We bought a house! (Long post, with pics!)

[parsleysage]

My goodness what a long and stressful process, and it's only just begun! It's such an AMAZING deal but we are putting in some sweat equity for sure. We closed Wednesday and spent the night, then worked on it all day yesterday. I am back at work today and tomorrow but will be working there each night until my day off Sunday, when I hope to  work all day and have the first phase (wallpaper removal and prep of walls for painting) complete.

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I was too scared to post anything until we actually closed! I have an anxiety disorder and generally deal with deep pessimism and worry, so the ENTIRE TIME until we were sitting at the closing table actually signing the papers, I was convinced something would happen and we wouldn't get the house. So because I had to keep it all under wraps, I am now BURSTING with info!! 

house.JPG

• parsleysage
• Jun 19, 2015

Before and after of the cat pee-soaked carpet removal:

floor.JPG

• parsleysage
• Jun 19, 2015

And about 8 hours of my own work yesterday ripping off wallpaper and adhesive (top photos are B/A of kitchen, bottom photos are B/A of a bedroom):

wallpaper.JPG

• parsleysage
• Jun 19, 2015

Thanks for looking!!! 

 

[catapault]

Congratulations! Sounds like you lucked into a wonderful bargain. And the sellers were very lucky too!

One observation - yes, strip wallpaper and wash walls, maybe even prime them first before refinishing floors. But - having refinished floors myself - I'd do the floors before you put the finish paint on the walls. It is so easy to scrape / bump / mar the walls while doing the floors. You might also take the baseboards off, do the floors, paint the walls and then reinstall the baseboards / install new baseboards.

Whatever you decide, I wish you as many happy years in your new home as the previous owners enjoyed.

 

[denice]

Congratulations

It does look like the kitchen has been redone fairly recently which is one less big job.  A 'fixer-upper' can certainly be a really good deal even if it does mean a lot of work.  Hopefully the kitty urine smell won't be an issue.  I know you can get a product for the walls that blocks smells, it's used a lot for cigarette smoke.  I am not sure about floors though.  Refinishing would take care of a lot of the scent as well.

 

[kntrygrl256]

That is awesome. It's wonderful that you lucked into everything. I hate moving but I know it's worth it to have a  place of you own. Congratulations and good luck with everything going your way!!!!!!!

 

[Winchester]

Wow. Just wow! What a nice house! Yeah, it looks dated, but you know, you upgrade where you need to, you paint, you do what you have to do as you go. It looks like a really nice house. The kitchen is nice....I could cook in it for now. Those hardwood floors look pretty nice, too. I'd much rather have hardwood floors than carpet, esp with the cats.

If you decide to put new carpet down on the cat pee-stained hardwood, find something that you can put down on the floor first to get rid of the urine smell or to keep the smell between the hardwood and whatever you put down. You could probably go to a hardware or home improvements store to see what they have to combat that issue. Some of that wood may need to come up simply from being peed on all the time. Refinishing the floors will help to a certain extent, but what you can't smell, your cats still might be able to sniff out.

Also, there is some kind of machine that you can put in your house before you move in (and esp before your cats move in). You plug the machine in and it will get rid of all the smells in the house (not the pee smell on the wooden floor, unfortunately). My co-worker bought one when he bought his house. There was an elderly couple living there and the entire house had "old people" smell. Seriously, I'm not trying to be snotty; that's what it was called. Old people smell. I helped him clean his house and that smell was nasty, even with all the candles we had burning....it almost made us sick after a while....it's just the smell of people living there for decades and not having windows open and such. He plugged it in for a weekend and the difference was amazing.

Does the fireplace work? Looks like there might be an insert, too. I love having an in-ground pool....you'll use it more than you think.

Your house is cool. Congratulations! 

 

 

[Draco]

beautiful home!! Congrats and lots of luck!

