the house! before and after/now/we're still working on it

So this is a delayed post but I didn't have a blog when we bought our house and it was a bit of a disaster anyway and we've needed time to do work!

We started thinking about buying a home after we got married in March 2012, but didn't start really looking until July. We had initially wanted to buy a condo in a prime area like downtown San Diego and as we kept looking at what that money would buy us, what we wanted changed. We ended up having a great support system from our family friend, Frank McLin, at Heartland Property Management, and he helped us immensely as first time buyers. Our house was a short sale property so we thought it would take as long as 6 months for the paperwork to go through....but the stars aligned and we closed in 45 days! It was sad to say goodbye to the beach, but we are so happy to be in La Mesa.

This is kirk and me on moving day!!! Don't mind my toothpaste stained shirt :)

Then this is how we lived for a week while we gutted the entire house to get it ready to live in. WE LOVE HAVING A GARAGE!!

Here's a tour of the BEFORE house. The previous owner thought he was doing us a favor by leaving us all his old, gross furniture. So these pictures are how we received the house.... can you tell where he walked much?

The carpet was unsanitary and it had to be replaced before we could do anything else.

All the knick-knacks on the walls were his....all it did was require us to get rid of it all.

SO GROSS. Not sure if the carpet had ever been replaced.

This is the guest room, painted bright green.

We haven't changed much in the bathrooms yet, but they are next on the list once we have money again.

The master bedroom.

Here's me painting that ugly green away. We didn't decide on different colors for the house because we were rushed to get it all painted before the new floors were put in. So we just chose a neutral color (called "rice paper" if you care) to go everywhere. If we decide to paint it a different color later we will!

This is what we did for a whole week: slept at the apartment, went to work, came to the house and painted until we were too tired to move, then went back to the apartment to sleep. Those lights were so hot and it was definitely not pleasant. ALSO it was the end of summer so the temps during the day were in the 80s anyway.

Painting the baseboards

NEW FLOOR :)

Such a difference than the old, critter-filled carpet.

The master bedroom on our first night in the house.

Kirk poppin' champagne to celebrate the house!

haha we didn't have anything else in the house so we ate some kabobs that Kirk's mom brought over.

Pardon my finger on the camera, but here she is!

"M" for Martinsen <3

New entry way

Still moving in...

This was just half of the pile of crap that the previous owner left us. We had to keep it on the patio until we could take it to the dump or give it away. Really kept the white trash backyard feeling alive for quite a while.

(Family tree made by my sister for Christmas 2012)

During Christmas break/long weekend we repainted the kitchen from old brown/yellow to black, grey, and white.

I painted the fridge from yellow to white with apoxy paint. :) I wasn't going to have an ugly yellow fridge with our new paint job.

Painted the hood from brown to grey with regular paint. I didn't want to buy appliance paint because it's super expensive so I just went for it and it seems to be working. The tile is still the blue that was here before but it works. We still have to decide/agree on handles for the cabinets....still. 6 months later.

White trash easy up outside for the dog until we can build the patio cover (which is currently underway!!!). Someday we'll also have a grown up table in that area to seat 6-8 people and that little table will go in the kitchen.

Riggs photo-bombed this pic but it sure looks better, AMIRITE?

Our wall of pics. People either love it or hate it. I like the collage feel of it.

Spring time in La Mesa

This is the third bedroom/office. We will someday put a twin bed in there somewhere and will move that dresser, but that's when we have money again.

Guest bedroom now.

Guest bathroom

Master bathroom (both of these will be redone someday)

Master bedroom now <3

Kirk is currently digging holes for foundation things for our outdoor patio space. He and his dad have already built the tresses (?) and we're making some major progress out there. His face says, "I hate it but I want to be done with this project so I'm doing it."

And my recent project was turning this outside weed pit into a garden. I used to weed my step mom's garden and hated it. It's so crazy how different it feels when it's YOUR house and those are YOUR weeds. I even went out to the front yard and weeded the sidewalk in front of our house....

We are so happy and blessed to have this house where our friends and family can make memories together. It has been one of the best years of my life.

With that said, COME VISIT :)