Busy Weekend Post # 1: The House

We had a ridiculously hectic, fun, stressful weekend ever.  So much that this blog post is going to be broken up into three posts: The House, The Hospital and The Shower.  We'll start here with The House.

I previously posted some photos of our new house that were from the original listing.  These are the REAL before photos.  Of the fixer upper project that is our new house. 

We'll start with this photo here of my brother, Gregory, who's painting our "antiqued" cabinets a clean, crisp white for us.

 Here's the living room - after screws have been extracted from the walls and some spackling has been done.  Also, you'll notice we tore down the ugly brown blinds.  This room will be painted a lovely "builders beige" - something neutral and easy.  Our contractor is knocking down the decorative white beams and we'll be putting up a ceiling fan (that Brian found at Costco today!) and getting new carpet in here, too.

 Here's the entry way and yes, it's getting painted.  Although mustard yellow / puce green have always been favorite colors of mine (not), we're going with the neutral "builder's beige" here, too.  The light fixtures will also get a good cleaning.

 Here's the big project (big as in we're paying someone to do it).  This is our master bedroom.  From the left to the right, you'll see the door to our master bedroom (opened), the door to the master bathroom, the linen closet we're having torn out to expand the shower that's being replaced (and if you look closely, you'll see the torn out bathtub/shower combo behind it), and our walk in closet.  What you cannot see in this photo is the texturing on the walls.  It's like extreme sand paper finish - if you were to trip and hit the wall, you'd surely have an injury.  It's so rough and ugly.  Our contractor is going to re-mud the walls for us and we'll be painting this room a lovely grey/blue color.  I think it will look great with our dark furniture and striped bedding.  We're also getting rid of the laminate flooring and replacing it with carpet.  Our stay here in SF has taught us that Riley and hardwood bedroom floors don't mix. 

 Here's a snapshot of our master bathroom - another "before shot" because this is being redone.  The mirror will stay.  The light fixture goes.  The vanity stays, but it's being raised up when the floor is redone.  We'll also be replacing the sink and countertop.

 Here's a before shot of the upstairs bathroom.  This one probably needs to be updated, but it's not in the cards for us yet.  We bought a new light fixture (thank you Clearance shelf at Lowe's!), a cute shower curtain that will go with the yellow-ish granite counter and disguise the not that great tile job in the shower.  This bathroom will also get a thorough cleaning and be squeaky clean.  We'll be replacing the mirror, as well - and the ugly towel bar.  Hoping to paint this an aqua color or a grey color.  We'll see!

 Here's the before shot of what will be our guest bedroom.  Previously inhabited by a young boy with an obsession with push pins.  We knocked down the chair railing and this room will be painted a lovely shade of green.  Also, expect new carpet in here, too.

 Here's the filthy room that will soon be our precious baby's nursery.  Soon, the ceiling will be a crisp, clean white and will sport a new white ceiling fan/light fixture.  The peach and orange walls will be painted a lovely shade of gender neutral green and the dirty carpets will be replaced.

 Here's my generous father-in-law who is our life saver with the work to be done on the house (you'll soon understand why in Blog Post #2).  He's cleaning all of the cabinets with a tough cleaner and getting them ready to be painted and lined.  He's also removed a ton of screws from walls, cleaned all the window sills, spackled, sanded, primed, etc.

That is our current update on the house - we picked up the keys on Saturday and the work has begun!  We have a long way to go, but we're confident the work will be done and we're excited to move in!