House on a Hill

A week ago we closed on our house.  At this point, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work to do before we move in.

Introducing... Hannah's House on the Hill (love alliteration!) :)

I wanted to show the full house from the front but....

... it is too overgrown.  I am standing on the road that leads to the house

... And another example of the need for decluttering these trees

We have brought nothing over to the house yet since we still have so much work to do... but, a quick run to Ingles and the boys and I enjoyed our first dinner at our new house.  (notice the beautiful trim now and those primed walls!!!)

The story of this house... Chad's dad actually knows the guy who owned/ built this house. Hub found out that his friend needed to sale and was planning on listing his house.  The owner, Sam, allowed for us to look at his house before listing it.  Unfortunately, Sam had already talked to a realtor about listing it so he couldnt go "the for sale by owner" route. However, Sam still sold the house to us for a really good price as long as he didnt have to paint it (you will see by the pictures that the house was all a brownish color... kind of like the color of dog food- fine for accent wall but a little much for a whole house.)

Current color of entire house... and some colors I am considering.

The house was built in 2000 and is DATED- even more dated than I would imagine a 2000 house being.  I mean, I graduated from high school in 2000, surely that was not the style... haha.  But, maybe I am aging myself.

The yard is 1.7 acres and is a MESS.  The outside of the house is was dirty dirty dirty. (Hub and Chad power washed it and it looks soooo much better.  They spent 8 hours working on it and came clean... yay!!!!)

PapaHub working hard.  

Example of what a good power washing can do... Concrete on top has been washed... concrete on bottom has not.  You can imagine how much cleaner the house is.

I told Chad when we were talking about a house that I wanted something that I could fix up- and, well, I got it.  I dont think I bit off more than I can chew but I am definitely going to have to pace myself.

Though it will take some work, there are some wonderful things about this house.

The Positives
1- Real hardwood floors throughout (tile in kitchen and bathrooms).  We have always had laminate wood which I am totally cool with. Hardwood floors have never been in our budget so it is nice they are already here.

2- All brick exterior.  Plus, I do really like the color of the brick.

3- Double car garage with storage area.  It also has this little funky room off of the garage that is heated/ cooled... maybe an office/ workout room.

4- 4 bedrooms!  After the renovation, it will be 5 bedrooms so each kid has a room!!!

5- Fenced backyard.  Though it is chain linked and is smaller than our last fenced yard, it is good enough for now.

6- Land.  Once cleaned up, plenty of space for the boys to explore and play

7-  Last house at a dead end so no speeding cars and boys can easily ride bikes.

8-  Long/ paved driveway.... again, great space for boys to roam and play.

9-  Nice big front porch.

Lovely front porch that has some rotted wood, chipping paint, and rusted ceiling fans.

10- A true master bathroom. In other words, double sinks, large tub, shower! Master bathrooms are either way too little or way too big... this bathroom is a perfect middle (But, oh so very dated)

11- A huge unfinished bonus room above garage.

Current plans for this room is to turn it into 2 bedrooms and turn the bedroom that I am standing in into the upstairs den.

The Negatives
1- Odd floor plan in the main living area of the house.  With about $10,000 I think we could fix it (and I plan to, but for now, we will just embrace the oddity)

View from the front door.   I should also add that awful fireplace unit- mercy, HOT MESS!

2- The road we live on is a smorgasbord of different style homes.  There is not much continuity of styles or even price range of homes.  This is relatively normal for this rural setting, but I am still not a fan.

3- The roof and AC unit are originals... so though I think they still have some time left on them, we will need to budget their for replacement in the next 5-7 years or so.

4- As much as I love the yard, it is very overgrown so loads of critters...

5- Dated fixtures and monstrous medicine cabinets.

6- Horribly finished trim throughout house (Mom and I have already started to conquer this one.)

Left side is where I have primed and then painted (Paint color is Shoji White - so pretty... and it still needs another coat of paint).... right side is the original trim- bleh!

Removal of the popcorn ceilings starts today.  I was told by numerous people that I dont want to take on popcorn ceilings so we are paying someone.  The guy starts today and we are hopeful it will take about a week.  After that, we are hoping to have the unfinished bonus area above the garage finished before we move in.  I am hoping that it will not cost much more than $8000 or so to finish this space.

Before and after pictures are going to be motivation when I feel like we are not making progress!

I have so may plans but again, patience is going to be mantra.