Both in terms of our house and the blog! If you want to keep following along on our grand adventure, you can now find us at The Quirky Bungalow. Hope to see you over there!
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Some exciting news to share
I'm just full of big news announcements lately, aren't I? But this one is very specific to the blog, and one I think all of us will benefit from:
Next week will be the official launch of Designing Character on Wordpress.
I've been using Blogger up until this point, along with a theme that I bought off of Etsy, but I feel like I'm at the point where I've outgrown the platform and theme. I've been playing around with Wordpress for awhile now (because I'm a huge nerd), and finally feel like I'm ready to the take the plunge. I've been working on developing a new design and layout of the blog, and I'm super excited to share it with all of you.
In the meantime, I'll probably look something like this dude. Except with longer hair and a cup of chai attached to my hand, with a toddler running circles around me.
Stay tuned. :)
P.S. - anyone else catch the new Star Wars trailer yesterday?! Was I the only one who squealed with delight upon seeing Han and Chewie, then proceeded to watch it on loop like 50 times in a row?!
Next week will be the official launch of Designing Character on Wordpress.
I've been using Blogger up until this point, along with a theme that I bought off of Etsy, but I feel like I'm at the point where I've outgrown the platform and theme. I've been playing around with Wordpress for awhile now (because I'm a huge nerd), and finally feel like I'm ready to the take the plunge. I've been working on developing a new design and layout of the blog, and I'm super excited to share it with all of you.
In the meantime, I'll probably look something like this dude. Except with longer hair and a cup of chai attached to my hand, with a toddler running circles around me.
Stay tuned. :)
P.S. - anyone else catch the new Star Wars trailer yesterday?! Was I the only one who squealed with delight upon seeing Han and Chewie, then proceeded to watch it on loop like 50 times in a row?!
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
All moved in
This past weekend, we officially moved into the new house. Hurrah!
Even though our lease isn't up until the end of April, since the old house is on the market and needs to be show-ready, we figured it would just be better for all involved if we moved totally into the new place sooner rather than later. And that way, it would just be done with, as opposed to it dragging on for weeks on end.
You know the adage that you don't really know just how much crap you have until you move? Too freaking true, peeps. We ended up filling a 17-foot U-Haul.....twice. Like, how did we even get that much crap? Maybe because we had a kid (although we got rid of a lot of his baby stuff...)? But still...let's just say that we'll be having one heck of a yard sale in the not-to-distant future.
Speaking of said kid...last time we moved when he was a newborn, which was its own brand of difficult. This time? We had to amuse/distract an active toddler who refused to nap. Luckily we had a whole host of friends who graciously offered their time and muscles to help us move while I remained on Owen duty, which definitely made things a lot easier. How did we get so lucky to have such awesome friends?! Seriously. We're one lucky little family, that's for damn sure. As soon as we have the house in more tip-top shape I'm making them pie.
Here's an idea of how our house looks right now, and probably will look for at least the next couple of weeks as we dig ourselves out of boxes. As you can see, Owen and Pumpkin are making themselves right at home amidst the chaos.
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I'll be back soon with some tips for staging a house to sell (fyi: the house we moved out of has an offer on it already, so I'd like to think we know a thing or two!), as well as some other updates and projects. In the meantime, if you're interested at taking a look in our garage and making an offer on some stuff in there we really don't need any longer, I'm all ears. ;)
Even though our lease isn't up until the end of April, since the old house is on the market and needs to be show-ready, we figured it would just be better for all involved if we moved totally into the new place sooner rather than later. And that way, it would just be done with, as opposed to it dragging on for weeks on end.
You know the adage that you don't really know just how much crap you have until you move? Too freaking true, peeps. We ended up filling a 17-foot U-Haul.....twice. Like, how did we even get that much crap? Maybe because we had a kid (although we got rid of a lot of his baby stuff...)? But still...let's just say that we'll be having one heck of a yard sale in the not-to-distant future.
Speaking of said kid...last time we moved when he was a newborn, which was its own brand of difficult. This time? We had to amuse/distract an active toddler who refused to nap. Luckily we had a whole host of friends who graciously offered their time and muscles to help us move while I remained on Owen duty, which definitely made things a lot easier. How did we get so lucky to have such awesome friends?! Seriously. We're one lucky little family, that's for damn sure. As soon as we have the house in more tip-top shape I'm making them pie.
Here's an idea of how our house looks right now, and probably will look for at least the next couple of weeks as we dig ourselves out of boxes. As you can see, Owen and Pumpkin are making themselves right at home amidst the chaos.
I'll be back soon with some tips for staging a house to sell (fyi: the house we moved out of has an offer on it already, so I'd like to think we know a thing or two!), as well as some other updates and projects. In the meantime, if you're interested at taking a look in our garage and making an offer on some stuff in there we really don't need any longer, I'm all ears. ;)
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Those Dishes Aren't Going to Wash Themselves
We love our new-to-us, 1920's bungalow. The kitchen? Yeah, not so much. It's small, the stove is old, the sink is scratched-up, and the most important thing of all...
There was no dishwasher.
