WE BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE!
I would like to officially introduce you to the NEW (to us) Crazy Happy Project House!
We have finally taken the plunge and bought our first house. {Insert applause here} Yes, yes, thank you! This has been such a long and interesting road. It seems so weird to be buying our first house. I mean, I’m only in my 20’s (well, maybe 30’s). Actually, it’s probably long overdue. But we took the long way around and wanted to make sure that we had a TON of stuff paid off before we even considered buying a home.
House markets vary so much throughout the nation. A big hurdle for me was the cost of housing in the area where we currently live. Although it is not quite as high as my brief time spent living in California, it is definitely much higher than in my home state of Kentucky. I guess that is the price you pay for living in a beachy touristy area that has very limited land!
House Hunters
In our area, new houses are pretty much nonexistent. Most of the homes were built in the 80’s and 90’s. So, new was not an option. The best you can hope for around here is a newer (than some of the others) home or one that has been completely updated. We quickly realized that an updated house within our price range was also nonexistent. So, we moved to Plan B – find a fixer upper!
Good Bones
We focused our search on a house that had all of the big things – good roof, newer HVAC, structurally sound. We wanted something with good bones. We prefer to spend our renovation money on the things you can actually see…like paint, floors, and cabinets. Those are the fun things!
We spent months with our very patient real estate agent until we finally found a house that fit! Not only did it fit the “must have” list, but it also had brand new windows and an extra room for my Crazy Happy home office!! And it will provide plenty of DIY tutorials for you! Win. Win. Win!!!
Dirty Work
Within hours of closing on the house, I already had paint samples up on the wall. God bless the people at Sherwin Williams for putting up with me and my quest for the perfect gray paint!
Within 24 hours, we had torn up all of the nasty carpet. After just 3 days, we had demolished the awkwardly spindled half walls, torn down the cabinets and soffit over the island, and bleached everything that needed bleach. Ugh!
Since we have 30 days from the closing to do what renovations we can and then actually move in, we decided to divide the work into phases. We are currently in the throes of the first phase, which consists of what HAS to be done before we can move in:
PHASE 1
Carpet Removal
Knock Down Spindle Walls
Ceiling Popcorn Removal
Prime & Paint Ceilings
Paint the Walls
New Back Door
Lay Wood Laminate Floors (except Kitchen & Baths)
Paint & Install New Baseboard Trim
Where We Stand
We very quickly removed the carpet and knocked down the spindle walls. We had planned to remove the popcorn ceilings on our own. A few days before closing, we got cold feet and started calling around for people to hire. I am SO glad we did. They worked for six days and it looks fabulous! I doubt there is any way that we could have done such a good job given our tight timeframe (and lack of experience in all things ceilings)!
We are now working on priming and painting the ceilings. Everything else will hopefully fall into place after this step. We even brought in the reinforcements (parents) from Kentucky to help us out! It’s a family thing ya’ll!
Before & Afters
I absolutely LOVE looking at Before & After shots of home renovation projects. (Seriously, leave me links!) After years of watching HGTV and admiring renovation projects on Pinterest, I am so excited to be able to share our Crazy Happy Project House with you. Now for your viewing pleasure…a few BEFORE and AFTER (a few days) shots:
Living Room Looking in to the Kitchen – Gloomy 🙁
Living Room Looking in to the Kitchen – Bright & Open 🙂
Removing the Kitchen Island Cabinets & Soffit
My Crazy Happy Kiddo LOVED Demolition Work 🙂
Future Phases
We have a lot of fun projects on the horizon. There is so much we would like to do with this house as we bring it back to life and make it our own. Check out my Pinterest Boards on design and home DIY for an idea of where we might be going with our projects.
The second phase involves re-doing the kitchen, which has a lot of “design challenges.” Other future projects include landscaping, outdoor living area, whitewashing and updating the fireplace, creating barn style doors for two areas, and whatever else comes up! Also, I get to decorate!! {Insert shrieks of JOY}
Do you have any DIY or design ideas, tips, suggestions, links to Before & After shots?? Send them my way! Leave me a comment. I would love to see what you guys are up to!!
