New House Photos and Challenge!

Check out the New (!) House Tour tab for pictures of our new house!!

But before you do, keep in mind the challenge I'm setting for myself.  I CAN paint, but if I'm only staying there a year, I don't want to paint and then re-paint it all to get back to neutral when we move, so my challenge is to bring brightness and color into this place, without painting.  It'll be tough, as you'll see from ALL. THAT. BEIGE.  But it'll be fun to create ways to bring in color. 

What do YOU think I should do?  Leave a comment!

Movin' Right Along

Yep...time to move again. I mean, we have been here a whole 10 months.  We're starting to get itchy!  Here's our new house (a rental)

Cute, right?  It's on base where I work at Joint Base Andrews, so it'll be a unique experience listening to taps play at night, having guests sign into base, and living in a little city just for military members.

The house itself is 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, and has a kitchen, living room, and dining room.  It includes a one-car garage and a little backyard with a hill.  We don't have to mow ANYTHING (yay!) and it's a whole 2 minute drive to my job.

Inside pics to come later, but wanted to share our news!  It's very neutral inside, so it'll be exciting to liven it up with some Beach flair :-)

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!

House Hunting - Day Three

After losing my amazing end unit townhouse, as you can see here a foreclosure that seemed to be exactly what Jon wanted popped up on the market, so we begged our agent to let us see it ASAP.

#1: Begging for a re-do

So this was what we were looking for.  Only 14 years old, original (1990s) construction, and everything needs an upgrade.  The price reflected it as well, so it was something we could definitely work with.

Final say: We put in an offer (and not to ruin things, it got accepted - see future posts for details!)

House Hunting - Day Two

A lovely Sunday afternoon spent house hunting.  But I'm starting to get tired of it already.

#1: The Perfect Townhouse.

What's wrong with this one?  Nothing.  Naturally, Jon doesn't want it.
Final Say: Discard. Sob.

#2: Down the street from the Perfect Townhouse.

The sign was insistent we took off our shoes....so we don't damage their dirty, no pad underneath, uneven carpet.
Final Say: Discard.

#3: Could We Live on the First Floor?

How amazing are these floors?  The first floor was ridiculously great.  Sadly, the basement had an illegal bedroom, they had sawed through joists or something Jon sad that made it dangerous and the upstairs was old old carpet.
Final say: Discard, but we want to find these floors.

#4: Single Family Closeness

Cute single family, but with two bedrooms upstairs and two in the basement, we just couldn't deal with the layout.
Final Say: Discard

#5: One Story Pretty

Totally renovated amazing one-story house with a great yard and deck.  BUT, at the top of our price range and just lacking the additional storage space/bedroom we need.
Final Say: Discard

So, I'm pretty bummed about the one that Jon doesn't like for whatever reason.  It was a silent and sullen afternoon to say the least, BUT, if he wants to do more renovation, I guess we keep the search up for something crappier.  Yay!

House Hunting Beings Again

We had a GREAT first day of house hunting yesterday - no solid winners, but nothing so depressing that I wanted to give up.  Here's a glimpse into what we saw.  The most interesting thing to me is that people will spend a crapload of money to get granite countertops and weird bath fixtures that look like giant glass bowls, but then have serious structural and safety problems in their place.  AND, they only take pictures of their updated kitchen, not their crazy entryway.  Anyway, read below!


Place #1: A single-family house near us right now.  I was very excited because they were one of the few houses that had a layout blueprint included with their photos.  It's very hard to see what a house's layout is like when you only have a few photos. 

• Good: Three good sized bedrooms upstairs, 2 downstairs, PLUS 3 bathrooms and a rec room.  Our biggest thing is a need for a storage space.
• Bad: In finishing and crating all the space downstairs, the owners sacrificed some serious safety.  I don't understand it all, but Jon is like "NOPE!  BAD ELECTRICAL WORK!" which was past the point of anything we'd want to fix.  Sad face.
• Final Call: Discard

Place #2: A single-family colonial looking house. 

Must pretend I never saw this

• Good: Move-in ready, AMAZING kitchen, wine cellar in the basement, fenced in yard.
• Bad: No place for storage, and no way to turn the rec room downstairs into storage.  Chance they might widen the road it sits on.  A bit older, so there's a lead paint question.
• Final Call: Possibility moved to Discard.  Just too old and the layout just doesn't work for us.  Sob.

Place #3. A townhouse

• Good: Cute and updated kitchen, great fixtures.
• Bad: Serious safety problems in the backyard/door situation, cheap flooring, and less space that we actually have now.
• Final Call: Discard

 Place #4: A townhouse.

• Good: Structurally very sound, great layout, unfinished tall-ceilinged basement and a tall ceiling in the living room where our gorgeous 9-foot Christmas tree we bought and never used will finally fit!  Also, the basement has the potential to finish a bedroom and bathroom.
• Bad: Smokers live here, so the carpet would have to go.  All old-lady decorations, so some aesthetic fixes, and the 3rd bedroom is teeny tiny - great for a nursery, but perhaps not attractive for potential renters once we move.  Also, there's a fish pond (complete with Koi) in the backyard.  Nice for grownups, deathtrap for babies.
• Final Call: Possibility

Place #5: A townhouse.

Not from the house we looked at, but pretty similar - all over.

• Good: Nice neighborhood with walking path to the metro.
• Bad: Mirrored entryway and living room wall.  I'm talking EVERY SURFACE IS MIRRORED, EVEN THE LIGHT SWITCHPLATES!  I'm not that vain.  Old fixtures/surfaces on everything, and all around kinda junky.
• Final Call: Discard

So there you have it.  Not horrible, but nothing we want to sweep up immediately.  I think Jon got over his aversion to townhouses when he saw how many there are, how marketable they are, and how some of them really have a lot of space.  Our agent also got a chance to get some real-time feedback on what we are looking for.

The search continues!