Just Like HGTV

A year ago this week we had just put in an offer on what we have affectionately come to call "The Cottage" or sometimes, when our gaze drifts out toward the trees swaying in our back yard, "Our Little Slice of Americana".  If you asked me to come up with a #hashtag to sum up the past year, it'd have to be #JustLikeHGTV or, perhaps more accurately, #NotQuiteLikeHGTV.

Over the years, Kevin and I had become pretty big HGTV fans. It wasn't unusual for us to spend several hours on a Saturday morning watching episode after episode. And there may have been a few Saturdays (back in the day when I lived alone), that I had HGTV running in the background for the entire day while I set about working on various projects around the house. SO, the opportunity to "live the HGTV dream" with our little fixer upper of a house was pretty exciting.

Fast forward to this year, and we've realized a few things:

1) Fixing up a house is NEVER just like HGTV.  For starters, all of the "projects" that are chronicled on HGTV are tidily wrapped up in 45 minutes or less. They always have all the supplies they need on hand and their designer knows just where to go, or just what to do to create the "perfect look" the homeowner is going for. In real life, everything takes forever and there are a million decisions. Just figuring out what you're going to do and getting the supplies to do it can easily fill up a Saturday afternoon. Never mind actually DOING the project.

2) As a result of #1, watching HGTV shows now just makes me feel anxious. So many decisions! And they finish everything so deceptively quickly - entire house remodels, finished in 6 weeks! [sure, if you hire a contractor to do all the work for you and a designer to decide how everything should look].

3) We have a love-hate relationship with Home Depot. It is simultaneously our #1 destination on the weekend and The Devil. They have everything and yet any contractor will tell you that most of the stuff they sell is crap compared to what is available from distributors.

Of course, there have been many other lessons - too many to chronically here after my delinquency on the blogging front over the last year. I've done a fairly good job of chronicling most of our triumphs on my Instagram account, so I encourage anyone interested to follow me there @dulceadventures.

For now, I'll share some then & now photos to share some of the progress we've made since the photos from my original post (which were pulled from the realtor.com posting).

Power washed concrete, removed ugly gray paint from top step, painted door, added blingy brass hardware, installed storm door (hello light!), tore out ugly box wood and landscaped in front of patio, added flowers to flower box, and set out patio furniture that we already had.

Removed gobs and gobs of ivy (and planted grass from seed in its place), removed one giant tree stump (that was previously covered in ivy), removed dying tree (and planed a big-ish new one nearby), relocated shed to back corner (instead of middle of yard?), planted evergreen shrubs at back fence and along left fence near house for privacy, planted  crepe myrtle for extra shade/privacy.

Paited the walls a less boring greyish beige (greige). Unfortunately this was the only place for Kevin's huge TV. I'm still kinda sad that the cute woodwork details on the stairs are mostly hidden, but overall this is the best use of space for the room. I painted the risers on the first two stairs at one point last winter, but not very happy with how it looks and planning to strip it down to wood again soon.

Basically we just added all our stuff. Pretty happy with how this space is shaping up. Next up: shutters for the front windows to replace the hideous vinyl blinds underneath the bamboo shads.

My favorite before & after pictures. So. In. Love. With. This. Kitchen!

So I think these pictures make the "now" look worse than then "then", but it is actually a huge improvement on the nasty scale. Before, the basement was stinky and just generally sketchy. Now, every surface is clean/freshly painted and all our stuff is well organized. Eventually we want to re-finish this area, but for now it is serving nicely as our workshop for our various projects!

Under Contract!!!

"After nearly three months of browsing Realtor.com every night, spending Sunday afternoons criss-crossing the DC metro-area visiting open houses, and a lot of emotional ups and downs, we are under contract on a cute little brick 1940's duplex semi-detached/twin home with a yard. Total fixer-upper, but great neighborhood and low-stress commute for us both. Let the adventure begin!"

This was my Facebook post from Tuesday night after we returned from an evening walk in our potential new neighborhood and decided to accept the sellers counter-offer after a drawn-out negotiation period that had started Saturday night. It had been a pretty intense week leading up to this decision. Eight days earlier, Kevin sent me a mid-morning text: "[the house we had our eye on] back on the market for [a lower price]. Buy buy buy!!!". My heart immediately started racing. We originally went to an open house at this place on June 8th, but thought the price was a little high and just weren't quite ready to commit. It went under contract at the beginning of July, at which point we both spent the next week saying "we should have gotten that one".

Now we were getting a second chance to make a move on it. I quickly e-mailed one of the real estate agents we had met at an open house a couple months earlier, followed up with a phone call, and scheduled a showing for later in the evening. 

In the meantime, Kevin talked to the seller's agent and found out that the earlier buyer had backed out after getting the home inspection report back: "it needs a new roof, new water heater, and there is evidence of flooding in the basement" were the highlights. Hmmf. 

Were we in for such a big challenge? Would it be better to just pay a little more and find and place that is already "done". We both agreed the neighborhood and location were ideal, and all the other places we had seen in our price rang were in less convenient or more run-down neighborhoods. This offered a nice neighborhood, with the potential for making it the house we wanted - if we could negotiate the price down enough to comfortably make the necessary repairs and remodel the kitchen. (just like Property Brothers!)

In the end, the sellers made a counter-offer that was within the range we had determined would be acceptable, and we decided to go for it. I'm sure we're in for more than a few surprises along the way, but for now, we're pretty excited about all the possibilities: Cookouts every weekend! Our dream kitchen! We'll add built-ins! A fire pit in the back yard! We'll DIY everything! I'll learn to do all the repairs myself and becoming a handyman on my days off (says Kevin). 

For now, we'll have to content ourselves with exploratory walks in our new neighborhood, Aurora Highlands, which we are absolutely in love with. And I may just become obsessed with Young House Love (thanks, Mailena). Meanwhile, Kevin has committed himself to learning how to build a French drain "I'm going to need to buy a jackhammer", was a key quote from tonight).

And for those of you that have asked...a few pictures ( it doesn't look like much at the moment, but it has potential!!):

If all goes well we close Aug. 21st! Eeeek!

There she is! (all 864 sq ft of her)

Back yard for Barkley (and cookouts, firepits, gardening, and doggie splash pools)

Basement (I'm looking foward to finally getting to tear down some wallls like they do on HGTV

The lack-luster kitchen we're hoping to replace with our mini-dream kitchen 

Living area - love the wood floors and sconces. Actually not too much to complain about here. 

Love the stairs and all the 1940's details.