Friday, February 26, 2010

The Story Of Our First Home

This day has finally come.......The basement is finished and ready to rent out! It took A LOT longer than expected but we are extremely pleased with the results. I thought I would post the before and after.

Starting with the master bedroom; which actually use to be the smaller bedroom. The original master bedroom was a really odd L-shape and had the fire place in it. We decided to knock the wall out that separated the living room and bedroom and create a smaller bedroom which also made the living room larger. The master bedroom was the easiest room to fix.

Before
Don't you love the old school floors, they remind me of an elementary school's lunch room.

After
We just finished putting the last window in and still have to put up the blind.


This is the old master bedroom which we made smaller as explained before.  After knocking out that wall we had to build up another wall and add a closet. 

Before
 Sorry these pictures are not the best quality.  That door is actally to a closet that we painted and put shelves and a closet rod in.
After

I can't decide whether my favorite is the living room or the kitchen.  I just love how much space is in the living room and that it has the fireplace.  We still need to replace the fireplace screen which is old and gold.

Before
 
Looking toward the storage room, bathroom, and furnace room.
Looking at what will be the kitchen off to the left and the landing which will have a door entrance.
It's hard to tell because it all blends together but the door on this wall leads to the laundry/storage room.
This is the view from the bottom of the stairs looking at the wall we knocked out.

After
View from the bottom of the stairs.
You can see the new door we put on the furnace room on the far left.  I love the exposed brick!
This is a slightly different angle of the picture that has the storage room and bathroom, which is on the right of the picture that you can't see as well as the furnace room.

The bathroom and kitchen had the most work. We had to gut the whole bathroom. It was disgusting and I should be really embarrassed to post pictures but I am going to anyway so you can see the differences.

Before
The shower was tin.  I can't believe anyone used this!
The pipes for the shower were exposed running down the side of it.

After
Chris did such a great job on the tile!
The plumbing had a lot of issues so we ripped everything out and had to build the tub up on this sub floor.  It was a pain but I feel like it turned out really nice.
And we decided to add these shelves off to the side for linens.

I saved what I think is the best for last.  We built this kitchen in and I absolutely love how it turned out.  We had to fix the cupboards and Chris did the counter tops with travertine tile.  We still have to buy a fridge but we are excited it is finally ready to rent.

Before
There is only one before picture becuase this was all the kitchen use to be.
I was  a little nervous when Chris came home with these....but we re did the outside and clean up the inside as well as lined them all with contact paper.  They turned out better than I could have imagined.

After
That small door leads to a small pantry.
We still have to put the covers on the outlets but I love love this kitchen. 

So that is what we have been doing for the last year.  As I mentioned before it took longer than we thought but was worth the wait.  It was hard doing all the work ourselves but we have learned so much through the process and will never forget being first married and fixing up our first home.  We also carpeted the stairway and re did the landing at the top of the stairs but we still have to paint.  Now on to the upstairs, which won't take as long but I am really excited to get my floors in!

If you know anyone needing a place to rent tell them to contact us!  We are listing it to friends and family first and will probably go on ksl next week (as long as the virus issues are fixed).

Friday, February 19, 2010

New Job...New Year...New Job

I've been terrible about blogging lately and have a lot of updating to do.  And yes, I purposely put new job in the title TWICE.  Before I start into our update for this year I want to recap last year.

2009:
Moved into our house
Started my first semester of my last year of school
Got a job at the Registrar's Solution Center at WSU
Celebrated our 1 year anniversary!
Chris turned 27
Chris switch jobs, from Verizon to T Mobile as assistant manager
I visited New York for the first time
We opened Waffle D'jour
I turned 26
We went camping/hunting
Chris got a deer his first day hunting
I graduated from Weber State in Accounting
Started my internship with Carver, Floreck & James CPA's
Celebrated our first Christmas in our home
Took Waffle D'jour out of the mall

.....along with celebrating many other holidays and birthdays.  2009 was a great year and we are excited to see what 2010 has in store for us. 

So far I have enjoyed my internship and love the continuous learning.  It's been hard to transition into working 8-5.  Not only was I use to switching classes throughout the day and going to work, I was so use to switching my schedule every 15 weeks!  My favorite thing is NO homework!  I have enjoyed spending as much time as I can with friends and family. 

Although it was a bummer to take the business out of the mall Chris is enjoying just being able to go to work and not stress!  Our waffles were a hit with those willing to try them, but the majority of people did not understand what an authentic Belgian waffle is.  So for now everything is in storage until we decide what our next step is.  For now we are enjoying more free time.  Chris is currently in the process of deciding whether he wants to get his MBA or his PhD, and what school he wants to attend. 

We both have enjoyed spending time with each other as well as family and are so glad to have the basement finished.  We will be taking pictures soon and getting it ready to rent out.

Other exciting news is that Chris's sister announced at the end of January that she is pregnant with TWINS, due September 2nd.  They are identical and we are just praying that they make it here and are healthy.  Twin pregnancies are high risk and one of the babies is measuring a few days behind the other, which is a cause for concerns. 

Just this last week I was able to go up to my parents to hang out with my sister in law and three nephews.  We played, went sledding, and ate my mom's yummy homemade pizza!

For Valentine's Chris and I celebrated on Friday because he had to work Saturday and Sunday.  We went to dinner at Maddox and then watched a chick flick.  On Saturday we babysat our niece and nephew while my sister in law Nicole and her husband Marty went out for Valentines.  It was way fun, the kids and I went to pick Chris up from work and then we headed to McDonald's for some delicious sundaes and food.  The kids loved playing in the play place.

Now for the big news.  I had been feeling like I was in a rut lately not knowing what the next step was after my internship, and wasn't sure what I wanted to do for a career path.  One day I decided I just needed to be positive no matter what and know that even if I didn't know what the next step was that things would still work out.....that next week I got a phone call from a job I applied for early fall of last year and even interviewed there 5 times with different managers.  They were calling because there was a position they had been interviewing for!  The company is separated into teams and each team is over a certain number of accounts and I had not interviewed with this managing director in the fall but he had heard about me and wanted to meet with me, the next day!  It was all happening so fast and I really didn't know what to think so I just set it aside in my head, the weekend was approaching and Monday was a holiday.  They made it sound like the competition was tough so I really didn't think I would get the offer.  HR called me on Tuesday to offer me the job!!!!!!  I couldn't believe it!  I start March 1st and will be a fund accountant for JD Clark and Company!  I am very excited and to be honest a little nervous, but I feel so blessed for this opportunity and look forward to another new learning experience.  My current job was really cool about it and they are excited for me to have this new opportunity.  Chris is so supportive and we are really excited for the better pay so we can finish our upstairs!

Also, I really am going private with our blog.  I have everyone's email addresses it's just a matter of sitting down and doing it!