Going, going....GONE!

Well I guess I am about as good at blogging as I was at keeping a journal when I was little. Actually, to be honest I've done better at blogging, as I used to write in my journal about every two and a half years...Anyways... lots has happened in the last few weeks. Our goal with the house was to have it on the market before we left for holidays down to echo lake the third week of August. Although it ALMOST drove both Steve and I to homicidal thoughts, we did it! We were able to list the house and go enjoy a great vacation. We consider ourselves so blessed, because after 22 showings and six days WE SOLD!

Here are some of the final pictures of the house all finished and staged! Here are some before and afters:)

We added stone to the exterior, new deck, and painted EVERYTHING! My mom came up and helped me plant up the flowerbeds wich look great:)

Before living room.... and AFTER!!!

We painted, put in new hardwood, baseboards, new ceiling texture and then of course my personal favorite.. DECORATING!!

The before Dining room/couch storage (gotta love bachelors eh?)

The After dining room! As you can tell we removed a couple walls. Again we continued the solid hand scraped acacia that we used in the living room, but bridged it with the tumbled travertine in the entrance and kitchen.

Its funny, I look at this kitchen and can't even believe we are in the same space anymore.

We were able to design the kitchen to our liking. Neither of us had ever done it, but after countless hours of rearranging painters tape on the floor we came out with something we were really happy with. I definately learned from this project you can buy "big box" but still create a custom looking product.

I know what you're thinking. How could we possibly make this room look any better than it did? For the record, this picture was taken in June....

We continued the hardwood, added some accents and retiled the fireplace. We found a really cool product called "split-faced" stone. They litterally cut the rock in half, we love it!

These are just two guest bedrooms upstaris. We replaced all the carpet, painted and changed all the baseboards out. Well after this HUGE undertaking, we have definately learned a few things about renovating. I think one is, you always spend more time and money then you initally anticipate. I don't know why, because I am fairly cost observant, but somehow it escapes you. So, I would recommend definately planning on ten to fifteen percent more than your inital budget.

 I now feel before anyone gets married they should have to do a renovation project together. Does it ever try your patience. You would never think you would dig your heels in over something as simple as a paint color, or baseboard profiles... but it happens. I think the combination of all your time and money going into a house that we were also living in and you top that with sleep deprevation....it was a little much. I would reccomend trying to complete major renovations prior to moving in. Another tip would be, shop around. If we would have purchased all materials and supplies at the first or second place we got quoted we would have been in the poor house for sure. Again, this is also to a certain point. I think everyone gets to the point in a renovation where you wouldn't care if it cost $20,000 for a window you would buy it just to have it done. By shopping around on just our flooring and kitchen we paid about a quarter of what was initally quoted. I think last would be, expect the unexpected because I guarentee it will happen:)

I have always loved decorating and desiging, and this was a great project for expanding those interests. I hope in the near future to further these interests and possibly persue them more...I'll keep ya posted:)

We are now excited to pack up and move to our new place in Auburn Bay!!!