Having a yard means so much fall clean-up. But fun first!
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finished sweaters + winter skies
1 year ago
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Progress Before the Move
Welp, we've been moved-in for a little over a month now. I've been wanting to record what we were able to accomplish in September, before we moved in. Here's a list and some photos!
Electrical - When we had the house inspected, we found out the house was running off of two panels. One was outdated, original to the house. The other was pretty small, not enough to power the whole house. As part of our buying contract, the seller had an electrician put in a brand new panel to bring the home up to code. However, there were still some things that needed to be done to make the house more livable for us. My parents were so generous to come out and help. My dad and James were able to work some magic to do these updates without even tearing out any drywall. Here's what they did:
- Ran modern, grounded wiring to outlets in the living room and master bedroom
- Reworked the garage lighting and electrical situation so that it was safer
- Ran a 220 down to the basement for our electric dryer
- Installed GFCI outlets in the kitchen and bathroom
- Replaced and repaired any broken outlets
Yard - We are so pleased with the size of our yard, and with the yummy fruit growing on our trees. However, the house had been vacant since early spring, so the yard was a huge mess. My in-laws came to the rescue and made some huge clean-up progress in the yard. James and I (and Joah!) helped out a bit too. We aren't so concerned about aesthetics at this point, since everything will be covered in snow soon. So we basically picked up fruit and tried to remove as many dead things as we could. It made a big difference!
Exterior - One of my top priorities was giving the exterior a quick facelift with paint. Something about choosing our front door color made the house feel like it was really ours. So fun to see it moving toward our photoshopped dream!
- Painted front door
- Painted stucco on garage
- Painted wood gate
- Filled in holes in mortar (mostly just in front; the back still needs attention)
Interior - The walls and wood trim were in desperate need of a good paint job, and we spent many many hours painting almost the entire upstairs, with the help of wonderful friends and inlaws. We chose a beautiful glossy white for all of the woodwork. For the walls, the living room is the same white, but with an eggshell finish. The kitchen and bedrooms are "painter's white," a super super light warm gray. I'm so happy with all of it!
Electrical - When we had the house inspected, we found out the house was running off of two panels. One was outdated, original to the house. The other was pretty small, not enough to power the whole house. As part of our buying contract, the seller had an electrician put in a brand new panel to bring the home up to code. However, there were still some things that needed to be done to make the house more livable for us. My parents were so generous to come out and help. My dad and James were able to work some magic to do these updates without even tearing out any drywall. Here's what they did:
- Ran modern, grounded wiring to outlets in the living room and master bedroom
- Reworked the garage lighting and electrical situation so that it was safer
- Ran a 220 down to the basement for our electric dryer
- Installed GFCI outlets in the kitchen and bathroom
- Replaced and repaired any broken outlets
Yard - We are so pleased with the size of our yard, and with the yummy fruit growing on our trees. However, the house had been vacant since early spring, so the yard was a huge mess. My in-laws came to the rescue and made some huge clean-up progress in the yard. James and I (and Joah!) helped out a bit too. We aren't so concerned about aesthetics at this point, since everything will be covered in snow soon. So we basically picked up fruit and tried to remove as many dead things as we could. It made a big difference!
- Painted front door
- Painted stucco on garage
- Painted wood gate
- Filled in holes in mortar (mostly just in front; the back still needs attention)
Interior - The walls and wood trim were in desperate need of a good paint job, and we spent many many hours painting almost the entire upstairs, with the help of wonderful friends and inlaws. We chose a beautiful glossy white for all of the woodwork. For the walls, the living room is the same white, but with an eggshell finish. The kitchen and bedrooms are "painter's white," a super super light warm gray. I'm so happy with all of it!
Exterior Plans
Our house has potential! A lot of these improvements will have to wait until the spring time, but this was a fun little exercise.
This photo was taken about a week after we closed on the house. My dad and James did some yard clean up, which gave us a much better view of the house.
This photo was taken about a week after we closed on the house. My dad and James did some yard clean up, which gave us a much better view of the house.
And here is a fun little representation of some of our goals for the house. It's nice to have a visual to motivate me. SO CUTE, right?
PS. I blurred out our house numbers on the first one, and used fake numbers on the second one. Just because these are on the internetz and all.
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