Our House... Full of Surprises!

Before I start my post, I want to say a few words of thanks. All of our family and friends have been so helpful in this entire process... they've listened to our hopes, frustrations, excitement and heartache over the last 6 months. It's been a roller-coaster and they have all had so much patience with us! Now that we have the house everyone is happily and generously pitching in where and when they can. It is more than we ever expected and we are so grateful. We want to say thank you for:

• Lending us tools (SO HELPFUL!)
• Giving us advice and a bit of their expertise
• Giving us gift cards to Home Depot (AWESOME!)
• Working with us on our house (THANK YOU THANK YOU!)
• Giving us leftover supplies from their past projects (wire, adhesive, etc) (WOW!)
• Watching our kids (TOTALLY AMAZING!)
• Getting food for us while we are working (LOVE IT!)

We are truly blessed with a wonderful family. You guys are amazing! Thank you so much!

And I begin my blog about our house:

After 6 months of looking at this house... it's finally ours! (And the bank's). We bought this HUD home knowing it would be a very low mortgage and very tall project! In the 40's when the Hanford area was developed by the US government hundreds of "prefab" homes were built in Richland. They were named "A, B, C, D" and etc. Our friend at the city office gave us copies of the original blueprints. We learned that our house is a "U" style and also called "The Portland." Quite a fancy name for a little place! This house was built in 1948. It's a 2 bedroom, with a kitchen, large living room, a small utility area and a smaller bathroom. After many days of deliberating and planning, we decided to put in 3rd bedroom, and make a small living room.

Because the house is so old, they had to perform a lead based paint inspection. They found chipped and peeling lead based paint on the window sills, window frames, and on the trim of the exterior of the home. This turned out to be advantageous for us because the state gave us $4,000 to get rid of all the evil lead based paint. Part of this correction includes brand new windows, painting our trim and replacing the carpet inside. Very nice!

Here is the backyard... I'm excited to get the kids shooting hoops out there!

The day we signed the house papers, I took Zane over and he pulled out the for sale sign. Doug called the agent later that day and told him to pick up his sign. He had no idea it had sold. We couldn't get the sign and the key lockbox out of there fast enough!

Once we were inside we started to make even more plans. We pulled up the carpet and low and behold found hardwood floors underneath! They are beat up, but with some super sanding and new stain they will look awesome. This also saves us money because we don't have to buy new carpet. The hardwood floors are all through the house except for one small area. The kitchen hardwood is covered with linoleum. We will refinish the wood in the bedrooms, hallway, and living area. The bathrooms, utility room and kitchen will get fresh linoleum.
We should have had a clue there were hardwood floors underneath when we saw the front entryway. It is hardwood... they just painted it white... BIG SIN!!
The previous owners put up a wall in the front of the living room to make a small (very very small) dining area. It was a poor choice of wall placement. The dining area was tiny and awkward. The walls were covered in fake wood paneling. (My dad would be in heaven). When Doug took off the paneling, this is the next surprise he found! Very bright and creative!
The kids enjoyed banging their hammers into the walls. It was time for that funny little dining room to say goodbye.

Here is the room with the yellow walls removed. We were able to salvage the framing and essentially just move the wall to where we wanted it for the new bedroom!

Here is Doug with the wall moved, and the second wall for the new bedroom getting ready to go up.
Imagine my joy when I pulled the paneling off that front area only to find.... MORE PANELING UNDERNEATH! Hilarious.

Here is a view of the living room before we put the new bedroom walls in. The huge antique air conditioner was the cooling system for the entire house. It doesn't take much to cool 860 square feet. And we decided this unit wouldn't be used in our house again. Next spring will be time for HVAC. We can live with baseboard heaters and space heaters throughout the winter. Did I mention it's a little house and it won't take much? :)
Allie helped me pull out the old air conditioning unit and frame up the hole it left. Doug put some pretty wood scraps over the outside. Once we put the insulation in and drywall over the hole it will be beautiful! Allie and Doug removed the two baseboard heaters. I figured we might as well get those out while we are cleaning up the walls. None of the walls have texture. They are all flat, which makes it easy to see any dink or scratch. We will spray on texture throughout the entire house before we paint.

AAAhhh, the bathroom. We originally planned to leave the bathroom alone for now. Then we decided to extend it out into the utility area. We started ripping out the walls, breaking off the tiles, removing the sink and vanity. The pipes under the sink weren't very happy when Doug took the wrench to them. They disintegrated when he tried to unhook them.
Here is Doug beginning to pull off the tiled wall. The tile wasn't so bad, but we knew we had to move some pipes around, so it had to go. Good thing we did!
Check out the black stuff on the insulation... yup, that is mold folks! We decided then and there to take off all the walls in the bathroom. We cleaned out all that moldy insulation, sprayed the bare wood with bleach and it's amazing how the house doesn't smell so funky now!

Our poor bathroom. We decided not to move the bathtub after all. But we are replacing the sink and moving the shower head up at least a foot! I hate having to duck when I'm taking a shower to wash my hair. I can't imagine how the rest of my tall family would feel standing in there! The water would be spraying their belly button! (No not really, but it paints a funny picture).
We ripped out the vanity... the one with the angle cut out of the countertop because the door wouldn't open and close!
Doug and my wonderful brother Dan put a nice fresh layer of chip board on the floor. It was pretty scary underneath. Cement board and linoleum will be coming soon.

Here is the new utility area. We had all sorts of fun surprises for us here! First we pulled up the carpet and the pad. Under it was an array of MDF rectangles cut and nailed into the subfloor. It wasn't nailed in very tight because we could essentially pry it up with a hammer and puny muscles. The house was built with a wood plank floor. There are lots of gaps, the wood is tired and old and very very dirty. Here Doug is standing in a 1 1/2 foot deep hole. There was originally an oil burning furnace int he house. It was where he was standing. The previous owners ripped out what they could, then filled the hole with dirt, debri, some insulation scraps and broken parts of the furnace. We were all joking that there could be a bag of money buried under there! Either that or human remains. Either way it would have been interesting!
Here is another view. Zane is pulled old nails out of the floor. Doug is framing in the hole, getting ready to put a nice subfloor over the top.

A new wall and part of the new subfloor went up tonight, but I don't have pictures yet. We've been working on the house for a week now. It's been fun and interesting... and we only have 1 wall left to frame! Next comes some movement of plumbing pipes and electrical wiring. Then we begin drywalling, mudding, sanding (my least favorite part of all), texturing walls, priming, painting, and new baseboards throughout the house. All the kids keep asking is "when do we get to paint?" "Not yet," I say. :)

To see all the pictures of our house (before and during our mess making) check them out here on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/krisweikum/sets/72157624212862011/