Sunday, February 1

We were at the house all day today - from 8:30 am until around 7:00 pm or so painting most of that time. We have completed the following:

• Kitchen Ceiling (two coats)
• Foyer ceiling (two coats)
  
• Living Room ceiling (one coat)
  
• Kitchen walls (one coat)

The plans for tomorrow include finishing the second coat of the kitchen walls, and completing the walls and ceiling in the family room. It should be a good day tomorrow - lots of painting and hopefully two completed rooms - the kitchen and family room..

We'll post pictures soon!

Bruce

Day #9 - More Wallpaper Comes Down

Last night, we got more than halfway done with the master bathroom, which was an exciting development. We're moving forward with it, and will continue peeling, even after we are living in the house.

Speaking of living in the house, we are planning to be fully moved in February 7, 2009. However, we will still have the apartment until the end of March in case we do need to back that timeframe up a little bit.

Lastly, we're heading out tonight to look at new mattresses and bedroom sets to furnish that part of the house. That will essentially furnish two rooms - the master bedroom with what we buy and the spare bedroom with the stuff we currently have. Hopefully we'll be able to have this new stuff delivered by February 7 as well!

Thanks for reading, and we hope we can have you to the new house in the Spring or Summer!

-Bruce and Anna

Day #6 - Wallpaper Removal Continues...

So we have finished the wall in master bedroom, and are on to the master bathroom now... Anna and Liz were at the house starting at around 2 pm yesterday and made significant progress before I came to the house after work. Check out the photos below:

Above: Master bath above the tub - DONE!

Above: Where we finished yesterday

Lots more to do, but we're making great progress! Keep an eye on the blog, and we'll keep you updated on how the house is coming along!

-Bruce and Anna

Day #5 in the House

So we were at the house for around 7 hours today. Most of that time was spent peeling wallpaper. The steamer that we bought has REALLY been great, as it has allowed us to get a lot more done at a time. In fact, we finished the master bedroom wall that we have been working on for the past two days today - a big accomplishment. See the photo below...

Above: Anna in the master bedroom with the clean wall...

I also shoveled the driveway and sidewalk in front of the house and cleaned the loft and stairs' woodwork.

We had a good day today at the house, and Anna will be there tomorrow during the day on her day off starting to peel in the master bath. Hopefully it comes off a little easier than the master bedroom paper did!

We'll continue to keep you updated as we continue the work on the new house!

-Bruce and Anna

Day #3 with the House

So we had new carpet installed today at the new house. Because of this, we were there all day. The extreme cold weather caused Anna to have the day off work, as the school was cancelled, and I took the day off to be at the house with the installers. The whole installation took around 7 hours, which seemed like an eternity.

As they were doing their work, Anna and I cleaned the kitchen, as well as the baseboards and windows in around three or four rooms and the basement. So even with carpet installers in the house all day, we were able to get a good amount of work done as well.

The big project that we're still working on before moving in is removing wallpaper from the master bedroom and bathroom. It is not coming off easily, and we bought a steamer to help with this effort. We also have wallpaper in the living room and dining room, which we will likely have to complete once we move in.

Anyway, back to the house tomorrow evening to do some additional wallpaper removal. Should be fun! Thanks for following our progress...

Bruce and Anna

We're Homeowners!

So we closed on the new house this morning! Very, very exciting.

Following our hands almost falling off because of all of the papers we had to sign, Bruce went to the house and began doing some work - shoveling the driveway, removing child "locks" from the kitchen cabinets from the previous owners, and beginning the grueling task of removing wallpaper with hot water and fabric softener... That was not as successful a venture as he had hoped, so we're trying to come to a consensus on the next step - either buying a steamer to remove it or using one of the off the shelf wallpaper removal chemicals. Not sure which we'll use yet, but would love to hear your thoughts!

We're back to the house tomorrow night to continue our efforts, and we'll keep you updated on our progress as we move forward. For tonight, we're just happy to finally be homeowners!

Closing on the House...

So it's been a while since we have posted on here. Our apologies!

It's also been a while since we actually got everything ready to close on the new house, and this Tuesday we'll finally be closing on it!! We are extremely excited about the chance to get the keys to our new home so we can get in there and begin doing some work to make it exactly what we want.

What we're planning on doing:

• We have our apartment until the end of March, so we'll be moving in slowly after the closing.
• We will be removing some wallpaper, painting, changing some of the faucets, etc. during the next month or so, and will be hoping to move in full-time in early-mid February.
• Bruce's Dad will be coming to assist with some of the painting, faucet replacement, etc. at the beginning of February.
• We will be hoping to have the full house furnished in the next couple months. We already purchased a new couch for the family room, which will allow us to use our current furniture for the basement. The next room to furnish is the master bedroom so we can use our current stuff in the guest bedroom.

Other than all of that, we are just excited to be able to buy a house at this time in our lives, and are excited to have you come visit us once we have gotten everything put together!

Hope you're well! (Did you notice the new name of the blog? What do you think?)

-Bruce and Anna