If Walls Could…Breathe?

Yes, I’m having a Celine Dion flashback right now…a little “If Walls Could Talk” blast from the past.  I must say it would be very interesting to hear what our walls would say if they were pontificating on years gone by; I would love to know what secrets they hold.  But when we bought our house, we were more focused on helping our walls to simply breathe again!  It turns out that the previous owner of our home was a heavy smoker.  When we toured the house for the first time, we were shocked by the outlines of brown tar on the walls where pictures had once hung.  Clearly, the walls needed some serious TLC.

The day after our little bungalow was signed over to us, we tromped back over to the house ready to get down and dirty.  Literally.  Before digging in though, we did a little research to find out how to take care of smoke smell and tar stains.  The trick?  TSP, otherwise known as trisodium phosphate.  This little ditty can be bought at your local hardware store, and it’s basically a harsh chemical that removes tough stains—like those left from smoking.  If you ever plan to use TSP, be sure to wear plastic gloves and a face mask—the face mask also helps to diminish the nasty smell that accompanies the task.

After three weeks of constant wall washing (and even some re-washing), we were finally able to coat the walls and ceilings with Kilz primer—another amazing invention.  Kilz does what it says—it kills bad odors and creates a fresh slate to paint on.  Thanks to Home Depot, we were able to load up on the five gallon buckets, which was more cost-effective in the long run.  And for the chemical conscious painters out there, we recently heard about KILZ Clean Start primer, which is a zero VOC high performance, interior/exterior primer, sealer, and stain blocker.

So there you have it—how we brought life back into our walls with some major elbow grease and some really great science.  And best of all?  Now they’re painted and smoke-smell free!  Breathe on walls!

A House Photo Tour

Check out our new House Tour tab—to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme song!  We finally pieced together a page of before and after pictures of several rooms in our house, along with some tidbits of information explaining the major transformations that happened along the way.  While we’re still working on putting together photos for the master bedroom, guest bedroom, and basement, the tour offers a decent overview of our most major projects.  Of course, we’ll be sure to document the overhaul of each and every room with as many gritty details as possible in future posts.  For now, we’d love to know which room is your favorite—or if you had to rub your eyes to believe that the old sun room and the current dining area are truly one and the same!  Oh, and this weekend we had our house appraised.  Here’s hoping for some serious gains in the equity department!  We should hear back from the loan company any day now, and we’ll spill the beans when we have all the details.  Standing by!

Old Vs. New

One of my absolute favorite pastimes involves driving around older neighborhoods, although I’m sure I become a total road hazard, because I just can’t stop staring!  The mature trees, meandering porches, and unique architectural styles are all aspects of a home that just seem so right, so fitting.  Sadly, the new subdivisions that keep popping up often leave me feeling dismayed, as most of the houses feel like cookie cutter versions of the subdivision down the road.  All that to say, I love the look and feel of older homes.

Yet the reality is that I had never really lived in an older home until we bought our first house, and it was only built in 1947, so some might even say it’s young!  Or middle-aged?  However you look at it, the house definitely needed some updates, both cosmetically and internally.  It didn’t take long for us to realize that we needed to spend some moolah in order to modernize the guts of our home.  In fact, it was more like a two-by-four had hit us over the head when we turned the nozzle on the kitchen sink, only to find that barely a drip of water was able to squeeze out of our plumbing.  As it turned out, our plumbing needed to be updated, along with the water heater and furnace.

Looking back, I am so glad we doled out the cash to make those updates, but at the time, I must admit that I bemoaned the fact that I could no longer use that money to make our house look better.  How many of you have ever felt the same way?  I mean, no one even sees those things!  Yet despite my frustrations early on, I love knowing that there will be hot water for a shower, and I’m sure we both sleep easier knowing that the guts of our house are more reliable, plus they carry a warranty, so they could easily be fixed if something were to go wrong.

There are several other areas to consider when buying an older home.  Does it have a rock foundation?  Will the roof need to be replaced soon?  And while you may be swooning over the leaded-glass windows, will they hold heat?  Because if not, you may have to cover them up with Saran Wrap in the winter.  What about your pipes?  Are they galvanized steel?  If so, they may be rusted out.  And while we’re on the topic of pipes, we definitely recommend having a trusted plumber run a camera down your line as part of your home inspection.  Yes, it is worth the money, because clay piping often cracks over time due to encroaching tree roots, which are prevalent in older neighborhoods.  More on this later…

Don’t let these issues dissuade you from buying an older home, but make sure you’re aware of what they entail.  Before we bought our home, a friend casually said, “You know the only thing that works in an old house is the owner, right?”  The good news is that this does not have to be true if you know what to look out for.

What about you?  We would love to hear your old house stories, along with any other tips or things to be aware of when buying an older home!

