Slowly but Surely

Like Geoff mentioned in his previous post, I have put a few pictures up of the paint colors we are trying to decide between - interior and front door.  Geoff is not lying when he says that he is no help, so it is up to y'all to help me out!  It was hard enough for me to pick out the kitchen counter-top on Thursday.  I could still be standing in the granite shop trying to decide between my few options (damn that budget), but you just have to jump and not look back. 

I meant to include a picture in our first post of Murph, our lean, mean, fighting machine, helping us out during kitchen demolition.  There was a lot of banging going on, and Murph didn't want anything to do with it.  She first hid in the bushes behind the trash can, but I thought she needed somewhere more comfortable to hide.  Take a look.

This weekend Geoff disassembled the rusty shed in our backyard and threw it is Carrier's dumpster.  He also chopped down the jungle of bushes on the back of the house and below the kitchen window.  We did have a minor casualty... our first digital camera bit the dust.  Geoff was the executioner - he smashed it between the truck's tailgate and bumper.  Luckily, Brian and Brooke came by on Saturday with some liquid therapy.  Thanks y'all!  A cooler full of Abita Strawberry would really move this project along.  If only we knew someone who lived near the brewery....

Scraping Paint and Cutting Grass

Talking about an uneventful day ... nothing really to report.  The painters came in like a tornado and scraped all of the popcorn ceilings.  We discovered that the lovely pink wallpaper was not original ... actually, the previous owner had a yellow wallpaper with some sort of green floral design.  I think that the yellow paper wasn't all that bad.  However, I don't think that we are going to roll that way.  Colleen is in the midst of deciding on a neutral color.  Actually, if we can get our act together, we are going to take some pictures of the "samples" and ask for your help deciding on a color.  I am just not very good at helping Colleen decide - they all look beige to me.

Meanwhile, I spent the afternoon getting dominated by the yard.  We have a tiny amount of grass mixed in with the weeds that make-up the green color in the yard. 

Tomorrow we pick out the kitchen countertops and order the appliances.  I guess it is still our turn to support the economy.

Meet linoleum. Our new nemesis.

While Geoff and I were living in Annapolis, we used to joke that Northern Virginia (NoVA) was are arch-nemesis. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in that area can attest to this. Well, this weekend we met our new and improved nemesis - Linoleum.

Before we move into our new place, we want to update it a bit. The reason being that we got it off of a 92 year old man, and a lot has changed since 1966 when he bought the house. We decided we would start in the kitchen. Ben came up on Friday after work to lend us a hand. The work was easy breezy at first... We popped open a couple of cold ones, ripped a few cabinets off of the walls, and piled the remnants of the kitchen in the yard. We had no idea what was waiting for us under the indoor/outdoor carpet.

Saturday rolled around, and the first thing we realized was that we had to somehow get rid of the kitchen piled in the backyard. Luckily, we were able to find a plethora of unsupervised dumpsters to throw our junk in.  We then somewhat skillfully moved the appliances out of the kitchen and removed the kitchen carpet - fairly simple aside from the fact that we found numerous decomposing cockroaches underneath.   Seriously, who carpets the kitchen?!?!?! 


Then began the assent of our very own Everest.  It was before noon on Day 2 and the only thing in our way was the linoleum. We figured that it could not be that tough... I mean, the stuff was like 50 years old, right? Wrong. Geoff was the first to tackle that horrible, glued down flooring with our newly purchased floor scraper, while Ben and I came at it with the claw end of our hammers. After I took my hammer's claw to the knee, I decided I should head out to get lunch for everyone. By the time I returned, Geoff and Ben needed a break in the worst way. They were pouring sweat and hadn't really gotten anywhere. So... it was my turn to show the linoleum what was up... and I did. One floor scraper later, that stinkin' linoleum met its match!

Sixth time’s a charm?

Geoff and I are reviving “Get Bent” to document our adventures in home ownership and improvement for our friends and family. So, here goes...

Let me give everyone a bit of background… In the fall of 2007, Geoff and I backed out of our first attempted first home purchase in Maryland after the inspection turned up a termite infestation. Looking back, that was just AMAZING luck. Following that, the market completely bombed, and we moved to Charlotte! However, that is not where our home buying saga ends… Once in Charlotte, we backed out of our second attempted first home purchase in the suburbs of Charlotte and were denied by the seller on our 3 following offers around that same area. For the record, 2 of those 3 homes are still on the market as I type!

Needless to say, all of this failure got us thinking that there was something wrong with us. Afterall, we were the common denominator. But then again, all of the homes we tried unsuccessfully to purchase were located in suburbia and, clearly, the suburbs were not ready for the Moody-Bent's! With this new information in mind, we focused our house hunt on the areas immediately surrounding Uptown, and TA-DAH… On Friday, April 16, 2010 after a lengthy and arduous home search (maybe, quest or expedition is more appropriate), our real estate agent got paid!

Unfortunately, when you buy property near Uptown Charlotte as opposed to further out, you get about half of the house with about 100 times the amount of necessary sweat equity. Below are some pictures of what Geoff and I fondly refer to as the Money Pit.

Although, our new home might not be charming just yet, it will be, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted.