Dangerous Words

My bellybutton sticks out when I'm pregnant. And it's painful.  But not as painful as these sponge painted walls.

Our Heber project has been waiting patiently in the wings.  As you can see from the above (before) photo, the Heber house was bought last summer when I was pregnant.  Very pregnant.  I have had visions about this house bouncing around in my head for months.  This house cries for our attention, time, and $.  Has it's turn finally come?

I hope so.

The Show Low house sold this week.  Don't cry.  I use the word "sold" loosely and optimistically.  One time Jace and I "sold" a house in Snowflake.  We packed, lined up rental, and basically moved out - only to get a phone call on the last day of escrow informing us that the buyers were no longer qualified for a loan.  We moved back in.  Cried.  Unpacked.  And then sold the house a year later for $50,000 more.  Boom.  We showed them.  But a valuable lesson was learned....your house is never sold until you have the $ in hand.  Got it?  Repeat after me:  "Money in Hand.  Money in Hand."  The correct terminology is:  "Our house in Show Low is under contract."  Some very nice people are in the process of acquiring the funds in hopes to purchase the adorable house before month's end.  So....Wahoo!  I have already starting spending my 1st commission check!
What was it I was saying earlier about $ in hand?  I don't know.  Whatever.

The "sold" Show Low Family Room.  Before.

There was a tiny twinge of disappointment when I signed my name on the contract line this week.  I daydream about living in a town with a Wal-Mart and a car wash with real employees that will vacuum your car for you.  If the Show Low house was never to sell, then I could have told those Snowflake Lobo children of mine that desperate times call for desperate measures - "Pack your bags!  We are going back to the Motherland!"  They would have been whistling the Cougar fight song in no time.

Family Room.  After.

But it is not to be.  And the good part about that is.....we will soon be moving on to another exciting house project!  Hold on to your shorts - it's about to get real messy around here.

Dangerous words posted (definition of dangerous will vary from person to person):  Sold, Snowflake Lobos, Show Low Cougars, Wal-Mart, bellybutton, pregnant, sponge painted walls, and the phrase "moving on to another exciting house project".

Nipples or Nostrils

The new hall bath vanity.

Someone once told me that if your marriage can survive building/remodeling a house - it can survive anything.  I don't know if that quote applies to married people who remodeled or built 6 houses in 10 years but I'm going to pray it does.  Jace and I mostly love doing houses together.  We love the whole process.  Jace is so good at his stuff and I love getting to see the house "dreams" in my head come to life.  But home improvement can be exhausting, stressful, and scary and that can turn into weight gain, high blood pressure, empty bank accounts, and bickering spouses.

The above photographed bathroom vanity did indeed cause some tense moments during our lastest house remodel.  Jace doesn't even bat an eye when I come hauling an old broken piece of furniture into the house and request the plumber to convert it into a bathroom vanity.  That he can handle.  

It was the mirror height that had our feathers all rumpled.  Jace is a healthy 6' 3" and I on a good day am 5' 4 1/2".  (Yes, I always throw in the 1/2")  That is a height difference of 10 1/2".  That sweet man hung the mirror all by himself one day and it was somewhere near the bathroom ceiling - I requested a redo - and pointed to the spot where the mirror should be - closer to the sink.

"There?"

"Yep."

"Oh good.  I'll be able to look at my nipples - ONLY - in the mirror when I wash my hands."

"Well, too bad because I'm not going to jump up and down in the bathroom to get a glimpse of my nostrils."

I'm telling you it was tense.  We had ridiculous conversations like that for days.  In the end, the mirror went somewhere in the middle.  We call that a compromise or a "I don't want to talk about it anymore, so I'll hang the mirror where ever I want because I know how to run the power tools better than her."

Hall bath - After renovation and after the mirror was permanently fastened to the wall.

The hall bathroom before?  You should probably see it and then appreciate all our efforts.

Yellow tub.  Yellow toilet. Yellow linoleum floor.

Want to see the master bath?

Before:

Master Bath - Before.  Days after birthing a child - in the hospital, not the bathroom.

After:

  

Have I already told you I know a really good looking plumber?  He's good ain't he?

Stick around.  There's more to see.

And by the way,  I hate the word nipples.  Don't you?

Before and After - Kitchen/Laundry/Pantry

Kitchen Before:

The kitchen before.  And Jace.  Original laundry space was in the closet.

Yes, that is yellow laminate counter tops from the 70's.  And layers for linoleum flooring.

