First Things First- Part I

If it wasn't for our dear friend Melinda, we would be living somewhere else. We wouldn't have found our lovely townhouse we live in today and that I've come to love so much. I remember seeing the pictures online of our town house- and although the price was right, the size was beyond perfect, the neighborhood desirable, and it had all the amenities we absolutely had to have- I didn't think twice about having our realtor show us around. I hated it. I couldn't get past the god awful wallpaper. Yuck. I clicked the "next" button on the computer and moved on to other listings. Just like that I'd forgotten about it.

Two weeks later: Melinda rang to notify me of a place that went up for sale on her street- just 5 doors down. I was so excited. When I pulled the listing up online I was disappointed to learn that it was one I had already taken a look at, and had quickly forgotten about. I explained to Melinda that although everything about it was perfect, it was ugly and dirty. Melinda convinced me to look at it anyhow- and we did.

Two weeks after that: Our offer was accepted on the house that Melinda encouraged us to walk through. I gotta give it to her- she was right! Never, ever, ever, ever judge a book by it's cover. The second we walked in the town house I KNEW the place was going to be ours.

As a kid, my parents bought fixer-uppers and flipped them for profit. I had never been more thankful that I was forced to help with home improvement projects than at that very moment. I knew with just a little bit of TLC, our place was gonna be sweet!

Here are some pictures of the living/dining area when we saw it for the first time:







Fast forward to Aug. 28, 2008
Settlement and move-in.

Ugh. I hated the wallpaper. First thing was first- we ripped it down!! And fast. It was awesome. As we pulled off the paper I remember thinking about the endless possibilities we could do in this room, and how it had such potential. Our friends were over helping us pull wallpaper and thanks to them we actually laughed throughout the entire painful process. Believe it or not it took about an hour to rip the wallpaper off (and about 6 spray bottles of DIFF) the dining/living room walls (and it's a big space). Rob and I both thought, "This is so easy." Um, yeah! Not so much. Just wait until you read all about our adventure with the kitchen walls.

Here are some of the fun moments I captured while ripping wallpaper






Steve.  Handy man extraordinare.