First Home Tour

The first house we bought was a fixer upper for sure.

Here are some quick facts about our first house:

  1. Originally, we thought elderly people owned the house, but it turned out they were just middle-aged, antique dealers.
  2. The windows were all painted shut and the sills were full of dead and discolored bugs.
  3. The previous owners had at least 3 indoor cats and liked to feed the neighborhood outdoor & stray cats.
  4. There was faded, gross blue carpet everywhere that was installed in the 1990s.  Patrick had to take a vacation day to rip it out during the first week of renovation because Marissa vomited.
  5. We opened the window and didn’t even use the master bathroom for the first 4 months living there because of mold – the floor, the tub surround, the vanity.  (2.5 months waiting on contractors and 1.5 month of work, it was the holiday season.)
  6. While doing bathroom renovations, the contractor found a live outlet behind the tub surround in the back bathroom.
  7. The addition, built in the 1950s, had absolutely no insulation between the siding and the framing.  Also, the crawl space under the addition was not insulated.  It was REALLY cold back there for the first 6 months we owned the house (coincidentally, September – February).
  8. While renovating the kitchen, we found bugs and general grossness behind the base molding.  Patrick had to finish that job as well because Marissa vomited again.
  9. One time, Marissa woke Patrick up at 4am because it was raining inside his bedside window.  That was fun.
  10. Another time Marissa woke Patrick up at 4am because there was something scratching inside the wall.  That was also fun.

We’ve done a lot of work on this house.  And we think it’s a pretty awesome home.  We really like our neighborhood and we love Oakwood.  It’s a great community, with lots of character and personality, a perfect location, a delicious Club, and perhaps the most fabulous grocery market that ever was.

We’ll definitely miss this place.

If you want to see where we started, for the drastic comparison, go here first: Blog Post #1: Getting the keys and vomiting.

We listed the house … and the realtor’s photographer’s pictures were amazing.  So, here’s a slideshow of his images (plus he got some of the outside areas that aren’t included in any of mine below):

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Current Living Room & Dining Room:

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Den (3rd Bedroom):

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Master Bedroom & Bathroom:

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Kitchen:

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Back Hallway & Bathroom:

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Guest Bedroom/Office:

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Garage & Basement:

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