Tuesday, July 17, 2012

the hizzy, part 2: just when you thought it couldn't get any uglier

Sorry for the looong break since my last post about the house.  Click the link to see photos of the exterior, entry, living room, library, and master suite.  A lot of people commented on facebook (thank you!) and the theme was something like this: "It's not that bad!"

Well.  There's a reason you feel that way, dear friends.  See, I saved some of the highlights for later, which is today. Kitchen and bathrooms.  Don't get me wrong, we love the house. (Right? or we wouldn't have bought it. Right?)  It has tons of space and a library! HELLO, a library!  But on more than one occasion, we have found ourselves elbow-deep in conversations that go like this: "What were we thinking? Clearly, we weren't."

Let's get started.

Hi, mom!


The kitchen.  Yes, that's carpet you see there.  I remember walking around the corner from the living room and seeing the kitchen for the first time. My first thought was: "that's carpet."  Then I looked around and saw how spacious the kitchen was, how much cabinet space it has, and how nice it would be to have that center island work space.  Initially we thought the little bill desk would be nice but we won't really need it if we make the library our office space.  So now we're talking about taking out half of the wall where the desk is to  open up the kitchen to the living room and put in a breakfast bar.  You know, because that will be fast and affordable.  You can kind of tell by the first photo that it's an eat-in kitchen.  We like that.  We're not the formal dining room type anyway.  I forgot to take a photo of the area but it is sufficiently sized.


I'd love to replace the cabinets but I think we will have to settle for painting them and replacing all the hardware.  We looked at a granite wholesaler Sunday and found this beautiful countertop for $25/sq. ft. installed! What a deal.  I could write fifty blog posts about what I want to do in the kitchen.  Better move on.


The boys' bathroom.  What is the obsession with carpet?  It has to go, stat.  I love the amount of cabinet/storage space.  The cabinets are already painted a light gray. Thinking about just replacing the countertop and hardware and leaving the cabinets gray.  I'd like to add another sink and put in tile floors.  Not a fan of the blue bathtub but the gray tile is in good shape so I was thinking about trying to save it to save time and money.  Anyone know if we can just put a white insert tub right over that? Have to figure out some creative way to get rid of that safety bar.  Maybe replace a few random tiles with brightly colored ones?  Their bathroom is quite spacious.  It would be one of the first things to remodel, and hopefully before we move in, because it has the only bathtub in the house.


The hall bath, located between the front door and the kitchen.  More carpet! Weee!  The bathroom is unusually gigantic for a hall bath.  Not sure what we are going to do with this space.  We have a huge attic with room to finish some space.  We are thinking about eventually putting a 4th bedroom up there for guests and possibly using this bathroom as the stairway space.  So we might not do anything with this right away.  Is that light fixture supposed to be a joke?  And why do you need that much storage space in a half bath/hall bath?

I still have to show you the basement and the boys' rooms.  They're not bad.  The boys rooms pretty much just need paint and new window treatments.  I think the basement is okay, but Ryan has big plans for it.  I'll post more about it later.

What do you think?  As bad as you thought or worse?

xo,
 ~C~


Thursday, July 5, 2012

the hizzy, part 1

I mentioned the other day that we are under contract right now for a house that you might call a dump fixer upper.  I was debating whether or not to post pictures of the house because of what happened last time.  A few nosy interested friends asked to see the money pit potential of our soon-to-be home (hopefully?).  I aim to please.

So...

From the outside?  Completely charming.


Beyond that, not as charming.  Here's a partial tour.


This is where you would enter from that cute front porch.  Ryan hates the tile, I actually don't.  But if we're in the business of remodeling practically EVERYTHING, I guess we may as well update it too.  That door you see next to the double doors is a walk-in coat closet.  Genius.  Is it just me or is the coat closet always crammed? 


This is a view of the 29x19 great room as you walk into the foyer.  Everything is dated.  Everything.  I don't mind the stained woodwork and wood beams.  Other than that, it all pretty much has to go (except my mom and husband).The drapes are dreadful and the fans are blah. I'm thinking about painting the brick fireplace and doing some kind of mantle.  Love the canned lights in the ceiling.  


