Slowly, but surely

Thanks to wonderful friends the bathroom is getting done. But it's around their schedule, so right now we have a room with a bath/shower and a half bath with a sink and toilet.
The literal " bath" room is down to the concrete and studs. There were at least 2 layers of tile to get through! Check out that weird toilet flange!!



We need to call a plumber to fix a few things and hopefully by Saturday we will have a fully finished sub floor. I'll keep you updated!

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Sink options- Full bath

We need new floor tile and we will need a new sink. The new sink is needed if we don't want the current vanity blocking the vent the way it currently is(was). There has been a big demo, and now it's time to pinck the pieces! Totally backwards, but this was a bathroom redo that we did NOT expect or plan. So we'll grin and get it done. Hopefully quickly and cheaply!
Much to my dismay we need a pedestal sink. Therefore, the goals for the sink are to get something with as much flat
"counter space" or ledge as possible. To have more horizontal space it
needs to be rectangle-ish to achieve that. It needs to be 24-26 (maaaybe
27) inches. Also looking for something under $300 if at all possible.
We need it within a week or so. With these in mind, (wide ledge, rectanglish, 24-26ish inches and under $300) here's the sinks we're considering:




Kohler Memoirs Pedestal Sink
27" x 22" x 35" or
24"

PROS:
widest flat ledge I found in our price range and size (or at all really)
Available locally at Home Depot or on Amazon
Simple lines, but somewhat sophisticated as well

CONS:
might be too deep for the space. Need to do the masking tape test to find out
Don't love it
Pricier by a little then we were planning (coupon would help)
Prices: efaucet $335
$419 amazon
$338 home Depot



Toto Promenade Pedestal Sink
27" x 22" x 35"Fireclay Pedestal Lavatory
Pros:
Good price ($223)

Cons:
a bit smaller
not a great ledge
eh don't love

$223 amazon



Cheviot Antique Pedestal Sink
22" x 18" White
$325 EFACUETS
$419 AMAZON
The 26-inch-wide is $276.50 at eFaucets
So those are the sinks. Unless someone suggests something better! Any thoughts??
I was going to post abt tile, but that will have to wait until tomorrow!! :)

Taming the laundry

Today's goal: get control of the laundry room! That goal includes building two laundry dressers from Anawhite.com




To help in this endeavor is my new drill and circular saw I found last night at HD.



I hadn't planned it, but I needed a drill once I return my borrowed one and I've been wanting to get this project done. I returned items that were $52, it's was on sale for $99 and I used a 10% coupon we received when we moved. Total for drill AND circular saw: $47!! That $23.50 for each!! I'm pretty excited! Off to measure and cut!

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Today's plan: friends and paint

We are to the painting stage! There is still electric to be finished, but today with help here's what we hope to do:
Paint 2nd coat on playroom
First and second in master
Sand and primer in kids room
Figure out tile needed in bathroom
Buy tile
Start repairing holes in living room
If we have extra time:
Paint half bath
Repaint hallway


Tomorrow
Paint laundry room floor
Kitchen
Finish girls room
Finish living room
Tile bathroom
Rip out weeds
Kill poison ivy
Move garden plots from rental

Whew that's a lot! We will see how it goes! I'll update with pictures!

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Electricity halfway there!

We've got holes in the right places and wires sticking out! Hopefully today it will be finished! As expected the electricity has been a mess in the attic. It was also a mess in the walls. We are REALLY glad we decided to get it done, now to have it finished!


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We are in!

