Big Bills

Owning and remodeling a house are two very fun things.  However, along with all the fun comes the reality of "owning a house".  Those of you who own a home know exactly what I am talking about.  

Since July 18, (the day we had the keys handled over to us), I have written checks, swiped my American Express, and watched our "home savings" account get lower and lower.  All that being said, we obviously saved for this grand occasion and expected it all... but it is still takes some getting used to.  Actually on second thought, I will never get used to it!  I am an avid saver... so dishing out the green bills to termite guys and sub-floor wood will never be easy for me!

Well, I knew this day would come.  I'm been waiting anxiously for our first real homeowners bill. It finally happened: 

I had no clue what to expect since the house is 2,000 square feet!  The biggest place Nick and I have ever lived in was maybe, just maybe 900 square feet!  Granted.. we aren't living at our new home yet, but we sure have spend a lot of time there!

I steadied my hands, and took the plunge, and slowly ripped open the envelope.  I was expecting the worst.  I knew it was obviously going to be double what we pay now.   I had the check book ready to go and give away my life savings.  Okay, perhaps I was being slightly dramatic.  Can you blame me?! 

I quickly peered down at the "PAY NOW" portion of the bill.  I swear I heard the hallelujah chorus in the background start playing.  

$4.35????!?!?!?! WHAT?  I LOVE OWNING A HOUSE!!!  MY LIFE ROCKS!  

Yes, I realize that the billing period was shorter than usual because of the date that service was transferred into our names.  Okay, it was only a measly 7 days long.  BUT STILL!  The Lord new I needed to be broken in SLOWLY to this homeowner-bill-paying-say-goodbye-to-saving-my-pennies world. 

Next, I will anxiously wait to receive my first water bill.  That is something that really scares me!!  When I  flush the toilet at the new house, I often think... oh man... was that flush 10 cents or 25 cents?  Gotta go buy that 1.8 gallon per flush toilet!

**What was the most shocking bill you received when you bought your home or when you first moved out on your own?  

**Do you have any great tips for saving energy or water and cutting down on those pesky bills?

Dream Team Work Day

 This was a very productive weekend at the Klaus house!  We were fortunate enough to have a weekend with hardly any commitments... which meant we could work on the house all weekend. And that is exactly what we did.  We clocked 13 hours of work time this weekend!  Woohoo!

  I have to admit... my entire body is sore in places I didn't know you could be sore; however, it is worth it because we are that much closer to having our dream home ready for move-in!

Saturday was the first work day.  Since Nick had to work, it was just my Mom, Dad, and myself.  We worked very well together and accomplished a lot in record time.  Dream team!

Here are some photos from the day:

We took down and washed all the blinds in the house.  These blinds are old-fashioned and definitely not the look we are going for.  Nick and I want to have plantation shutters (see below) throughout the house. 

                                      

However... toilets, showers, floors, recessed lighting, and paint are currently more of a priority and in the budget!  So, with that in mind, we decided to wash those blinds and use them temporarily.  Hopefully they won't be up long, but while they are.... they will be spotless and clean!!

My fabulous Momma vacuuming all that nasty construction debris.  We spent a couple hours removing baseboard and carpet tack strips.  All of the rooms are now ready for paint and floor installation.  

Working hard!!  I have decided that remodeling a house is a better workout than going to the gym.  The tool I am holding was being used as a massive staple remover.  Majority of the house had carpet.. which meant STAPLES EVERYWHERE. 

I am proud to say that every staple is now gone!!  (And I have sore arms and abs to prove it).

Fill in the blank.... 

"All done.  Finished.  Complete.  Can we go hot tubbing now?????!!! " 

Or maybe she is saying... "Why in the world did you buy a fixer-upper?!?"

Or.... "Quit throwing staples at me.  I am here to help you!"

What do you think she is saying??

I'll tell you about our Sunday workday later this week.  It was a demolition day!!  Things are moving forward and it's getting exciting!

Face-lifts and Lipstick

Hello! 

You must be thinking that we have abandoned the house project!  I was so faithful about posting every couple of days and sharing our rapid progress!  We are still moving forward, but things have slowed down a bit for the time being.  

Here are the projects that we are working on that have slowed things down:

The Fireplace.  Like how I officially made it a Proper Noun?  

The rocks are now gone.  We were totally blessed by a co-worker who helped to remove the rocks for FREE!  And I mean, ALL 3,100 pounds of them.  This is not an exaggeration.  Can I get an amen up in here?!

 

We can't move forward until we hire a mason to come out and help us frame and restructure the new fireplace.  We don't want to mess around with a hole in our wall that will eventually hold FIRE!!  I'm all about "doing it ourselves", but there are certain things where you have to be wise and hire out!

While the boys do big demolition jobs and manly-man things, I have kept busy by pulling this gorgeous contact paper out of all the kitchen cabinets and drawers.  Contact paper is much like wallpaper.  Sometimes it just peels off (and you do a little happy dance) or it comes off in little chunks (and you remind yourself that kicking cabinets will cause you more work in the long run).  

