History Is Repeating And We Wish It Wouldn't

So in our first home, within weeks of moving in we had some issues with our dryer smelling like a campfire. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, just a filthy dryer vent that needed a cleaning and it was back to new. Unfortunately, history has repeated itself at our new house and this problem didn't have such an easy fix. 

The good thing was that we learned from the first house issue. When we put the first load of wash into the dryer here at the new house, we hung out for a bit and made sure to keep our noses alert and boy, are we glad that we did! After less than 10 minutes the basement started to stink like burning fibers. Not exactly what you hope to smell. 

We switched the dryer off and immediately pulled it away from the wall. Oh my, we couldn't really believe our eyes. The problem was obvious. The gas line (a problem in itself but we'll get to that later) had rubbed through the foil accordion-type tube leading to the solid vent. Because of this hole, there was a thick layer of lint on everything behind the washer and dryer. 

      

These pictures don't honestly do the thick layer of lint justice but I will tell you that I could peel the lint off the floor in 1+ inch thick sheets. Yuck!

After scraping the floor and vacuuming up what was loose on the walls and back of the machines we left both machines unplugged until the professionals could come in to look at the issue. Here's what they came up with: the dryer vent had  too many right angles on the way to the exterior vent. The more right angles in a vent, the more chance for lint to get stuck and problems to happen. We had to re-route the vent and in order to do that, had to take out some drywall and the cabinet above the washer and dryer. Rob was channeling Chip Gaines on demo day! 

   

   

Of course the first space we broke into was where the water lines were running (something you wouldn't know by the exposed pipes - another weird choice) and so we had to move over and break into the next section. The insulation came out and the ceiling also had to be exposed to move the gas line. The professionals moved the dryer vent into the space where you can see the insulation above and they moved the exit point on the outside of the house as well. Now there are only two turns (as per usual) and it's a solid pipe so there are less places for lint to get caught. The professional said that it was a miracle a fire hadn't started because it was clearly used for a long time with the broken vent. 

We still need to have the gas line rerouted so it isn't as long as it is now (something to look forward to... ha!). This house is proving to need quite a bit of work to say the least, but we LOVE this house and are having a fun time making it our own!

Until next time, thanks for catching up!

A new space for our growing boy!

The first room in the house to get cleaned, painted, refinished floors and decorated was our little guy's room. It feels a little less nursery than before but since he is still in his crib and we are in complete denial that he is growing up we are still rocking the original nursery vibe. 

I started by painting all the trim in his room the day we closed. It was a super high priority for us to get our buddy's room done before we moved in so that he could have a smooth transition to the new house. Everything in this house is dingy and needs a good scrub and we are pretty sure that every wall is painted with flat paint which makes everything look dull. By putting a coat of semi-gloss on the trim, baseboards and windows we brightened everything up a bit. We also used satin paint on the walls to make them scrubbable and durable for little boy dirt! 

   

As you can see things get a little weird after a long day of closing and starting projects! Nothing like a painting selfie to keep you going. You can (kind of) see in the picture on the left above the difference between our fresh semi-gloss white and the flat white. In person, it's pretty obvious.  

After painting the trim, I went around and edged in the room. I don't like to tape off rooms cause I think it just takes too long so I spent a little extra time being careful when I edged with my favorite shorty brush* to get a clean edge. Rob came in while I was putting my second coat on the edging the rolled the walls. Teamwork makes the dream work people. 

We chose to go a shade lighter than his room in our 1st house because it was going to be covering the whole wall. At the other house there was wainscoting in his room which supported the darker grey. The difference in lighting between the old house pictures and new house makes the color look super similar but there is a difference, promise! 

After some decisions about what goes where and how we wanted to maximize his space we ended up with another sweet space for our boy. We love the windows and how sunny his room gets. After having his room up in our bungalow's second floor (the cave room) we are loving the brightness! The curtains on the larger window are no longer tied, we were just trying to "train" them to stay open. Blackout curtains are so thick!

   

There is a whole other view to this room facing towards the camera that we will be posting soon along with the little dude's playroom pictures! Keep your eye out! 

*This post includes an affiliate link. We were not paid to say anything nice about this product, Lindsey just loves it!

A Closing Day Post on Opening Day

We are in! We got our keys last Thursday morning. It was so dark, it felt like evening and yet we were walking on sunshine. We were so happy to be getting the keys to our new house and start the projects we had been planning.

After meeting our realtor at the house for a final walk through, along with Rob's mom who was going to watch our boy for the day, we took an obligatory "first" picture at the new house and off to the closing we went. It was fairly simple and straightforward. We got to meet the people who were selling us the house and they were lovely. They told us about the neighborhood and how fun halloween is and our excitement grew! At the end of the meeting we parted ways with them and our wonderful realtor and headed over to the new house, cars full of supplies and work clothes at the ready!

When we got to the house we were trying to decide where to start. Rob decided to start by taking pictures of the whole house while it was empty to really get a true "before" image. When he was in the kitchen we started to fool around with the appliances. Microwave, refrigerator and oven appeared to be brand new, with stickers still inside the fridge! The cooktop looked used and dated so we knew we would replace it eventually but hoped we could use it as is for a while. Well, we tried all the burners and only one actually works. We were bummed cause it's a fairly costly item to replace but for that moment we pushed it to the back of our minds and hoped it would be our only hiccup. Dishwasher: we saw there was some leftover soap from a previous load so we decided to run it to clear that out. It wouldn't start. Actually, it did "start" but it made a horrible noise and no water was running. We pulled the dishwasher out (not fun or easy because the floor had only been laid up to the appliance, not underneath. A word of warning for future DIYers: this makes removing appliances very difficult!), made sure the connections were solid and the water was on and still nothing. Great, now we need two appliances right off the bat.

We headed out to lunch pretty feeling pretty "blah" that we had to spend this kind of money right away (on things we thought worked) and sat down at Panera ready to research prices and options. We landed on Home Depot. They aren't usually our first choice for big purchases but with a coupon we had and a sale they had running we were able to get a nice gas Whirlpool cooktop (pictured below) for a great price and it will be delivered on the 12th! yay! For now we cook with one burner! 

For some reason, we chose not to get a dishwasher while we were there and boy are we glad we didn't. Turns out, the water valve handle wasn't actually turning the valve. A plumber only charged us $45 for the inspection and the "fix" and it's literally like new! We're thrilled, to say the least, not to have to spend that money! 

The rest of our closing day went pretty smoothly! Rob worked on taking the kitchen cupboards apart (more on that later) while I edged in and painted our little guy's room. We got a visit from Rob's parents and our buddy and the dogs got to play in their new yard.

We also met some of our neighbors and have realized quickly that the world is pretty small! "Howdy Neighbors!" Some of them also have chickens which is super awesome and we've already been given half a dozen yummy fresh eggs and had one of them visit our front yard!