Home Sweet Home

It seems a little strange to start a blog almost exactly one year after buying our first house, but considering that we had no idea what we were really getting into, and considering that we did not originally plan to do all of the projects that we ended up doing—well, I guess you can say that hindsight is 20/20.  Here’s a little rundown on how it all happened…

In 2009, it felt like everyone around us was buying a house.  And many of them were, mainly due to the low cost of housing and the $8,000 tax credit available.  Whenever we talked about buying a house, both of us agreed that we wanted to save up a nice 20% down payment before taking the plunge.  We are big believers in budgeting and paying with cash as often as possible, plus it felt like the responsible thing to do.  So we continued doing our laundry at the laundromat and kept many of our belongings in storage at Matt’s mom’s place.  But when the government decided to extend the tax credit, I have to admit that we started to rethink our decision.  It’s not that we couldn’t stand the thought of living in our apartment for a few more years, but when we actually started adding up numbers, it quickly became apparent that it would take many years for us to save up for a 20% down payment (and we would lose the free $8,000), plus we realized that in a few years the prices of housing might go up drastically, including interest rates.  On top of everything, we knew that it would take a long time to save up that amount of money with Matt in nursing school and my job teaching at a charter school.

Within a few days of saying we “might start looking eventually,” we spotted a house that I dubbed “the Pottery Barn house.”  We were pretty sure that it was way out of our price range, but Matt called the number the next day just for fun, and before we knew it, we were getting MLS listings and had a realtor.   If you’ve ever seen the MLS listings, they’re super addicting.  Each night we would pick out our dream houses, and soon we started walking through them with our realtor, Jennifer.

As I think back to the first houses we looked at, I’m kind of amazed that I didn’t have more requirements for them.  I mean, I’m a ducks in a row kind of gal—but the excitement of looking for a place to call our own must have dulled my senses a bit—and since we had a smaller budget than most, I think we felt like we couldn’t be too picky.  All that said, we did have some stipulations.  We wanted a quaint downtown house with charm.  We wanted hardwood floors.  We hoped for a fireplace.  We also knew that most of the houses we were going to look at in the downtown area would need some cosmetic fixes, which was fine with us.

After just a few weeks of searching, we found a house that was simply adorable—claw foot tub, thick molding, hardwood floors, and those awesome windows that pop out, rather than slide up.  We kept calling it the cottage house.  Long story short, we put an offer on the house that was significantly lower than what they were asking, and on Christmas Eve, they turned our offer down.  (Later, we found out that they accepted an offer even lower than ours, but the house had been sitting on the market for quite awhile at that point.)  While it was frustrating to lose the house, we both were somewhat relieved, because the location was not ideal, nor was the fact that it was situated next to an apartment building.  And the house needed some serious work, too.  More work than was obvious at first glance, and since it was an early turn of the century house, it cost more to fix everything.  Looking back, I can say it was actually a huge blessing that the deal fell through.

About two weeks later, though, our realtor called us up and said she had just previewed a house that was going to sell fast—and it was in much better location with the likelihood of gaining serious equity.  So on a Saturday night, we drove downtown to see the house.   We pulled up to a house that was picture perfect—and I flipped out.  I was literally dancing on the sidewalk and yelling that it was everything we wanted—I didn’t even care to see the inside—it was that perfect.  Little did I know that Matt was starting to wonder if we were on the wrong street, as our realtor was nowhere in sight, and the house seemed far nicer than what would normally be within our price range.  Turns out that we had the correct address, but the wrong street!  I was devastated, but hopeful that the real house would be just as great.

After driving one block over, we pulled up to the correct house.  And let me just say…it was not quite what I had hoped for.  Not even close.  We opened the door to find our realtor happily waiting for us.  I think our shock was apparent to her, because before we could even open our mouths, she told us to picture the house without the creepy striped awnings and stained carpet.  To consider what it would look like with new paint and new light fixtures.  To consider that the house already had several investors vying for it, even though no pictures were yet posted on the MLS.  And in a nutshell, that is how we bought our little fixer-upper…by dreaming of what it could be…and by offering a tad more for the house than the asking price.  Little did we know the adventures that awaited us.

A Whole New World

Hello DIY lovers!  Almost exactly a year ago, we purchased our first home--a true fixer-upper.  Now keep in mind that we are not professionals or wealthy homeowners.  You might consider us your regular average Joe when it comes to house projects.  Yet over the past twelve months we have scoured nearly every surface of our home, and now that we have a bit more time on our hands, we want to share the insights learned along the way.  We have made a few mistakes, but we've also experienced the joy of seeing ideas come to life.  This blog will discuss all aspects about owning a home, from building projects to decorating ideas, from paint colors to picking out tile and furnishings, from organizational ideas to budgeting.  We want to lay it all out, and hope you are there to join the conversation.