Our House

When you purchase an older, or perhaps I should call it a "Vintage" home, you should be prepared for a bit of the unexpected. In a lot of ways buying a house is a lot like getting married... You don't really know what you've gotten yourself into until the ink has dried! When we bought our house in April of 2006 we were totally excited, and everything looked like happily ever after, without requiring more than a couple buckets of paint to suit our tastes. Then after 1 month the pipe under the kitchen decided to bust (and of course it was late at night!) I screamed for Jon who was alread in bed, and started grabbing towels and the mop bucket. He had to run out of the house in his underwear, with a flashlight, and a pair of pliers to try to find the shut off valve! I did the totally rational thing, and sat in the floor crying and mopping up water as it sprayed all over me and my night gown.

Then in July 2006, ahh we all "LOVE" July in Texas! The air conditioner completely bit the dust. In case you wonder what a new indoor and outdoor unit run these days that would be 5 big ones, and I'm not talking about Benjamins. I'm talking about $5000!

When we got our house that April, part of the deal was that the previous owners had to put a new roof on it, and to our great "delight" August 2006 we had a horrendous hail storm which resulted in new roof #2. I think Jon and I are trying for a world record on roofs because in the 4 years we have lived here, we have gotten 3 new roofs. Gotta LOVE those Texas hail storms!

Then we had our enormous beloved dogwood in the backyard to fall on the roof of our screened in porch during yet another storm.

We've changed out all of the flooring, redone all of the landscaping, all of the light fixtures, got a new dishwasher, replaced every single cabinet handle, both of the toilets, bathroom fixtures, epoxy grit painted the garage floor, blown in new insulation, and tiled the front and back porch. I would have never thought we would have done so much to this place, but in the end it has been worth it. Jon and I have so many memories that we can look back on, and laugh about. We've added our own personal touches to everything, and every room has a story.

There is one thing that we had planned on changing, but decided to leave the same... the oven and stove. When we first looked at the house, we both looked at eachother and said, "Those are going to have to GO!" Now neither of us would want to trade them in if Lowe's promised to give us new ones for free (unless of course we're talking about a new free beautiful Viking range, and then we'll talk). I love my olive green General Electric oven and stove! There, I said it. They are 50 years old, and they still work like the day they were made. I don't know anyone else who still has their retro appliances, so that makes them unique. I just hope they keep on working another 50 years. Wouldn't that be something? Yes there are 3 doggie gates stacked up because it is the only way to keep our wild & crazy Zipper cat out of the formal dining room, and we don't want to loose the light that comes in from there.

Oh, and I have to share with you guys a blog that I am loving. There's No Place Like Home! I got her cute little tag with the red shoes, so you can just click on it, and go straight to it. Dina, who write it, has got the coolest decorating ideas I've ever seen! Her old house had an all colored rainbow checker board painted back deck... Gasp! Who would have ever thought to do such a thing... for me it was Love at First Sight! Here is a picture of her kitchen... I showed it to Jon tonight, and gave him the fair warning. "Honey I'm thinking about painting the kitchen cabinets." He simply laughed and said, "Just tell me what color."