Well, we have made it to Virginia and are getting settled in to the new house. The housing market here is insane but we found ourselves feeling lucky to have landed this 30 year old home (in need of tons of updating) an hour commute from DC. The gated community is very nice with lots of things that we pay for that we will NEVER use. It has two swimming pools, stables, bike trails, a golf course and driving range (actually, I will probably use that...once) and we are two blocks from the marina. The best part is that we live just about 1 1/2 miles from out fantastic friends, Ben, Darlene and Emma. Poor Ben and Darlene have not been able to get rid of us since we were in Korea together six years ago! The Air Force Family is a wonderful thing.
So, this entry is supposed to be about the house and the little face-lift that we are trying to give it. Here are my famous last words that Monty regrets to this day. "Monty, all that this place needs is a fresh coat of paint and new appliances and it will be a different house!" The first job was to remove the three decades of wallpaper and give it some neutral paint. I hired a great guy named Tim to do the job that many painters would not touch. He said that without any surprises the wallpaper removal and paint would take about six days. Excellent! After about the third day it became apparent that the job would be much bigger than anyone had anticipated. The people that had owned the house for 14 years had been quite the do-it-yourself-ers. We are going to refer to him as Jerry Rig Homeowner, or JR for short. JR apparently had glued plywood to two walls in the office and then nailed it into the sheetrock. After that was done, JR GLUED grass cloth to the walls. Of course, we did not know this. SURPRISE! Painter Tim walks up to me and says, "Ms, H, I think you need to take a look at something." Boom...add a grand to the bill. One of the bedrooms downstairs had black wallpaper and blue trim. They were removing the wallpaper (I know, I should have kept that) when..."Ms. H, I think you need to take a look at something." Cha-Ching...a grand. Ten days and four "Ms. H...'s" later, we have a beautifully painted home. No wallpaper, no pink flowers, no four different colors of paint in one room, and NO horrible attempts at sponge painting. Monty, after the ulcers had calmed down, did admit that it was all worth it. Whew!
Next...new appliances. The appliances in this house were the ORIGINAL ones. This house was built in 1977 and these appliances were just still going! Really, no need to change them except that I said, "Monty, if we change all of these appliances to Stainless Steel, it will be a quick and easy update to this kitchen and a GREAT investment for resale in three years!" Poor Monty, God love him. Well, as you will soon see in the pictures, the kitchen wall is brick and apparently it was built AROUND those original appliances. Hummm, probably why they are still there. There is also the little issue of JR (remember him) having done his own tile work and that being quite a problem. Long story endless...I am having another installer come in to cut the tile around the dishwasher so that it can fit in the cabinet correctly. Three built-in oven orders later, I have the new oven. I hired a carpenter to build the trim around it and the microwave to make it appear all in one.
At any rate, it is coming along and every day it feels a little bit more like home. I am attaching some "before and after" pictures for your entertainment. If you notice some portable fans, it is because we were without air conditioning when I took these pictures. It seems that JR or someone else thought that it would be a good idea to remove the valve that holds in the coolant. After running that way for a while...it died. Did I mention that Virginia was in one of its worst heat waves on record at the time??
So, the house is almost finished and we are ready for visitors! Take Care!
