If you're reading this blog you're either a family member who's been hounding us for pictures, a friend that I've been boring to tears with renovation talk, or someone I've met in the home improvement industry -- in which case I probably have you on speed dial by now, and you refer to me "the one who can't make a decision to save her life and looks like a deer in the headlights all the time." Yup, that's me.
So, as many of you know, back in April we became the proud owners of a not-so-well-cared-for, completely outdated, small two-story rambler in the Westbrook neighborhood of Bethesda (for you DC peeps, it's about a mile from the Friendship Heights metro, so no, we are not actually living in the "country" now). And for anyone that knows us, you know that this is pretty far out of our comfort zone. The house reno, not Bethesda.
We sold our condo in Columbia Heights back in February, where we have lived since 2004. We loved that place. It was perfect for us when we bought 10 years ago and was still pretty much serving our needs, but we longed for a more traditional community atmosphere for Paige (our 8-year old daughter), some green space, a deck, a neighborhood school, etc... The condo had been recently renovated when we bought it, and we didn't need to do a thing to it. Over time we installed some built-ins, created a few closets out of some dead space and re-tiled a small entryway. That's it. That's the extent of our home renovation experience. Until now.
We are now living in an apartment while we completely renovate the existing two floors of the house and add another level and garage. So how and why did we get here, you may be asking yourself (it's ok, we ask ourselves that on daily basis, oftentimes with some more colorful language thrown in). Well, first we fell in love with the Westbrook neighborhood. We looked at a bunch of houses (with the help of Dana Rice, the best real estate agent on the planet), bid on one and didn't get it, and then realized that most of the houses we were looking at that were in "good" condition were really dated, and we would want to make significant changes. It seemed to make more sense to buy the small house in pretty bad condition and create the house we want rather than pay for someone else's renovation and have to live with a house we don't really love. Makes sense, right? I hope you're nodding your head right now.
So, here we are. Clueless but excited. Hopeful, yet a little bit anxious. The idea that we need to choose everything from tile to toilets to where every electrical outlet should go is kind of making our heads spin. So please check in with us periodically to make sure we haven't killed each other, or worse yet . . . chosen an ugly backsplash.
Stay tuned for the "BEFORE" pics.
