Move In Ready??

I'm almost "move-in ready"! Today, I finished painting the bedroom. I covered the walls with one coat of Lyndhurt Timber, then noticed some weird shapes forming on the only wall I hadn't primed (it was already white, so I didn't think I needed to). Although the shapes weren't there with the white paint, they started to show through the one coat of tan paint. I noticed some mountains, an I <3 U, and other words I couldn't make out. I had heard that the previous renters painted sayings on one of the walls, but I had no idea they would show through when I painted!! Luckily, they disappeared with a second coat. Here's the finished bedroom!!

My grandma Yvonne (my dad's mom) was nice enough to come and clean out my kitchen cupboards for me. I'm so thankful she did, because I probably wouldn't of had the ambition to do it myself. She mixed a bit of Murphy Oil with water and scrubbed each cupboard, inside and out. It took her the whole time I was painting the bedroom, but that just shows how good of a job she does. I should hire her to do the floors later ;) Below is a photo of the mess I currently have in the living room. Notice the primed wall on the far side--this will hopefully be painted tan by tomorrow!

My friend Nick was kind enough to lend me his carpet shampooer, so I finished shampooing the carpet in the bedroom late tonight. This should be dry by tomorrow so I can move my bed in and start getting my bedroom ready for sleeping! I'd like to be able to sleep there by the end of the week so I'll be more motivated to finish the rest of the house. Updates tomorrow!

There's paint EVERYWHERE!!

Today I started painting. I picked up some Kilz Primer and Valspar paint in Lyndhurst Timber (http://www.valsparpaint.com/en/explore-colors/color-selector/#3). I've never painted a room before, let alone a whole house. When I was growing up my room had thick wood paneling (not the kind you can just paint over). You would run your hand over the wall and get a splinter. Paneling makes me wonder, why did people ever think this was a good idea? But I suppose in thirty years they'll be saying the same thing about my generation!

I taped off all of the bedroom and started priming over that crazy blue color. It didn't cover easily, but I got 'er done! Apparently there was paneling under the blue paint, and if you haven't painted over paneling before, I wouldn't suggest it. You need to take a brush and paint in each groove of the paneling, or the color underneath won't be covered. Ugh! It took quite a while, but I got the whole bedroom primed, along with the burgundy wall in the living room and the blue wall in the kitchen. My mother was nice enough to come and help me with some taping in the living room which helped things to go a bit faster, but like I said earlier, I'd really like to do this myself--a life journey of sorts.

The pictures weren't too clear earlier (my apologies), but you might have been able to see that the living room already has a few tan walls along with one burgundy wall. Both my mom and grandma (who just had to stop by) mentioned that they're about the same color. Well, just to prove them wrong I opened the can and smeared the new color over the old. It's a few shades lighter and I really think it's going to brighten up the room and make it appear much larger. They agreed once they saw them side by side. The bedroom and living room are well on their way to being a new, boring but lovable, tan! My work continues on Tuesday, as tomorrow I need to help a friend move, and then work all night. I just keep thinking of how nice it's going to be when it's all done and I can have my very first house warming party! Keep your eye out for an invite!

Dumpster Runs

So today (June 24), I started removing all of the junk from the house, loaded it into a pickup (I made about three trips), and dumped it in a big burning pile. A friend of mine who works at the Fertilizer Plant in town was kind enough to let me use that as a place to throw all the old furniture!

I've decided that this is something I really want to do myself, as nice as help would be. So I managed to pick up and move almost all of the furniture myself. At one point I was trying to throw a recliner into the back of the pickup and got stuck in an odd position. If i let it go, it would've landed on my foot, so I was just standing there awkwardly...waiting. Luckily, a few kids rode by on a golf cart and I hollered for help. Thanks Bryce!! He gave me the extra push I needed to get it into the pickup bed.

I also bleached the bathroom, swept all of the floors, removed carpeting that was left around the edges of the hardwood floor (I know, really?), and wet-swiffered the floors. This is all I really wanted to do before I started painting, since I'll need to re-clean the floors afterwards. After I few hours I was exhausted, cut and bruised from moving all that stupid stuff. Next comes paint!!

So...this is it?

I recently decided to rent a small, one bedroom house in my hometown of Aneta, ND. Yes...a one bedroom house. It seems like a silly decision, but it's all I really need and there aren't a whole lot of options around here. I walked into the house knowing that the old tenant had left some stuff and hadn't cleaned much up. Well...I might have bitten off more than I can chew! Good thing I'm an HGTV addict.

The photo above is from the kitchen, which is the first thing I saw. It's hard not to notice the Coors Light decor. Good thing I'm a Coors girl! Just kidding, that was the first thing to go! Once I removed the Coors Light boxes I found that the fridge had been painted blue from it's original Harvest Gold....oh boy. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that yet, but you'll know when I do! You'll also notice the garbage on the floor. What you don't see is the rotting food in the fridge, and the ceiling border of matching Coors Light boxes. See what I mean when I said I had my work cut out for me?



Above is the view from the kitchen into the living room. There was some furniture left behind...which I don't think I'll keep. However, the hardwood floors are beautiful, and I'm really excited to polish those up. I also love the big windows and window sill. All of the wood trim is original to the house and I love the look of that. I'm definitely not going to paint over that....the walls, however....





To the right is a corner of the bedroom. You'll notice the beautiful blue paint that appears on quite a few of the walls. I'll need primer to paint over that before I can paint the walls my desired color...a nice, neutral tan. Call me bland, but I'd rather be bland than hate my wall color in a few weeks. Plus I don't really know what furniture I'll be using yet so I don't want anything to clash!





Above is my first view of the bathroom....I know, what am I thinking!? The good news is that it isn't mold on the wall, it's just the wall falling apart!! Haha...oh boy. So for now I'm just cleaning it....bleaching it...so that I can use it. I'm still trying to figure out a more permanent solution. Also, I'm only renting the house so I don't want to make too many changes. The good news, though, is that any money I put into the house comes out of my rent, so either way I'll be spending the money. The question is whether I want to put in the labor as well...





So follow me as I try to fix up a house as best I can! I'm only one person...more specifically, one person without experience in home care, maintenance, building, etc. So, HGTV, if you're reading this, please help!! :)