New Beginnings

Hello to family and friends and those who I have never met. My name is Amanda and my husband is Jared. We were married this past October and from there it has been a great beginning with many challenges and triumphs over the past few months. We recently bought our first home. By recently, I mean we closed Friday April 10, 2010. From there the demolition began on our new home. The home was a foreclosure which is presenting with many projects including demo of the living room, dining room, and kitchen floors which are soon to be replaced with hardwood floors and new paint after new dry wall is installed in some areas. Other projects to be completed are the master bathroom, which right now is completely gutted. The other rooms will need new paint and some tender loving care.

Friday we made our first trip to Home Depot buying some paint samples and new locks. We went to our new home for the first time as the owners. We replaced the locks and put some paint on the walls in the dining room, living room, kitchen and entry way. We are still undecided. Who said choosing a paint color would be easy. Our first visitors arrived early evening. Jared's mom and her friends stopped by. The took a walk through and then treated us to dinner. Since Jared and I had both worked the night before closing, we had not slept so after dinner we went home and straight to bed.

Demo day started Saturday. We tore up all the carpet in the living room and dining room. I pulled the staples out of the sub floor while Jared took off the baseboards and the wood paneling for painting. Then we both tackled the kitchen floor, which used to be laminate flooring. I pulled and he scraped. The first layer was easy, but the second layer was more of a challenge. All the staples from the first layer were stuck in the second layer. So, we headed to home depot for a floor scraper, the dining room paint, and some painting supplies. The floor scraper was 30.00, but in my husband's eyes it was money well spent. He went back to tackling the floor, while me and my mom sanded the walls in the living room where the paneling had been. No luck with sanding the previous owners used liquid nails which turned gooey upon sanding. Plan B Jared took out the wall and replaced with new! Thank you love!! The floor scraper tended to work well but by 9:00pm Jared was exhausted and we decided to call it a night.

On Sunday afternoon, we went back to the house. Jared finished tearing up the floor in the kitchen and the entryway while mom and I patched the smaller holes throughout the living room, dining room, entry, and kitchen. I also sanded the trim in the rooms to get ready to paint. We got much accomplished in the 4-5hrs we were there. It is starting to look like a different house.

On Tuesday morning, Jared and I went back over for a hour and a half. I pulled the staples out of the sub floor in the kitchen while Jared replaced dry wall. I only got about 1/3 of the kitchen floor done in that time. There have to be like a 1000 staples in that floor. Lets just say the floor wins and my hand well, is full of blisters. Anyways, planning to go back tomorrow!! Goodnight!