Window House

   

Here is the official record of what my kids do while I am working.  

This is a great shot of Slade gaming. 

Here is the story.

While watching TV a few months ago, I found the perfect house.  As I do, I showed Scott.  Usually he says "that's nice dear".  To my surprise, he said, "make an offer".  

So I did and we won out of 9 offers.  

 

We bought it thinking we would rent it out right away.  

The kitchen was clean, 

the whole house had been painted, 

there was new carpet.  

It was fine.  

We call that a vintage yellow sink, it is all in the way you say it. 

 

We did know that the electrical needed to be completely re-done.  

The house wasn't grounded because they re-plumbed the house with Pex and took out the old pipes that were used to ground the house.  Thankfully, this house has a crawl space, so pulling new wire was a simple affair.   

Of course I have been working with my dad on this and we seem to have a problem knowing when to stop.  The plan was to replace counter tops, but if you do that, you might as well re-format the kitchen.  Oh, and take out the flooring.  
Can you see where I am going with this?  

Nice, clean wall separating the kitchen from the living room.  

 

Two boys having the time of their life.  

Nothing like taking out some drywall.

My favorite times are the "wall take out" days.

 The kitchen is huge for a 1955 house.  It is roomy and bright enough.  

But opening it up brings all of the light from the big windows into that space.  

I love it.   

We have done most of the work now, I will update soon.  

The last thing to decide.  What color do you paint this door.  

I would love some suggestions....

The House is Sold!

The House is Sold!  

Even better, this is the couple who call it home.  

During the process, I had a young couple in mind when choosing finishes, cabinets, etc.  

I never thought they could be this cute, though.  

When we went to closing, even the title company woman was telling us how excited the couple was and how much they loved the house.  It couldn't be any better.  

If you want to check them out, she has a blog which features music.  They sing and play guitar.  I think you will find that they are really just that cute.  

remedyinrhapsody.blogspot.com

The photo shoot in which I snagged this photo is all thanks to Mila Adams.

So that is the end of the story.  Sigh.  I learned so so much and woke up excited each day I worked on the house.  Some days more excited than others, of course.  

To work with your dad day in and day out was amazing.  How lucky am I that I got that chance.  Life changing, empowering, scary, gross (sometimes), overwhelming, and delightful do not come close to describing the experience.  

I had so much help from so many people and also a special grant that I received from a family program.  The grant is such a huge part and I couldn't have done it without that help. 

 Thank you everyone!!!!

The Before and the After of it.

This is the view as you come into the house.  

There is nothing more satisfying than taking down a wall.  

This particular wall belonged to a small bedroom that is now the dining room.  It had the added effect of giving a view of the window as you walk into the front door.  

It is always refreshing to have light ahead.

The room with the according doors is now the master bedroom.  

The new dinning room and a shot of the hallway.

The before picture.

The hallway picture towards the kitchen.

The before picture.  Note the very small electrical box in this photo compared to the one above.  It is such a small detail but represents brand spanking new electrical throughout the house.  

The dining room again.  

The same view with wall in place.

 This is my favorite place in the house.  It is unlike me, but I would love to do dishes here.  

The before view.

I am still surprised when I walk down the hall and glimpse the tile.  

I keep saying the house is so pretty.  Maybe I shouldn't use the word, but it fits.

  

The bathroom after.

The bathroom before.

These fifties houses had a lot of build in storage.  There was a closet you could access from the hallway.  We did take that one out so we would have a bit more room for the loo.  

The little bedroom.

 The little bedroom before and during renovation.

    When spring came around, I was surprised by all of the beautiful flowers popping up.  You could tell Mary, the previous owner, spent quite a bit of time planning and working on the garden.  The amazing thing, these flowers hadn't been tended in a while, yet they were effortlessly blooming for us.  The house was enjoying an extensive, yet painful, spa visit and bringing us flowers to show it's appreciation.

At least that is how I choose to see it.

Look at dad work away while I am busy snapping pictures of the poppies.  Typical Melissa. 

Thank you to the Adams' family.  Thank you Scott and the boys.  Thank you to Claude, Annie, and Marilyn and the Blackburn grant.  Thank you to my mom.

Especially and a thousand times, thank you dad.

Whew.  We did it.

The Little Brick House's Basement

This is the "before" picture of the basement without some low hanging pipes that we already removed.  I will say that this is a short little room.  

We build a wall on one side so we could contain all of the plumbing for the kitchen. 

Here is the room with the wall removed so you can see into the crawl space.  

This is the door that dad replaced.  This is dad looking at the door he replaced.

The room all sealed up with drywall.  

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We finally finished the house except for a small bit of rain gutter that I thought could wait until after the family vacation to Grandma's and Grandpa's house.  Well, I was wrong.  Utah Valley was hit by a crazy rainstorm the day we left and the day the house was listed.  Yep,  the day the house listed.  Because I didn't put that last few pieces of rain gutter up, it flooded the basement.

So as we were enjoying beautiful Oregon I was trying to arrange for clean up, etc.  Of course dad made everything work out until I could get home.

Loved this shot of Slade photo bombing the family photo.  

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When we got back to reality, dad worked on a cement curb to keep the water flowing in the right direction.

I got the "opportunity" to learn how to re-install carpet.  I found out that you can't do it without a carpet stretcher.  I tried to do it without but realize, again, my dad is always right.... you have to use the right tools.  I have heard that a time or two.  

Now we wait until someone wants to make this house their home.

The Little Brick House, a family affair

I tried to get all of the intense stuff done before school was out.  I was afraid of how things would go once kids would be at the house.  I shouldn't have worried.  Here is a snap shot of how it has been going.  Legos and a bit of drywall provide hours of entertainment.

So the stuffed animal Hank is holding is Foxy.  Foxy is a trouble maker.  He is wanted by the FBI.  Dad, aka Baca to the grand kids, is fixing him up with a band aid from a wound he received while being just a bad pet.  Can you tell kids are pretty darn happy about this turn of events.

The kids have to do ten minutes of math every day during the summer.  It is a challenge from their school.  Dad was teaching some concepts on the counter top sans the Formica.  

It is all about work and treats.  

I have been so delighted by their willingness to work on the house.

Cute moment where Hank is brushing Earl on the front porch.  

 They have had Merrick come a few times and it makes the time there that much better.  Nothing like a great cousin to up the fun factor.  Thank you Merrick for being so fabulous.

The afternoon is game time.  The kids know they get away with way too much game time when I am coming to a deadline.