Living in: House (The first 1.5 months)

We moved into our house on February 1. It was a chaotic and exhausting, which was entirely our own fault! Moving doesn't seem like a big deal when it's just down the street, and we had only packed about a third of our things by the time the big day came. We also rented a tiny truck (really just an 11-person van with the seats taken out) and had to return it before we were finished, so we did the last 8 hours of moving with our small car. It was a mess, but still fun, because this is hopefully the last time we'll move in a long, long time!

Here are some photo highlights from the first two months of living here.

Moving day

 

No time to paint the ceilings/walls before moving in!

TV and ladder sitting in the closet. Paper still covering the newly-finished floors.

With the help of a dozen generous friends who helped us paint, we were able to finish our entire house in a weekend. It was a dream.

Miscellaneous photos from before we moved in

We're lagging far behind in House updates! In lieu of a real update, here are some photos of the work done from November 2014 - January 2015.

Before the chimneys were taken down, November 18, 2014.

A sign the chimney was not sound: Lots of soot, meaning that the flames were licking the outside of the chimney. There was a fire inside the wall that was holding the chimney.

The old knob & tube wiring from the early 20th century was disabled, and replaced with modern electricity: December 8, 2014.

Taking out the old ductwork & air conditioner, and getting all HVAC:

Old thermostat! 

New thermostat! It was pretty cold in there from December - February because the crawlspace wasn't sealed yet, and there were some uninsulated areas that were still being worked on. 

Buying lumber to trim out the north side of the house (last week of December):

Most of the drywall was repairable, but some new stuff was needed to cover the back of the old chimneys.

In mid-January, our carpenter was wrapping up the biggest/messiest work so we could move in in February.

This is the closet of the master bedroom: made of 1 old chimney and 1 closet that previously served the adjacent room. Our carpenter flipped it so it faced this way, instead, and was able to re-use the original wood.