Mi casa, es su casa

I am very excited to say that I am a first time home owner. It has been a crazy ride trying to get approved, since hubby and I are just starting out and big banks do not trust us to make payments for 30 friggin' years! I mean come on! you already have us hand cuffed to you for the next 30 years and you're still making us go back and forth with paperwork. There were many times when I just wanted to throw the towel! My dream home was turning into a house from hell! BUT! we finally got approved and got the keys to our house! Let me say that even though I had mentioned that this house is my dream home… it still needs some work to get there. The previous owners were an older couple. I mean the guy is 80 years old. I know what you're thinking… that's great! That means that they took care of their home and it's in perfect conditions. Well, yes, it's true to some extend. The inspection report came back with a 99.9% a-ok. You see, it's the cosmetic stuff. The house it's just not up to date. well, to my liking. The only beautiful updated thing in the house is the kitchen. They added granite counter tops and even did the splash back with granite. We have a mini bar and they also did that with granite. well, that probably saved us around 20 grand. But every thing else… yuck! No, really yuck! To start off… the master bath had carpet! Gross and super gross! The house was disgustingly dirty. It seemed like they had not cleaned spiderwebs since Halloween of 77'.

Anyway, enough about my complaining. We really wanted to change our flooring to this really nice ceramic tile that looks just like wood. Since our kids have four legs, well not all of them. I have one with two legs and 5 with no legs at all and some that rather just use fins. :)
(Husky Dog named Nala, Persian cat named Suzuki, African Grey parrot named Maggie, 5 green tree pythons with no name (my husband's Pets…trust me not mine at all), and different salt water fish with no name, except for Dori, and Nimo.)
We did not want our floors to get scratched up or in this case, get the carpet dirty. So we decided to hire someone to do our flooring, while we dealt with then hassle of moving! Great Idea right? NOT!

Three weeks have passed and we are still moving! We have completed moving everything from the apartment but we still have the job of unpacking! Oh yeah, we were also very smart to ask family members to help us with the move rather than to hire professional movers. That's why it has taken us three weeks just to move stuff from point A to point B. Mainly only weekends when people do not have to work and have time to use their holy weekend to move other people's furniture. :)

Though there is still a lot to do, I will have to admit that it's coming along just fine. The study room was the first room to get the new floors and got the aquarium set up. This room actually looks very nice. It stills needs some last finishing touches, like wall decor but other than that... checked off the to do list.

Well... the decor is going to be most difficult task to attend to. I have so many cool ideas and trust me, my addiction to pinterest is not helping on the process. The great thing about my decoring skills is that I like expensive and good quality stuff. The problem is that I have the budget of elementary teacher. (no, really... I do!)
So just like that very popular song blasting my car's speakers, I only have $20 in my pocket... and I am hitting the thrift stores and garage sales in search of that expensive taste item for a fraction of the retail price.

Since all of my enegery has gone toward the house, I have not had the chance to hit garage sales yet, but I know garage sale season is near! I never thought I would be excited for garage season, but grown up responsabilities are a bitch!
Bills, bills, and more bills, and less "extra" cash for pleasure purchase. Also, here is another this I have learned since I bouht my house. My guilty pleaser is no longer going to the mall and have a shoping spree on clothes for me. now, my guilty pleasure is buying house decoring items!

I am telling you... life makes sudden changes in you. You are never the same person. Everyday you become a better, or improved human being than the day before before. At least you hope to be. I know I have learned to be more responsible and to be less selfish. (less... I still could improve on that area)

Here are some "before pictures" of my new home
I will post the "on progress" pics next time and hopefully soon the "after" pictures.

This kitchen table was my first project. I reupholstered the chairs to some cheery colors and patterns.
everything else is the way the other folks had the house. Trust me... it looks nicer than that now. Though it's a working progress, it has come a long way from the way it looked in this pictures.

 My Kitchen nook table. i scored this table on craigslist for $150!

Before

After

 This is pic of my livingroom the day we went for our open house.

The Nasty carpet in master bath

The mini bar. oh yeah...!

Kitchen. The kitched had some scratched up laminated floors and we riped those suckers out. Underneath the floor, there was the stinkiest smell ever! Water had gotten underneath the floors and let me ne tell you... the smell made me gag! It was the worst smell ever! Laminate flooring on an area where there is water, it's a BAD idea!  We installed ceramic tile instead. :)

Don't forget to check back on my updates.