Settled In

It's been 4 weeks since we moved into our new house. Over 4 months since we put an offer on it... but you know... The 3 months of waiting for the sellers & their lawyers to get their act together... the weeks of extending the contract and the millions of frustrations that we had as we were forced to abide by HUD's rules when HUD apparently didn't have to.... as frustrating as all that was... it was worth the wait!!! (But we'll still NEVER buy another HUD owned home! Not after our experience and the stories we heard from others along the way!).

Anyways, we're settled in and want to share some photos and a video tour with you. Below are some before & after photos of the house. Then a video tour for those interested.

BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS

Because of the process we took to get the house for a deal, we knew there'd be problems with the house. Jacob did his own inspection, instead of hiring someone. And we didn't turn the water or electric on for that. Yes, we were taking a big leap of faith and trusting God that all would be ok. The foundation was good (which is a HUGE deal here in San Antonio). And everything appeared to be ok. But we knew there'd be unforeseen repairs. Little did we know the extent though.....

How many unforeseen repairs?? Well... ALL the toilet leaked. But a $20 repair kit fixed that! And the a/c had some busted, melted wiring. But a $16 kit fixed that. And that was it!!!! Really!!  Not only does everything work, it works AWESOME!! This house really has been one big 2,400 sq ft gift from God :)

There was a decent amount of cosmetic repair needed. A few holes in the wall, a really bad paint job, carpet covered in bleach stains, cigarette smoke and many holes from wear. But a little spackling, some paint, and new flooring fixed all that!! AND we got to pick out the colors and flooring ;-)  It's like having a new house now (except for the kitchen & bathrooms - which needed some love, but weren't in all that bad of condition either)!

Ok, enough babble. On to photos!

 There's the front of the house - it hasn't changed at all.

This is the before of the living room - with the front door there on the right.

Pictures don't really do it justice...

the carpet was GROSS and the house smelled like stale smoke.

And here's the living room after!

Fresh paint (same color as our living room in SC) - a terracotta-ish color.

And new floors! Laminate that we love!!

Everything else in the photo is our old stuff.

We still have a few things to do to the room, but it's mostly done.

(To give you an idea of the floor plan, you can see the staircase on the left side of the photo.)

Here's another before photo - a view of the same living room,

but now you're looking towards the back of the house.

Here's an after photo! The partial wall there in the back is the staircase.

The windows don't yet have blinds, but will eventually.

And the "family tree" photo collage is what I finally decided to buy with the gift card Granny & Pa gave me for my birthday in March - I LOVE it, thank you Granny & Pa :)

Walk around the stairs, and this is what you would have seen 4 months ago.

But today, you won't see that icky carpet, bad paint job, or stained ceiling that is mising light fixtures... instead, this is our new playroom:

The paint in here is a vanilla-ish neutral.

Our old toy shelves line the staircase. And the rug that, once upon a time,

had been in Nathan's "barn" bedroom in SC, now works perfectly in our play room!

And the room is big enough to house the bouncey horse Jacob's grandparents gave us (which Faith ADORES!) and there's still room for at least 17 kids... lol  We know this, after Nathan's birthday party :)

Here's a before photo of the playroom again, but from the other side.

And here's the playroom now.

Our bookcases are on the other side of the room, and the sliding glass doors are just out of camera vision along the right wall. And eventually, like the windows, the doors will get some kind of covering too :)

Here's the kitchen before. It wasn't in bad shape, just missing a dishwasher and in need

of a little love & elbow grease. I wasn't crazy about the maple cabinets... but I could work with it.

 And here's the kitchen now. It's painted green, the green has a bit of gray in it. The color compliments the maple cabinets pretty well, and I really like how it turned out. The stove/oven cleaned up well, and is the best working one I've ever had in my life. And our new dishwasher is beyond awesome. Plus, there's more cabinet space than I know what to do with. It's so great to have SPACE for things! To the left of the fridge, you can see the laundry room/pantry. And then thru that small room, is the entrance to the 2 car garage.

Here's the other side of the kitchen, before we moved in.

And after. Notice the high chair?? It's no longer at the table... Faith recently decided she's too big for it and wants a big girl seat. Sniff sniff. But in less than a year, a new little girl or boy will be using it! Ahhh!!! (btw... we'll hopefully find out if it's a girl or boy next week!)

 Then outside, is our deck. I'm not posting before pics because it looks close to identical. With 2 exceptions. #1 - our new deck table & chairs :)

#2 - the patchwork done by the seller's contractor... after some neighborhood teenagers set FIRE to it in May. There was a big hole, and there's still a number of burn spots visible. But at least the neighbor spotted the fire and called 911 before the teens caught the whole house on fire!

Then there's the upstairs... no before photos this time. The rooms all look about the same, just with new carpet and paint (and its hard to tell how big a difference those two things made in before photos)

At the top of the stairs, is a loft. Right now it houses our computer desk, train table and a rocking horse. And a few unpacked boxes. It's got some great potential for a rec room in the future.

If you go left at the top of the stairs, you'll be in the huge master bedroom!

It's the same green color as the kitchen.

Here's the other side of the master. The bathroom is that door on the right. Then there's a HUGE closet on the left. The bedroom & closet are all far bigger than our ideal, but I guess we can live with it... hehe

Next to the master bedroom is the room we'll use as a nursery.

It's not set up yet, but there was room to put our extra twin bed in there (Jacob's bed from his childhood). That will come in handy in the future, I imagine...

Then, there's the 3rd bedroom - the kids' room. Sorry for the blurry pic.

The kids have bunk beds, just not stacked. And a pretty big closet, too.

Guest bathroom... still needing a little love.

I started redoing the really bad paint job on the vanity, still needs another coat of paint. And the flooring is in bad shape - it's also covered in paint from previous owners, and worse, has some water damage that means replacing the flooring soon. Guess there's always going to be something to do, fix or replace when you own a house, isn't there :)

Here's the guest bedroom. It's still bare.

Except for the crib mattress on the floor (out of sight) that Nathan uses for nap time - because the kids don't nap if they share a room for nap time. Eventually this room will have a bed and ceiling fan and we'll hang the curtain rod. So it'll be ready for YOU to come visit!

VIDEO TOUR

For those interested, here's a video tour of the house. It's almost 10 minutes long, so beware. Personally, I think the best way for you to see the house would be to COME VISIT :)