Now it begins . . .

We closed on our house this past Thursday and upon receiving the keys, we picked up a friend of ours and immediately proceeded to pull this out of the house. . .

If you look closely, you can see stains.  What kind of stains you ask?  Just ask this little guy . . .

He was one of several feline and canine inhabitants of the home.  They also had a pet lizard, but I doubt he wreaked half the havoc those furry little animals did.  I was so afraid the previous owners would leave one of them behind.  Luckily, that didn't happen.

There was only carpet in the four bedrooms and the stairs so the  removal process went pretty quick.  

Rows and rows of pure yuck!

Next, we intend to tackle the walls.  They need a good scrubbing down (and vacuum) to remove cat hair and new paint to brighten the rooms.  I mentioned in a previous post that I have no desire to live in darkness and these walls scream it . . .

Sorry about the glare, but there are so many windows.  

It does feel quite overwhelming at times, but I am excited about this (so excited I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the house).  This is our home and it is going to look awesome once we clean it, paint it, lay down new flooring (NO carpet), and finally move in.  The outdoor stuff such as landscaping and painting the exterior will come in time.  I will do my best to document as we make these incredible transformations.

Will be back soon . . .

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I will be back after we close on our new house next week!

 I can't share pictures with you yet because I don't have any of an empty house, but here is a picture of the road and my driveway on the left.  Trust me, there will be plenty of pictures and plenty of changes coming your way soon.

Changes

I have noticed many blogs that show how one's taste can change over time.  I have seen some pretty amazing transformations of the same room.  This leads me to show you just a couple of my own changes . . . changes in homes.  We bought our first house as a married couple back in 2005.  It was great for a starter home. 

Check out this picture of our living room.  Yes, I did a faux finish on the walls.  This is what I was in to back then.  Believe it or not, there are four different colors of paint on these walls in order to achieve the look.

I actually wanted a light khaki color as the base, but I went with a darker shade.  It actually worked out okay and we didn't have to worry about painting it a neutral color before it went on the market.  Our house sold in only two months.  We purchased some land and thought we would rent a house while we procured the funds to build . . . so we went from this house to this . . .

Just in case there is any doubt, it is indeed a log cabin . . .

Truth be told, I had no idea how to decorate this house.  Perhaps that is why there are no pictures.  How do you go from creating faux finishes on your walls to walls made out of logs?

And what is that surrounding it?  Nothing but trees.

We certainly miss living on this 15 acre property, but we certainly do not miss some of the little critters it warmly invited.  From this house, we moved into a temporary house in the city.  I don't have any pictures of it because it is too dark to take any indoor pictures.  That is why almost every picture contained in my posts, are not staged and are outdoors.  One of the many reasons I have sporadically blogged lately, is because we are looking for a house to purchase.  Our 14 acre land we purchased is up for sale because quite frankly, it is too much land for a girl who can't stand critters and too far for a hubby who can't stand driving.  We are ready to settle for a few years in a home that feels like we're home.   It's a tough process I must admit.  We saw this beautiful Victorian farmhouse this weekend, but it definitely wasn't for us.  It was beautiful because we could see what it used to be and its potential.  It wasn't for us because we could see how much it would take to get it to where it needed to be.  So the search continues.  Perhaps one day soon, you guys will have the opportunity to see how my style (and not necessarily the house itself) has drastically changed since our first house.  After this bout of the natural darkness our current rental contains, I will never paint or decorate in dark colors again . . . at least for now :-)