Not That Exciting....

.... but it is stuff that needed to be done!

These are the things that probably don't really excite the "home renovation" people following this blog that want to see the rooms transform and decorated and such, but these are some things that do excite me. It's the little things that are being done "behind the scenes" so to say. And, unfortunately, they are the things that have been the largest monetary expenses so far, so they deserve pictures on the blog!!!!

Right after we closed on the house, we had a new breaker panel put in. The old one was a brand that has a bad reputation and not knowing anything about it, we could not take any chances. So, here's the new breaker panel!.....

We had our Verizon Fios cable, internet and phone installed. This really is exciting stuff .. love my Fios!!! ....

And, drumroll please..... the largest expense so far .... the new A/C unit (x2!). We had two new complete systems installed inside, outside and furnace units. I love my A/C!!!! (ok, so I have to love it for the expense that it was!!!).....

One small "decor" type accomplishment... even though I have not painted in this room yet, we did bring over the kitchen table and now have a semi-working kitchen. At least we have a place to eat!!!.....

Today, I worked on the game room. It is still a work in progress, but it is coming along. I have some more bookcases to put together to build this system for the wall, and we have the big TV to move over into here, as well as a futon that we will put in here tonight. But, it is coming along!....

And, the "Katch-A-Kid" fence was installed today. Safety for the pool! Now the kids can play on the patio and not have to worry as much about them getting into the pool. It also covers all of the exits to the patio from the living room, game room and garage, so if a kid gets out without us knowing, there is a barrier between them and the pool! .....

And, finally, the alarm system was installed today! I need to paint around it now and finish up the laundry room, but it deserves a picture as well! ....

So that is what has been going on in home renovation-land lately. Not quite as exciting as you had hoped, I am sure, but it is the little things (unfortunately with big price tags) that just have to be done!!!!

Living Room

The living room is the first room we have actually "completed".

Here it is the day we closed on the house....
Another picture of it before the painting begins ....

Starting on the painting ...

Painting progress ....

Moving in the furniture, painted shelves on bookcases and painted the mantle and fireplace surround ....

And, the "completed" project. ....

Studio

I have made a little bit of progress on my photography studio!


Here it is the day we bought the house. On the left is where they closed in a doorway to the kitchen (this room was originally the dining room).



This was after I took out the door they had built in off of the entry way to make this room into a bedroom. We opened it back up into the entryway to have a larger opening ...

And, here is the room painted.

And, finally, painted and carpet removed. I sealed off their "patchwork" over the doorway on the left, textured the wall and painted it out. We removed the carpet so that we can transplant the wood floor from the master bedroom into this room. Still a work in progress, but better!

Pool Ready for Summer!

Ok, so I cannot give it the FULL effect here because I do not have the original "black pool" picture on this computer. But, if you go back to the very first post of pictures of the house in its original condition and see the opaque black pool, you can really appreciate this! This is the first thing in the house that is COMPLETELY done ... the pool!!!

It started out super black. That's the only word for it. Then, after we closed on the house, Charlie's mom came and started shocking it and scrubbing the sides ... it was her little project!

She did quite a bit of damage (in a good way!) to the opaque black water and got it looking something like this ....

The next tall order of business was draining the pool. Here is the water almost completely drained ...

Once it was completely drained, Charlie pressure washed the sides. It got most of the black off and left just a little bit of a tan stain on the sides. Good enough! Much improved from what it was, so we'll take it!

Then, we refilled the pool. All of this took a LONG time! It took 8 hours to drain the pool, then around 30 hours to fill it! The result was worth it .....

And, last, we had the pool company come out and get the pool up and running for us. They put in a new filter, flushed the lines, fixed up some stuff and put in a new salt water system. So, now we have a beautiful salt water pool ready for the summer!!! DIVE IN!!!!

Making Some Progress ...

Just a quick update ... I will get some new pictures on as soon as I can. We have taken a little break from working on this house while we get our old one ready to go on the market. So, we've mostly been moving some stuff over, decluttering and getting the old house spic and span for showings. But, we do have some progress to report on this one. Here are the current ongoing projects ...

• My Mom and Dad came and helped us put in three new doors that go out to the pool to replace the old ones with dog doors in them.


• We drained the pool and power washed it down, then refilled it. The pool company comes tomorrow to get it up and running with a new filter, flushing the lines and putting in the saltwater system.


• The new A/C systems will be put in next week!


• We have started repairing some sheetrock and base boards that had some water damage in the laundry room


• We started painting my photography studio


• We are about to start on kitchen and bathrooms

Many pictures of these projects coming soon!