After a 2 1/2 hour closing meeting we are in!!! Boy that was long, but it was positive and we are getting some money back from the deal, so here's to earning the money sitting around ;)
The electrical work looks like it will be around $2000- GULP! But we will be able to lower the cost a bit, by replacing the drywall ourselves. And that is to do everything we need to do and want to do. If something else comes up we will have to cut out some wants. The electric box itself which  needs to be inspected will be $900!! Needless to say my jaw dropped on that! But with the permit being $400, I guess it's understandable!
So the electrician came by today to get the list of materials. She starts tomorrow at 8 AM. Tonight I bought a light and 2 bathroom cabinets. I keep going to the house without a measuring tape!! So I had to guess on the size. One is recessed and one is not. Hopefully I eyeballed it correctly on one of them! Now I just need to find one of the two tape measures and make sure munchkins don't take it out of my purse as they are wont to do!
Depending on the cabinet that fits It was about $120 for the bathroom. I had budgeted $150, so that's good,but I as really hoping to get something off of Craigslist for waay less (like $40- like I saw but couldn't pick up). Alas we needed this so fast that Craiglist just didn't work!
I also did a FAST Ikea run. And I mean fast! After I got the kids to sleep, I drove down there and got there 15 minutes before closing. I made a fast trip into the AS-IS department and they didn't have the table I wanted, so I went tot he computer, punched in the table and wah-lah, got the location. I went to do a quick look at the light fixtures as well as pick up a cart and made it back to the line in time to have the first closing call. I also closed out Home Depot an hour later buying the cabinet and light. This is exciting to see it all happening!
I'm also hoping to get an estimate on putting a door in the laundry room to the back yard tomorrow, but it might be later. That is going to require a permit, and might be a pricey penny. However with a back door through the living room and no easy outside access from the kitchen, the garbage will have to go from the kitchen through the dining room and out the front door. Muddy kids will come in the back door through the living room and into the kitchen and then laundry room to change. We're hoping to be able to have a door go outside directly from the laundry room. It will change the configuration a bit and may limit the ability to have a Freezer, so it's all stuff to consider. Plus there are gas lines and water lines that may prevent the entire thing anyway! We will find out soon!
More tomorrow! I'm hitting the hay!
Willow

4 days and counting!

Yesterday we faxed in the last of the mortgage papers and we are READY! Now I'm sure we might get more requests for paperwork Monday but after spending a week chasing papers and being told each new day that something else unexpected was needed, I'm excited for the weekend and the paper chase to be over. I'm even more excited about the house! I'm still cautious because anything "could" happen, but we could also be owners of our own property in a mere 92 hours. WOW. I'm speechless :)
A;; our hard work might actually pay off and we get to start get the house ready to live in. I'm cautiously and SUPERLY Excited!!
Willow

Carpet cleaning on a penny

I posted yesterday about the great deal I found on Living Social for the carpet cleaners. However the more I stared at our carpet, and looked and looked, I got a dark deep sinking feeling that the carpet was going to need a WHOLE lot more than steam cleaning in one room. I had read recently about ironing your carpet. Yes you read that right Ironing your carpet. Now don't jsut go do it or you' have a mes. First go and read  about it here. I'll wait.
Now that you've read about how you only need rags ammonia and an iron to clean the whole carpet- aren't you excited!! I'M sooo excited! I can't wait to get the gunk off this rug and stop worrying about what might happen in 2 weeks about the carpet!! So first thing, I will be tacking all those ugly stains that have me scared and nervous about the cost of the cleaning. SO here's my crazy goal- to not even NEED ANY deep cleaning from the carpet cleaners and be able to pay only $50 for the carpet cleaning. When I have budgeted $300 that's quite a few smackeroos to save! That means I might just be able to sneak in some fabric,  but probably more like a fence or actually afford to hire an arborist to cut down the tree threatening my children's' bedroom. But I digress. Let's just say it's kind of silly, but I'm excited to go to town on the rug! Thankfully it's payday and I have grocery money so it's not even going to touch the house budget and yet it might cut down the rug cleaning cost by another $25 dollars! I WILL take pictures!
Willow

Finding deals!