Once I finish this task, our cabinets are getting painted!!  Having the cabinets painted is going to help the kitchen appearance tremendously!  Also, having an amazing Dad who happens to own a painting and decorating business is pretty much the coolest thing ever in my book. 

                                     

    

                               This is the project I am probably most excited about.....

The master bathroom!!!!  The master bathroom is great, but it's needs a little face-lift and quite possibility a little lipstick.  Once we update her, she's gonna be a beauty!!  

The front part of the bathroom that you can see is the vanity and the walk-in closet.  Through that little door is the shower and toilet room.  (We have already stripped wallpaper and taken down the mirror).

Here is the plan:

See that wall with the metal towel rack?  It's a goner.  The whole thing.  We like open spaces and the feeling of an open bathroom (little toilet rooms have always freaked me out... this had a toilet room with a shower... oh please, help me!!)

Since we are taking out the whole wall, we decided to expand the shower too.  It's quite small.  Here is where the dilemma came in: Expanding the shower meant losing space somewhere else.  BINGO.... my walk-in closet.  *Boo-hoo*  The good news... I am only losing 18 inches.  I decided to sacrifice those precious 18 inches all in the name of a decent-sized, newly tiled shower! 

The shower is another project that requires hired help.  Hubby is VERY handy and quite brilliant, however, he has a lot of other projects (like the whole house), so we figured this was an area that was worth paying someone for. 

That's the house update.  We are scheduled to have floors installed in three weeks.  That means we have a lot of work to do in the meantime!!

In between ALL the house projects and real life (work and such), we are trying to remember to take time for ourselves and do fun things.  Renovating a house is a big task and can be quite consuming at times! The house will continue to stand and will wait for us.    

In the meantime, we plan on continuing to live the good life and having fun through it all!

   Bowling with friends.  Nick was doing a creeper face and I missed the memo.

I was attempting to do a creeper face, but instead... I look like I am going to take a bite out of him or something weird like that!!

                                                     The good life, indeed! :)

Practically Famous

Woohoo folks!  I reached the goal of 25 followers.  Now I feel very legitimate and possibly a little famous.  Maybe I should give away a prize for this momentous occasion.  How about one of the lucky 31 followers gets.....

 This fabulously antique, gold light fixture.  I'll be sad to part with it.... but all in the name of official followers.  Takers??

Or my personal choice.... one of the top two final toilet contenders.  The Kohler Highline Classic.  Everyone deserves a good, powerful toilet.  

Aren't you glad that you became a follower?  You won't find give-aways  like this anywhere else on the web. I guarantee it.  

You better tell your friends to join quick.  

And for those of you who are still on the fence about "following" me.... come on!!  This is it.  The real deal.  Help me get to the next level of fame.  At this rate, I'll probably be featured in People magazine soon.  You don't want to miss this train!!

Shout-Outs, SARS, and Toilets

House renovations are time consuming, exhausting, fun, and full of memories.

Those who are closest to us have been SO generous with their time and energy.  They have spent numerous hours helping us with projects.  I think those amazing people deserve a blog shout-out.  

Our little way of saying "thanks to the moon and back"!!

**Paul and Lily Akimoff (a.k.a- our fabulous dad and mom)

**Emily Akimoff (our sweet baby sister who we adore)

**Seth and Hope Howland (our bestest friends in the world)

**Stephen Gillis (our buddy all the way from Sacramento... woot woot)
**Stan Klaus (Nick's dad and the Crandall roofing dump truck owner!)

**Paul Akimoff..... My Dad (again)  He has worked SO hard and been overly generous on our behalf.  He hired his employee crew to come out and work for us (when we were at work and had NO clue!)  

Talk about best Dad in the world award!  He deserves about 100 shout-outs!! 

Also, thanks to family and friends who have come to see the house.  We appreciate the visits and congrats on our newest adventure!

Crazy big projects like this create fun memories and hilarious stories.  I figured I better blog about some of the funny things said or done before they are long forgotten.   

**Disclaimer** To those who are pictured or quoted:  Don't be mad at me for posting your hilarious moments or comments!! 

This is my sister Emily.  She is a student in the nursing program at San Francisco State.  Lucky for us, she is on summer break and is able to be home... and HELP!!  

In this photo she was working on peeling, or rather, "ready to kill" the wallpaper in our kitchen.  After many frustrating hours (no exaggeration) she turned to me and said:

"When you told me that we would be working on your house together this summer, I envisioned us sitting in your new, cute house doing fun, creative Pinterest activities... like painting wall art and making table centerpieces!  NOT THIS!!"

Finding the strength for a smile in the midst of the curse of the nasty wallpaper. 

In case you don't feel sympathetic yet, here is a close up of how it came off.  This is after multiple times of soaking it down with water.  Luckily, it is all in dumpster heaven now!!

This how I felt about it.  Okay, I'm done venting about the wallpaper now.  

