First Things First

If you didn't read my very first post this morning, scroll down and read that one before you read this.   :-)

June 12, 2009 was the first day we were in our new home.  This happened to be two days after our daughter, Carlee, was born.  Directly from the hospital, we drove home....all four of us, for the first time, together.  It was a little overwhelming for me (new home, new baby, and MANY MANY boxes to unpack and much of our stuff not even here yet), but we survived.
The very first week, Jay spent much of his time pulling out the carpets! There were four rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs.  I'm pretty sure he had his share of that lovely job.  There were many factors leading to that quick decision to do so:  1) My allergies can get the best of me sometimes, so I definitely wanted it gone. 2) None of it was any good (although, I especially liked the shag green....yeah right!) and 3) why cover up all of these beautiful true hardware floors?!?

First, I wanted to start off with some pictures that I scanned in which were in a real estate booklet.  I am not positive, but I think this is when the Guralski's (lived in the home from April 1984 - May 2006) put the house up for sale.  I also think the house was "staged", as everything seems to appear not lived in and too perfect.

I sure didn't enjoy taking off the wallpaper!

I like this picture because it really shows how narrow the door entrance is.  Just a couple days ago, that opening probably doubled!

This room is our current living room.  Although, the carpet was removed right away and the paneling was painted.  Also, where you see the doorway, that was widened right away too.  (We were told from Donna Kaldunski that she remembered a pocket door which used to be there...which we have found to be correct, but the door was not there anymore.)

Still the living room.  I can't help but remember the time not too long ago, that those shelving units were taken down by my (then) 2-yr old on accident!  Ah the memories already!

This is the room just off of the living room, which you just seen.  We, of course, took the carpeting out right away and also took part of the wall out where the white wicker chair is sitting.  We happened to notice on the other side of this wall (by the front entry), there was once a doorway there, so we opened that up.  (By we, I do mean Jay....lol  He has been the destruction manager of this project!)

same room, different angle.  You can really see above the mirror they have hanging to the right of the doorway....where that pocket door was.

This is the room on the main level, northeast corner.  I had painted the paneling white sometime around December 2010, then about 6 months later, decided to gut the whole thing myself!  Yes, myself!! While taking out the suspended ceiling, I almost had a brick fall on my head.  I was on the look-out after that one and there was one more.  Not exactly sure why.

The following pictures I found in our photo addendum section of our appraisal.

Barn Photo.  I will have to go and take a picture of the barn now for a future post.  Yes, we are remodeling that as well to make a more efficient way of feeding steers.

Here is the shag green carpet I mentioned!  I remember there was even a storage box of some sort that was also carpeted in the same stuff.  This is the upper level southeast room which is the master bedroom now (in progress....I'll have to share the beautiful wall paper we found underneath that paneling, which happens to be still visible yet.)

Woodstove/Furnace area. 

I know, I know....you love the colors!  There's a sink to match....if that makes it any better.  It won't be much longer now and we will be saying bye-bye to this tub.

Lastly, here are some pictures of the very first weeks we were in our home.

Taking out the carpet....

.....while trying to move stuff in.  Not an easy thing to do!!

This picture shows the pretty paneling and carpeting in Carlee's room before we tore up the carpet and painted her room. This would be the northeast upper level corner of the home.  My how small they both were here! 

Carter helping Daddy paint his room Lightning McQueen blue.  July 2009.
Room located in the northwest upper level corner of the home.

July 2009. This is the picture of Carlee's room after a paint job/carpet removal.  (Northeast upper level).
No longer have a crib in that room either.  Oh look, she was actually sleeping!

Well, I'm slowly catching up.....I'll try to add more tonight or tomorrow.