We need to get our carpet cleaned and I was resigned as part of the lease. The price my hubby found(his job for that one!) was $299. Yikes! But that was the best he found, so I put it in our budget and hoped for a better deal. Today I found one!! At living social carpet cleaning is $50 for $99 worth of cleaning! It will be $75 total since they need to deep clean the dining room, but $75 compared to $300 is saving of $225!!!!
Here's the link if you happen to be in the DC metro area and want to take advantage of it yourself!
https://www.livingsocial.com/deals/384320?ref=conf-jp&rpi=70018614

Willow

Low cost project list

Here are the projects I'm going to look at doing for low or no money:

Laundry basket dresser (might have the wood in the shed)  from beingbrooke.com

Laundry signs on wood
http://diddledumpling.blogspot.com/2010/05/tutorial-vintage-looking-painted-sign.html

Fabric mosaic:
http://thecartbeforethehorse.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-table.html

Cute canvas sayings:
Directions will be coming in a tutorial. I can't find an easy one on line for you! Here's my sayings:
Sayings:
http://www.ldsprintables.com/2012/04/be-loyal-to-royal-within-you.html
http://www.simpleasthatblog.com/2011/07/inspiring-quotes-free-printables.html


Eventually I'll figure out how to get My pinterest pins to post here. Then you can see all the pretty pictures!
More will be forth coming!
Time to pack!
Willow

Going on a wing and a prayer!

We are going through with the house! The electricity is going to have be done one outlet at a time.  It's an unknown as we open each outlet. Some are fine, others need work. We've found no ground, cut ground wire and a wired box, but not the wires themselves. We also need to get the electric box inspected.  That work will be done first. We are hoping to move a light switch or two, and add outlets in the kitchen, but that will be decided that day as we go and depending how much it costs. I'm chomping at the bit to do some projects, but I can't spend any money to do them yet. So I will  be coming up with projects for which  we have materials.
The electricity  is one thing I cannot and will not do myself, so we have to pay to do it. For the safety we have to do it now. So we are packing! The house is more than halfway packed up. We will still be living in it for 2 weeks after we close so we are packing everything except what we will be using daily. We will be sleeping here and working on the new house. We close on Tuesday the 17th at 10 AM. Hubby has the day off, so we can get a bunch done the first day and then our electrician comes! We are getting excited!
Here's the list we could do depending on time and cooperation of children the day we close:

Begin removing wallpaper in the kids room (need supplies)
Paint laundry room floor brown (Concrete paint)
Paint school room- sage colored. (clean and paint closet)
Garden- move our square foot garden box and dirt and plant. Cost free (labor- lots!)
Check out wood in shed- find wood for different projects.
Rent sander? At some point the kids room and the bathroom need to be sanded before we paint. I'm hoping to borrow a sander, but may need to rent one.

Other things to do:
Get estimates on Arborists to remove tree 4 feet from house
Find wood and put up fence
Install water heater
These are all based uppon what supplies we can find and what the cost of the ELECTRIC work ends up being.

I have a list of supplies to pick up at the store, as soon as we've closed or right before. I'm using cash and keeping the receipt!
Here we go!! :)
Willow

The ups and downs of home ownership

Already we're experiencing the issues of home ownership! We had an electrician over for an estimate. It's going be bigger than we anticipated. Apparently even though there ARE 3 hole prongs throughout the house, only the kitchen is truly wired with a grounding wire. Because the walls are plaster it's not a self fix, like we thought it might be. So now we go into new unchartered territory for us. It reminds me of two country songs. The lines I'm thinking of are " two sparrows in a hurricane trying to find their way" and "a little bitty house in a great big city". Here we go through the storm to see if we can get our "Little bitty house in the great big city"!


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2 1/2 weeks until closing!

