The first 30 days & when all else fails....

Scott and I have been engaged for a little over 30 days. I think it has FLOWN by. We have the wedding set, the party set, the band booked, the food selected and the bachelor/bachelorette party conceptualized. We also spent a week in Florida celebrating said engagement. Oh-and did I mention that week before we got engaged I put my house on the market. I will get to most of the other things but right now lets concentrate on the house on the market issue. For some reason it's the most stressful to me of all the things going on right now:)

I knew putting the house on the market in the winter would be tough. Couple that with real estate sales being down 12% in January in Knoxville makes for FUN TIMES. But I have done OK so far...3 showings in the first few weeks and everyone that saw it loved it. But...didn't buy it for a variety of good reasons.

When all else fails...us Catholics turn to patron saints. The patron saint of real estate is St. Joesph. Yep-its true. From here on out I am calling him little Joe. I ordered him and he arrived (with complete instructions for burial) on this past Monday. if you are local you know that was the day of our epic flood. I am sure THAT was a coincidence.

little Joe in front of some flowers I got for myself. He really is little.

Close up of little Joe.

The whole real estate Joe kit.

You are supposed to bury the little statue (little Joe) in front of your house-upside down and facing the street. A small prayer is offered up and that's it. You hope for the best. Like I said the flood on Monday prevented him from being placed in the ground. Yesterday I kinda forgot about little Joe sitting on my kitchen table. Today I got TWO CALLS for showings on my house. This is unusual....I am crediting little Joe for this sudden interest. I came home and buried him.

little Joe's final resting place....

Little Joe is in the ground. The house is immaculately clean, again. The first of the two showings is tomorrow morning. Here is hoping that this person will love my little place and want to make it his/her very own-QUICKLY.

Oh-and little Joe wont be left behind. I am not going to mess with God and his instructions.

Instructions that came with St. Joesph. Obviously it's VERY important to dig the little guy back up after the house sells. I will..no man left behind.

Rain Delay

It appears that planning to have my roof replaced is a modern version of the Native American rain dances.

I have been saving up for a new roof for the past few years. I decided to take the plunge a few weeks ago when I realized the price of shingles is going up proportionate to the price of gas. Did anyone else not know that shingles were effected by oil costs?? I did not know until I started getting quotes this summer. Anywho. Today was my new roof day.

We have not had rain in East TN in the last month. This is, literally, the driest August on record for the past 60 years. But today...I wake up (at 6:30am when the roofers are scheduled to arrive) to gray skies and ominous clouds. yes folks, the precursors of rain. And rain tomorrow, and rain on Wednesday.

To make everything more fun...they have dropped off loads of shingles in front of my garage, so my car is stuck outside until they can re-roof the house. Of course I spent hours this weekend cleaning said car....even waxing it. I should have anticipated three days of thunderstorms:)

Act two: The Mudroom

Once the kitchen was complete it was obvious that the pantry/ mudroom/ laundry room needed an upgrade. The old mudroom was covered, and I mean COVERED in barn board. While barn board has its place-we didn't feel its place was right next to our newly modernized kitchen. We ripped down all the offending wood (way easier said then done.) We put up new Sheetrock, installed a new pantry, covered the walls in bead board, and carried the paint color from the kitchen to the adjoining mudroom. I also decided to add some hooks for our coats, which has been extremely useful.

A shot of the mudroom when I moved in. I think the previous owners must have gotten a good deal on barn board...the stuff was EVERYWHERE...

They even made a pantry out of barn board...

We like our pantry better.... We added a row of hooks to help us stay organized. Note-I know we love bead board like the old owners loved barn board.
A view into the mudroom from the kitchen...

The Kitchen Remodel

I first tackled the kitchen. The old kitchen we a little gross...so when I first moved in I did a minor cosmetic update. I ripped down wallpaper and painted everything including the cabinets. In October of last year I gutted the kitchen. We replaced the cabinets, appliances, counter tops, backsplash, plumbing including a brand new sink and the light fixture. We shopped around-I love a deal and got great prices on everything. Two of my favorite deals were the light fixture ($5 in the Lowes sidewalk sale,) and the small tile we used in the accent row on the backsplash (a mere $1 a sq foot-also in the Lowes sidewalk sale-I bought all they had-about 6 sheets.) We did all the labor ourselves, with the help of my dad and brother. I will say my Dad knows plumbing and electrical and this was not his first kitchen upgrade. He was a huge help and I learned allot.

Things I learned:

1. Taking down wallpaper is a horrible, evil job. The older the wallpaper the worse it will be.

2. ALWAYS pay to have the appliances delivered-specifically the refrigerator. It's worth the $75 to have to delivered-take my word for it.

3. It takes weeks to get counter tops delivered and installed. We finished the entire remodel in 4 days and then waited two weeks for the counter tops. I made poor Kevin install our sink "temporarily" on a sheet of plywood so we could do our first Thanksgiving in our new kitchen. We got our counter tops a week or so later.

4. Measure, measure, measure. Kevin was in charge of layout. He did a great job-and we did not have to return any cabinets due to mis-measurements. I was impressed.

5. Whatever you budget-no matter how good of a job you do-add at least a few hundred dollars to the top. The incidentals included: toe kick pieces, filler pieces for the cabinets, caulk, new switch plates-etc. You can imagine how these things add up.

All that said-we were very close to budget. We finished the demo and installation (save the countertops and backsplash) in just over 5 days. We were sitting in a brand new kitchen in 6 weeks. Not bad for our first big project together. I LOVE IT!!!

The Kitchen when I moved in to the house. As you will see...the previous owners loved them some country decorating.... I made minor cosmetic changes with paint...
My dad, brother and Kevin installing the first new cabinet....
The finished prodcut-we are really proud of the tile backsplash....
Another view of the finished kitchen...