 

[swampwitch]

How very nice, congratulations! The house is adorable and those sheds and garages are going to come in very handy. I love the red brick fireplace, too, just as it is. The hardwood floor looks undamaged from the pee stains - usually you can see the dark stains on the wood and that takes a lot of work (sanding and re-staining) to get rid of. Having hardwood floors under the carpets is a huge boon - putting in beautiful solid hardwood floors like you have there is super expensive. It's wonderful they left so many things you need, buying all that stuff not only takes money but it takes a lot of your time.

We have something similar going on here, we just bought a house, too, in April and got possession the end of May. The former owner was very nice and let me meet tradespeople there so they got started working the day after we got the keys. We are having walls and trim painted and yucky carpet ripped up and new floors put in, new baseboards and electrical work done. Hopefully it will all be finished by next week when we move but it's going to be down to the wire for us. 

Good luck and keep us posted! 

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Congratulations!!  

We bought our house new and still did a pretty deep cleaning when we moved in.  I was just more comfortable knowing it was cleaned properly!  The only thing we didn't do was clean the carpets; but we vacuumed.  It's nice you have the time to get that wallpaper down, repaint and get the floors taken care of before you have your own belongings in the way.  That'll save a lot of hassle.  DH and I have painted together numerous times; the prep work always takes more time than you'd like!  So not having to move and cover furniture is a big bonus!  

My Grandparents are in a similar situation to your sellers. They are all very elderly; one spouse has passed on and the other isn't able to care for the home like they once did.  It's up to my Aunts and Dad to do the upkeep on their homes.  One is going on the market any time now so they are in the process of selling things off and doing repairs for the sale.  And then they have to see to the care of my Grandparents.  It makes me feel guilty because I'm not there to help!

Please post some more pictures when you've finished painting and taken care of the floors!  

  I'd love to see the finished product!  (And some of those treasures left behind!  I've been keeping an eye on craigslist looking for a circa 1950s end table style I saw on Pinterest.  They turned it into a cool lego table with a basket.  My Grandparents had something similar; but it wouldn't do what I wanted. 

)

 

[sivyaleah]

Wow, congrats!  The house is cute - looks like it may be an expanded bungalow. The fireplace looks a lot like ours. Overall, seems to be mostly cosmetic updates.  The kitchen looks really good so that would be a HUGE savings if you can live with it.  

Best wishes for many happy years living there!  

 

[jcat]

Congratulations! That's a very cute house.

 

[larussa]

Congrats on your new home, have many happy years there.

 

[parsleysage]

Thank you everyone! We are soooooo excited. It's so hard to be at work when all I wanna do is be in the house ripping off wallpaper haha (so weird). 

@Catapault  thank you for the tips! Do you think if we saved the paint we could touch up the walls if they get scuffed? Removing the baseboards before painting is a great idea - and less tape!

@Denice  the kitty smell is much, MUCH better since removing the carpet, but lingers a bit. It may be on other carpets as well, so we'll have to see once we get the other carpets up. I don't think it's in the walls, but who knows! There's no visible damage to the walls, but I will look into that product, thank you!

@Winchester  we are a huge fan of the hardwoods, especially with cats. This one is in pretty good shape although there are a few dark spots (not pictured - to the left of that door in the photo) that may be urine damage. We may have to refinish some or all of them. I'm not a fan of carpet and it irritates Patrick's allergies so we'll be going all hard-surface, for sure. Hopefully with the refinishing, the sanding will take care of any lingering smell in the wood. The room in question housed the litterboxes. For the kitchen, I've had galley kitchens for nearly 5 years so it's a ton of space especially with the big table gone, and I love it! We will be adding some storage/counter space along the wall to the left (not pictured) because the prep space is limited, but other than that and a few cosmetic issues (don't like the laminate countertops - AND the backsplash is made of the same laminate as the counters... I guess it's practical, but it's quite ugly!) we are happy with the kitchen! I will definitely look into that machine once we assess the condition of the floors and if picking up the rest of the carpets eliminates 100% of the smell. Oh and the fireplace does function, it's gas-powered and we don't know how to run it but the realtor tested it LOL.