Okay, let me rephrase that: there was no dishwasher in the kitchen. One did actually come with the house, but it's one of those that wheels around and was hanging out in what we call the "addition" (aka: the all-purpose laundry/office/etc. room). Neither of us were too keen on going into a different room to load and unload dishes, so we knew the first quasi-major renovation we'd have to do to the house before we moved in was to install a dishwasher.
To those inquiring minds, yes, we have thought about gutting the kitchen and completely redoing it before moving in. However, to take a page from Young House Love, we'd like to wait until we've been living there for at least a year or longer to get a good idea of how we use the space and what would work best for us before taking the sledge to it. That, and we'd have to save up quite a bit of moolah before taking on anything too drastic at the moment.
But, for now, a dishwasher and some new cabinetry should do. And a new sink. And a new faucet.
....trust us, it's a LOT cheaper to do it this way. Promise. ;)
Here are a couple of "before" shots, for reference:
The kitchen (not a great shot of the cabinetry, but at least you get an idea of what we were dealing with). One of the next projects on our list will be to add upper cabinets, but the dishwasher is a bit more important at this stage.
And here's the wheel-y dishwasher in the addition (aka: the Rolling Black Cube of Death), which we'll attempt to pawn off on Craigslist:
Since I was battling a wicked bad cold that I caught in tandem with that stomach flu I had last week, Brian did a majority of the work. That, and I'm not nearly as handy as he is, so I trust him a lot more when it comes to stuff like this. I just served as moral support/documenter/small-person-who-could-fit-under-the-cabinets-when-he-needed-something-done-there.
It took a bit more work than anticipated to get the bottom cabinets out since they were glued to the wall. I mean, is this a thing? Who does this? We know it wasn't the people we bought it from since the cabinetry is pretty old... We obviously got them out, but took some doing.
.JPG)
After the old cabinetry was removed, we made a run to Menards to get some more supplies like copper coils and drain piping and whoosies and whatsies and doodads. That took awhile, mostly because Brian was taking full advantage of the fact that Owen was not with us (a couple of good friends of ours graciously watched him so we could get this done). Not having a toddler with us meant we could take our time instead of rushing through the store because he's hungry/tired/cranky/wants to run and scream like a crazy banshee.
Oh, and we also got a replacement cabinet to go next to the dishwasher, in a smaller size. We got an unfinished one because it was about half the price of a finished one, which is just ducky for us because I know how to stain wood correctly (see: West Elm Shelf Hack).
Here's a shot during:
It's not quite there yet, but it will be in the next couple of weeks or so because, um, we need a kitchen. We still need to stain the cabinet, put a board up next to the dishwasher to protect it from the stove, and put the stove back. But yeah, almost there!
There was no dishwasher.
Okay, let me rephrase that: there was no dishwasher in the kitchen. One did actually come with the house, but it's one of those that wheels around and was hanging out in what we call the "addition" (aka: the all-purpose laundry/office/etc. room). Neither of us were too keen on going into a different room to load and unload dishes, so we knew the first quasi-major renovation we'd have to do to the house before we moved in was to install a dishwasher.
To those inquiring minds, yes, we have thought about gutting the kitchen and completely redoing it before moving in. However, to take a page from Young House Love, we'd like to wait until we've been living there for at least a year or longer to get a good idea of how we use the space and what would work best for us before taking the sledge to it. That, and we'd have to save up quite a bit of moolah before taking on anything too drastic at the moment.
But, for now, a dishwasher and some new cabinetry should do. And a new sink. And a new faucet.
....trust us, it's a LOT cheaper to do it this way. Promise. ;)
Here are a couple of "before" shots, for reference:
The kitchen (not a great shot of the cabinetry, but at least you get an idea of what we were dealing with). One of the next projects on our list will be to add upper cabinets, but the dishwasher is a bit more important at this stage.
And here's the wheel-y dishwasher in the addition (aka: the Rolling Black Cube of Death), which we'll attempt to pawn off on Craigslist:
Since I was battling a wicked bad cold that I caught in tandem with that stomach flu I had last week, Brian did a majority of the work. That, and I'm not nearly as handy as he is, so I trust him a lot more when it comes to stuff like this. I just served as moral support/documenter/small-person-who-could-fit-under-the-cabinets-when-he-needed-something-done-there.
It took a bit more work than anticipated to get the bottom cabinets out since they were glued to the wall. I mean, is this a thing? Who does this? We know it wasn't the people we bought it from since the cabinetry is pretty old... We obviously got them out, but took some doing.
After the old cabinetry was removed, we made a run to Menards to get some more supplies like copper coils and drain piping and whoosies and whatsies and doodads. That took awhile, mostly because Brian was taking full advantage of the fact that Owen was not with us (a couple of good friends of ours graciously watched him so we could get this done). Not having a toddler with us meant we could take our time instead of rushing through the store because he's hungry/tired/cranky/wants to run and scream like a crazy banshee.
Oh, and we also got a replacement cabinet to go next to the dishwasher, in a smaller size. We got an unfinished one because it was about half the price of a finished one, which is just ducky for us because I know how to stain wood correctly (see: West Elm Shelf Hack).
Here's a shot during:
It's not quite there yet, but it will be in the next couple of weeks or so because, um, we need a kitchen. We still need to stain the cabinet, put a board up next to the dishwasher to protect it from the stove, and put the stove back. But yeah, almost there!
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