wanted Pete to look at it to see if he liked it, and lo & behold it was $60 off!!!  Bingo. We have ordered a sectional sofa for this room, but it won't be here for 8-10 weeks.  Boo.  : (  I'm still searching for the perfect fabric to refinished those two little thrift store chairs.

Half Bath: Yup that right...almost the first thing purchased is almost the last thing installed.  You may remember that this pedestal sink was one of my first bargain buys.  (Discontinued floor model from Menards).  It's finally installed!  Also, note the super cute towels I found on clearance at Marshalls!! 

We went with a dual flush toilet for this bathroom.  So, if you're ever at our house (and we hope you are at some point : ), the button on the left is for onesies and the button on the right is for twosies.  (But, really, who does twosies at somebody else's house?)  The cabinet you can see partially in that photo is from Overstock.com.

Yard Carnage!!!  Bushes are not so much my preferred form on landscaping.  I'm more of a flower person.  Unfortunately, ALL the landscaping at this house was some form of bushery.  It is no more.  Pete and his dad yanked them all out with his truck.  Now the real fun can begin!!

Fireplace:  All I can say is "Great job, Dad!!"  This is actually the original fireplace insert, although you wouldn't know it. : )  I found a picture of a fireplace mantel/face similar to this online when I was hunting for design ideas.  I sent it to him and he designed & built it from there!  I tiled around the insert with carrera marble tiles, and dad built the face and top with a layered series of lumber pieces.  Lots of math was involved.  I was confused.  Then I painted it in a high gloss white.  Just tonight, dad put all the inside pieces back together after spray painting them all black (they were previously brown & brass) and fired it up.  It is supremely gorgeous. 

So, what else do we have to do yet?  The front room/office/piano room is not done yet.  I'm getting pretty excited for that to be finished so I can be under the same roof as my piano for the first time in 16 months!  Also, the outdoor work will be a big project.  We have some drainage issues that Pete is trying to solve as well as a whole bunch of landscaping and gardening, plus some exterior trim fixes and painting.  But we're getting there!  And we're still loving (almost) every minute of it... : )

Crafty Updates

Pete helped me hang the memo board I made.  I loaded it up with pictures a few nights ago and it's super cute.  If your adorable baby and/or stunningly gorgeous family is not on there, it's because you haven't given me a picture...get on that!!

Another project I've been working on in my spare time (haha) is refinishing this hutch.  We bought this for $100 on Craigslist (after looking for 5 months, I finally found one with potential : ). 

We took all the doors and drawers apart.  I sanded it lightly and primed it.

I painted it a smoky grayish/blue color and Pete helped me by replacing all the hardware (door knobs, hinges, etc).  Here's the finished product!

This is what it looks like with the doors open.

It's the perfect size for storing my two sets of antique china, plus all my serving pieces and stemware.  And, it looks great in the room!

Moving Update

We've moved in!  Last Saturday, March 26 (a day before our self-imposed deadline of Pete's 30th birthday - March 27) we trucked (or rather vanned) everything over to the new house and spent our first night there!  I must say, that even though it is not completed and "perfect" yet, I love it.  Living at the project does have it's challenges, but it's far superior to where we were living, and so far I have not needed that padded room at Pine Rest.

Here's a little room by room update...we'll start upstairs since that's where we're living and what is the most "done"...

This is the staircase - stained and carpeted and finished!  We managed to finish staining and varnishing the banister before carpet was installed on Thursday night.

This is the landing/hallway at the top of the stairs...aka junk pile collection zone.

Laundry room...fully functional and only one leak so far!  But that won't happen again...Pete found the part we were missing and it's fixed. : )

Upstairs bathroom - also fully functional and the tub is even clean thanks to Lisa!  (Since we don't have a utility sink, we'd been using this tub to clean out mortar & grout buckets, paint, etc.  Oops.)

Front upstairs bedroom/temporary office.  Until the office on the main floor is finished, this is home base for the computer and all other important things.

This is the back upstairs bedroom, complete with queen bed.  That's how this room will stay for now, in case we ever have guests... : )  Come on over!  You'll even have your own bathroom!

Master Bedroom!!  I love this space.  I'm still looking for a few pieces to pull it together, but so far it's coming together well.

Master bathroom!!  I love this space, too!!  The shower is awesome!  (And it works...major relief since we built it ourselves : )  Waking up and getting ready is almost tolerable in these surroundings.

Master closet - well, we used to think the closet was huge...until we put our stuff in it.  But, it is quite nice as well.  There is a place for everything...another bonus of getting to design it ourselves.

Now, let's travel downstairs to the main floor...

 The Kitchen!  Fully functional (minus a kitchen faucet...long story), but sadly not so clean. (view is from the dining room)

Sink without faucet...sadness.

View of the kitchen from the living room.

Dining room, aka dumping ground.  Since this room is mostly finished, it's a relatively safe place to leave things.  That little bad habit is going to need to change soon!

We hung the fantastic IKEA curtains!!  I love them!

Here's a close up shot of the curtains.  Notice how crazy good they go with ....

...my great-grandma's china!!  I didn't even plan that!  I've had the china boxed up for a while and was excited to finally have a formal dining room and hutch so that I could display it.  I vaguely remembered the pattern was leafy, but when I unpacked it, I was pleasantly surprised with how well it matched the room and the curtains!

The living room...moving on...not much to see here, folks...

Main floor half-bath...not much to see here either....

Office...or here... : (

So where is the rest of our junk?

In the basement!

Pete set up our TV by the couch in the basement so we can still watch our Netflix movies.  No cable, TV or internet at the house yet... : (

And in the garage, we are bracing for the most epic garage sale of all time....once the weather gets warmer, of course.