What a Difference a Week Can Make!

I closed a week ago (Monday) on my new home.

My contractor had his crew in the next day

and started the renovations.

I had to go out of town for a long weekend,

so on my way back home today,

I made a detour to see what has happened since.

A LOT!

All the "stomp" ceilings have been covered with sheet rock.

This is the downstairs bedroom, 

which will become my workroom.

This room's ceiling had already been done.

I will be removing the wall paper and painting,

and the carpet will be removed.

So this is one of the easier rooms.

Remember the kitchen from last week?

Totally gutted today.

I hope to get the cabinets ordered tomorrow.

The contractor says they will take about three weeks 

to arrive.

I show you this picture because it represents

a little structural change.

This was a door, off the kitchen,

for the pantry.

It will be closed off.

Around the corner,

in the hallway,

a new doorway has been framed

into the same pantry space.

It will become home to a 

stack able washer and dryer.

A fiberglass wall around the 

downstairs bath has been removed.

This will be tiled.

The upstairs bathroom has been gutted,

except for the tub and toilet,

which I am keeping.

This room will have a pretty

extensive update.

There will be a wall between

the toilet and tub,

in order to install a shower.

The plumbing for the tub 

was in the center of the room

because the other end

butts up against a solid masonry wall,

so there was no way to reposition

the plumbing.

Upstairs bedroom, which will become mine.

Note the smoothed out ceilings!

The guest bedroom with it's new ceiling too!

You cannot imagine how happy I am

to have those old ceilings gone!

Look What I Bought Today!!!

Or, changes are coming!

I have just  embarked upon a new adventure!

I have lived in my present home for 11 years, 

and pretty much loved every moment of it.

I shared this house with my sister Nancy

until she moved out a year ago.

(She has moved six hours away 

to become a care giver for

our mother who has dementia.)

During this year of living alone 

I have contemplated what I want to do

with myself for the next phase of my life.

What has become clear to me is

that I do not want to continue to live

in this house alone.

It's really too large for me to 

maintain by myself and after

sharing it so happily with Nancy,

it just seems too empty without her. 

So I began looking in a neighboring town,

which was actually "home" before coming 

to my present location.

It seemed to be where I wanted to settle.

I have many good and long time friends there,

and I am familiar with the town.

So, at the beginning of the year

I started my new home search.

I got very lucky and found the cute 

Cape Cod above quite quickly.

So January and February have been busy

putting its purchase into motion.

I closed on it today.

This does not mean I will be moving quickly.

It needs LOTS of work.

I am lucky that the 

contractor I hoped to work with can 

start on the renovations this week.

 I am contemplating being moved by Fall.

I am hoping this renovation "adventure"

will be a bit of a kickstart for my blog, 

which sadly has been neglected for a while.

 I am sharing some of the house's 

interior pictures below.

Hopefully you will follow along

as I make the house into a "silk purse!"

(I am using some of the realtor's listing pictures

since I haven't taken many yet.)

Good bones, but in dire need of TLC, right?

Changes to be made are 

*a new kitchen

*total redo of the upstairs bathroom

*cosmetic redo of downstairs bathroom

*textured ceilings GONE

*crown molding added to several rooms

*all carpet gone

*all wallpaper gone

*completely repainted

*floors refinished

I expect the next few months will be busy

since I am going to be the 

wallpaper stripper and painter,

to help defray some of the 

renovation expense.

I will also be getting my 

present house on the market fairly soon

and will start the packing up process 

as time allows.

 I hope to use my blog

to journal about the renovation.

I hope you'll come back often

and watch my progress!

Oh, and icing on the cake,

my daughter Kate came home for a weekend visit

and went to the closing with me.

Afterward I was able to show her my

"new house!"