We bought a house!

Shortly after the Navy decided to grace us with orders in late February, we decided that our time as renters was up and started to look at houses.  Make that 1 house because we put in an offer on March 15 for the first house we looked at.  I'm pretty sure this a cardinal sin of house hunting.  What we found was a house that needed some love in a great area of Virginia Beach.  After some haggling, our offer was accepted on March 16.  We closed on April 30 and the real fun began.

The listing read as the house "needing some TLC."  That is the understatement of the year.  It needs a total makeover.  Luckily, we have an extremely handy father on retainer whose motto is "What Would Norm Do?" (that's a This Old House reference).

Friends have been asking to see pictures of the house, so here we go.  We have bought a late 1970's ranch, so it's the opposite of what House Hunters on HGTV want.  You will not hear us utter the words "open space" or "this gets good light" but HGTV can suck it when it comes to "sweat equity."

The living room is to the right after you walk in the front door.  Note the "lovely" dark red wall and windows that seriously need to be replaced.  Apparently this shade of red was popular in the recent past because the rental house we're moving out of includes a master bedroom in this color.  We are not fans.

Looking straight ahead from the entry is the dining room.  The sliding glass door with ugly wood glued to the wall above it will be replaced with french doors.

The next series of pictures is of the kitchen which is next to the dining room.  The backsplash is navy blue and white which we like and will be keeping.  The cabinets are in good shape, but will be painted white.   The appliances are gone except for the dishwasher which might be the slowest machine on earth.  It works though and quite honestly our credit card needs a break.

 

Eat-in area of the kitchen.

Next to the kitchen is the family room.

Oh look!  The previous owners had some of that red paint left so they decided to paint the fireplace and the space above the sliding glass doors with it.  Note the blast from the past parquet floor.

The bedrooms are down the hall from the living areas of the house.  There are 4, one of which we are turning into Finn's playroom.  We are living in denial that toys may actually stay in this room.

Finn's room.  It is no longer purple.

Playroom.  The floor is in good condition, so we are throwing a rug over it and calling it a day.

Master bedroom.  It was 3 shades of pink.

Guest bedroom.  Maybe we'll put a bed under that light so guests can lie awake wondering when it's going to fall.

There is a hall bathroom and a guest no bathroom.  They both need serious help.

Hall bath.  Doesn't everyone want a pink flesh colored toilet and window without frosted glass at chest level in the shower?  That's not wallpaper on the walls either.  Someone was thrifty and used contact paper.  We'll be flipping a coin to see who gets to scrape that off the walls.

Master bath.  Those plastic hooks stuck to the wall are a flashback from college.

This about wraps up the inside of the house.  We have our work cut out for us.  Last weekend we painted all the rooms that are getting new carpet before we move in.   We'll work on the bathrooms and kitchen later.  Upcoming for this weekend are putting in french doors if they are delivered in time and finish up any painting touch ups.

For future reference, when I say "we" in terms of renovations let me break down what I really mean:

Dad - He is the only one of us who actually knows what he's doing.  He tells us what to do and we do it.  Hopefully we will learn a little something along the way and be worthy of using his tools. 

Mom - She has the hardest job and is generally on Finn duty while we're working on the house.  Even she is not fast enough to keep his hands out of wet paint!

Patrick - So far he has been the muscle for this operation.

Elizabeth (me) - I just do what I'm told.  Prepare to be impressed in my next post where I show the painted rooms because I rolled most of them.