Dining Room Make-Over

My main mission before the party at which we celebrated my graduation/our housewarming, was to re-wallpaper the dining room.  Half the readers gasp in horror, whatever wallpaper has its place.  Here are a few photos of the dining room before and while we were moving in and getting settled.

This was and has always been one of my favorite features of the house.

Original light fixture, I always liked the crystal but it definetly needed some help.

And of course the original switchplate, just like the one in the half bath.

The mess while we were getting settled.

This was our first dinner in the dining room, with Bruce's parents the weekend they came down to help us with cleaning.

Shannon came and helped take down the wallpaper, which came down surprisingly easy.  The former owners were smokers and the paste behind the paper was brown from absorbing years of tobacco smoke (the stains are visible in the first photo). I washed, sanded, filled holes, primed then my mom came down for a few days to help hang the wallpaper.  It took two full days to do, I then painted under the chair rail, trim, and china cabinet.

My mom picked up a sideboard which matched our dining set, she and her cousin John picked up the curtains and rods, and table cloth. That table cloth is amazing, it's microfiber and doesn't stain!

I painted the back walls of the china cabinet with the lightest shade from the paint chip that the color from below the chair rail came from.  I also painted the outside and the shelves of the china cabinet the trim color.  I switched out the knobs for some clear acrylic knobs and spray painted the screws to match the light. I didn't get the top door on the cabinet until last week, it was very time consuming to paint!

I painted the radiator the same color as the trim, by first using a spray paint primer then a foam roller with the trim color. I love the way it turned out, I stayed true to the house by keeping the original light fixture and switch but now it's updated and clean!

Busy Week

We've slowly been collecting things from Shawn's we got the other bed and food from the freezer Friday. Friday my dad also came down with a box truck full of my furniture! The living room is full of furniture that needs a home!

Saturday Bruce did errands and chores all day while I worked on my thesis proposal the office tentitively looks like this but I hope to paint most of the big furniture white.

Last night we cleaned some of the kitchen so that it can be functional (we are no longer afraid to put things in cabinets) this last picture is a before and after of just cleaning the cabinets (left side not cleaned!)

It's Ours!!!!!

We (Bruce) signed last night and started moving in. The lawyer asked us if we were excited, we told her it was mostly releif, our offer on this house was accepted on June 24. That makes getting here a Enough that we brought the pets and slept there last night. So excited to have my desk back and a place to do work, its amazing.
The mess however is not amazing, the real work starts now, bang out my thesis proposal, study for an exam and start cleaning painting, yard work and all those other lovely things. Right now it's like we are camping in a house with lots of boxes!

limbo

so we are in the process of getting an FHA loan, and just waiting to hear from the broker about it.
The electricity at the house is off not really sure why but I figured it out when I was there at the end of last week looking for winter shoes and there was a puddle in the kitchen from the freezer defrosting. hope it doesn't get below freezing anytime soon.
I have gotten back into the habit of virtually remodeling the house, I'm pretty sure that my steamer will work to take down the wallpaper, I can't wait to get started on the little inexpensive things I can do myself.
For the bathroom I'm pretty sure we've decided to paint it light grey and do a cool retro fabric from tonic living for the curtains.

ugg

is this getting old for anyone else? Delays, delays and more delays. We are somewhere between the UDSA being out of appropriations, hating the mortgage broker and an FHA loan. Here are the basics:
Apparently the USDA approprioations for mortages are out of money but they get their money for the next fiscal year Oct 1. The USDA loan does not require a down payment and is something like 102% financing.
I have hated the broker since he "forgot" we needed the lead test, had the lead test been done at the appropriot time maybe the USDA wouldn't have been out of money by the time we got to them!!!!!!
The FHA loan requires a down payment (which we can still do) and I have been told we definetly will not be able to afford a dog with this option. BUMMER!

Bottom line: My thesis proposal is due in less than 4 weeks. I need a desk/command center/office place I can set up my keyboard, mouse computer, etc. sit down and "bang it out" because the current life set up is anti-thesis progress.

Waiting.

So right now we are waiting to hear back from the bank regaurding comps in the area. Here's what happened:
The house was appraised in June at that time there weren't any other houses in the tiny town of Northford that had recently sold, so the appraiser used comps from surrounding towns.
The bank didn't like that. (or the chipping paint, so the house was painted)
A few houses in town sold during August, so there are better comps.
Now we are waiting for the bank to except them and give us a closing date.
The End.
i'm antsy

clean water

I guess that says it all. We finally after almost 2 weeks of stressing we got a clean lead water test result. This should be the last hurdle.

more set backs

so we had to have another water test done, it didn't pass.
whatever can go wrong will go wrong, I'm so over it and we just really want this house.

Beginning of Day 3

Ok so Bruce spent much of Saturday working on the red truck, as its pretty necessary to move things like . . . beds, tables, couches etc. We headed up to the house late afternoon, I cleaned the master bedroom and the bathroom. The former owners were smokers, I can't wait to take down the wallpaper and atleast get the bedroom painted. Everthing reaks. The storm windows are already on so opening the windows for fresh air is out of the question. Bruce tried to get the lawn mower to work, and after more work yesterday it is semi functional although it seems to me that it flattens more than it mows.

Sunday Bruce picked up a pretty decent weed whaker off craigs list and did as much of the yard as possible until he ran out of spool. Eventually you will be able to see the two stone walls and maybe we'll be able to revive the landscaping that was there. He worked on sorting out the garage for the rest of the day just to make some room and to figure out what's there. We're going to need a dumpster.

I attempted to get the stains off the walls in the master bedroom, no dice, so I washed the walls then gave up on washing walls, that is what stain hiding primer is for. I cleaned out the other bedroom. Then spent most of the rest of the day on my hands and knees cleaning the floors. Is it possible to get poisoning from Murphy's Soap Oil? 8 dirty buckets (I think)

The house had wall to wall carpeting over these beautiful floors with a small trim piece over the carpet. I'll cut to the chase 40 years of dirt. Enough said. Floors are now beautiful.

The Cote's came down at dusk with some furniture, the blue couches, the kitchen table, the TV stand and Bruce's tools, they might be back today with the rest of the furniture that's in Granby.



I hope that this will be my longest post and I'm going to try to take lots of pictures.

getting there

YaY for clean water, hopefully going to start moving stuff in tomorrow. probably pass papers on the tenth.