Welcome Home, Moose...

Clockwise from left: Moosey gets some much needed holiday cheer; Wall cabinets gets a taste of the Jerman wrath; Original oak flooring hiding below some hideous parquet flooring.

So it's safe to say that we are diligently working in our new home by the lack of posts on this blog. But I am just bursting with post contents and overwhelmed at the same time with the flurry of house related activities. Our blog silence really speaks volumes.

But I have been meaning to do a bit of post about what we've done so far after getting our keys.

It's been just a day over a week ago that we actually closed, and with the holidays right smack in the middle of things, you'd think that we'd have yet to spend a minute in our new place. In fact, we've spent almost every waking moment we've had, tearing down cabinets and wallpaper, and opting for a shortened holiday at home to maximize vacation time on the house.

First things first, since we bought a short sale, we wanted to make sure to get our locks changed out right away. And what a perfect excuse to start setting the theme for hardware in the house too! We chose an antiqued black finish locks and knobs on both the front and side door (which coincidentally matched perfectly with our Moose knocker) and even got a fancy keypad deadbolt for the side door, which immediately made me feel like we've updated this century old home to the technology savvy age. We are just one step closer to our very own smart home..

And speaking of dear ol' Moosey, she's also found her new home upfront and center stage on our solid wood front door. Sadly, we had to cover her up temporarily as we hung up a wreathe (and a little bit of Christmas cheer) right on top of her head. Sorry Moosey!

Then from day one, we were on a tear of terror and destruction as we ripped, demolished, and smashed (ok, we were a lot more delicate than that) wallpaper and decades old kitchen cabinets. Actually, we were careful enough to salvage a lot of the cabinets for repurposing in the garage or basement, so destruction wasn't quite our MO (it just sounded cooler)

We also discovered (during our reign of destruction) that the dated parquet on the kitchen floor hid the original oak floors underneath and is currently giving us hope of salvaging and refinishing those beautiful old floors. But we've got a lot of work digging ahead of us since the parquet are glued down pretty tight. Oh and I forgot to mention the sticky laminate underneath said parquet and atop the original floors. Oh joy!

Underneath the parquet and laminate,
original oak flooring waiting to be brought back to life.
Also note,  even more hideous wallpaper
hidden behind the cabinets.  

So the past week has been one part jolly and another part folly (ha! both applying to the house and the long drive home to Michigan for the holidays) but we can't wait for our sweat equity and hard work to pay off in spades when we're enjoying our new tranquil kitchen and home in a few month's time. (We can't wait for our walls to come down, I am itching to take a sledge hammer to it, but I have a feeling that I am no match for this old house)

In the meantime, we're going through the rigmarole of contractors and bids that we can't even keep our schedules straight, let alone blog. Sad :(. Busy, busy.. but we're still in new house bliss with our heads to the cloud, feet off the ground, and there ain't nothin' keepin' us down!

And for that awkward (albeit) essential,
carrying over the threshold photo.. Poor Steve..

Hope everyone had a very Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year! So far, this coming year is holding a lot of promise for us already, in more ways than we can think of!

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