Nick and I were shopping at Lowe's last weekend.  There are tons of product choices we have to make.... sort of overwhelming at times!  

Anyhow, one of those product choices are new toilets.  So many factors... water efficient, comfort factor, water flow, customer reviews, etc.  Yes, I did say comfort factor.  Let's just be real here!! 

We saw this American Standard toilet and we were intrigued with it's various "features" and by it's name "The Champion".  It was at the moment that my husband said something that made me laugh:

                                   "Now that is a hot toilet".  

There are lots of things I might describe as "hot"... but a toilet isn't the first thing that pops into my mind!  I guess when you are renovating a house.... your priorities change!!  Who knew!?!

This is my bestie, Hope.  She was kindly scraping wallpaper.  Opps.  I promised to not mention it again, sorry.  

As this "action" photo was snapped... she turned to the photographer and gasped... 

 "Delete that!!  I don't want to be put on the blog wearing a SARS mask!"  

(Remember all those folks wearing the blue masks during the SARS epidemic?)  No disrespect intended, of course!  Just another funny moment that I don't want to forget.  

Here is the retake of beautiful Hope sans the mask: 

                                                         Last story of the day:

My Dad was pulling this wallpaper out of our master bathroom.  I came in and *jokingly* pouted:

"NO DAD!!!  I love green!  I wanted to leave that wallpaper!"

When I returning a couple minutes later, I found that he had aborted the mission.  He kindly taped the paper back up for me.   Too bad there was no clear tape available.  

This is only the beginning.  I know that as this process continues.. the stories and memories will continue to grow! 

Dancing Floors

Lucky day.... A sneak peak!

This is our flooring choice.  It will be throughout majority of the house.

                                     

Isn't it pretty?  It is laminate flooring made by Pergo.  It is called Visconti Walnut.  We absolutely love it and think it is going to look lovely!!

It's not hard to improve our new home considering everything is still original 1971.  This is what the previous flooring looked like:

 75% of the house is this fun, bright yellowish, gold, orange-like carpet.  I prefer not to touch it.  Old carpet creeps me out a smidge. 

The kitchen is covered in this checkered laminate.  Little did we know... they had actually UPDATED the floors!!  Look what we found underneath the kitchen laminate.  Wow.  Oh my.  I have no words.  It actually MATCHES the massive rock fireplace (that is currently sitting on our living room floor in a pile).  Click here to see what I am talking about.

We are ordering our new floors this week.  We will be installing the Pergo listed above in the living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, and hallway.  

All three bedroom will have a low-profile carpet called Mohawk Smart Strand.  It is a new carpet on the market that is eco-friendly because it is made from corn husk.  I know... corn husk??  Awkward!  Let me explain.  The corn husk is a non-porous material which is excellent for carpet because it doesn't soak anything up!  The store representative showed us this carpet with red wine and bleach poured on it.  It resisted both substances.  I. Was. Sold.  

 

The 2.5 bathrooms and laundry room with have tile installed.  We are still deciding on what type and color.

Yes, once these lovely floors are installed, I will post pictures.  Promise.

The ROCK.. or rather.... ROCKS

We have continued to stay busy on the home front!  

We have to be out of our current place by September 1... which leaves us approximately 31 days to work on Project House to Home.  The good news is, if we don't finish everything we want (to a level so that we can at least live there), my parents graciously said we could stay at their house (which is about .4 of a mile away).  It's nice to have an alternative so that we don't feel super rushed.  

Also, I go back to work in 2 weeks!!  Those first graders will be a-coming on August 22, so I must get my other "home" setup and ready to go!  All that being said, we are working hard on our new house and trying to get all the dirty work done so that we can install all the nice, new things!  

One project that has been on our minds since day one was our fireplace.  We actually have two fireplaces: a brick one and a rock one.  We decided to live with the brick for now and make it a "later" project.  I actually sort of like it... a little bit of "old" among all the "new" might look nice!

                     Obviously, it'll look better once the orange carpet is GONE!!

The rock fireplace on the other hand... it has to go.  There is nothing we can do to make it "cool".  Check it out for yourself:

Special, eh?  Well, the big day came this past weekend.  It was quite the project!  I think the boys secretly had a lot of fun hitting rocks with a sledgehammer.  Don't worry, I got video.  

Hey look, our own personal rock climbing wall!!  Good thing we got rid of this before having kids. I can already see my little "mini Nick's" climbing this.  

                                               Slow and steady wins the race.....

This isn't a bad quality picture... it's foggy because of all the DUST coming off the rocks and concrete!!  Masks were a must.

                                                  Look, a rockless WALL!!!  Yes!

                                                                       Strong.

                                                               The aftermath.  

Our next job.... removing and recycling those rocks.  I don't even want to know what that is going to cost us!  Debris removal is pricy!!

                   I'm not sure what this pose means... but I like it.  It's very fitting!

At last... a video of the action.  It's pretty short.  Listen to the last thing I tell Nick.  I love his reaction!!