WooHoos All Around - kinda

Woohoo - Happy 100th Post!! I feel like I should make a cake or something, but my kitchen is still pulled apart, so it'll have to wait.

My home-repair-funk isn't quite over, I had a complete melt down Friday evening that involved locking myself in a bathroom crying over the fact that it had been a month since closing and I still had no idea when I am going to be able to move in. But something came along to left my spirits - NEW WINDOWS!!!

They look wonderful! They are the best of the best in impact windows, you tap on them and you're likely to come away with a bruised fingertip. Hurricanes will scare me no more!! Well, that's not true, they'll probably be even more scary than before, cause now I'll be able to see what going on outside. . .

House Numbers

I have been lusting after these house numbers from Home Depot since before I closed on my house, once the exterior is painted I may have to go buy them for myself.

Cool as a Cucumber

I was hoping to be able to save the fridge that came with the house - but alas it can not be. . . So last night after work my mom and I headed up to the Boca Raton ReStore and I picked up this beauty -

Okay, not this exact one, but this model. The ReStore had gotten a ton of them almost brand new from a failed condo conversion, and I got the last one - best part, no ice cude trays required!!

Pressure Cleaning and Paint Choices

I realized that as many time that I have mentions that I've been pressure cleaning lately I had completely forgotten to share the pictures of my handy work (ha).

So here is the back of the house where the paint seemed to just disappear under the water. . .

Here's a section where you can see that the house had been originally PINK!!!

And the reason for all this pressure cleaning, paint pealing madness: So I can paint the house lime green!

Okay, not really lime green - I'm using one of the Sherman Williams Suburban Modern interior color palettes, just outside instead of in.

Wall	Chartreuse	SW 0073
Trim	Classic French Gray	SW 0077
Accent	Pink Flamingo	SW 0080

What A Night

Last night wasn't the best night in home repair land.

I started the night off by sitting down with my checkbook and doing some money math - never a good start for an evening.

Once I got over to the house I was happy to see that the electrical had been started. My dad pointed out that it was a good thing everything had been laid in the trench that needed to be in the trench because the sides were starting to cave in - As he says it, I fall in the hole . . . it hurt.

So once I get cleaned off from falling in the hole I decide to put some of the new cabinets together. I'm happy that I was able to get one together by myself no problem, but I'm not so happy with the cabinet itself - it's a piece of crap, and I know from doing the money math earlier that I can't afford anything better.

And now I am just sorta in a home repair funk, looking like it might turn into a full on home repair depression.

In the Trenches

Literally!

In order to have central air (window units just don't cut the mustard) I have to upgrade my electric service. And if I'm upgrading my electric I might as well do it right and have it put under ground - so thus there is now a 38 foot long, 3 foot deep, and 2 foot wide trench in my backyard.

And of course I was too busy pressure cleaning to be digging a trench, so who did I get to do the dirty work?

TEENAGERS!!

Seriously, they work for pizza and ice pops!! While I was blasting the paint off my house, my little sister, her boyfriend, and her best friend were busy digging to China.

Die, Die, Die!!

Not only is it a good song, but it's what termites do when the circus comes to town.

The tenting was paid for by the seller, so that's $700 bucks I didn't have fork out - and the best part, I could hold off doing it until after closing so that I could shove some furniture in there that might or might not have been termite munchies. So now that my house and my furniture is termite free there is one less thing for me to worry about.

Two Cute Rooms

for two cute kids!!

As I shared last week my cousin/cousin (not to be confused with cousin/sister) finally popped out little Miss Mia -

Mia is not alone in the super cuteness club, she's got older brother Chase to keep her company!

Though Chase isn't so sure about this little sister thing.

Well my cousin/cousin doesn't just make cute kids, she makes cute bedrooms as well!

Miss Mia's room is all set for a pink princess:

And while Chase's room is still in transition from nursery to toddler terrain it is still a beach boy's paradise:

Ouchie

I finished up the pressure cleaning this weekend. The back of the house was much harder to do than the front. Fifty year old paint flecks and bits of bad plaster patching were a flying - into my eye! Luckily my little sister had semi-cleaned hands and she picked a piece of plaster out of my eye. And yes, I was wearing safety glasses.

