You’ve all been patiently waiting for this post that we have
been putting off for weeks. Much like
the now never ending projects we still need to accomplish before our house is
finally at a point where we could say it’s finished.
So, in the words of Maria Von Trapp, let’s start at the very
beginning, a very good place to start.
November 8. Kaela and
I get keys to our very first HOUSE!!! We
are so freaking excited that night that we run over to bask in the glow of home
ownership. Turns out that that glow made
for some very ugly lighting inside the house, a pale yellow to be exact. Gross.
Our first home improvement project was running to Home Depot (the first
of many trips) to replace all the light bulbs in the house. Our neighbor Paul Hansen came by to introduce
himself and welcome us to the ward. I
think he was as excited to have neighbors as we were to have our first
house. He’s opened his home to us by offering
food, tools, knowledge, and his sons’ strong backs to help us move
furniture. I’m very grateful to have him
for a neighbor. Turns out his daughter
and I attended the same singles ward in Orem, and his sister was my manager for
Aflac in Logan! Smallest of world out
there.
(an example of some of the lighting before and after)
When I called my landlord of the basement apartment Kaela
and I were renting for the last year and told him we had bought a house. He asked how long we were going to stay
before we moved. I looked at the calendar
and decided that we could remove floors, prep for paint, paint, install new
flooring and move in about 12 days.
Looking back on this, I wish I had given myself more time. In the world of amateur home renovation projects
one should always plan for extra time.
Nevertheless, we started out that Saturday November 9,
ripping out flooring through the whole house.
A big thanks to my Mom, Dad, Mariah, Ryan (bro-in-law), Nikki Rawlins,
Travis, Dennis (for lending the sledge hammer), Craig, Paul Hansen, and Morgan
Hansen (for making the yummy sandwiches) for coming that first Saturday and
ripping out all of the flooring through the whole house. We got out all the old, wet dog smelling
carpet out. Then we busted up all the
tile and removed the laminate that the last owners had laid down that wasn’t
going to match the new décor. Having the
extra hands gave us a sense that we would have all the work done in no time. Once everyone left, the work slowed down
drastically.
(some of the before shots)
Over the next 3 days we prepped for paint. My mom was able to stay down with us during that
week and help us out. Her knowledge of
home projects was invaluable as we got ready for painting. I borrowed a paint sprayer from my friend and
sprayed the ceilings, bead board, cabinets, and doors white. If you can spray to paint an interior of a
house, I would strongly encourage you to do so.
It was so fast to spray the house when we compared it to rolling the
rest of the walls in the bed rooms.
(in-progress shots)
A week after owning the house we had a painting party. Thanks to Shana, Alyssa, Becks, Deborah, and
Aunt Marsha for coming and helping with painting.
We ran into a few problems along the way. Once we had the carpet up in the master
bedroom and exercise room we discovered that at some point there had been water
damage that caused the subfloor to rot between the two rooms. Thanks to Craig, my Dad, and videos from
youtube, I learned how to replace sub flooring between two rooms. I love learning how to do these sort of
projects. I hate not knowing how to fix
things first of all, and I hate even more to pay to have someone do something
that, if shown, I can reasonably do myself.
The floor was one of these projects.
Once we had the floor cut out and the new floor cut to be installed, we
found that the wall had sagged and our piece wasn’t slipping under the
wall. I remember a saying that my
grandpa Rawlins used to use while farming.
“There’s not many things you can’t fix with a large hammer” I grabbed
the sledgehammer and went to town on the end of the board and little by little
slipped it into place under the wall.
A second problem we had was when we took off the back splash
from the kitchen it took off a lot of the drywall behind it. I really didn’t know how to fix drywall, I
figured the kitchen wall would stay crappy for a while because it wasn’t a
project I knew how to do. I was telling
my friend Eric about it at church he volunteered to come over the next day and
show me how to replace drywall.
I just want to pause and take a moment to reflect on the amount
of blessings we received while doing these projects. Eric helping me fix the drywall, Craig
helping me fix the floor, Travis doing a bunch of electrical work. The service that friends and family were
willing to extend touched my heart in way that I don’t think I’ll ever be able
to give back. It’s funny, November’s
theme of the youth lessons were on self-reliance. As Kaela and I worked on this house, we
realized that self-reliance does not mean that you must be independent or solo
in all of your projects but instead that you need to be willing to be served as
much as you are willing to serve. It was
hard for us to ask for help, we always felt like we were a nuisance when we had
projects that were beyond our capabilities and we needed some help. But we were
so grateful when others wanted to give of themselves to help us build our
home. To all of you, thank you, from the
bottom of our hearts.
Painting was tough to stay on track with. We had a few nights where we stayed up till
1, 2, and 3 o’clock in the morning, all while having full time jobs during the
day. We stayed on schedule well enough
to have flooring guys come on the 18th-20th to put in our
new floors! Hardwood laminate in the
kitchen dining room and living room.
Soft and comfy carpet in the bedrooms.
While floors were going in, we packed up the apartment and got everything
ready to move. Thanks to all those from
the Lakeview 8th ward who came and helped us move along with Jeff and
Jessica who drove down from Bountiful to help.
Also, a big congratulations to Jeff and Jessica on their announcement of
their first baby!
That Wednesday, November 20, 2013 we moved in to our new
home. Coincidentally it was also my
birthday and I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday gift than to have a
new home with my wonderful wife. In 12
short days, we accomplished a lot more than what we have done in the 30 days
since, but once we got in we had to take a deep breath.
There are still a lot of projects to do before we can say
that the house is “done.” After talking
to other people I think it’s safe to say that I don’t think a house will ever
be “done,” just at a different state of ‘done-ness’.
If you are in the Orem area, and want a quick tour, please
come by. We love having guests and even
have room for you to stay over if you would like. In fact, just last week we put the doors back
on in their frames! So you’d even have
some privacy.
Thanks for reading!
Another blog post soon to come about other things that have
happened in the last month and a half that are non-house related.
Thanks again to everyone who helped with the labor, lending
tools, bringing us food (Matt and Steph), helping us pack and move, and being
good neighbors before and after. And don’t worry, if you are still missing
things you lent to us, you will get them back soon. Really.
We'll put up more of our 'after' shots after we are back at home and can take them. Until then, here are a few before's next to their mostly done counterparts.
