Hi! I'm Holly Brimhall, a newborn photographer in Gilbert, AZ. I am the mother of 4 and a lover of ALL things baby. This blog is where I share the life of my family and favorite pictures of my newborn photography sessions.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

13 days ago...


We bought a new house. Man, oh man. It feels like it was MONTHS ago! What a crazy couple of weeks it has been. Somedays I have driven back and forth between houses 3 times. It has been consuming our lives!

We showed up on my birthday, before the sun even came up, to start making this house feel like a home to us. We knew it would only start to look worse, before it could look better. It was time to get to work!

Luckily, I took a few before pictures. And someday soon, I hope to be able to take some after shots. It's a shame you cannot see how truly dirty and disgusting it was.

BEFORE...

The entry...
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My future studio. We ripped out a closet and a bathroom to make it bigger... While ripping out carpet we discovered all kinds of chewed up gum on the blinds. That's a nice touch!
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The formal front room... I especially loved the paper blinds, but decided I could part with them. (*warning: this post MAY be filled with sarcasm). We filled in the little niche and will be building a new mantle and covering the black tiles with stone.
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This is the formal dining...which I don't really care to have. So we added a wall along part of it to make a huge walk-in pantry off the kitchen. The rest of the "formal dining room" will be my grand piano room. It's going to be pretty! Brett and I are going to be putting up some trim in there tonight.
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On to the family room. The window treatment they chose is DIVINE! My mom and I stood there trying to figure out the reasoning of the ONE blind. We decided that as the sun set in the west, it shone through that window and bothered him as he sat in his lazy boy watching tv...hence the ONE blind. Can you tell how disgusting the windowsills are?
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The kitchen... Okay, so it's a great size and it has the same ovens and microwave that we have now. The oven looks like it has never been cooked in and the microwave looks like 50 hotdogs must've exploded on the inside. The cabinets are being painted to what I have now - a cream paint with an antique glaze. Our electrician added a light above the island. We've cut off the pony wall and will be trimming out the island to look more custom. Oh...and I don't think I mentioned that we ripped out the flooring in the whole house!
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Dusty countertops and cobweb covered windows. Yummy!
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The stairs.... Upstairs is 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and an office.
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Master bath. So we weren't planning on re-doing this right away. We looked in the tub and couldn't decide if there was a dead rat in the tub...or if it was just a hairball. Luckily, it was a hairball. But still. Disgusting doesn't even begin to describe the condition of this bathroom. One look and Brett said, "Rip it out!"
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The Master bedroom... They took all of the ceiling fans out of the whole house...
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Except this fancy one in the office...
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But they left us a tank of a treadmill from the 80's in one of the bedrooms....
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And even a car...
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Time to get what I call "apartment carpet" out of the house. You know the cheapest carpet with the thinnest pad. Yes...get it out!
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Putting up some walls for some storage rooms in the garage...
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We did all of that on my birthday! Whew! What a day! The kids loaded all of the crap that the homeowners left in the garage into a trailer. Onto that we added tile from about half of the house and the leftover carpet (we'd already dumped two loads of carpet and one load of tile). Brett and I took that load to the dump. They weigh your vehicle when you come in and then they weigh you when you go out. Brett and I dumped 1.96 tons...almost 4,000 pounds! I have never been to the dump before, and I really would rather not return. The stench there is gross and Brett said it's MUCH worse in the summer. I'm sure! We got some Rumbi's "to-go" as a reward.

Here's Chubs enjoying his Mac 'n Cheese...
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This past Saturday, my mom joined the kids and I as we cleared out the backyard...which was a bit overwhelming. The previous owners had really done a LOT with the place. Many of the weeds were taller than the kids.
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Who knew that tumbleweeds could actually be pretty? Maybe NOT pretty...but a pretty cool picture!
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Luckily, most of us had a really good attitude about working together...
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I'm not really going to say who had a really bad attitude about the yard clearing, but his name starts with a Moo and ends in sssssssss.
6 hours of non-stop ho-ing and shoveling later, the backyard is pretty much cleared...but I was too worn out to take a picture. In fact, I've hardly taken any pictures at all since we began this project. Hopefully I'll remember to take my camera tonight.

14 comments:

Kyla Makay 3:52 PM  

It's gorgeous! Really it is! :)
Makay
www.sofarsogreat1.blogspot.com

Lorie 4:30 PM  

So obviously it was a foreclosure...gotta love AZ! My sister bought a foreclosure and they took the strangest things!

So I have been to your house once (Karli's shower) and it was beautiful. What prompted the move?

Tori 4:46 PM  

Oh you are too cute! Love the "sarcasim"...and you made me chuckle!
The house is beautiful and I just know the after pictures are gonna be awesome!!!! So excited for you guys!!!
Happy Birthday too!!!

Melanie 4:47 PM  

How funny--I totally know that house! (I live nearby). I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Tressa 7:26 PM  

Thanks for all of the before pictures! You guys really have a lot of work to do on that place! But, it will look awesome when you are done. :) One of these days we'll make it down to AZ to see the finished product. :) Right now the thought of sitting in a car for more than 20 minutes sounds like pure torture! LOL

Lisa 7:55 PM  

The bones of that house are great and it's not like it's very old. Having seen pics of your other house, once you guys get a hold of it, it will be marvelous, I'm sure!

Good luck in the meantime with all the reno'!!

Karli 8:31 AM  

Are you tearing out any bathroom cabinets/vanities? If so, I'd gladly take one off your hands - I'm so done with the pedestal sink in the hall bath cuz I'm dying for some storage :) Can't wait to see the house. Let me know how we can help.

Brock and Lisa McKeown 10:19 AM  

oh my.... loved the little story of he new house. I'm thinking the car might make a great photo shoot...

Lorena M 7:40 PM  

I couldn't stop laughing especially at the old treadmill and the car. I'm sure you will make that house beautiful in no time. I always loved when you posted photos of your previous home because your way of decorating is so nice. My brother and sister in law live in Arizona, and I've been there once and the homes are all beautiful and big, but my brother said a lot of people don't take care of their houses and then they foreclose. I can't wait to see what you do with your new home.

Kimberly Robinson 10:23 PM  

Yeah, I'm so curious! What prompted the move? Closer to Brett's work? Upsize/downsize? Yard? Loved your house before & am pretty sure you could make a hill of dirt look gorgeous so this will be a cinch for you guys. Best wishes to you all!!

Teresa M. 7:41 AM  

Holly, can't wait to see the finished product. I was trying to find the post about your Christmas stockings, but I couldn't find the archives. I think I remember you saying that you made them. I love the size and shape and your choice of fabrics is right up my alley! If you can share, please e-mail me. Thanks!!

Cami D. 10:59 PM  

Now I haven't seen anyone offer to buy that little rice rocket car - I totally do! Well not I - but one of my people! Seriously if you still have it - call me!!

J. Paige 9:59 AM  

Oh my- you guys are such hard workers and so talented to be able to do all that yourself- your house will end up BEAUTIFUL!!!

Rissa 11:26 AM  

I am so excited to see what you do with it. I am glad that you could see past all the grime to the good things about the house. Its going to look great.

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