Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Ladies Night
Not long after I moved into my house (actually about 3 days after I moved in) I had to fly off to Texas to be in one of my dearest friend's wedding. Necia and I have known each other since the 4th grade. She has travelled the world with the Air Force and also become a Doctor in the process. I think she definitely qualifies as my brainiest friend! She really is brilliant... and Beautiful! I flew down there early so I could partake in the bachelorette party and so glad I did! Here are some snapshots from our ladies night!
move-in day
First of all... I have to start by saying that I have the bestest friends ever! They all offered to help with my move and because there were so many of us, it didn't take long at all! I also need to preface this post by saying that my pictures are completely out of order and because I have a very limited internet, I didn't have enough time to rearrange them. So pretty much I'm going to provide a short description for each photo.
I still can't believe I own a home! My workdays drag on and all I can think about it coming home and working on projects. I'm trying to pace my go-to attitude since you have to have money to work on all these projects.... breathe Beth... breathe.
On to the pics:
I treat my movers well. I believe in nourishing their bodies with beer and pizza!
Unfortunately, the Little Ceasars feast can be pretty messy.
This is a picture of my sun filled bedroom. I was originially worried about the smaller size of my bedroom, but turns out it is bigger than I thought. It will work out just fine.
These are two of my very good friends; Betty and Lisa.
Buddha found a temporary hiding place on moving day. He was not a happy camper. Thank goodness that was short lived.
Zach is another wonderful friend who helped out on moving day. He also plays a mean PeeWee Herman on Halloween!
The second bedroom on the main floor is nice too. The last remodel included lots of knotty pine. Great for a wooded cottage, but not for my PDX bungalow....
So the basement in the house is ridiculously large. This is a shot of the area I'm going to have remodeled very soon.
The old owner told me that there was a stray cat that she was feeding. This is the pic of the cat. I just want to say that I already found out that this cat has a home and was definitely playing the last owner. My neighbors warned me that this cat is a mean cat. I found this out for myself when the cat attacked my leg one morning. Oooops... I accidently helped that cat off the stairs with my foot that morning....
This is a view of the newly added bathroom in the basement.
These pics really don't show the spaciousness of the 840 square foot basement.... this is a shot of the living area.
The seperate entrance to the basement apartment.
I don't know why, but I love this shot of the kitchen/dining room. I like that it shows the coved ceiling detail. Again, the pictures don't show the ample and the open floor plan in this house.
There is an 8 foot wide window in the living room. The mid-day sunlight is unreal. l-o-v-e-i-t!!!!!
The kitchen is big. really big actually. I will be spending a pretty penny to remodel this area, but not for a few years. The bad news is that I've already picked out exactly what I want and can't wait to ditch the 70's orange for fresh white, brown and stainless steel(with some butcher block of course). Pretty much I am very very excited to make these changes! Now I just need to be great at my day job and find some university teaching gigs to bring in more income. I've never been so excited to work 60+ hours a week! I feel like I'm in grad school again! Only this time, it is better! I feel very fortunate, blessed, lucky, whatever you want to call it. Feeling very thankful these days!
I still can't believe I own a home! My workdays drag on and all I can think about it coming home and working on projects. I'm trying to pace my go-to attitude since you have to have money to work on all these projects.... breathe Beth... breathe.
On to the pics:
I treat my movers well. I believe in nourishing their bodies with beer and pizza!
Unfortunately, the Little Ceasars feast can be pretty messy.
This is a picture of my sun filled bedroom. I was originially worried about the smaller size of my bedroom, but turns out it is bigger than I thought. It will work out just fine.
These are two of my very good friends; Betty and Lisa.
Buddha found a temporary hiding place on moving day. He was not a happy camper. Thank goodness that was short lived.
Zach is another wonderful friend who helped out on moving day. He also plays a mean PeeWee Herman on Halloween!
The second bedroom on the main floor is nice too. The last remodel included lots of knotty pine. Great for a wooded cottage, but not for my PDX bungalow....
So the basement in the house is ridiculously large. This is a shot of the area I'm going to have remodeled very soon.
The old owner told me that there was a stray cat that she was feeding. This is the pic of the cat. I just want to say that I already found out that this cat has a home and was definitely playing the last owner. My neighbors warned me that this cat is a mean cat. I found this out for myself when the cat attacked my leg one morning. Oooops... I accidently helped that cat off the stairs with my foot that morning....
This is a view of the newly added bathroom in the basement.
These pics really don't show the spaciousness of the 840 square foot basement.... this is a shot of the living area.
The seperate entrance to the basement apartment.
