Just Chillin’

So we’ve moved! (Nearly) all our stuff is at the house now and the cats are doing considerably better.  Poor Schmutz had a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very bad Day yesterday since the cats had to get stuffed in the bathroom while the movers were at our apartment.  Matt let them out after the movers left and Schmutz took one look at the empty rooms and went back to hide behind the toilet.  She was doing better at the new place except she cried all night long (making me rethink ever having kids).  Spencer has taken everything is stride because he is the most chill cat I have ever met.

Today we celebrated the 4th of July (or Ungrateful Colonials Day, or That Weird Day When a Bunch of Crazy Americans Set Shit on Fire depending on where you live) in true American fashion: booze and power tools.  We bought a sliding compound miter saw for me and would have bought a nail gun (also for me) except we discovered it was cheaper on Amazon and we have no immediate need so we’ll just order it.

I am also very happy to discover that our house is so much cooler than our apartment.  We brought one of our window A/C units over right away since I was positive I’d need it while painting and we never even put it in the window.  Last night was totally comfortable with just our ceiling fan but we stuck the A/C in the bedroom this afternoon just so we’d be prepared for any heat waves in the future.  It is very refreshing to know that our house does not get any where near as oppressively hot as our apartment did.

We also just got the results of our asbestos testing back (which is totally worth doing in older homes, since you want to know these things especially if you’re planning future DIYs).  Our siding and pipe insulation are asbestos (which we were already 90% sure of) but in good shape so we only need to worry if we’re doing any work involving them.  The vermiculite insulation in the attic was negative (vermiculite was possibly contaminated with asbestos for awhile after asbestos was no longer being used) and the random ceiling tiles we have in a couple rooms were negative (I had absolutely no idea how likely they were to be asbestos, but ceiling tile are one of those things that can be so I figured I’d rather just get them tested). So nothing unexpected which was awesome and since we also want some work done in our attic we also don’t have to worry about asbestos precautions for our contractors.

We even watched some fireworks today… on YouTube… #lazyamericans

 

Slice of Life: Real Estate Division

Me: We missed our chance!

Matt: For what?

Me: The F. Scott Fitzgerald house is for sale!

Matt: Really?

Me: It’s even under a million!

Matt: Well it is just a rowhouse.

Me: It’s huge! It’s 3,441 square feet!

Matt: Really?

Me: YES! It’s bigger on the inside!

….

Matt: The Summit umbrella really bothers me.  I like Summit and all, but you know who didn’t? F. Scott Fitzgerald.  You know why? Because he was dead.

So this happened today

We bought a house!!!!

outside

Backing up tinge… Matt and I have been living in an awesomely posh neighborhood is St Paul for about 3 years now.  We got married a little over a year ago and back in January decided to seriously start looking into buying a house.  I’ve always wanted to own a home (the design possibilities are endless! No one will get pissy with you if you decide to paint cabinets or rip out ugly tile!  Ok… maybe your husband will, but he won’t take away your security deposit!).  Matt…. not quite as enthused, but with interests rates still being low and our landlord becoming mildly annoying (did you just “fix” our sink by breaking a different part of it?  Yes… yes you did) he was on board with house hunting.

We were looking in a select few neighbors of St Paul and some of the first ring suburbs. I’d like a house, Matt wouldn’t. Matt would like a house, I wouldn’t. We’d see listings we’d both love only to have them accept offers before we could even get in a showing. The last house we looked at we almost missed out on. It’s right on a busy-ish street and we weren’t sure that was what we wanted, but we decided to check it out anyway.

And then we fell in love. At least I did… Matt doesn’t have quite the same crazed reaction to spaces that I do, but he really liked it all the same. It also ticked every box on both our Must Have and Like to Have lists, except for central air… but that was never a must have (this is Minnesota, we can pretty easily get snow from October through May). It was also a short sale. For those unfamiliar with short sales, short does not apply to the time frame. In fact, they can take fracking forever. We decided to go for it anyway.

We actually lucked out on the short sale front.  We put in an offer in March, got approval from the seller’s bank in May, and closed today which in my understanding is a pretty quick turn around for a short sale.

At 115 years old the house is need of a little lovin’, but our home inspector said is was actually in pretty good shape compared to other homes of its age.  The downside is that the previous owners made pretty much zero upgrades while they were living there, so we still have a lot to pick away at.  The upside is that pretty much everything is fair game to redo!  Because I’m kind of design nut and like taking on DIYs, Matt suggested I start a blog so at the very least I can track my renovation progress (because who doesn’t love a good Before and After, right?).  So here I am.  Blogging, or as I call it, Making Shit Up as I Go.