FINALLY!!

We're done! Minus a couple little odds and ends that need to be done. The roof is on, the floors are down, every wall and ceiling is painting, and everything is fixed!! And it was all just in time for my grandmother to come to town tomorrow, which I honestly think is the reason it is all finished. Whenever we would catch ourselves sitting around I would say "Nanaw will be here 5,4,3, etc. days..," and it always motivated us to get up and move faster! So tomorrow she will get to see my completely redone house and enjoy her birthday fish fry without construction going on! I do still feel as though I should have put this house on "Flip this House." Now I am sitting under my nice and clean carport enjoying a glass of wine, and I am relaxed for the first time in a month. A couple weeks ago I was regretting buying this place and really missing being a renter. When you rent a place, and something goes wrong, all you have to do is pick up the phone and make a call! But now I am quite happy I bought my house! Now that everything is FINALLY done, and I get to actually come "home," I am ecstatic! BUT the next time I buy a house, if ever, I will definitely know what I should be looking for, and things will be a whole lot different!!

Home Depot Owes Me

Well, I have floors, finally! (After 15 trips to Home Depot). Everything has been painted (after 10 more trips to Home Depot), all repairs have been made (after 25 more trips to Home Depot), and with the exception of the roof, which will be done next weekend, everything is fixed and I am finally starting to unpack! However, I have lost feeling in most muscles of my body, I have lost what I can assume is an unhealthy amount of blood, and, at any moment, I feel like my phalanges are going to start falling off! Did I mention that house remodeling and clumsy people don't go together? The muscles hurt because I haven't laid a floor in about 5 years, and for good reason!!  I have cuts all over my hands, arms, and knees, along with knots all over my head. And I have done so much tedious work with my hands that my fingers are bruised! But at least it is all finally coming to an end, and I get to enjoy my house. I will definitely know what I need to look for the next time I buy a house. Now I get to start decorating! (After another 3986527236975 trips to HOME DEPOT!!) I really feel like Home Depot should send me some kind of VIP card; something along the lines of the Brookshire's card that gives you discounts. Hell, at this point, a Thank You letter would make me happy. I have never spent that much time, money, or gas at one store. I thought about just signing my paycheck over to the owner of that place yesterday. Once again though, I can't complain because my house looks awesome! Now it's time to go get some new blinds, so....I'm off to Home Depot!!

We're In....

and it is nonstop craziness!! It's amazing, the things you don't notice, no matter how many times you look at a house before you buy it. We have run into, what feels like, a million roadblocks since we moved in Tuesday. First, the moment we walked in the door we realized something we didn't notice all the times times we looked at the house.....the smell of dog urine!! GROSS!! It was in every piece of carpet in the house. How someone lived like that is beyond me. We spent 3 days steam cleaning carpet, and it did us no good. The carpets were too far gone to do anything with, except the living room. We were able to salvage it, but it will only last , are for a short time. My hallway and all my bedrooms, however are now concrete; not the best feeling when your feet hit that cold stuff first thing in the morning!! So, next weekend will be spent ripping up the rest of the carpet in the living room and laying new floors. Luckily, I used to do that very thing for a living with my uncle so at least I won't have to pay for labor, even though I swore 5 years ago, when I quit, that I would never lay another floor again in my life! I think I can handle breaking that promise to myself if it is going to save me a nice little chunk of change. I just have get back in the rhythm of things and remember the tricks of the trade, but my uncle swears that it's like riding a bike. I guess we will find out Saturday morning. The carpet is by far the worst thing we have had to deal with. Other things have been small compared to that. We have had to paint every room in the house. Some people's taste in colors is crazy to me, but then again they may think the same about me. The painting is almost done though. Only thing left with that is the trim which will probably take a while to get done, but what better time to do than when there is no carpet on the floor? You can drip paint on concrete and not worry about it, which is good because I am quite clumsy. Other problems have been things such as projects done by the previous owners being "half-assed." They started things and then, it looks like, they finished them as quickly as possible. One example being; they took down all the kitchen cabinets to strip and stain them. Now I have one cabinet that is so crooked it is an eyesore and half of my cabinet doors do not close. This means we get to take them down and rehang them with the hinges being screwed in correctly. Now, don't get me wrong; we have a nice house, and I love it. It has just been a little bit of a disaster getting everything together. Good news is, I did get my kitchen all finished and stocked this morning so I can cook and actually use that room of the house. I am also watching Tim drill holes in my wall right now because he is about to hang our TV and hook everything up. Once he is done with that, I will be able to organize my living room and I will then have a second room of the   house that I can actually use. So it is coming along nicely; just a little slowly and painfully. I'd say by next week, we should be good to go. Now if I can just get my dang dog to figure out where she is and what she is doing here then I will really be winning!!