It could be worse...

Well, we officailly closed on the house and got right to work tearing the old carpet off the stairs. We were excited to find beautiful finished oak underneath; however, the good news ends there...

Our first big renovation began by stripping wallpaper in the kitchen. We immediately found unfinished drywall walls underneath. Our plan had been to prime and paint and spend about $50. We ended up doing a $350 wallpaper job to cover the mess underneath. Thank goodness my mom and her husband were visiting from northern California. They were alot of help.

Next, we had our shag carpet cleaned a few days after moving in. As it dried it began showing signs of dry rot and within 24 hours was literally breaking apart under our feet. We are looking at about $1,000 to replace it. Also, when they steam cleaned they used our outside water source that had not been used in over a year and had not been winterized. The pipe broke off in our wall and we had to call a plumber to the tune of $500. They also had to cut a hole in our livingroom wall to get to the leak! Patching that is our next fix. Grrrr!

While the plumber was at the house he looked at both toilets. He said they were outdated, had obsolete parts, and he was suprised they were not leaking by now. Of course I cringe at the cost it will be to fix them. I definitely DO NOT want to replace them. They match the bathrooms perfectly and are original to the house!

On a happier note, we got all of the rooms painted, carpet installed downstairs, and did alot of cleaning. Things are coming along fairly smoothly now. It could be worse.