Finishing Details

Another batch of photos from Mom! She said that everything is ready to go now. A little cleaning here and there and a couple last projects. She painted the inside of the storm door, painted and hung the wood storm windows on the porch, painted the porch floor, and touched up some of the stain on the banister. The staircase is far from perfect, but the new owners need to experience some of the joy of old house ownership, right? Photo time!

The green-ified storm door:Paint for the porch floor and re-hung, painted wood storm windows:
For the staircase lets do a little retrospective. Lets start with the beginnings. Faux-wood paneling as far as the eye can see, a closet blocking the view from the living room, drop ceilings, worn-out rust-colored carpet. Behold the grossness:
DEMO!!! By far the easiest and most satisfying house project:Wall gone, paint stripped, carpet removed, walls repaired and painted. Lookin' good!Lastly, I'd like to wish a very happy 1st anniversary to my very, very good friends Eric and Lindi! I doubt they read the blog, but congrats to you two anyway! This is a photo from one of our Fraternity formals. Cute couple, no? They are seriously the most laid-back, easy going couple I've ever met. In the four or five years they've been together I don't think I've ever heard them fight... and I lived with Eric for a couple of those years. They're a perfect match.

Here's one of my favorite photos of the wedding party. We were in the limo midway between the church and the reception. As we passed a park we had a spontaneous photo session. I'm on the slide on the left, second guy in (look how short my hair was! What was I thinking!). Eric and Lindi should be obvious. He's the guy holding the girl in the white dress. Yup, that's her. Really, you should have already figured that one out by yourself. Fun factoid: The guy to the left of me and the girl standing to the right of Eric are my friends Tony and Laura who are getting married September 6th. That's right in the middle of Fashion Week so unfortunately I can't make it. Eric and Tony were best friends growing up and Lindi and Laura were best friends growing up. How did they meet? Lindi and Laura were my friends from high school. Eric was my roommate in the dorms and when we moved out Tony, Eric and I got an apartment together. Basically, they met through me. Cool, huh?

Somebody Else's Fargo Fixer-Upper

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Get your very own Fargo Fixer-Upper! The house is officially on the market! Might I add, a couple G's above where the Realtor originally thought. Of course this is because the family did such an extraordinary job with the little details. Details now including:

A fresh coat of paint for the front windows:
(You'd never know that window was broken!)

New light fixtures in the stairwell and second floor hall:
A new downstairs bathroom sink! Look at the difference:The old sink had curling iron burns on the top and the home-made, particle-board cabinet was rotten from an old leak. The new one looks so nice and clean!So there you have it. One beautifully cleaned up 1928 gem. All of this can be yours... if the Price is Right! (Fargo house hunters... COME ON DOWWWWNNNN!!!!)

I'll be praying for multiple offers in church in the morning!

**Happy 28th Anniversary Dad & Mom!**

Not Much Work Done While Bandaged...

No I didn't hurt myself, I just got some tattoo work done. I know it was horrible timing, but I made the appointment before I even made an offer on the house. I've been going to Trent at Addictions, who is probably the best in Fargo, so you have to make an appointment far in advance. If you're curious, I had a barn swallow on my right side which I decided to add another bird to. I'm probably going to add some kind of background eventually, but today hurt enough for a while! As you can most likely see (despite the glare from the flash) the new tattoo looks better than the one I had before (from a different artist), so Trent is going to touch up the old one to make them match. Again, in a while when I have had enough time to make some more money and forget about how much it hurts!

Unfortunatelly my mobility was somewhat comprimised after it was finished, so all I did today was clean up the paint scrapings from the stairwell.

I got my porch swing up last night! It's so great to open the windows on the porch and watch traffic/pedestrians as I attempt to forget the disaster of a house behind me. My roommates are starting to move their things into the house tomorrow and Tuesday. They aren't moving in quite yet, but I need to get moving on these renovations! I'm getting stressed out by this time crunch!

Stripping Progress, More Pictures

Well, I finished stripping the majority of the paint off of the second salvaged door, although the interior of this door was much more difficult to strip. The door was originally hung in a bathroom, so the interior had many more layers of paint than the exterior. This wouldn't have been such a problem, but the bottom layer of paint turned to a super sticky glue from hell. You can see this paint on the bottom layer of the scrapings in the photo. I couldn't get as much of this putty-colored crap up as I would have liked, but I'm hoping it will cooperate with the chemical stripper I'm using tonight. Wish me luck.

I took a little trip over to the house to take a couple photos now that my camera is working. I've included here a photo of the porch, the arts and crafts door I have high hopes for once it's refinished, and a sad little attempt at catching an interior image. That's me in the glare.

Here are a couple photos of the exterior. The first photo is with the refurbished basement window leaning up on the porch. Now imageine all of the trim that color. Something about that picture makes me like the white trim, but I suppose that is because it looks so clean. In real life? No, yuck. I've also included photos of the side entry and the back of the house. Look at that weird roof situation in the back! Why would you do that? I guess it's kinda funky & cool; it's definatelly the only roof like that on the block!





In other news, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Well, more like another, much longer tunnel at the end of the tunnel. But anyways, I'M CLOSING ON MONDAY!!! Yes! I can finally get that 'Before' album started. Good times!