A Closer Look

So, as I mentioned earlier, we put an offer in on a townhouse in foreclosure and it got accepted and we are now going through the process of home inspections, VA inspections, blahbity blah blah.  My least favorite part.  But, I wanted to share some pics of the place with everyone and share my thoughts!  Enjoy!

The Living Space:

Nope, that's not a shadow on the floor - that's old, stained carpet.  You know that Febreze commercial where a dirty place smells awesome?  Well, this place smells awesome, and, other than the carpets, it's really clean.  Just dated, dated, dated.  Or, as Jon put it, "sufficiently crappy".  My plan for this room is to hardwood (or fake hardwood) the floors, paint the walls (I am putting together three color schemes for Jon to choose from), repaint all the trim white, and put some great curtains up.  Spacing will be tough here because the wall with the doors/stairs is useless, so we've got to be creative with the furniture.  And by creative, I mean ditch the old couch and get a new one I like better at IKEA.

The Kitchen/Dining Area:

This is the room that sold it to me.  Yes, yes, you have to get over those mint green walls and that linoleum (which, by the way, is actually in fantastic condition).  Coming from our current place and its tiny galley kitchen, this is amazing!  An island!  Wow!!  What I'd like to do in here is continue the hardwood floors from the living space, paint the walls (obviously), get stainless steel appliances, new countertops, and probably paint the cabinets.  I've seen amazing cabinet paintjobs at my sister's house (check out her blog here) and on Young House Love that I'd like to emulate.

The Bathrooms:

Here's just two of the FOUR bathrooms that we have.  Three full baths (2 upstairs and 1 on the lower level) and one half (on the main floor), which is awesome.  As you can see, they are nice, clean, and just that classy 90s feel.  Ideally, I'll paint, refloor some of them, add new lights/mirrors as needed, and in a dream world, change out the big dated vanities.  The small vanities are workable though.  I'd like to do something fun (like stripes on the walls, but nothing too drastic) in the bathrooms because they are small and forgiveable if potential renters hate it.  I currently have giant scientifically defined flowers in my bathroom at my current place, so some stripes shouldn't scare anyone off.  Big bonus - two of the bathrooms have giant showers instead of baths - perfect for the master and guest!!

Outside:

It's not in the best shape and will have to be redone, but it's a cute upper deck that jets off the dining room.  Perfect for the grill, a table, and a baby pool for Aves on hot summer days.  I'd like to refinish/redo the floor, get a great outdoor giant mat, add some flowerbeds for herbs and make a really great space to hang out in!

So, that's a bit of what we are looking at.  As for an update to our actually getting IN the place, we had a home inspection Wednesday the 1st and the inspector found a few things that will likely fail the VA inspection.  VA stands for Veterans Affairs, who we are getting a loan through, and they have extra picky standards for stuff.  The bummer is, if we fail anything, the bank may/may not fix it, and they won't let US fix it, so it's get them to fix it or move on to something else.  Waiting for our report from the home inspector so we can jump on some of those issues early.  Keep your fingers crossed!