Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Our Not-So-Little Side Project

I've decided to do a set of posts that are quite different from my typical agricultural posts.  My fiancee and I have begun an interesting adventure.  We are doing some renovations to a house!  Yes, I said "doing some renovations."  Let me clarify!  We aren't taking down walls, redoing the foundation, or putting a basement under the house.  It is a lot more updating, and making it better fit our... wants?

Some background, since we are getting married shortly after we have both finished college, building right away is less than ideal, and renting an apartment or townhome in town... Well, that wasn't going to happen.  There is nothing wrong with what is available, but there was no way I was spending that much a month to be living on top of another family, and still be attempting to save to build.  Not to mention, we had a family member with a really good house that was currently empty, so we moved forward on it!  What got me here writing this is, one of my good friends was persistent that we blog about this, because who doesn't love DIY home improvement, right? Am I right?...

When an fall evening looks this nice out the back window, why live in town? (taken in 2013)

So our process has begun, and there are quite a few things on the list.  I never realized how much goes into a house.  Don't worry, we will do before and after pictures! (She promises!)

Our to-do list includes the following activities:
- Window treatments all around
- Flooring in...... four rooms, I think
- Paint on the whole main floor
- Replacing the current kitchen backsplash (maybe)
- Finish furnishing the place
- Washer and Dryer
- A new brain on the TV antenna (because paying for satellite is too mainstream)
- Other miscellaneous things I'm currently forgetting...

Here's a little background on the house itself.
- Built in the mid-1970's
- Four bedrooms
- Three baths
- Two car garage
- Ask my fiancee about her walk-in closet
- Ask me about the screened-in porch (we'll see how well a puppy will get along with screen doors)
- Large kitchen
- Plenty of storage
- Modern appliances

We are pretty excited.  Here are two of my favorite features!

  My truck fits in the garage!  Three cheers for no more scraping frost??

Look at that screened porch!  It sits on the west, so the sunset is visible over the fields and treeline if you're into that - I just want a place for a hammock...

I didn't get a picture of the Master Closet, but one of the other aspects that my fiancee and I both liked was the large kitchen with a good deal of counter space (there's never enough of that!).  All photos are pre- anything right now.

Yes, the doily came with the table (we always get asked that).

Pinterest.
(My printscreen attempt caused errors, so I took a picture of the screen)
Pinterest has become a common topic of discussion for us.  Yeah, go ahead and laugh.  Ask your significant other if they have a Pinterest (especially if they're under at least 25).  Take a look at it, and see what you can learn.  They've probably got wedding, home, and food ideas you'll be interested in (especially the food).  Anyway, this is where some of the looking for paint and other ideas came from.  This is the same with our plan to build a house down the road.  We're already somewhat looking at floorplans, cabinets, etc.  However, that's WAYYY less intensive than this current project though...
I hope you enjoy following along for this project, as we will be doing occasional blog posts, and some guest posts from my lovely fiancee!
  
You can follow along on my social media sites, and send any of your questions to 
lifeofafuturefarmer@yahoo.com!