The Before Tour

Okay, I'm finally ready to give the official "before" tour of my little "mid-century cottage".

These are the pictures I took the first time I went to look at the home with my realtor. The seller made some repairs before the closing, so these are really the before, before pictures.

This is the house from the street, hidden behind gates and bushes.

Get a little closer to the front porch and you can see the lovely roof damage.

Luckily the damage was only on the porch and carport, which share a flat roof,

not on the house itself.

This is the lovely "great room" - I told you the house was small.

Here we have the kitchen in all it's mix 'n' match cabinet glory.

The bathroom with the original 1957 tile - SCORE!!

The front bedroom.

The back bedroom.

The ceiling fans from Hell

(yes, that last one is half plastered/half hanging be wires from the ceiling)

The tiled carport floor. . .

Oh, and this was the previous owners idea of fixing a hole into the attic. . .

The house was built in 1957, so it is an original mid-century home, but it is so small that it's more of a cottage - hence, "mid-century cottage". Most of the houses in the area were built around the same time and with the same layout, but the majority of them have had additions over the years. I looked at a few with additions, but in general the additions seemed to have been done on the cheap and not to code. So I was very happy when I found my little 3030 addition free.

Meet Emmett

Emmett is the maybe dog of Laurendy Home.

What is a maybe dog? A maybe dog is a dog that may be mine, and may not be mine - it all depends on the cousin/sister.

Goodbye Woodpecker Tree

you will be missed. . .

luckily it appears that there were no woodpeckers home when Fay decided that the tree needed to come down.

Bad, Bad Blogger

I am so sorry, I have been a horrible blogger as of late.

I think my problem is that I am just so overwhelmed that I don't know where to start. I want to detail ever project, but when we're working on 5 and 6 projects at I time I just can't seem to figure out what to blog about first. I thought about just putting up a bunch of pictures and calling it a day, but then I forget my camera, or I don't have time to download, then upload the pictures I've taken.

I can tell you that most of the interior is painted, basically everything but the bathroom. And also the exterior colors have been picked out. I've got new windows coming in on the 29th, and a whole lot more in the works.

_________________________________________________

In other news:

Tropical Storm Fay killed my woodpecker tree - not happy about that.

There was two births in the last week:

Mia Antonia was born Thursday, August 14th to Jill and Brent
and
William Kristopher was born Sunday, August 17th to Annette and Kris

Blogged via Text-

I now know how to pressure clean!

Coupon

I just thought I'd share this coupon for 25% off your entire purchase at Linens 'N' Things, good through this Sunday.

So Tired

Okay, here's the deal - I have so much to share: things fixed, things replace, things painted. I am just too tired to actually post them at the moment. I am getting a massage this afternoon (one of the perks of having a close friend who is a massage therapist) and I may take tonight off from painting. Then maybe I'll have enough energy to post something other than ramblings. The fumes got to me last night, I'm still seeing double.

Worn Out!

I am exhausted!

This owning a home thing is a lot of work - and I haven't even moved in yet!

Accomplished So Far:

• paint the ceilings (all of them)
• paint the "great" room and hall
• install new faucet in the kitchen
• fix the bathroom plumbing (most of it)
• take out the old fans
• install one new fan
• paint door trim (most of it)
• install new kitchen light
• install pull-out trash cans in kitchen cabinets
• clean, clean, clean
• mow the yard
• chainsaw the bushes
• trim the palms
• spray paint some furniture

all in the past three days! Now, I didn't do this alone, my mom and dad helped (a lot!), and my sister even did some painting. All that done, and oh, so much more to do.

I've taken tons and tons of pictures, but I've been too wiped out to upload them! I promise I will share them as soon as I get them loaded.

Blogged via Text-

too busy to "real" blog. Lots of work getting done. Will have tons of posts & pics this week.