I'm finally able to get on the internet at our house so now I can finally share what we have done the last month or so.  Our biggest thing has been the kitchen.  We found hardwood floors under that horrible linoleum and were determined to have it!  It took alot of time and work, but it was so worth it.  First Dallan had to rent this machine with a blade that helped to pull up alot of the glue and padding that was under the linoleum.  There was just too much glue we couldn't get it all without ruining the hardwood, so we then rented a wallpaper remover to see if that would help.  It took about 2 days, but it worked!  It was only about a foot by 8 in. and we would have to hold it in one spot for 5 minutes, and then wipe it off with a rag and use a scraper.  We did that over the entire kitchen floor.  It was really gross.  Smelled way bad and we were covered in it.

 

After that was finally done with, Dallan rented the sander and it was amazing!  Brought it right down to the bare wood within 2 hours.

 And then the staining!  Dallan was pro.

Dal and his dance moves...

I'm loving the stain we chose.  Dark, yet light enough to see the natural grain.

We also bought new trim.  I painted them and then Dal put them up.  And the best decision yet, new carpet in the bedrooms.  It has made a huge difference!

 

(I painted the walls in the living room, hallway, and bedrooms in Sensational Sand by Sherwin Williams.  A perfect, warm, neutral.)

Here is how great our living room floors turned out.  So shiny!

I was getting anxious to decorate so here is the beginning of my picture wall in the living room!  I bought most of these frames for 50 cents at the D.I. and painted them up.  

Let's not forget Nash, the neighborhood watch.  He just loves it here.

This week we sanded the floors in the living room.  It has taken us forever to do it because there are at least 3 different layers of stains on the floor!  So glad to get that ugly red off of it!  I'm really excited to get the floors all sanded and then stained because then we can finally start moving some of our stuff in.  (Starting to get impatient and so ready to live there already..)

Also, we finished the tile and grout with the help of Dallan's great friend Mike!  I never knew how much work actually went into tiling!  It is not a quick and easy process!  We are hoping to have the bathroom completely finished this weekend.  Yay for no more gas station bathroom runs!!

I am not a big writer, but wanted to create a blog mostly because I wanted a journal for the house we just bought and are remodeling!  I would love all of my friends and family to follow and see the progress we are making, because you most likely have not seen or heard from us since we took on this huge project!  We have been busy non-stop.  So here's our story about how and why we chose our little fixer-upper...

We we very lucky to have my cousin as our Real Estate Agent.  We actually put an offer on a house that was a short-sale the first week we started looking.  After doing our research about short-sales, we decided with how impatient we were and with all of the damages on the house, we probably should not get our hopes up on it.  I told my cousin to let us know if any regular sales came up in our price range (which was pretty low) and thought for sure it would be while before that would happen.  Within days my cousin gave me call and asked if we could meet him in North Salt Lake right away because he found a house in a great area that had just gone on the market the day before.  There had already been at least six people who had looked at the house already so my cousin. Brad, brought all the paper work with him to the house in case we wanted to put an offer in, because he knew the house would go fast!  We were a little weary about the house after looking through it because there was so much work to be done.  It was HIDEOUS!  And that is an understatement!  We could not pass up on the location and knew we wanted a house we could fix up and make our own so we put in our offer right then and there!  We walked out to our car and Dallan saw one of his best friends pull up in the driveway across the street!  We hadn't seen the house he and his wife Abbie had bought yet, and were completely surprised to find it was right across from the house we put an off on.  Pretty sure the stars aligned for us on this one.   

After a long and torturous wait, we finally got the keys to our house on March 23, 2012.  We were so excited, but also a bit stressed about the work we had ahead of us.  Here's why...

  Tub!  Ewe.

 Bathroom vanity.  The guy who lived there used a bouncy ball as a drain plug.

 Closet door.  Dallan and Mike had a name for it.  It was clown.. well, lets just not go there..

Can't really tell in this picture, but the hardwood floors are terrible!  Definitely need to be sanded and re-stained.

 Kitchen cabinets.  Those have gotta go!

     Disgusting! 

 Purple.

 Red and Blue.

 Yes, that is a swamp cooler in the shower.  Oh, and lets not forget the PLASTIC pink tile!

The picures are blurry because I tried to make them big enough to see, but pretty scary, huh?!  Our first plan of attack was the bathroom and we have made alot of progress in just one week!  

 

Ugly Linoleum and tub before.

New Tile and tub after!  (and still in progress).