Be sure to check back often to see the progress. Subscribe to Crazy Happy Mail to receive updates sent to your email! You won’t want to miss a thing!
Peace, Love & Happiness,
>>> Want to party?? I’m linked up at Thrifty Decor Chick, Cozy Little House & A Bowl Full of Lemons. <<<
We are Proud and HaPpY for You Guys………In a “Place you will now Call Home”
Thanks!!! 🙂
Crystal you have everything laid out perfectly. It looks like a house hunters renovation. I tell you what would even be better is have your dad get a hold of his contracting friends and have them do the job for you on him I know he would be happy to do it. 😀😀😀😀
Thanks!! Ha! If my dad lived closer, I would have definitely hit him up to assist in the renovations 🙂
😁😁😁
This makes me Crazy Happy for you! I love whst you’ve done so far, can’t wait to see more! Congrats!
Thanks Nikki!!! We have been working so hard…so MUCH MORE to come!! 🙂
That is what I like about a house. You can change things to what you want. I think the house looks better with the spindle wall removed. It opens things up. I think you made a good choice there.
Yes!! We did look at other houses that were already updated, but they weren’t how we would do it. I kinda like that we get to do it our way! And I did know those spindled walls would have to go as soon as we first walked in! 🙂
So happy for you guys!!! I know you have been patiently looking for a home and this is the ONE!!! House looks awesome with what you have already done. Looking forward to finished projects. I know they will be great because you have a unique style which I love! Congratulations!!!
Thanks so much!!! AND thanks for all of the help, hard work, and design advice. You guys rock!!! 🙂
Hi!
Congratulations on your first home purchase!!!
I thought you’d like to know that there are child sized work gloves available on-line and they make younger workers feel so special plus it’s just easier to work in gloves that fit you. When our sons were small (nearly 30 years ago), the Heartsong catalog had “kid gloves” in several sizes and those were perfect for our boys.
Wishing y’all well (Tennessee native here)
Hey!! Thanks for the tip! I know my son is not a big fan of the big gloves, but that’s all you ever see at the store. I will have to find him some kid gloves 🙂
Hi there!
I wandered over here from Thrifty Decor Chick to check out your new home. Congratulations! This reminds me of my first home with my husband, almost 30 years ago! We too bought a fixer-upper and immediately tore into removing carpet, popcorn ceiling, flooring and cabinetry. Lots of work but so much fun and pleasure in fixing up our own home.
I will be following along to watch your progress. Good luck!
Nancy
Thanks Nancy!! I’m glad to hear that you survived your fixer upper experience. Right now we are so in the MIDDLE of it all. It seems like it is never going to end. Fun, but crazy!! 🙂
Hey! Visiting you from DYOB Blog Beautiful! Girl, this is going to be the story of my life next year. I love to DIY, but I know home reno is a ton of work. Going to be a huge project, for sure!
Thanks for visiting Jessi!! It is definitely a ton of work but is so worth it in the end. For us, we will end up with a much nicer house than what we can afford in our area. Plus it will be decorate to our tastes! Good luck with your project!! 🙂
Happy Happy Happy … All your hard work and dedication is paying off! Congrats!
Thanks Gina!!! It is definitely HARD work!! 🙂
Hello Crystal,
Found you via “the badass solopreneur society” love this post and I can’t wait to see what you do with the place. We are supposed to build “new” soon and I am so tempted to buy old there is so much charm in those places.
Thanks Vashti!! It would be so exciting to build something new. In our area, there is not a lot of land. So, there are only a few newly built homes (or lots to build on) and they are at a very high price. It is fun to make something old into something new though….whatever you decide – good luck!! 🙂
Bright! I love bright homes and the magical transformations that can happen with a bit of sweat equity! I hope to do a remodel one of these days. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Caressa!!! There is definitely a lot of sweat equity involved!! Now that we can actually see rooms coming together, it is very much worth it!
This looks awesome! I can’t wait to see how your reno continues. 🙂
Thanks Amy!!! 🙂