Introducing...Alabama Brant!

We got a puppy!!

Alabama "Bama" Brant is a 12-week old Boston Terrier.

Here are some of his first pictures:

Kevin Is Moving In

Kevin is moving in to the house tonight, I on the other hand am waiting until the kitchen has been remodeled :) We've set up some of the furniture and unpacked some of the boxes, but still have quite a bit of work to do. Here are some updated pictures:

Bathroom:

























Living Room:





































Master Bedroom:


















The only thing that's completely finished so far is the bathroom, so if you'd like to come visit, that's most likely where we'll be hanging out...
:)

We're Engaged!!

Kevin and I were having a romantic dessert in the park at sun set a couple weeks ago (I'm a little slow with the post) and he surprised me by getting down on one knee and asking me to marry him!! It was so sweet :) I have had a big goofy grin on my face ever since...

Hooray for Carpet!!

Yesterday we had carpet installed in the 4 bedrooms - downstairs and upstairs - and it has really made the place look like a home instead of a remolding project. We also have rented, and filled, our second dumpster and will most likely have a working bathroom by the end of this weekend. No move-in date yet, we still need to do some painting and put up blinds before that can happen.

Here are some (pretty boring, I know) pics of the carpet. I love the carpet we bought for downstairs, but don't really like the color of the upstairs carpet...oh well...

Here are some of the 'after' photos of the work we've done so far. We've put new drywall up in all four bedrooms, the downstairs bath, and in the upstairs living room, put in a new tub and tile floor in the downstairs bath, and did some landscaping in the front yard.

Here are some pictures of the progression of the drywall in the downstairs bedrooms. Disregard the furniture piled in the bedroom, it's the only room that is finished enough to store our stuff...

Here are some pictures of the progression of the bathroom. Gone is the wood paneling! Yay! We also moved the tub from the wall in front of you when you walk in the bathroom door to the wall on the right hand side. This will give us a lot more space in the small bathroom. The best part is the tile floor. It was our first experience laying tile and Kevin did an amazing job! He looked pretty hot all sweaty and covered in grout :)


And finally, some pictures of the front yard. We've replanted half the grass in the yard so far and are waiting till fall to do the rest so it looks pretty funny right now, but the flowers are a definite improvement over the ugly bushes that were there.

We still have a lot of work to do - finishing the bathroom, painting and replacing the trim in the bedrooms, painting the living and dining rooms, and don't get me started on the kitchen or backyard, but it's coming along!

I Love Our Neighborhood!

I just wanted to add this little story about how great our neighborhood is:

On Friday we watched the 4th of July parade in EGR. While it was mostly just firetrucks and politicians, it was still pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, in all the excitement, Kevin lost his wallet. After some searching in the house, stopping at the ice cream store where we had breakfast (yes, breakfast), and searching around the area where we had been sitting, we gave up.

However, when we got back to the house later that afternoon there was a note in the mailbox from and EGR police officer saying that someone had found Kevin's wallet and turned it in to the police. Kevin quickly called the officer to see where he should go to pick it up, but the officer said just to stay put and he'd come drop it off. It's wonderful to live in a neighborhood where people are honest enough to return a wallet (luckily he only had two dollars cash in it or it might have been a little more tempting) and the police are nice enough to deliver it back to you. That's my warm fuzzy for the day :)

It's Been a While....

I am admittedly not very good about keeping up with this thing. I'd much rather be working on the house then writing about working on the house, but it has been suggested to me that I add some updates. So this is for you Bos and Carrie :)

We started out by renting a dumpster and pulling all of the old plaster off the walls in the 4 bedrooms, the downstairs bathroom, and the living room upstairs. Most of it was falling off and needed to be replaced with drywall. We also got rid of the appliances upstairs and gutted the entire downstairs bathroom.

Most of that big-muscle work was done by Kevin, Doug (Kevin's Dad), and Adam while Laura (Kevin's Mom) and I worked on the front yard. There was a big, ugly evergreen bush growing in front of the porch that we cut down, along with another big, scrubby looking bush growing at the other corner of the front yard. I'm sure the garbage men loved all the brush piled in front of our house that week.


We've done a lot of work since this point, but those pictures are on Kevin's camera so I'll have to wait till tomorrow (or next month - whatever) to add those 'after' pictures.

Let's Try This Again...

So, as of the last post we were supposed to close on the house mid-April...somehow that has turned into mid-May.

Anyhoo, we are finally closing TODAY!! It's been a frustrating few weeks but we've enjoyed having the time to spend with friends instead of having to work on the house every weekend. If you are in the area tonight, we'll probably be sitting in the dark, on the floor of our empty house celebrating, so stop by! :)

Closing Date Almost Here

Ken (list agent) and I set a tentative close date for either the 23rd or 24th. Hopefully the FHA can get on their horse and get things done ASAP. Everyone clear your schedule for the weekend of the 26th and 27th because you are coming over to help!

I can't believe Abby got me to blog...

-Kevin

Project #1

One of the first things we needed to work on was the staircase that leads to the upstairs back porch. A few of the boards were rotten and we needed to add supports between the handrail and the stairs. This needed to be done before the house would pass inspection. It finally stopped raining on Sunday, and with the help of Kevin's dad, we got it finished in a couple hours.


While the carpenters were working on the stairs, I started attacking the overgrown backyard. At one point there had been quite a few flower gardens, but the women who lived in the house had gotten too old to maintain them and the entire yard had been taken over by ivy and some other crazy, twisty vine. I did lots of raking and brush cutting, but I'm not quite sure what we are going to do with all the piles of yard waste yet.

Ugh! That entire bush in the back corner is overgrown with that mysterious vine and will have to be gotten rid of.

The inspector was coming back to the house today, so we are hoping to be able to starting working on the inside in two weeks!!

Croswell Ave House

We moved back to GR!!

Our new house is in East Grand Rapids and while it's definitely a fixer-upper, it's in a great neighborhood and doing the fixing will be (I hope) a lot of fun. We are walking distance to a grocery store, ice cream store, drug store, restaurants, shops, Starbucks, and Reed's Lake. And the best part is that it's a two-family house so we have an apartment to rent which will completely cover the mortgage!! So if you know of anyone looking for an apartment this fall in GR, let me know.

We don't close on the house for another couple weeks, so we can't get in yet to start working on it, but some of the first projects will be: completely remodeling the bathrooms, painting all the walls, putting new carpet in the master bedroom, and getting new appliances in the kitchen. Some later updates will hopefully be: tearing off the back porch and building a deck, getting rid of all the ugly wood paneling, and making the closets bigger. There is also a fireplace that was covered over, so we're hoping to be able to restore that. Here are some 'before' pics:


This is the front of the house (obviously). I'd like to get rid of that big, ugly green bush and plant some tulips. I'll probably wear my wooden shoes while I'm planting them, just for the memories.






View from the front porch looking out towards the road








Kitchen and door to back porch







The dining room is through the arch. I think the lack of counter space means I don't have to cook very often.








View of the kitchen from the dining room








In the living room








View into the office/bedroom








Lovely wood paneling in the office/bedroom. I think the only place wood paneling should be is on the side of a Dodge Caravan.







View from the master bedroom to the living room. The closet is on the wall to the left and also covered in wood paneling.







See above comment about closet. Oh, and the people selling it still have their crap all over the place. Even in the fridge. Nasty.







Shelving in the bathroom.








That's the toilet. Turn your head again to see the made-to-look-like-tile particle board that is around the toilet and shower.










So those are the highlights of the downstairs. We are accepting applications for part-time plumbers, electricians, painters, and plasterers...It's gonna be a lot of work but we are soooo excited to be back home :)