I don't have too many bad things to say about the master bedroom.  (I'll save that for the master bath).  It's nice and spacious and I love the window.  It faces the road, you can see it under the copper awning in the first picture of the exterior. 


Somebody screeeeeeam!  Yeah, nice, huh?  Okay, where to begin?  Those sconces?  The countertop?  Or the cabinets.  Oh, by the way.  It's carpeted.  It's awful.  

Hope you're enjoying this somewhat embarrassing tour.  What were we thinking???  Moving on.  To save myself some time, I won't post pictures of the master closet; I'll just say that it is really nice.  Excited about not having to keep my clothes in Dexter's room anymore!


I really like the tile in the master bath and the shower is in great shape.  The shower might be the one new(ish) thing in the house.  I'll show you one more room and save the rest for later.  This mama's tired.  Just got home from my grandpa's funeral and the boys went right to bed.  Taking advantage of a little quiet time.


This is the office view from the great room.  I like to call it a library.  Doesn't it sound more quaint? Hehe.  I love the cabinets.


To the left, a view of the backyard and custom cabinets. 


More shelving to the right.  

So that's it for tonight.  Care to see more? Would you run the other way?

xo, 
~C~









Tuesday, July 3, 2012

bean night = bath night

It wasn't supposed to be bath night.

But then the baked beans happened.



And the bath was not far behind.


I think I'll just drink the water.



Baby boys like a good bubble bath too.  Let's turn on the jets.


All clean.

Isn't this the most beautiful bathtub? 

xo, 
~C~


Sunday, July 1, 2012

goodbye, grandpa.

Last fall, my mom called and said my grandpa's prostate cancer had spread to his back.  Chemo, weekly doctor's appointments, labs, hospital stays, good days, and bad days followed.

Come spring there were times when we couldn't believe just how well he seemed.  A month or so ago he ended up in the hospital due to what turned out to be 2 bleeding ulcers in his intestines that were easily fixed.  That's what Theo thinks of when he thinks of Pappaw.

Huh?  I know.  My mom told me on the phone while I was in the car that grandpa had been throwing up some blood and that my grandma said it looked like coffee.  I explained to Ryan while Theo and Dexter sat quietly in the backseat.  I said it sounded bad and I thought we needed to get over there and visit ASAP.  When we got home, as I was getting them out of the car, Theo told me.  "We gotta go see Pappaw.  Make him feel better.  Pappaw don't like coffee anymore."  Theo repeats variations of those phrases all the time.

Pappaw's sick, him's not feeling good today.
I'm gonna see Pappaw and make him smile.
Make him feel better.
He don't drink coffee anymore.
Pappaw don't like coffee anymore.

2pm.  Yesterday.  We were driving through the town where they live so we stopped for a quick visit on our way to another get-together.  He's been in the nursing home for two weeks, rehabbing.  He hasn't had the strength to walk or pull himself up, so they were doing physical therapy with him.  He was supposed to go home this week.  We visited for 45 minutes or so.  He was lying down the whole time, seemed tired.  We left quickly, after Theo announced that he had pooped; we told him we'd see him at home next time.

6am.  Today.  My mom called, crying.  I knew before I answered the phone because there would be no other reason for her to call so early.  "Dad died," she said through tears.

I can't really remember what she said because I didn't believe it.  Still don't.  The whole conversation is a blur.  How could this be?  We just saw him yesterday.  Saw him. Talked to him.  Hugged him and told him we loved him.  Didn't think he would die before we'd see him again.  Didn't think my grandma would be a widow today.

I'm unbelievably grateful that we took the time to stop by.  I hope we made him feel a little better, made him smile.  I told Theo today that Pappaw passed away and he told me that he wants to see him again, wants to make him feel better.

I knew he wouldn't understand but I felt like I owed him an explanation.  I did the best I could.

Pappaw don't like coffee anymore.

~C~