We have paint, people!!

Very exciting to see paint actually going on the walls! We did one of the extra bedrooms first, because it needed the least amount of work. The color is called "Lion" by Behr.

I think in the living room will be a light grey/blue color... dining room will be navy.... and kitchen will be green.

I sink I'm in love....

Dave and my dad attacked the kitchen sink.... I love the new look.

Strip.... tease.

So the big project yesterday..... me, my mom, and my sister Kara.... we all stripped wallpaper off the dining room. If you've never done this in your home improvement history, let me try to explain what it's like.

It's like being made to sit in an uncomfortable chair, while the Spice Girls CD is playing in the background. You're starving and all there is to eat are some old soggy grapes and maybe old ketchup where it's separated and the water is floating on top.... and there is someone poking you in the eye with a plastic fork.

Just really uncomfortable and icky to the point where it drives you insane.

BUT we managed to get most of the paper off - the glue remains. But we've decided to paint right over that! Thank you mom and Kara!

Progress!!

The carpet cleaning lady did a FANTASTIC job! Now it just looks like a slightly used carpet... instead of a really tired carpet. And we had her steam clean and strip the tiles in the bathroom - best idea we ever had.

Yes, that's right. After almost 2 weeks of constant scrubbing on my hands and knees, I gave in and paid someone 50 bucks to finsh the job. You can call me a quitter, if you want.

So here are the before and after pictures, you can see for yourself......

Too tired to blog.

I am seriously slacking on my blogging.
I have heard from the masses - "What's the latest? What's happenning on Ardsley? We are dying to know!"
Well we are quite literally just too pooped to blog. Everyday after work we are heading over to Ardsley, we do projects until about 10 or 11pm, then drove back to Belmonte and crash. Let me amend that - I crash, Dave is up until 3 am. His insomnia is back, and it's worse than ever. I should just leave him over there to keep working.

So I apologize for not keeping everyone up to date! Here is a quick wrap up of what we did in our first month of ownership:

Got the yard and overgrown bushes under control.
Pressure washed deck.
Got the airducts cleaned and sprayed for mold.
Got the entire house replumbed from top to bottom.
New toilets, new faucets, new sinks - not a single old one remains.
Ripped out old crusty sliding shower doors.
Ripped up old linoleum in bathroom to find beautiful tile. Scrubbed for days to get the glue off.
Ripped down mirrored wall in living room. Sanded and refinished wall.
Started priming walls with Killz (thank you to whoever was the crayon artist!)
Started stripping wall paper in dining room.

And today the carpet cleaners are steam cleaning the carpet, and hopefully reglazing that old tile in the bathroom.

We'll let you know how it goes...Ta ta for now!

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

While the Plumbers handle the rest of the plumbing issues…. We decided to tackle the mirrored wall. Someone – who shall remain nameless – suggested we should keep it because “we’re young….and we don’t have kids…. It could be… kind of…. kinky.”

Ahem.


I suggested that person could take it home and put it on their wall if they liked it so much. As far as my wall was concerned – it was coming down.

I was a nervous wreck through the whole process – since my husband decided to rip it down wearing shorts and flip flops, and with NO eye goggles or gloves of any kind. Finally he relented and put on some sneakers after about 10 minutes of nagging.
It all came down – some chunks bigger than others. It’s just sitting in my garage if anyone wants it for an art project…. Or for a ceiling….

Oh crap.

We have decided to attack everything that has to do with the plumbing. Ambitious – I know.

We started off with new toilets. We brought our 2 “Toilet To Go” boxes home with the best of intentions. “We’ll just rip out the old stuff and pop the new ones on and ta da!” Well…. It didn’t go QUITE like that…
First of all, the bolts were soooooo old they had rusted the toilet onto the floor. So Dave had to literally rip the toilet off of the ground and throw it out the window. I was surprised his skin didn’t turn green and he didn’t grow 5 feet like the Incredible Hulk. And then we were left with this gaping hole in the ground that literally smelled like… well you know.
It was a long smelly process but the toilets are in and looking fabulous. And I ripped up the old linoleum in the process and found this awesome tile underneath! Why in the world would you cover that up? Now I just have to scrape up the glue.

Eu De Toilette

The first order of business is the plumbing.

We have some, yes..... is it working? noooo....

So we're calling in the plumber to get everything working and up to code, and with that we decided to get some new toilets. The old ones are junky and they don't work very well. So Dave decided - let's start fresh! Get some new crappers! Our butts will thank us later.

So we made a trip to Lowes (first of many I'm sure) to check them out. And I guess I've never really looked too closely at the toilet section... but I quickly realized - there are tons of options... each with their own price. Who are these people paying 600 dollars for a toilet? It's still just a toilet! Amazing how much money you can drop (no pun intended) on something you poop in.

So the guy went through his whole rig-a-ma-roo, "This one is top of the line, chair height, wipes your ass for you, yada yada yada."
(Just a little side note here - does chair height mean that every time I sit down on a chair, whether it be at work, at the dining room table... I will now have the urge to go? Does that freak anyone else out??)

We thanked the guy, told him we'd think about it. And then promptly turned around and got 2 of the "Toilet in a box" for 99 bucks.

Embarking on a new adventure...

The Waxes of Jacksonville have some news.... we have bought a new house (Well, new to us. Built 1942!) and we closed on it, so it's officially ours!

No, we haven't quite sold Belmonte yet..... so for the moment we are parading around as Real Estate Tycoons (Dave prefers Land Baron.) It's a lovely 3/2 with a huge backyard and a great deck for some good McAndrew parties! It is a fixer upper, so when you come visit please bring your sneakers, painting clothes, and an extra bed to sleep on.

We'll send pictures of the renovations as they progress... but here's what it looks like from the street. Please try to see past the "flesh toned" paint. That will definitely be going....