I Guess We're Getting a New Basement

Plans for the basement were in the far away future. We don't need the space quite yet and haven't come up with exactly what we want to do. Words like bar, gym, theater, and play area have been thrown around.

We actually did decide to move my gym equipment down there. My bike was on the trainer on some gym flooring with a treadmill set to arrive and then the TRX would move.

All the plans changed as we got baptized into being cold weather people when a pipe froze and burst in our garage and the water somehow made its way into the basement.

I went down in the morning to use my trainer which I found on an island created by the rubber mats. Workout cancelled. Luckily we realized we had a floor before it was worse and were able to shut off the valve but we were still left with an inch of water all around our large basement.

Now we've dealt with water cleanup crews, insurance, and some very loud fans while the new treadmill got set up in the 2nd living room, which was also unused.

It looks like we are getting a new basement, much sooner than originally planned!

Winter Wonderland

One of the great things about the house is the view from our huge front window. We're set on a bit of hill far back from the street. We've only really seen winter so far here but it's been beautiful in the snow. It makes the whole dealing with snow situation that much nicer as we adjust to our first cold winter. We love to see the deer go by and even the occasional fox.

The Very Unofficial Start to Our Kitchen Renovation

Our kitchen is very special. We have brown cabinets set against orange counter tops.  We have our fridge in a hole that is way too big. There are 3 different light switches used to turn the lights on. The appliances take me on a trip back in time to probably before I was born and are probably half the size of appliances people would buy today. I really feel like I've crossed into the Twilight Zone when I remember my kitchen and bathrooms have carpet but the living areas have tile and marble (???).

I mostly got used to all of this and most of the time am not even phased by the color scheme. The one thing I could never get used to is the dishwasher.

Not only is the inside tiny and somehow the rack doesn't line up to easily put dishes in, but it is pretty much the biggest liability we have going on. The door is a deathtrap. It's super heavy and will come crashing down, almost to the floor. This makes it very scary and annoying to fill since the bottom rack will come sliding down.

With a small dog and a baby that will one day become mobile, this thing had to go. We took advantage of a President's Day Sale and bought our first new appliance!

I told my dad it's the nicest appliance I have ever owned, which is true. He told me that's sad. Maybe it is. I realized it's actually the first appliance I have ever bought. That might be sad too.

I really will miss the wood paneling, but it's the price we have to pay to get rid of the death trap.

Nursery Fit for a Princess

When it finally hit me that I was actually having a baby (when I was around 3 months pregnant), I got right to work on planning the nursery... meaning I started a Pinterest board. We found out we were having a baby girl and after ordering some furniture I realized I would actually really have to start planning the nursery. While I played around with baby names, I joked that the baby's name was Genvieve, a name from my high school French textbooks, and she was French. From there, I decided on a France themed nursery in which to raise my French baby.

We were renting at the time and knew we'd be moving sometime in the next year, so we didn't alter the floor or walls, but prepared for baby to evict me from my office.

I think we did ok going from this:

To this:

After not even 5 short months in that room, we had to pack it all up and move. Of course upon moving into the new house, we had to get straight to work on the most important room - the nursery!

Unfortunately, we didn't quite have a blank slate. The room we were working with was covered in wallpaper with bright red carpet and a black chandelier.

We took down the wallpaper, pulled up the carpet, painted, and got our hardwood floors refinished while the baby was in a temporary room with even worse carpeting ("the vomit room") and even spent a few days living in the dining room.

All the work and moving from room to room was worth it because in the end we created a beautiful nursery for our little French princess.

Intro

In late December 2014, shortly before Christmas, we made the 1000 mile trek from Orlando, FL to the Philadelphia suburbs toting an almost 5 month old baby girl, a dog, 2 cars, a boat, and a U-Haul full of everything we owned. We immediately closed on and moved into our new home.

My mom always called the house an "Italian Nightmare" because of the overly ornate, outdated decor. My husband's replay was, "I already have two Italian nightmares, what's one more?" lovingly referring to me and her.

The house is what I call "good on paper" - 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half baths, ample square footage and acreage, and a pool - all in a great location. While well maintained, the decor left much to be desired. We knew this would be a fixer upper and provide a lifetime of projects. This is our journey to take the home from "Italian nightmare" good on paper" to what will (hopefully) be our dream home. At the very least, it will be an adventure!