Closing Next Friday!

WARNING::  This might be an extremely long post!   

                                                               

We close on our new house a week from Friday!  I can't belive it...I thought I would post some photos to let you see the before photos.  And just FYI, we WILL NOT be moving in until the renovations are done...well in most part.  The entire house needs several coats of paint, along with new flooring, light fixtures, etc.  It will be such a fun process - a lot of work, but very rewarding - and it will really be ours! (well the bank and ours - mostly the bank's).

This is the back view of the house:       

 The entrance we will mainly use will be the one in the back - the "den" which was at one time a garage and was closed in.  It's a huge room, but needs a lot of work - We are planning to make this our entertaining room - our den/game room/etc.  My goal for this room is to make it our main den.  It will have the TV, Couches, and hopefully a game table for the front corner of the room - I think it would be so great for crafts and games!

Once you go up the stairs into the main area of the house, our laundry room/ half bath/ and pantry are directly to the right.

Half Bath:                                                                   

 View of Laundry Room (obviously with no washer/dryer)

Our kitchen/eat in area is at the end of the hallway and opens up into a sitting area (which the previous owners had as a third bedroom) and the entry way.

My goal for the kitchen is to evenutally replace the countertops, sink and faucet.  Also, we have discussed moving the refrigerator to the side of the kitchen - where the dishwasher currently should be going.  We think this would make it more functional - and provide a little more cabinet space as well...we will see.  I'm also going to eventually paint (or have painted) the cabinets with a white glaze and replace all the appliances with stainless steel - this is about a 5 year plan or so.

Eat in kitchen area:  My table will go here!      

Sitting Room:  I was going to make this a dining room, but we will be ripping out the current closet in here, so I figure that it would be a great sitting room for little man to play in when I am cooking dinner or whatever.

Once you have passed through the entry way, you will see the master bedroom and bath on the left, a second bath on the right, and the nursery a little further down on the right.

Master:

Nursery:  This room was renovated after the initial move in, so it has a neat little corner nook - I am going to make it a reading/toy area.  I think it will be great space for a baby/little boy - it can be his own hiding place.

                  

This is the second bathroom - the only shower in the house.  We are going to hold off on renovating the master bath, so this will be our main way of showering for now.

The last area of the house is the upstairs, which for now will be our guest bedroom.  We will probably expand it one day to accomidate more children, but for now it will serve it's purpose for guests.

As you can see, we have our work cut out for us, but I'm so excited that we got this property with the house - it's going to be the perfect place for us to raise a family.  I can see our kids playing here for years to come!  I can't wait to show the final reno pictures!

Also, we have a few items that need to be addressed before we actually "qualify" for the FHA loan, so we worked at the house last weekend to get it ready for the next inspection. Here's a list of what we have already done:

1. Have a certified plumber make sure the pipes are all working and operational - this actually was completed, but we need a new water heater - so we will be installing this the weekend that we close. 

2. Building stairs for the back patio area - Jonathan, Mr. Mike, and David worked on this for several hours last weekend - they look great!

3. Adding a shower head to the 2nd bathroom


What we still need to have completed for the loan:
4. Fixing a loose faucet in the 1/2 bathroom - there was a piece missing, so we need a whole new faucet
5. Replace the broken glass in the patio door
6. Replace the broken glass in the front bedroom window (these will actually be completed the day we close).


Hopefully we will be in by Christmas or the following week - there's so much going on right now I feel like my head is spinning!