Things have been busy the last week- and yet they haven't. I've made a LOT of phone calls and emails and arrangements. We got the appraisal back(appraised over contract price-YAY!) and now it's a "real" thing that's happening. We also got most of the mortgage papers in, but I'm sure there will be more as we get closer.
Now it's time to pack, a but I'd sewing and finish my last picture projects. I need to nail down an electrician and make a final decision on a tankless or traditional water heater. The frustrating thing is we can't make these decisions until I have real live estimates and I've been having a hard time getting those!
I've just kept reminding myself that if this truly IS the right house, everything will work out.
I've had a big of panic about the electric situation and wires and LEARNED WAY more than I ever thought necessary about wiring and different types and age of wiring.
Dis you know that something called knob and cylinder wiring was done in the 40s and if you have it in your home now, you have to completely replace it or you can't get home owners insurance. And depending on the county regs it might be a similar situation to the knobs?
So yep, I've been doing a good ole freak out! We certainly did not think we'd be doing an entire house rewiring. We still might not have to, but then again we might. And here's the kicker-I'm not sure when I'll know!! That enough to make me lose it :)
My friend told me today not to fret - and I told her I wasn't. She laughed and said,"oh really what do you call this?" referring to our conversation about the wiring.
In my stubborn bullheaded fashion I replied,"this is not worrying this is planning. If I don't figure this out THEN I will be worrying, but someone HAS to figure out the wiring and that job has fallen to me. "
The interesting thing to me about this whole experience is how much more I am relying on Heavenly help than I usually do. Usually I am in familiar territory and can make the money work. Here we are in COMPLETELY unchartered territory for us, and we have a small budget of what we can do. Just last night I was worrying abt how to pay for the water heater, electrical work (If it's the WHOLE HOUSE!!?!?!) and the other safety issues we NEED to do. And yet still do the painting and things that for us if we don't do now- just aren't going to happen in reality!
I gave it to God and said you've got to find us the money to get this work done. If it has to fall from the sky, we can't live here without this work being done and we don't have the money to do it all.
That was my prayer and I left it there. This morning was pay day and I did bills and set up new accounts with the different utilities. In the midsts of this, I had a realization that we aren't paying rent or mortgage for 6 more weeks and although we had planned on it going up savings IF WE HAVD TO, we can pay for the reworking of that needs got be done. So I'm feeling calmer now, and that God has it under control. I'm still praying $ comes from the sky:) to get all what we/need/ want ! :)
But if it does nor, I know He still has us covered!
I'm falling to sleep as I write, so that's all tonight!

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This Saturday's round up

Between Craigslist and Freecycle I netted a bunch of boxes! I need more smaller ones for books, but this works!




Here is my carport full up! Total cost - gas. The way I calculate gas this doesn't cost me anything unless I have to get more. I fill up once every two weeks, and far I'm still on target had wise.
We ate chugging alone with closing in 10 days!! We have an electrical inspection Monday to see what we need to do to make sure it's all fixed. Fingers crossed, it's not too much!
I'll get to my spending tally total next post, but so far I've netted boxes and spent $0!! Awesome!

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Budget update

I ordered some fabric and it came today!!
Fabric $15 not on sale(gasp!!) but good quality and ordered to may h the other fabric I had. Actually this is halved because the first yard was the wrong one and sweet Joanne at Nature's fabric fixed it and didn't charge me or ask for their fabric !
Canvas $20-25 ( I got this for wall hangings, more here) I can't remember the price, I'll have to check my receipt.
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Craigslist find!

I found this hutch:



On Craigslist and hubby and the gang picked it up while I rested. (Apparently I have a bronchial infection! Hubby was sweet to come home to help! Big points!!)
I'm excited about the desk for either the desk top or the laptop. If I had enough money I'd buy a second for both hubby and Me, but at $150 on Craigslist that's too high for my budget!!
It's from Ikea and called Hemnes secretary. They no longer sell this version. It's in two pieces and then has an awesome bench with filing underneath!! Love multi functional furniture AND hidden store and the bench is BOTH!!

So here's cost run down so far:
Paint $2.00
Desk $150.00
Total spent &152, have $248, left for decorating and furniture. We need a kitchen table, and I'd like to get some others decorative things. I want to get a light and mirror/ cabinet for the bathroom and a cabinet for over the toilet. We'll see how the budget works! I was going to have to do paint from that budget, but we got a nice gift for $150 for paint and "Whatever" yay!

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Not much progress on packing...

This has been a crazy, difficult week. My grandmother pass away on Thursday night.  My grandmother was very old and was ready to go home. We will miss her greatly.
Then Friday night out of nowhere we had a HUGE derecho storm that knocked out power to over 1 million folks in the DC metro area, including us.
 Here are some incredible photos of the destruction. Needless to say packing quickly went off the top priority, when faced with 105-110 heat index and no AC. We scurried to family Saturday morning and returned tonight, Sunday. Phew! AC is back on!
Currently there are STILL one quarter of a million people without power, and some are estimated to not get back for 4 more days!! They need our prayers and thoughts!
For me tomorrow, here's the plan: Finish cleaning out the gross fridge(spoiled food), call Electricians to schedule an estimate on the wiring, Call an Arborist about possibly removing the tree 4 feet from the house, pack 3 shelves, read some books and do playdough with the kiddos!

