(WARNING: Obnoxious detail in this post. View at your own risk.)
I have wanted to post some pictures of the house. I forgot the camera the first time, the second time I took one picture and the batteries died. Finally I got some. Whew. They are not great pictures, but will give you the idea.
A week ago, last Wed. we went to an auction to make a bid on this house. I went with my cousin Matt who does this for a living. It was interesting to see how it worked. It was fun. the adrenaline was definitely pumping, to say the least. I tried not to get my hopes up, but you always have a hope, or you wouldn't be there in the first place. We bid against a guy for about $10k, and he finally gave up, and it was ours. When we walked away from the court house 20 minutes later we had a house. Life changes pretty quickly sometimes.
We were able to see the inside for a few minutes, which was good so that we knew basically what we were getting. Sometimes you don't get the chance to see inside with foreclosed homes, and you buy them AS-IS. It is a very good home, but has a lot of work that also needs to be done at some point. The nice thing is that there is nothing major that has to be done before we can move in. It is definitely livable. We were lucky. Sometimes people leave foreclosed homes stripped down and trashed. This was clean and everything was in it's place. Nice for us.
I wish that I would have taken a before front yard picture. There were tall weeds in all of the grass, the grass was dead and crunchy, and the flower beds were all covered in weeds. The day after we got it we went over and got to work. We needed to get it looking good on the outside ASAP so that the appraisal would come in at the right price for us to get our loan. It was amazing how much better it looked even after the first night there working for a few hours. Kent's parents came on Sunday night and were such a HUGE help. We got the yards all cleaned up and except for the dead grass that we are trying to bring back to life, it looks good. What a job though. It is so satisfying to have it looking nice.
The home is in Taylorsville. It has 5 BR, 3 baths, and 2894 Sq feet. I really like the neighborhood right around where we live. The homes are pretty and well kept. There is shopping VERY close. And best thing of all- there is a SAVERS around the corner just a few minutes away. Anyone who knows how I shop knows how exciting that is for me! :)
This is a picture from the front porch looking out to the yard. You can see the building across the street from us. The one to our left is a Lutheran church, and diagonal to us ( behind our trees) is an LDS building. No more excuse for being late to church, right?
There is a carport on the left side. It will be nice to have some shade and cement so the kids can play back there.
It has a nice over sized garage, that we can park both of the cars in and Kent can keep clean. He is a garage guy, and they are usually way cleaner than the house. :)
I did a a before picture of part of the back yard. It of course is not a true representation. But the tall weeds give you an idea
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This is after a day or two of work and water. Getting better but not done.
I will go through the house and give you a tour. This is the front entry way. On the right hand ( of this picture) side is the living room.
The LR window looking left
LR with entrance into the dining room, as you look to the right.
This is a straight shot looking from the front door. My worst nightmare- you can see the kitchen sink. I think this is the only thing that is not great.
From the entrance, the first right takes you down the hall. The 2 doors on the right are the kids BR. The closed door at the end of the hall, is the main bathroom. The Master is the room on the left.
Main Bathroom
It is interesting that it does not have a shower. We will have to rig it up somehow, until we can put in a shower some day.
Boys BR
Girls BR
Standing in the hall, looking at the stairwell, and into the kitchen
From the kitchen looking into the dining room area.
From the dining area looking into the kitchen. Along the left is a bank of low cupboards.
The back patio, looking into the kitchen back doors. My Mother in law is standing in the doorway to the garage. So it doesn't go straight into the house.
Covered RV space
Shed at the back of the RV slab
Side of the shed looking from the back patio.
Now, back in the kitchen, looking downstairs.
From the stairs, turning right is the family room. It is in the shape of a C.
The long wall of the family room
From the fireplace looking into the other side of the room. The little door is an under the stairs little storage room.
When you are at the bottom of the stairs and turn left, the first room is the laundry. When I first saw it I thought it was long and skinny, and nothing to write home about.
When I went in, and looked to the right, there is a craft/sewing room. I am so excited! It makes the iffy laundry room wonderful. This room also has the furnace and that kind of stuff in it. Nice carpet huh?
This is a bedroom on the right of the hall. The roof is not done, and the carpet is held together in the middle by duct tape. It does have a lot of light and a closet space roughed into it with a rod.
This is the second BR on the right. It has been finished, and isn't bad. It does have some groovy paneling that will have to be taken care of. These rooms aren't much if you were living there. BUT, they are very available for visitors. The downstairs bedrooms are not creepy, just need to be re-done.
Straight down the hall is a bathroom, that I don't have a picture of. There are problems in there. There looks like there have been leakage problems, that need to be taken care of. Thankfully this is a bonus bathroom, so it isn't a big deal.
Down the hall to the left is the fruit/storage room. Minus the carpet, this room is great. It is an l-shaped room, and has quite a bit of shelves. And it has a fake butcher knife. What more could you want?
So there you have the tour. I am sorry for the obnoxious detail, but I wanted Mom and Dad to get a picture of where everything is. I have tried describing it, but I think this will help.
We feel blessed, like we have a lot of work to do, and excited. We sure hope that you come to stay with us sometime. We finally have a little more room. We are hoping to close in the next week, week and a half. After that we can start moving in and changing the inside. (paint) Up to this point, we pretty much have only been working on the outside.