I don't know why, but I love this shot of the kitchen/dining room. I like that it shows the coved ceiling detail. Again, the pictures don't show the ample and the open floor plan in this house.
There is an 8 foot wide window in the living room. The mid-day sunlight is unreal. l-o-v-e-i-t!!!!!
The kitchen is big. really big actually. I will be spending a pretty penny to remodel this area, but not for a few years. The bad news is that I've already picked out exactly what I want and can't wait to ditch the 70's orange for fresh white, brown and stainless steel(with some butcher block of course). Pretty much I am very very excited to make these changes! Now I just need to be great at my day job and find some university teaching gigs to bring in more income. I've never been so excited to work 60+ hours a week! I feel like I'm in grad school again! Only this time, it is better! I feel very fortunate, blessed, lucky, whatever you want to call it. Feeling very thankful these days!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
new neighbors
I had to post pictures of the neighbors I had for a few days.
My real neighbors know a beekeeper and called him to come take away the bees, which apparently are hard to come by these days. Unfortunately, he was unable to round them up and instead they flew off to someone else's front yard. Notice please they are about 3 feet from my front door. Yikes! No animals or humans were subject to any stings during their habitation in my front yard. Thank Heavens!
My real neighbors know a beekeeper and called him to come take away the bees, which apparently are hard to come by these days. Unfortunately, he was unable to round them up and instead they flew off to someone else's front yard. Notice please they are about 3 feet from my front door. Yikes! No animals or humans were subject to any stings during their habitation in my front yard. Thank Heavens!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
I'm in!
I'm in and I'm exhausted! So thankful for the 7 friends that helped my move go super FAST this past Saturday. Everything was finalized on Friday and I'm pretty sure that was one of the longest days of my life! I met my realtor at the house at 5pm and just walked around the empty house in a daze for about an hour or so. I had some feelings of, "what the heck did I just do?", but they subsided when the excitement of making the home my own set in! I was very lucky to have Mr. HandyMan Dave help me out on Sunday. We patched up the garage, bought paint and supplies, insect stuff for the vents and foundation, and putty for patching. I have to say the best part of Sunday was finding the matching dryer to the washer that I inherited with the house. It is now installed and I am once again the proud owner of a washer/dryer! It has been 3 long years since I have had laundry in my home and geez does it feel good!
So now I have been prioritizing where my money and energy will go. I have paint for my bedroom. That will be the first room to complete, so I can move in and feel comfy. Then I'll paint the living room, hallway etc.... The basement is absolutely a priority. I am going to start getting bids so I can get it rentable as soon as possible.
For now, I'm living out of boxes. I'm also working extra hours this week because am missing work later this week. I have to drive to seattle on Wednesday night to catch a flight to Texas Thursday morning for a wedding I am in this weekend. Not the best time to be taking a trip, but I'm so excited to witness my very good friend Necia get married!
I took tons of pics before I moved my stuff in and will post them soon. The Pets are doing great! Baby loves the backyard and has poo-ed more times in the last 3 days than she has in weeks. I think she is working on claiming every inch! Buddha spent the first 36 hours in the closet in the attic, but has gotten over his fear and now prances around, meow-ing at all hours of the night. I think they will be pretty happy in our new home!
So now I have been prioritizing where my money and energy will go. I have paint for my bedroom. That will be the first room to complete, so I can move in and feel comfy. Then I'll paint the living room, hallway etc.... The basement is absolutely a priority. I am going to start getting bids so I can get it rentable as soon as possible.
For now, I'm living out of boxes. I'm also working extra hours this week because am missing work later this week. I have to drive to seattle on Wednesday night to catch a flight to Texas Thursday morning for a wedding I am in this weekend. Not the best time to be taking a trip, but I'm so excited to witness my very good friend Necia get married!
I took tons of pics before I moved my stuff in and will post them soon. The Pets are doing great! Baby loves the backyard and has poo-ed more times in the last 3 days than she has in weeks. I think she is working on claiming every inch! Buddha spent the first 36 hours in the closet in the attic, but has gotten over his fear and now prances around, meow-ing at all hours of the night. I think they will be pretty happy in our new home!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
big changes....
My life is literally going to change drastically in a few days. Finally..... I will be in my new home.