House and yard layout

Here's a basic overview of the house and yard:








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Resource List

We live outside a big metro area and there are lots of sources of free and discount items. I am heavily relying in the following resources:
Free cycle
Craigslist-free and for sale
Thrift stores
Yard sales
Curbside
Friends and neighbors leftovers
Oops paint

In order to make these all come together I'm using:
Pinterest.com
Anawhite.com for plans
A plethora of other online websites

Hope this is helpful as you stretch your own pretty pennies!
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Paint and fabric

Ini my quest to do this on a teeny budget, I am scouring free items wherever Ican find them! First look is around my own home. Since I've been a little uninspired about colors in the school room, I thought I would go through my fabrics to find color inspiration! And boy did I!
And the fun thing is I haven't hit the main mother lode of the fabric yet!!
So here we are:
Girls room ideas





And with yellow:




Adding a fabric from the quilts I've had "in progress" for a few years!





I'm hoping to finish those quilts before move in!

School room fabrics:





The light wasn't great, but I'm leaning to the second from the top for inspiration, however I like the last one too, but of course they don't go well together! :)

And the laundry room curtain possibilities:




All of these might work, but i have most of the bottom. We are going to have the girls dressers and a curtained off area for them to change in, so I've got a few fabrics to pick!

Have to raid my mothers stash as well, but I'm thinking it might be pretty space at this point. That's all for now!


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Paint chips in place!

I went to the inspection yesterday. And besides bring freaked out about the amount of work and responsibility I also
got some paint chip pictures!
Now looking at the pictures it's hard to tell, BUT I *think* a shade of aqua(that hubby requested) will possibly work in the kitchen. I really want an aqua and yellow laundry room. Challenge is there is a door with windows plus there's a good chance the door will be open quite a bit :).
So here we go:




I'm not sure about the deep shade, but hopefully one of these will work at pulling out the aqua in these countertops!





Here's some laundry room pics - on the red floor! Wondering if I could possibly not repaint!






Here's what I'm calling "the gray bathroom"




I think I like the darker, surprisingly. It's more of a brown than I thought.




Here's a reason I felt overwhelmed today:




Sigh. Since I don't love the cabinet I'm hoping to find something on Freecycle or Craigslist that's better and then place it NEXT to the wall covering the hole :) This is not my favorite vanity over all:





The lightbulbs make my eyes hurt!

More posts coming with fabric too-from my stash of course!


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Freecycle=free stuff!

We went on a freecycle round up over the weekend. This is what I was able to pick up for the cost of gas!



Behind this storage shelf there's is a little bookshelf. It's pair is below. There's also a large (HEAVY) wood bench that I think I can turn into a shoe cabinet with doors. The storage unit is EXACTLY what I had been
Hoping for the laundry/storage room!



We are very blessed in this area to have a very active Freecycle list. I know that's not the case everywhere. Thrift store and garbage day are good places to look for cheap and free items of your Freecycle is lacking. Craigslist free is another gear place, if you have an active area near you.

Let me know what you scored!!
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Home depot wanderings

As a date Hubby and I cruised the aisles of Home Depot. It's been a LONG time since we've been there. We generally go to the local hardware store, but they don't carry lumber, and HD does. Most likely I'll buy the stuff elsewhere.
So here's what we found worth taking pictures:





What is it? It's the cover for the overflow valve in the bath tub.We need one of there, most assuredly. However the seller might put it up in the next month before we close.
We found some wish list items. They are more of a " Yeah, right" Never going to happen, but still took pictures!
We did get something after All!





