When Amy and I moved into Decatur 5 years ago, the house we chose was filthy and neglected with an awkward galley kitchen, no working shower, a dying HVAC unit, an old roof and several broken windows. We dubbed it “The Pulley House” because there were climbing ropes hanging from pulleys mounted around a skylight that dangled from the 3rd floor loft all the way down to the 1st floor living room. Supposedly, they were for hanging plants. Supposedly.
Here We Go Again
When Amy and I were planning our move from Florida to South Carolina in 2005, we knew that we wanted to buy. Having lived in 3 different tiny apartments during our last 2 years in Gainesville, we were fed up with renting and desperate for a place of our own. Knowing that the PhD program at USC was going to be a 5 year commitment, we forked over every penny we had toward a down payment and dove head first into home ownership.
Given our still-fresh-out-of-college budget, most of the properties we found needed work – a lot of work. I don’t think a single house we looked at was staged to sell and many of them were, well, pretty boring…
Oh My Sod
When Amy and I bought our first place back in 2005, we knew it had awesome potential, but that it was majorly outdated. The picture…
Paint Our House
Update: We ended up going with a slight variation of scheme #4 below. You can see the finished color along with all the before &…
Labor Days
My first headline idea for this post was “Grids are good and how to lay tile on them” as that’s where my mind has been…