So I have purchased my first ever home. Yep. At the ripe old age of thirty I have purchase my first home. It is a three bedroom, 2 bathroom home. It has a yard for Riley, my dog, and a fireplace. I am so excited to use that thing. Its a wood burning fireplace. You don’t know how hard it is to find one of those in this and the surrounding counties but I found one and its great.
I’m still in shock I was able to get a house. It was a struggle. I have student loans and a car payment but yet I was able to get pre-qualified for a little more than $130,000. That set me up to find a nice-sized home in Durham/Wake County, but the market is tough and people are willing to bid high to win a house. I wasn’t willing to go above a certain amount because then that amount would come out of my pocket because I knew the houses would not appraise for that much.
So anyway. the house is 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom like I stated. It also sits on .377 acres with a fenced in backyard, and a storage closet. It also comes equipped with a washer and dryer and refrigerator. The only problem the house has is the flooring, the kitchen, and the laundry room. What’s wrong you say?
Well the floor that travels through the living room and down the hallway is vinyl, if i’m not mistaken. It looks like a big wood sticker. Like someone put a sticker down on the foundation that just happens to look like wood. The bathroom has tile that looks decent but I can’t stand it. I decided I want new floors for the house. Here’s the rundown. The living room and the hallway have the vinyl flooring, one of the bedrooms has tile (the same tile as the kitchen and bathrooms), and the other two bedrooms have carpet and not good carpet. My mother had the carpets cleaned the day after I moved in. Even after being cleaned, it still felt disgusting under my feet. I mean yuck. I can’t stand to go barefoot on that carpet. So now i want new flooring and by flooring I mean hardwood. I found so many that i like. I tend to sway more toward darker flooring. So you know what that means right? That means I have to paint the house a lighter color because dark walls and dark flooring in a house with not a lot of sunlight isn’t going to work. So new painted walls are needed.
So onto the kitchen. The kitchen is stuck in the 1980s. I mean the real 1980s. The house was built in 1987, so the cabinets looked and felt like they stepped out of the 1980s. The cabinets themselves were oak cabinets (so Christian says), but the doors were mdf. They are brown and you can see the grain on the doors and the sides. They are not functional. I mean at the corners where the cabinets meet is unused space. They aren’t deep and they feel dirty and uneven. I don’t even want to put my stuff in them. Then there is the refrigerator. The space for the fridge is 30″ across meaning the only fridge i can put there is a top/bottom. That is the kind of fridge that has the freezer on top and the cool section beneath. i was really hoping for a side by side. (I really want a door in door). The top/bottom refrigerators were the only ones around during that time period. I want a new kitchen where i can plan how i want it and where i want everything. I know I want shaker cabinets. The problem is what color do i want? White? Gray? Mahogany? Hmm decisions, decisions. Someone help me. Maybe i can get a decorator or designer but they cost money. I’ll keep you posted on what i decide. Pictures will follow of course and so will a blog.
So now the laundry room. The laundry “room” itself is fine, however the dryer door cannot open with the laundry door partially open, and there is no dryer vent in the laundry room. Yeah I know. Right now, its venting into a metal box. That’s got to go. Christian says he can do it through the roof, which is perfectly fine as long as it gets done. That’s my only issue with the laundry room right now.
The other rooms just need paint. I’m thinking about the paint right now. The house is dark and needs a light color to brighten it up. The house barely gets any sunlight coming in, thanks to the trees, so I need to lighten it up. I’m thinking light blues instead of grays or whites.
More to come with the many projects I have in mind.