For $2 some accent paint 50% off! Our first big splurge! ;)
And here are some more wish list items :










I am hoping for strong showers and clean closing doors :)
Off to pick fabric colors!
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Paint thoughts

Paint thoughts
I'm really hoping I get to pick these paints. I have a small budget and buying full price paint is going to blow it big time- or leave room for nothing else. So I will be commuting to Home depot and the local Hardware store to see what their "oops paint" selection is like. They are close, so I' m not blowing gas $. I'm thinking Lowe's may have an oops section too. Here are my general paint ideas. The inspection is tomorrow, so we'll see what changes once  take the paint chips we selected over there. Nothing like a date going to Home Depot to pick paint colors and price out everything else!

Kitchen-

Light turquoise? Or maybe a deep sage-ish green. The counter top of green, cream and black combined with oak cabinets is making this a challenge. Fingers crossed a light aqua pulls out the green!

 

This is the laminate counter top we're dealing with. See there *might JUST* be a bit of aqua/turquoise in there!

Laundry room- a turquoise/aqua white and yellow accents and dark (brown? concrete painted floor)
living room/dining room- yellow paint with gold, sage, red and mahogany and white (book shelves)

Half bath- slate blue in a beach theme, some tan/sand colors as well as white and some other blues

Full bath. Have *LOVELY* Grey and PINK tile. It's not solid pink thankfully, so it will be a dark gray wall (good light) with white and a few pink accents. Probably replace the towel rod and such with brushed stainless steel rods and soap dish and such because I have some from a freecycler from the apartment.

Hall Closet. LONG with lots of bulits in, has sliding doors- not a wlak in. Has funky looking painted wood built ins. Might paint white, but it might be nice to have a hint of color. In the yellow hallway across from both bathrooms. Good wood, just old paint that's a bit yucky. Has a weird hole to the attic. Gotta figure that out. Hoping no one slept up there once!! This was a place that was sublet to MANY people without knowledge of the landlord once upon a time.

School room- still in transition- sage with a bright coordinating color? There's lots of light in there already. need to do more thinking


Master- a shade of sky blue with reclaimed wood headboard of some kind(have to find an old door or something), so blues, whites and brown. Replacing the closet door with fabric panels or curtains(have some cream ones have to see) Painting a cream or white tree on the wall above the head board ;)
I want to paint the inside of the closet. It have a bunch of old shelving which is nice but needs a facelift. Haven't decided if I want to go with a paler blue or some thing bright like a not quite neon green ;) It will depend on what the  closet fabric looks like. Curtains I'm thinking sheers. We don't need them except for decoration so I'll see what I have in my fabric. There are blinds on all the windows!!(saves us LOTS of $$) I don't have sheers though. The windows in the bedrooms are all high.

Girls room- Pale pink with closet doors removed and a different shade of pink or a yellow or sage in the closet. The girls requested yellow polka dots- I'm thinking a few big removable spots! That's still in discussion! We may  be making a little nook in the closet with either a short bed or a reading nook. Not sure Have to measure tomorrow.

So that's the status of the house! Dreaming of colored wall after years of renting!!!

Pictures June 16

Here's some pictures of the house insides!

Pink and white tiled bathroom with Hollywood lights ;)

More beautiful tile :)

Shower window

Light switch and no outlet in the main bath. Odd

Master bedroom Closet

Master bedroom windows. They are high and long and thin, so no tall book shelves here :(. But at least they are new windows!

Girls rooms. Lovely Green painted over wall paper :) It's a vary small 9'x7'9" with windows along one wall and a vent on the floor in a REALLY bad spot, we'll make it work!

Double sided fireplace in Living room/ Dining room. Beautiful arch next to it.

School room. Orange rust colored walls, with same high and long windows!

Half bath Hoping to add some storage in here and a pale blue- Maybe ocean theme?

And here are some wish list items from our HD shopping trip :)

Dream shower head!

For half bath? Sort of tacky, but using space well.

Great shower stall space saver.

Love the idea of two rods!

Redoing molding would be easier with a "liquid nail" variety of glue as opposed to renting a nail gun. We'll have to see if that's still on the list by the end of the inspection! :)

Trim

Trim

And more trim options

Bathroom overflow plate. The one in the tub is cracked and looks jagged!

Tile for Kitchen window ledge. It's unfinished plywood right now

My Big purchase. $2.00 spray paint for accents in the girls room and the pink and gray bathroom!

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