October 19, 2010

So I'm trying to start up my blog again, because, goodness knows I'm horrible at keeping journals. I love to write, but I'm never good at keeping a diary of what I've done. I always figure that I'll remember it later so what's the point... only to find out later that I have indeed forgotten.

Okay so let's see if I can bring things up to speed. In March of 2006, we purchased a beautiful little house in Alhambra. It was a perfect starter home - 2 bedrooms and a den, 1 bathroom, completely remodeled so it was in turn key condition. We love our house and have had some wonderful memories there the past 4 1/2 years.

Once Sabrina was born, though, we quickly started to see that the house was too small for a growing family. Additionally, Gerald's dad had a stroke and the large 5 bedroom house that he and Gerald's mom live on was beginning to be too big for them - so they kindly offered to switch houses with us.

The house, though, needs some updating. So we recently began the process of renovating the house little by little. We started by removing the popcorn from the ceilings of the dining room, hallway, and playroom as well as installing copper plumbing upstairs (the downstairs was installed last year). What was supposed to be a 5 day project turned out to be a three week project.

In addition to the popcorn, I found an amazing deal for a vanity on Craigslist - the sellers purchased three vanities from their employer who was going out of business. Each vanity retailed for $3,000 each (two came with mirrors which brought the total retail price to $3,300). Unfortunately for them, only one vanity fit in their house. So they were selling the other two for $1300.

We only wanted one vanity, but by the time the seller got back to me someone else had offered to buy both at $1300 - so I offered $1500 and won both vanities! We ended up removing the old vanity from the master bath upstairs only to find the wood floor had rotted. So all the linoleum had to be removed and we were now going to have to place new flooring.

We figured since the flooring was coming out, and a new vanity was being put in, we might as well retile the shower at the same time and replace the toilet - so what was a simple vanity replacement turned into a complete bathroom remodel.

It took another two weeks, but in the end, the bathroom is absolutely gorgeous!

Now to figure out a schedule for the next project....