Getting Started

So to make a long story short - it took over a year to sell our old house in a really bad housing market. We were a bit desperate to get out as our oldest would be starting school and we weren't in a very good school district. We wanted to move somewhere that, hopefully, our kids can go all the way from elementary through high school without having to move. After selling our house we couldn't find any houses to buy so we decided to rent an apartment short term. We kept looking for houses. Unfortunately in our price range with our list of must-haves, there just wasn't a lot available in the town where we moved. We really wanted acreage, more square footage, a basement, bigger bedrooms. After watching the listings for almost 2 years we ended up settling. We found a house that was definitely a fixer, with a way too small kitchen...but it was on 3.27 acres of land and just a couple of minutes from shopping and the interstate. We had no idea what we were getting in to....but more on that later! :)

We closed a few weeks before our lease ended so that we could get in and clean and update the kids rooms before moving in. We wanted them to have their own space that was completed.

Our "To Do" list looked a little something like this:

Bedrooms (3, Upper Level):
Paint ceilings in bedrooms
Paint bedrooms
Tear out old dark, hollow wood, damaged doors
Tear out baseboard trim
Tear out old door and window casing
Put in new, solid wood, six panel doors
Put in new, crisp, white trim and casing
Put new closet doors in the kids' rooms (they were missing)

Lower Level (Family Room, Bathroom, Laundry Room, Play Room):
Tear out hideous dark, rough paneling and baseboard trim (hoping that there is drywall behind!)
Tear out beams
Paint

Kitchen:
Remove wall separating kitchen and dining room
Completely renovate doubling the size of the previous kitchen
Turn former living room into new dining room

Bathrooms:
New vanities, flooring and paint

Rest of the house (halls, stairs, etc):
Paint and replace all doors, trim and casing

Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? We had really planned for the first two steps to move fairly quickly. The kitchen was an absolute must - you'll see why later. I'm trying to go in order, after all. :) Stay tuned!