This process from start to finish has been a long one. I have always looked forward to the time I would be able to buy a house. I started looking seriously about 3 years ago. I started following properties on line and occasionally driving to the house to walk around and check it out. I was nervous and excited when I realized that I was able to finally go ahead with this process. My efforts were jump started in early January when the cutest, cheapest, fixer of a farmhouse, in a great neighborhood, popped on the market. It was such a good deal and I knew I wanted to go for it, or at least get my ducks in a row so I had the option of making an offer on it. That house lasted 2 1/2 days on the market. It became addicting at that point. Real estate was a game and I was ready to play. I had been following a handful of properties for months and watching their sale prices decrease over time. It was exciting, until I finally started looking at the inside of homes and I found one that I liked... actually I loved it. I had already envisioned all the fantastic changes I would make to the open floor plan. I had envisioned dark stained wood floors and a white and stainless steel kitchen. All this was imagined in my head before I even left the main floor. I was hooked. I made an offer on that house and literally fell in love with the life I had imagined I could have in that house. I didn't get it....and I cried. It felt like I had lost my first love. I cried and cried.... it was such a strange experience. I thought about giving up, but my real estate agent Dana (the greatest agent ever by the way) and my real estate father urged me to keep looking. I got back on the horse after some TLC from my Mom (thanks Mommy for coming to Portland!) and was looking at houses the following week.
We must have looked at 6 houses the following Saturday. I was feeling bruised and battered, but determined to continue on. In the past, I would frequently drive through my favorite neighborhoods, checking out the newest houses on the market. The house I ended up buying I had seen a month before. The first time I had seen it in person it was 20K more than it was that Saturday. They had just dropped the price 10k more, putting the adjusted price way below the original listing price. It was still a bit more than I had wanted to spend, but thought I would at least walk through. I was pleasantly surprised by the open floor plan, vintage charm, the loved condition of the home and all the little creative spaces this home had. I'm sure this blog will serve as a way to report the updates and changes I make to this home over time. First on my list of To-Dos is painting. I think it is ready for a fresh start and frankly, so am I! I can't really explain how symbolic this house feels for me. I'm ready for a new chapter and I think I've found it! Thanks for everybody's support throughout this process. There were times that I felt that buying a house was harder than my Ph.D! I think it is because you are really at the mercy of others when you go down this path. It just reinforces how easy it is to believe that we have total control of our lives. I'm convinced there is no such thing!
I will try to be better about posting. At least with pictures of the interior! I get the keys on Friday and have a wedding in Texas the following weekend, so it may be a while. Busy busy busy!!!!
This process from start to finish has been a long one. I have always looked forward to the time I would be able to buy a house. I started looking seriously about 3 years ago. I started following properties on line and occasionally driving to the house to walk around and check it out. I was nervous and excited when I realized that I was able to finally go ahead with this process. My efforts were jump started in early January when the cutest, cheapest, fixer of a farmhouse, in a great neighborhood, popped on the market. It was such a good deal and I knew I wanted to go for it, or at least get my ducks in a row so I had the option of making an offer on it. That house lasted 2 1/2 days on the market. It became addicting at that point. Real estate was a game and I was ready to play. I had been following a handful of properties for months and watching their sale prices decrease over time. It was exciting, until I finally started looking at the inside of homes and I found one that I liked... actually I loved it. I had already envisioned all the fantastic changes I would make to the open floor plan. I had envisioned dark stained wood floors and a white and stainless steel kitchen. All this was imagined in my head before I even left the main floor. I was hooked. I made an offer on that house and literally fell in love with the life I had imagined I could have in that house. I didn't get it....and I cried. It felt like I had lost my first love. I cried and cried.... it was such a strange experience. I thought about giving up, but my real estate agent Dana (the greatest agent ever by the way) and my real estate father urged me to keep looking. I got back on the horse after some TLC from my Mom (thanks Mommy for coming to Portland!) and was looking at houses the following week.
We must have looked at 6 houses the following Saturday. I was feeling bruised and battered, but determined to continue on. In the past, I would frequently drive through my favorite neighborhoods, checking out the newest houses on the market. The house I ended up buying I had seen a month before. The first time I had seen it in person it was 20K more than it was that Saturday. They had just dropped the price 10k more, putting the adjusted price way below the original listing price. It was still a bit more than I had wanted to spend, but thought I would at least walk through. I was pleasantly surprised by the open floor plan, vintage charm, the loved condition of the home and all the little creative spaces this home had. I'm sure this blog will serve as a way to report the updates and changes I make to this home over time. First on my list of To-Dos is painting. I think it is ready for a fresh start and frankly, so am I! I can't really explain how symbolic this house feels for me. I'm ready for a new chapter and I think I've found it! Thanks for everybody's support throughout this process. There were times that I felt that buying a house was harder than my Ph.D! I think it is because you are really at the mercy of others when you go down this path. It just reinforces how easy it is to believe that we have total control of our lives. I'm convinced there is no such thing!
I will try to be better about posting. At least with pictures of the interior! I get the keys on Friday and have a wedding in Texas the following weekend, so it may be a while. Busy busy busy!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)