August 26th:

Ok, so this would be Friday night. I’m going to do better at writing these right away because I will remember more then I do 2 weeks later. Bare with me as I try to catch up.

Tonight we went into a completely concrete floor house (besides whats under the water heater). It was a bit surreal to see it such a mess and also to remember that this is our house.

We decide to tackle the bathroom. It seemed pretty simple but weren’t sure how long it would take. We also had some clean up to do from the night before. I can’t remember if we stacked the tiles the night before or if we did this on Friday, but here’s what we had leftover as the good ones….maybe being put to use on an outdoor patio!

Here's all of our tile.

All the flooring is gone!

All the floor is gone!

The laundry room.

Bathroom floor and toilet hole.

Dining room!

Then Brady got to taking apart the bathroom while I cleaned up the joint. Gosh it was a mess but a shop-vac comes in mighty handy for that! I started taking over the bathroom when I was done and he went outside. I can’t really remember what he was doing. Possibly watering with our new 100 ft hose (that’s how big our yard is) or just tinkering around. I’m pretty sure he was watering because I remember having to go and get him and kinda being scared because it was so dark and big back there. Ha! I’m such a baby! Anyway, I got most of the bathroom tile off the wall and needed him to help for around the fixtures. It’s kinda fun destroying stuff.

The before.

Brady starting the removal of tiles.

Look at that mess!!

He may not like all these pictures.

The ending, at least for that night.

A little evidence of my cut.

As we were removing tiles some of the drywall came off. Oh well. It was pretty crappy anyway. We also saw signs of lath and mortar walls. It was pretty cool so see how they used to make houses.

 So here’s what happened on our second day. It was a long day. Well let’s be honest. All the days are long. Ok so I can’t remember anything else but I’m sure this is all we did. The bathroom took a while.

Ok, so it’s been a while.

I’m sorry.

This year has gone by fast! I just realized it’s almost August….AUGUST! That means Christmas is just around the corner. We celebrated our FOURTH anniversary this May and had an AMAZING time at Dineyland and visiting Mom & Rob in Washington. Hmmm, that’s the first time I wrote Brady’s mom down as “Mom”. I’m sure she’ll like that.

Anyway, it’s been hot here…..SUPER HOT. Surprise! We live in the desert. We’ve had a couple of haboobs here and I think that’s more than I’ve seen in a year. It’s a massive dust storm….and if you’ve never been in you don’t even know what you’re missing!

Oh yeah, did I mention yet that WE GOT A HOUSE!?!?!?! Yes, on July 11th our offer was accepted on a house that we had put an offer on earlier in our search but didn’t get. The financing fell through for the other one and the seller called up our realtor and asked if we wanted to put ours up again. By this time, it had been 5 months of searching, we were like “sure, whatever, might as well.”  It took them a weekend and a day to respond and I had already assumed we weren’t going to get it. It had already gone off my radar from the initial offer so this time around I didn’t really care. But then come Monday morning Brady called me and said our offer was accepted. I was happy, and then asked “are we happy about this?” I didn’t know where we stood on this house and it had been such an emotional time searching that I think I was all out of emotion. We talked about it and we agreed that this house/yard had potential and we liked it.

As the days come and go I get more and more excited about this house. Let’s recall our initial search wants and see what we got. You can read that post here or I’ll just post it below. To the right I’ll list what our house has.

• Single Story          (Yes)
• <1200 square feet         (1125)
• >10,000 square feet lot       (16,244)
• 3 bed      (Yes)
• 1+ bath       (1 bath)
• No connected garage (carport okay)        (Detached Garage & Carport)
• North-South oriented       (NW/SE)
• Alley access/ RV Gate capable       (room for RV on side lot if choose)
• No flat roofs (None)

Bonus Items (None)

• Basement
• Already landscaped (grass)
• Fireplace

Location:     (Yes)

• Central/Downtown Phoenix

Price:      (Yes)

• <100,000

Ok, so just by going through this list I am amazed at how great God is. We didn’t even look at the houses we were searching for with this list in hand. We would spout back and forth what we could remember, and we knew this had the lot and house size we were looking for. But look at all the requirements. I mean, the only things that we definite “No’s” were the bonus material. The definites on our list were all met. Whether it’s there now or can be (RV gate) at some point.

This house is going to be great and I can’t wait to fill it with babies, friends and parties. But first we have renovations to do. This blog, I hope, will be a timeline for our work we do. Pictures galore and a play by play. I hope you guys enjoy reading along as we make this house our home.

Front. Can't you just see a cute little porch under the right window?

From front door. Living room & Dining where red wall is.

Dining room. Door into kitchen.

Front bedroom.

Kitchen from hallway. Open doorway to laundry room and backdoor. Other door goes to dining room.

Kitchen cupboards. About all I have.

Back Bedroom.

Office and Doggy door.

Living room from hall doorway.

Garage/Carport and yard from back door.

Yard from back fence.

Back part of yard.

The overview of our lot. We are the middle one.

It’s going to take a few years for the backyard to become what we envision it to be. But we are ok with that because we have a clean slate. I can’t wait to look back on these pictures and see a whole new place. It’s gonna be a fun but full of hard work ride.

Hope you enjoy!

ok. so here’s the long awaited kitchen remodel pics. we got back from camp to a complete kitchen, besides the shelving for the pantry. i’m so excited! it looks amazing. UH-MA-ZING! the tile backdrop looks great. so excited for the colors we decided on. they look great with the red accents that i have for the kitchen. the pantry should be done this week and then i’ll have no more boxes in my house! yahoo!!! i’ve already created a list of other projects to do in the house…..but those will have to wait for a little while.

What do ya think??

so i know everyone wants an update and i have been horrible at keeping current with posts. we just got back from a week at jr. high summer camp with our church. i will be post a TON of posts tomorrow evening. the kitchen has been put back together and looks AMAZING. i just need pantry shelves and it will be done! stay tuned my friends!!

okay so i’m super excited about this post. i have some pictures to show for updates. i haven’t been doing the bathrooms but i think i’ll take a few pics and then have just a before and after post once they are done. just compared to the kitchen remodel they don’t seem all that big.

hello light! no flash on this pic!

front cabs will hold washer and dryer

my large drawers and concrete countertops!

the sink and under cabinet lighting

my pantry!

i think my MIL will really like my new kitchen. when she visits, she can actually help in the kitchen and it won’t feel like we’re both right on top of each other!

we’re hoping in about 2 weeks all things will be complete!! *crossing fingers*

we are getting our kitchen remodeled right now. it’s a pain in the B-U-T-T!  and SURPRISE, my mom decided she was going to fix up the bathrooms as well. which is a great offer for sure! but when we came home a week early from our hike and had no sinks…..well it was a little disheartening. but i do believe the hike prepared me more than i would have thought to live in a remodel and brush my teeth by using the tub. it’s actually not that bad. thank goodness my mom lives only about 10 minutes away so that we could eat dinner there every night. it’s coming along slowly but i’m hoping in the end i just am so ecstatic with it that i won’t remember how long it took.

oh, by the way….I’M GETTING A PANTRY! i’m so so so so excited for this. it’s going to be beautiful! it’s going to be amazing. i can’t wait for all this to be done and to have a fresh new house, basically.

small nook in my PANTRY

my PANTRY!!!

drywall is up

PANTRY door!

before drywall, pantry framed in, open ceiling

exposed maze of plumbing for the sink and washer