@SwampWitch  there are some dark spots They are in the corner to the left of the door in the photo so you can't see them, but that's where the litterboxes were. We will probably need to get some or all of the floors refinished depending on the condition of the rest of them. Even so, I'm so happy we have them because like you said it's very expensive to install them and we likely couldn't afford it.

@sivyaleah  Thank you! Other than the little bits of cosmetic things here and there, we bought a house with GREAT bones and I'm very happy. There were other homes we saw that had the nice stuff with granite counters and whatnot, but this house felt like home the second we walked in. We plan to be here a good long while (maybe forever!) and over time we will make it our own For the kitchen, other than the wallpaper the only thing I really hate is the laminate countertop and the backsplash which is made of the same sheet of laminate. Very ugly! I'm not a huge granite fan either, but at some point (not now) we'll replace that with something more attractive. It makes choosing a paint color more complicated, though! 

@MoochNNoodles  yes we are definitely so glad to have some extra time to get stuff done BEFORE we move in, and that is why I am insistent on the timeline. I know once I get the cats in there I won't be up to making major changes! And I will definitely post some pictures over the next few weeks!

@LaRussa  @jcat  @Draco  @kntrygrl256  thank you!!! 

 

[catapault]

You want to save some paint anyhow, for the inevitable needed touch-ups. Save in a smaller container (places like Home Depot or Lowes sell new empty paint cans in a couple of sizes. Put a piece of cut to size heavy plastic wrap over surface of paint to it doesn't form a skin, then close up tightly.)

Do your best to be careful and not hit wall with the big sander - the smaller, hand-held edging sander won't be an issue.

I well remember crawling over floor after sanding, wiping with a tack cloth to get up any dust.Crawl over floor with first coat of thinned polyurethane finish. Let dry thoroughly. Crawl over floor with hand sanding. Tack cloth. Second coat using full strength polyurethane. Hand sand. Tack cloth. Finish coat of polyurethane. I was much younger then, and it was only living room and a large L-shaped hallway. Think it over - a professional company to refinish the floors might be a sensible idea since you have several rooms.

 

[parsleysage]

 
Think it over - a professional company to refinish the floors might be a sensible idea since you have several rooms.

Oh, believe me - that is what I want to do! But I've got a handy man for a future husband who wants to do it himself. I will do my best to help him see reason! lol! 

 

[stewball]

Lovely house. Lovely lot of kitchen cupboards.
We certainly want before and after pictures as you go along.
I hope you two and the furbabies will be happy in your new house.

 

[angels mommy]

Congratulations!  You guys got a deal with all that stuff too!. I can't wait to see more pictures as you go. 

 I did a living room makeover last September (& I rent, but been here for 15+ yrs!) I had gotten new furniture, & took up old crappy carpet, & painted the floor. (walls were painted a couple of months before)

 I also posted photos. It's always fun to see before & after pictures. 

 

[kimkats000]

Baking soda!  Put baking soda all over the floor, under the floor moulding, etc in the pee room.  Let it sit!   I mean cover the floor.

Dry broom it up and follow up with a damp mop.  Redo as needed.  It will make all of the difference.       

You can also do the carpet in the other rooms. Use a shop vac to vacuum it up. Do NOT use your "good" vacuum as the powder can get into the motor and mess it up.  

I also suggest steam cleaning the carpet.

Leave the windows open as much as possible.

Kilz primer is THE best primer there is. It covers smells, colors, etc.  

We bought a foreclosed home where cleaning was not a priority AND they had a cat.  The above worked well for us.

It took 3 months to get the house liveable!  Thank goodness we were able to do all of the work ourselves!

Kim

 

[maureen brad]

I did read the whole thing! Many congratulations. I know it is hard work doing all your doing but so worth it.

 I love the style of the home. I like farmhouse and cottage styles. I also love the fireplace. Looks to me like at some point they did update the kitchen.It is nice that you won't have to spend a lot of money in the kitchen. I hope you get to move your kitties in soon.

I also hope that since you now have all the free space that you make the move to feeding raw- so worth it!