Let the Remodels Begin!!!!

As you can imagine, we didn't waste any time getting to work on the house.  We began on Thursday night and with the help of mom and dad we were able to get things really going.  The four of us worked on the house until 11pm.  Friday we started at 8am and had Uncle Barry there to help us as well.  We got a lot accomplished this day, including having the tile guys, garage door guy and pool guy out to service and check things out.  We even had our first truck load of "landscaping" rocks hauled off.  We worked until 11pm again on Friday.  Saturday was the BIG day!!!  Words cannot describe how grateful Kenny and I are for all of the people who took time out of their weekend to come and help us!  It was truly amazing!!!  I couldn't believe all that we got done that day and we couldn't have done it without them.  At one point we had 13 people working in the house!!!  We wrapped Saturday up at about 9pm and a few of us enjoyed a couple of beers by the pool...Johnny Cash (our boston terrier nephew) took the first dip in the pool as well. Silly boy!  Sunday morning we were all moving a bit slower (as you can imagine) and didn't get started until about 10am.  Sunday was also Whit's birthday.  We worked until just after 5 and then everyone went home and we went to dinner for Whit's birthday and enjoyed a very well deserved margarita!  Monday, I returned to work and believe me I was so glad to have some time to "relax".  Every muscle in my body hurts from working all weekend.  Dad, Kenny and Uncle Barry did not return to work and were at the house all day.  I went by at lunch yesterday and our neighbor Mary Messer pulled up ready to work, so when I left she was in the yard moving more of those stupid rocks.  It is the best feeling in the world to know that there are so many people that love us so much and don't even have to be asked to help, they just show up and get to work. 

Now I know everyone has been asking for pictures...so here you go! :-)  I figured a slideshow was probably the best way to explain it all.  I hope that you can all view it ok.  None of the rooms are 100% "done" yet, but this gives you an idea of what we have been doing.  There are a LOT of exterior changes that will be made to the house including repainting the whole thing and the shutters, as well as some structural changes too.

Before I finish this entry I want to say a HUGE thank you to all the people that helped us this weekend.  It truly means so much to Kenny and I!  So thank you to: Mom, Dad, Uncle Barry, Ron, Treva, Ronny, Sam, Andy, Michelle, Whit, Rae Rae, Jenny, Aunt Elaine, Aunt Nessie, Jennifer and Mary.  Also thank you to Aaron, Courtney, Grayson and Abby for coming by to see the new house and visit with us for a bit.
We love each of you so much!!!!!

An Introduction to the New House!

Hello everyone!  I am finally getting around to writing my first blog and am really excited about it.  I have had a lot of you asking about the new house and wanting to see pictures and stay updated on the remodel process, so I figured what better way to keep everyone updated than by blogging!  I have never done this before, but hopefully I'll get the hang of it fast.  

This past Thursday we closed on our new house.  For those that don't know, we are moving back to Buford I say "back" to Buford because that's my old stomping grounds. :-)  Also, for those that don't know, we are moving back onto Samantha Drive, the street I lived on from the age of 2.  That's right, we will be 4 houses up from Mom, Dad, Whit and Rae Rae.  How cool is that?  We are keeping our house in Winder for the time being and are hoping to rent it out for the next year or two before selling it.

Kenny and I first looked at this house back around this time last year.  It had gone on the market and after seeing that it was within our price range we decided to go check it out. The lot is amazing!  Almost 3 acres fully fenced in with an amazing gunite heated saltwater pool w/ waterfall in the backyard.  This right here was what made Kenny and I really get excited.  The house is a good size, 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths on a crawl space.  However, after checking out the inside we were discouraged by the amount of changes we would want to make to the house.  It was built in 1986, so it had a bit of updating that needed to be done.  At the price it was listed at, we would not be able to own both houses and make the changes we wanted.  So we forgot about the house and kept looking at other houses.

It wasn't until the price on this house dropped significantly that we decided to go give it another look.  It was now reasonable to own both houses and afford the remodels.  So after looking at it again, we put an offer in on the house on Monday, January 18th .  The house was a short sale....and anyone that knows anything about them knows they are anything but SHORT!  So the wait began.  We finally heard back from the bank on February 24th.  They accepted our offer!!!!!  Wooohooo!

Prior to our closing, there were some "code" issues that we had to complete in order to get approval on the loan.  These things included fixing some roof leaks/ceiling damage in the kitchen and den, adding a fence around the back of the pool bc of the drop off on the retaining wall, fill in the deck where they had the hot tub (couldn't be a huge open hole there) and adding handrailing to a small part of the deck that was missing it.

Closing went very smoothly, seeing that Kenny knew every form and did not need any explanation on it.  We were in and out of the attorney's office in an hour.  All of that was the easy part!  The real work began after closing.....but I'll leave that for the next entry.

In closing on this entry I wanted to take a second to thank a few people that worked so hard to help make sure we closed on this house.  Mom, for being the best agent in the world and for all her help with bringing the deck and pool area up to code.  Dad, for being our Mr. Fix-It and getting the roof leaks, ceiling, code issues all completed.  Uncle Barry for being Mr. Fix-It #2 and being there to help dad and Kenny with every project that was done prior to closing.  And lastly, NanNan for helping while she was down visiting.  We are so grateful for everything you all did for us and continue to do for us now.