Unreality

Even though it's official, it still doesn't quite feel real. The 150 pounds of slate tile that have been riding around in the back of my car for the last two or three weeks say otherwise, though. Eventually, it will grace the front and back entrances to our family room, if I can remember everything Joe H. and his subcontractors taught me about tiling over ten years ago. If I get really good at it, I might even tackle the bathroom walls!

Holy Crap! IT'S ON!!!!

Got news today that the appraisal came in and the valuation is sufficient for the bank to grant the mortgage. They say we'll have a commitment letter by December 6, closing on the 28th.

You know what that means?

It is....officially.....ON!

Buying the refrigerator didn't turn out to be foolish after all.

Now...we have to plan our attack. The to-do list is as follows (in no particular order):

• Procure hardwood flooring for the family room and hallway between kitchen and dining room
  
• Figure out how the hell to install hardwood floors
  
• Try not to nail my own foot to the floor with the flooring nailer (I make no promises)
  
• Procure some sort of vinyl tiles for the kitchen, since what's there now is screamingly terrible
  
• Install vinyl floor tiles
  
• Try not to glue myself (or the cats, or my fiance - again, no promises) to the floor
  
• Procure paint - we have so many paint chips right now that we could do a lovely mosaic though
  
• Line up an electrician to add a sub panel, install a 220 volt outlet for our dryer, and upgrade service to 200 amp
  
• Paint
  
• Get the chimney re-pointed, cleaned, and inspected
  
• Line up movers
  
• Paint
  
• Receive refrigerator delivery and installation
  
• Figure out how much sheet rock is needed to finish the basement (in order to replace the "Oh my God I'm from the seventies" wood paneling)
  
• Replace locks on all the doors and re-key them.
  
• Paint
  
• Procure cedar shingles to replace ones that have seen better days
  
• Figure out how the hell to replace said shingles
  
• Paint
  
• Lay tile in the entry ways from to the family room (front and back)
  
• Get bath tub re-glazed
  
• Paint
  
• Try to figure out how to fix the bath tub drain
  
• Replace walls around the tub (more tiling!!!)
  
• Find and install missing closet doors
  
• Did I mention that we may need to paint?
  

At any rate, the list is long, and I'm sure I've missed some stuff. I can't wait to get in there and get started!

The countdown begins

One month from tomorrow, we're closing (assuming everything continues to go as smoothly as it has so far). Two months from tomorrow, we're moving in (assuming we don't have a foot of snow every weekend like we did last January). In the meantime, we have to paint a whole lot of walls, do some reflooring, possibly demolish and rebuild half a bathroom, pack up our apartment, move all our stuff, and oh yeah, Christmas has to get squeezed in there somewhere too. And did I mention that one of us is recovering from knee surgery and the other has a problematic back?

I think we might possibly need some help... fortunately, we've worked on so many people's houses by this point that we have a lot of favors to call in!

New Fridge

Just bought a new fridge from Home Depot - can't help thinking that maybe it was somewhat foolish to make such a large purchase for the house before actually securing the mortgage?  I'm operating under the assumption that everything will go as planned.  Time will tell!  More to come...

Welcome!

Welcome one and all!

So my fiance and I are in the process of buying our very first house.  The place is in need of some updating - it looks like the last time anyone decorated/painted/etc. this place was sometime in...well...suffice to say, it's a little dated.  It's not a total gut job, but since my grandmother won't be living with us, things need to be changed.

Our list of projects is considerable, and since we're somewhat handy (so we think), we're undertaking a good number of them as DIY.  It all seems easy enough...hopefully those aren't famous last words!

We'll be posting our experiences and lessons learned here as we start our projects.  We hope you'll follow along!