10.30.2007

Porch Problems

One of the big issues with the house is the front porch--it looks like it could collpase at any minute. The condition of the porch was flagged during our inspection. We foregoed (forewent? What's the right word here?) having a structural engineer inspect before buying because...well, I can't remember why. Because we are cheap? Because it was a calculated risk? Because we wanted the house anyway, I guess.

After we closed, our biggest concern was that the front porch was a symptom of a bigger structural problem. If we just needed to rebuild the porch, we were prepared to handle that. But, if it turned out that the porch was falling off because the whole freakin' front of the house was falling, too, then we'd have some problems. Our worst-case scenario involved us driving up to the house and seeing something like this:

On Sunday, we had an engineer come to inspect the house. Thankfully, it looks like the porch itself is the only issue. It will be a complete rebuild, but that is something that we were planning on anyway. The rest of the house looks to be structurally sound, with only some minor repair needed to the foundation. And, since the inspection was done by a family member, the price was right (thanks Mike).

10.26.2007

Pulling up Carpet


There are hardwood floors throughout the house, most of which were refinished by the previous owners. However, there was still carpet left in 3 of the four bedrooms as well as the upstairs hall. So our first big job was pulling up carpet. I was ready for the carpet and carpet pad, but who knew there were so many accessories (and by accessories, I mean tackboard, nails, and staples). After a long day of work, the old hardwoods are now exposed, staple-free, and ready for refinishing--as soon as we come up with the cash to get it done.

One of the formerly carpeted rooms is painted a lovely shade of blue with bright red trim (see before and after pic below). We call that the Jayhawk room. Clearly the color scheme needs to be changed immediately. Black and gold, perhaps?

10.25.2007

What were we thinking?

It's the natural progression of things, I guess. You get married, get good jobs, buy a modern urban loft, do a little traveling, and enjoy a lot of happy hours and nice dinners out. Then, for some reason, you decide to turn your sweet life upside-down and have a baby. And that baby literally forces you to slow down and reflect on everything. You start to long for green space and good schools and the small-town upbringing you had. And amid the sleep-deprivation and chaos of having a newborn, you decide buy a house in the country. So that's what we did. And to get Max ready for this wonderful new life we plan to impose upon him, we've become quite fond of singing him the opening line of a song by the Presidents of the United States of America: Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches. I'm movin' to the country, gonna eat me a lot of peaches. Hence the name of our blog.

We closed on our new home on October 19. It's a 1913 Craftsman-style home located in Lathrop, a small town in Northern Missouri. So now--thanks to the dismal real estate market--we still own our loft in the city (we'll call it our urban highrise) along with our new small-town abode (we'll call that the country estate). It's just as well for now, because although the house is in decent shape, there are several things we want to do to make it our home, many of which need to be done before we move in. As we complete the transition, we'll use this space to update friends and family--and the world, I suppose--on the progress we make. Welcome to our blog!