What's In Your Toilet?

As the former owner of our house had passed away, the house hadn't been lived in for a few months.  The water was turned off during the time of our negotiations,  but the house still had it's share of visitors from the workers fixing some water damage of the ceilings in a couple of the rooms to plumbers and electricians who were giving estimates for the COMPLETE overhaul of all the systems in the house.  Needless to say, I think pit stops were made in some of the bathrooms in the house.  Recently as we were revisiting some of these areas my 2 yr old noticed something awry in the master bath commode.  Me, being a complete germaphobe, practically pulled her arm out of its socket trying to get her away from the toilet with which she was completely fascinated for some reason.  Then I realized why.  It was a strange orangeish color.   I said, "Don't touch.  It's dirty.  It's pee-pee."   Her answer, "No mommy, it's juice".  I can't wait till we get the water turned back on.

Ugh, Hello Outdated

I guess it's time to show some pictures of our beast of burden, er, I mean home.  I know it's going to be hard to visualize the flow, but hopefully by looking at the floor plan it will make some sense.  I have a ton of pictures of details from each room which I'll show as we're renovating those spaces, but for now these pictures will just give you an idea.  Actually as I look at some of these pictures, the house doesn't look too bad.  I said some of them right?  It's kind of like that saying, "good from a far but far from good".  When you see some of the close ups of, for instance, the linoleum floor in the kitchen with the duct tape and multiple nails to patch it you'll know what we're dealing with.

First Floor Foyer

Formal Room (with peek into dining room)

Formal Room with Dining Room straight ahead and Enclosed porch to the right

Enclosed Porch

Dining Room

Powder Room

Laundry Room

Bathroom

Kitchen

Back Stairs

2nd Floor Bonus Room

2nd Floor Hallway from the back to the front

2nd Floor Bathroom

2nd Floor Bathroom

2nd Floor Bedroom

2nd Floor Bedroom (2)

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

3rd Floor Stairs

Attic

3rd Floor Decoupage, I mean room

3rd Floor Room (2)

3rd Floor Room (3)

3rd Floor Bathroom in room 3

The Existing Layout...Kinda Sorta

Here's the existing layout as seen through the eyes of the appraiser.  I think someone needs a new pair of glasses.  I'm just say'in.  She got a few things wrong but the basics are here.   We plan on tweaking the floor plan a little.  There are a few rooms that don't make sense. For instance, do we really need two bathrooms right next to each other?  I'm thinking no.  I plan on posting the "proposed" floor plan, but that would require getting my husband to pull up powerpoint on a Friday night.  That's about as likely as me sprouting wings and flying to the moon.  Not going to happen, though would make for an interesting night. 

The beginning of the beginning

Well it's done.  We are now the proud owners of not one, but count them, two homes.   Crap!  The closing of our new home was a lot more stressful than it needed to be but that seems to be a theme with us.  We're still living in our "old" house while we try to get it sold and the "new" house habitable. 

Speaking of our "new" home, which is the point of this blog, I guess I ought to describe the hot mess.  Picture an 1893 dutch colonial.  Got it?  Ok, remember the movie "The Money Pit"?  Enough said.  I'm sure it holds a lot of fond memories for the previous homeowners, but the thing hasn't been truly appreciated since the 50's.  I have LOTS of pictures to prove my point.  Oh, and supposedly it's haunted.  I have to say that 99% of me thinks that this is a bunch of hoo-haa, but there is 1% of me buried deep down that is a wee bit concerned.  Normally I would rationalize little noises that I hear as the settling of an old home, or perhaps drafty old windows.  Instead I know I'm going to  unlock that 1% and promptly freak out every time I hear anything.  I don't believe in ghosts, but I sure the hell don't want to be proven wrong.

So our looooooong journey begins with fixing up our new baby.  I'm not known for my patience so this should be interesting...