Sunday, August 29, 2010

Homeowners

We have had the keys to our new place for a couple of days now. So far we have swept, mopped, washed walls, scrubbed baseboards, broken down and hauled out junk left behind by the former occupants, and done yardwork.

Here is some awesome stuff about our awesome house:

  • The toilets have those cushy-foam seats.  Classy, no?
  • The former occupants left us a bottle of 1988 Chauteau d' Gaudin wine (probably by accident).  It's from France.  What are you feelings on cooking with wine?
  • We have a fig tree that I hated until Paul pruned it and now I think it looks gorgeous.  We also have a lemon tree, an apple tree, and an orange tree.
  • The black lineoleum turned out to be a light pink colored once I scrubbed it for four hours with flu-killing, anti-bacterializing, bleach infused cleaner.
  • The oven is so small that it doesn't look like it will fit a normal sized cookie sheet.
On Saturday Paul started demo on our first real construction project.  We maybe jumped the gun here a bit since we won't actually be remodeling the kitchen until next year, but there is a wall dividing the kitchen from the living room and he started taking it down today.  We plan to put in an island between the two spaces but otherwise having an open floor plan.  First he had to dismantle a bank of cabinets.  Then he even moved all of the electrical wiring from the wall that we wanted to tear down and channeled it into another wall which is a much more useful spot for wiring anyway. 

For those who are interested, here are some additional photos of our new place.  Most are of the main living area.  Those are not hardwood floors btw, just laminate.



The wall in the middle of this photo is the one that is coming down and will eventually be replaced with an island and counter seating.


We plan to rearrange the kitchen layout and move the fridge to a where the oven currently is.


Here is the guest bathroom.


All of the bedrooms are tiny and they look exactly the same, so I am just posting one bedroom photo here.


The hallway and linen closet.  Paul hasn't yet been able to get these doors back on their tracks.


Our front entrance.  This is after Paul removed the ghetto screen door.  Behind the massive bush is a window to the guest bathroom.  The window to the left of the photo is the master bathroom, and the windows to the right of the entrance are the kitchen windows over the sink.


The driveway.  The giant flowering bush has got to go. 


The back patio and yard.  We've already done quite a bit of work back here and have additional photos, but will probably try to do a before and after post pretty soon about this area. 


And here are some of the start of the remodel taken with my camera phone (sorry about the quality):



Contemplating what to do next. 


The wine.

12 comments:

  1. You know, I would be fine with cooking with wine, but I'm super uncomfortable purchasing it. So I don't, and don't miss it.

    I'm so excited for all the project pictures! And gross, I can't believe your linoleum was that bad. Nasty.

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  2. Thanks for posting! Can I help at all? I'd absolutely love to take some stress out. Scrubbing anything or the thought of taking a sledgehammer to a wall is very inviting. Regarding the wine - the alcohol should cook out. But I'm not LDS, so I probably am not the best source of this opinion :)

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  3. Looks great - and super exciting! Keep posting the pictures.

    Smart choice taking down that wall, you should be on one of those TV shows.

    As for the wine, drink it. Or, have non-LDS friends over to drink it (if I lived close by, I'd gladly down it for you and give you a play by play as to the taste and texture). Or, cook with it - it'll cook off

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  4. How exciting! Congratulations again.

    I've never cooked with wine, but that's mostly because I don't cook much. I don't think there's anything wrong with using it.

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  5. On my mission in Italy, I had a companion who claimed he liked the flavor of wine. The alcohol does cook off, but I tried to avoid it just so it wouldn't become a habit. Weakest of the weak, you know.
    Also, I'm jealous of your fig tree. The other fruit trees too, but mostly the fig.

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  6. Wow, your house looks amazing! Jealous!

    - Occasional blog stalker :)

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  7. Wow! You two are homeowners! Congrats. As for the wine, I think you should find a local boat builder and break it on the hull of a boat. I mean, who hasn't dreamed of doing that!

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  8. Thanks for all the support you guys! I think we probably will cook with this wine. We'll see how that goes. Although Emily, I TOTALLY thought of your idea. But I think that is champagne my friend.

    And Dee - why figs? Do you eat them? How do you eat them? I've only ever had them in fig newtons or dried, so I am not entirely sure what to do with them. But there are tons of nice and ripe ones right now.

    Nikki - we have a tree in the backyard that needs to come down. You are welcome to come over and take an axe to it. Seriously.

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  9. You're house is so cute! It's such a California house. We love being homeowners so we're really excited for you guys. Our summer's been crazy with house projects so I can totally relate to all the work you're doing on your house. I can't wait to see more before and after pictures.

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  10. I cook with wine and I think it's totally fine. I say go for it! And tell me what you make.

    Since I was privileged enough to see an earlier set of photos, I kind of consider these ones to be "afters" and I think it looks great! It looks sooo much better with all of the old tenants junk out of there and much cleaner after all of your scrubbing too.

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  11. Are you trying to make me more jealous? Oh, you eat figs, and they can be delicious. I'm no expert on varieties or whatever, but I remember some delicious figs. You can apparently eat them whole, though I remember avoiding the skin and cutting them in half. They are soft and sweet and very good.

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  12. One of our favorite recipes calls for red wine. So, I cook with it. However, I've wondered about it lately because I don't want to confuse my kids. Oh! And you should have seen the look on the Teachers' faces when they came to move us and found wine in the kitchen!

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