Another two week stretch between postings, but we’re moved in

As the title says, I’ve now gone another 2 weeks without posting. I am SUCH a bad blogger. At least I have good news to report—we have been moved in and occupying the house for over a week now, which is pretty darn awesome. Unpacking and decorating is another story...

Anyway, we’ve done quite a bit. For starters, we put up a new light in the kitchen. Crazy, I know. And the light is forever ruined for me because a friend mentioned that it looks like a boob, lol!

Here is the kitchen! As you can see we still have a lot of stuff to put away. And Adam is the WORST at shutting the cabinets, haha

Here are our outdoor solar lights, our new grill courtesy of my mom, and our fire pit—which resulted in the cops and fire department being called on us on our 2nd night here (Welcome to the neighborhood!)

Thanks to my mum for the awesome grill!

And here’s the living room. Please forgive the random crap scattered across the couches, coffee table, and floor. We’re still in the “getting there…” phase of unpacking.

The green couch in the last picture was a spur-of-the-moment decision. The couch was my aunt Nancy’s couch that she gave to us, and I found a cover for it and decided to move the loveseat into the living room, and I like it. The room is not very feng shui, and I’m not sure how to remedy that—but we had some friends over the second night we spent here and we were all crammed on the one couch, so we definitely needed something else in the room. And my aunt’s couch is possibly more comfortable than our leather couch!

And, finally, the bathroom! I am super proud of the bathroom because I think it had one of the most major transformations of any room. And adding that shower curtain was instantly gratifying because it hides our ugly shower!

As a comparison, here are the before pictures of the bathroom:

AMAZING, right? I do plan to do a master before/after post, but I need to finish unpacking the bedrooms first.

Expenses: this is why I was procrastinating about writing this post. I have receipts everywhere and I can’t remember what I’ve added in and what I haven’t. But I’ll do my best…

To start, Adam and I each spent $50 at Stop & Shop getting stuff to get us “started”—butter, eggs, bread, other household items = $100

Then I spent $38.64 at Walmart on a fan and a throw pillow.

-$27.89 on garbage bags and spray-on something or other

-$6.99 on a silverware organizer

-$31.78 on plumbing supplies

-$85 on stuff from Bed, Bath, and Beyond: chip clips, hand towels, a doormat, a pet drying mitt, a hand bag organizer for the closet, a curtain rod and a curtain for our hall closet, hand soap, a full-length mirror, and picture hangers

-$300 between Adam and I for a weed wacker, a kitchen light, and some other random stuff

-$101.86 at Ocean State Job Lot on a lamp, a reed diffuser, aluminum foil, paper plates, a solar light, love seat cover, 2 spare bath rugs, band aids, almond extract, dish towels, ziploc bags, a plunger, a placemat, oven mitts, dog dish, vanilla extract, another rug

-another bathmat for in front of the sink $25

-a potability test for our well $110

===== $9480.73

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

That’s $800 something dollars since the last time I posted…

I’m going to try not to think about it.

Home renovations are wearing me thin

Well, I haven’t updated for two weeks, partly because I’ve been really busy, and partly because there isn’t much progress to report.

Last weekend, my dad went to Maine for the weekend, so pretty much nothing got accomplished, since everything that’s left to be done is awaiting his expertise. Also, Adam didn’t want to do anything, and I had a hunter pace on Sunday, so…nothing.

I did do a TON of cleaning in the evenings after work last week, though. I wiped the inside of every cabinet and drawer with bleach. That was pretty gnarly. It was like the former occupants spilled oil inside every single cabinet. And had a food fight with spaghetti all over the house...

The newly cleaned and polished handles are back on the cabinets; however, the countertops still remain covered with random tools, paint cans, and trash. UGH!

Also, put up curtains, which need to be hemmed (because nothing can ever just be DONE):

Cleaned the shower with excessive amounts of bleach and installed some fixtures in the bathroom:

This weekend went very much the same way. Saturday Adam was busy, and my dad showed up at the house while I was running an errand (because after 3.5 months of doing nothing but working on the house, god forbid I have to do anything other than work on the house once in a while), so he turned around and went home because I wasn’t there. So, the appliances remain unhooked up, and we still don’t have electricity in the bedrooms.

I did get the kitchen pantry painted, though:

The photo was before the second coat, so it looks even better. The walls were so gross in there. Adam sanded down the shelves to make them shiny and new. I also painted the bathroom shelves since they were also dirty (like every other surface in the house).

I also painted the window frame and door frames in the bathroom since they were scuffed and dirty.

Here’s Adam, hard at work:

There’s crap everywhere, as you can see. I’m sick of it.

Here are the killer zombie weeds which have sprung up all over the damn yard. Also, the lawn got mowed on Saturday, so that’s one thing, at least.

Luckily, my dad did get over on Sunday to mow down the bamboo.

Anyway, I’m seriously losing patience and seriously broke. I am about ready to put the house back on the market. There’s still so much left to do and no money left to do it, everyone’s burnt out, everyone’s got an attitude, everything always goes wrong, and I can’t take it anymore.

Here’s all the crap I’ve been spending money on lately:

-curtain rod, bath fixtures, three floor lamps, clothing hangers…$84.46

-returned a door stop…-$3.78

-bathroom cleaner, shower cleaner, toilet cleaner, felt pads for furniture feet, Mr. Clean Home Pro, screwdriver, door bumper, razor blade scraper, dowel for closet, weed killer, a machete (that was all Adam’s idea)… $37.68 (because I used $44.12 in gift cards)

-a nightstand and a clothes rack from Target…$20

-I got $100 off my fridge because of a small dent in the side! so -$100

=========

$8653.57 spent on renovations (and I haven’t even been adding monthly electric bills and property taxes and home owner’s insurance…wahhhh)

Also bought $300 worth of stuff at Lowe's last night, but I don't have the receipt at the moment, so I'll add it on to the next post.

Losing steam on home repairs

Well, it’s safe to say we are losing steam with the home renovations.

Here’s what we did this weekend:

-my dad started fixing our broken shower and replaced some outlet covers

-I cleaned more kitchen cabinet handles

-Adam cut some plywood to use as slats for our new bed frame

-hung the medicine cabinet/mirror in the bathroom and started setting up the bathroom sink

-we moved some furniture into the living room (!!!!)

But, that’s it. We are just waiting on my dad to fix the plumbing and hook up the appliances and we can move in and finish the small stuff later.

Photos:

Here you can see the trim we put up in the bathroom. It was cheap and easy, but I’m not loving how the corners came out.

We discovered that there is a crack in the basin on the vanity top, so I’m hoping that Adam’s talented and handsome brothers over at Surfaces Group can make us a new countertop…

And here is the completed living room:

Oh, and a blurry picture of it with the furniture in (there are two coffee tables because we weren’t sure which was going to stay in the living room, and which was going in the basement. We decided on the darker one, because it matches, even though I prefer the other one):

Expenses:

-returned a door stop: –$2.85

-bought a used washer and dryer for a coworker $200

-bought a bunch of Pex adapters, clamps, a dryer duct, a washer machine drain hose, and plywood for the bed frame $49.42

====$8615.21 spent so far on renovating the house

Also, we discovered that one of the ceilings that cost me $1200 already has a crack in it. The contractor is coming to fix it, but in the meantime we have to put moving stuff into that room on hold until it's done.