Still Alive

So I apologize, profusely, for taking so long to write again. In the time since I last wrote, I had 2 garage sales, got ride of A LOT of stuff (including a rather impressive pile of scrap wood :-( that I had illusions of grandeur with especially since I don't have a miter saw...yet and a whole lot of paint), packed up our 2000 sq ft house and moved. We also took a nice vacation to see some sights on the way to Utah, where both our families live. We had a wonderful visit, which always goes too fast, with both our families and then headed to Oklahoma. It took us a while to find a place, since we had been promised a comparative place on post to our last place, but then that fell through at the last minute and we had to scramble to find a house off post before my husband had to go back to work. We had to settle for a 1400 sq ft, 3 bed, 1 3/4 bath house that was built in the early 70's.

There is ceramic tile in the kitchen, dining room, both entry ways and the hall way, but the rest of the flooring I think has been here since it was built. Since this is a rental house, I didn't want to do to much, but I have been busy making inexpensive changes here and there. Can't wait to show you all the things that I have been working on. I have already built a closet for $40. That is to say that the closet wasn't functional so I built the insides. It is SOOOO much better now. I painted most of the house. Laid a new floor in the closet that I redid and the front coat closet. Today, I am suppose to redo the flooring and caulking in the master bathroom, and while I am at it, the caulking around the back splash in the kitchen. Then sometime soon (hopefully) I will refinish the existing bathroom vanity and mirror in the main (full) bathroom. Most of the money that I have spent has been to make this smaller house functional for us. When you moved from a 2000 sq ft house with a 1 1/2 car garage, to a 1400 sq ft house that includes the 2 car garage, it makes for some creative thinking!

This house needed a lot of work not just on the inside but the outside as well. As I type this I have guys on top of the house ripping off the old VERY worn roof and replacing it (finally!), the garage door was replaced, and I got a new faucet in the kitchen. I talked the plumber into buying a nicer faucet and letting me pay the difference, since I was planning on a new faucet anyways, it saved me about $30-$40 by having the home owner pay for the cheapest one and then I paid the difference for the nice one. (SO WORTH IT)

On top of all that, we also put our son in football for the first time ever and I am coaching my girls team in volleyball. I played volleyball in High School and I LOVED IT! I am having so much fun coaching and playing again, but once again, it is very time consuming. I don't know how parents with kids can keep sane with kids in different sports.

So that's some of the stuff that I have been doing. Please forgive me for the long absence. I will post tomorrow about my closet and the flooring. Until then enjoy some ugly pictures of our "new" place before all the changes.

These pictures were taken on our walk through before we rented it, so there was no electricity, so some of the pictures are kinda dark.

Nothing says, "I WAS BUILT IN THE 70'S" like wood paneling on the walls!

This is my sweet husband walking on the one good thing in the house, the ceramic tile. I shutter to think what the flooring was like before they put this in! Anyways, this is the dining area looking into the paneled room, aka the TV room. To the right of my husband is the door to the garage, to the left is the backdoor leading to the backyard AND one of the things that sold us to this particular house, the school right outside the back gate!

This is the main bathroom.

This kitchen is among the best kitchens that I saw when looking for a place to rent within our budget. Another house we looked at in the same area had an avocado colored sink with orange counters...ORANGE counters ~shutter~!

This is the master bath. The flooring had holes in it, and it was permanently stained yellow in some areas. That's just gross!

Here is one of the weird things about this house. This was taken while standing in the master bath. My daughter on the other side is in the master bedroom closet. I am very grateful to have the shelf space, but this is just weird!

Here is the before mentioned master bedroom closet. The flooring looked like odd shaped leftover pieces from another project (I'm guessing that this flooring was in the kitchen before the tile!) The walls were baby blue, which I am convinced (with evidence) was the original paint from the 70's. There was ONE closet rod that was hanging so high that I could only reach it by standing on my tipy toes. The rod was also so close to the wall that the hangers could not hang straight. It was the worst designed closet that I have EVER seen!


Thanks for stopping by. Come by tomorrow for the pictures of the refinished closet!