Before.

But what we had to work with was pretty good.  We considered ourselves lucky.  The cabinets were solid wood and in pretty good shape.  And the kitchen was huge.  It was also sporting your typical and way too popular rooster boarder.  It was all pretty much a no brainer.

Kitchen After:

New wood floor.  Found here.  Same cabinets and lay out, just painted.

New light fixtures.  I love the school house flush mount fixtures.  We extended the counter top past the bottom cabinets and added vintage legs for a bar/laptop space.  It would also work as a phone center.  Every kitchen needs one.  You can take phone messages or look up recipes on your lap top in your kitchen but out of the mess of dishes and food.

We moved the laundry and turned the large closet space into a pantry.  And added a french door for more light.  The kitchen was definitely large enough for an island but since the dining area is in the same room, we chose to skip the island.  A long rectangle farm house table would work so great for this space.  It could serve as an island/work space and dining table.  Lets call it an "eat-in kitchen", shall we?

The cabinet color is from Wal-mart but mixed at Sherwin Williams.  It is called Juniper Gray.  It is even more lovelier in real life.  New stainless steel appliances.  Butcher block counter tops.  Can't go wrong with either.

Laundry Before:

This room was serving no purpose as we could tell.  No plumbing.  No window. Wasted space.

Laundry After:

New plumbing for washer/dryer and water heater.  New window.  Borrowed kitchen cabinet for storage.

Old Pantry:

You know us Mormons enjoy a good pantry but I just couldn't give up all this square footage even if the shelves were already labeled.  And it made more sense to have the pantry in the kitchen.

New 4th Bedroom:

This space now has a window and closet.  It would make an awesome guest bedroom, office, or baby nursery.

More interior pics coming soon.

More Exterior Views - Before and After - The Show Low Project

Before:

Back of house.  And Ezra.

 Why didn't I get a close up of the fancy gas line that ran across the back of the house?  It was fancy.

After:

The new and improved back of house.  And Jace.

So, the most obvious improvement is the deck but we also added windows, skylights, new back door, and took care of the fancy gas line.

The handsome contractor scoping things out on the roof.

We also added a heating and cooling system.  I have mixed feelings about roof units.  It's kind of big and kind of there but it works like a champ and you can't hear a thing.  And trust me when I say - you will want to kiss me in the summer when the a/c is cranking.  How did we ever live without a/c? 

 One day the snow will be gone and the green grass that survived construction will return.  One day soon.  I pray.

 The exterior color is a Martha Stewart color from Home Depot called Bayou.  I picked the paint color and then it snowed.  For weeks.  I almost forgot what the color was suppose to look like, so imagine my joyful surprise when I saw this green/gray color.  Joy!  Surprise!  The rock was left over from our Chandler barn home.  I still love this rock and would pick it again and again.

Carriage style garage door

The shed.  And Ezra.  And the cooker.

This will make two pictures of Ezra this post.  He should be on payroll.  He is the best little helper.  He races around the mountain with me picking out material, meeting contractors, cleaning up, ect.  Then we race home to meet Macy and Noah after school.  The Home Depot employees know him by name.  He loves the Show Low house.  He hasn't loved all of our houses but he loves the Show Low house.  He follows his gut feelings on these things.  He wants to move to Show Low.  He is the only child I have that wants to move to the Show Low.  Want to know what won him over?  The "cooker".  It's the brick thing he is sitting on.  He can't wrap his head around the cooking dinner outside concept.  

I swear I'm never sending him to kindergarten.

Spring is almost here.   The green trees and bushes will soon look like this again.

Interior pics next.

The Show Low Project - Before and After

Before:

Jace showed me this beauty on the Internet weeks before we bought it.  And as usual I thought to myself and said to him, "No thanks."  But as we pulled up to the house one sunny late summer day - it came to me.  Yes!  I remember now.  I remember this place.  This neighborhood.  This house.  My childhood.

My sunny childhood took place just down the street from this house.  I rode my bike down this dirt road.  I hid in it's dark places during summertime capture the flag marathons.  I later would speed by this house in my Toyota truck - late for 1st hour English or work at Dairy Queen.  This house very quickly became near and dear and FULL of potential.

You may remember Jace leaving my side and closing the deal on this day.  My newborn baby is now 5 months old.  Mikael and the house have grown and changed so much.

After:

Shall we go over the highlights?  The funky sun room - gone.  Replaced by a two car garage, with a decorative metal garage door (carriage style).  Large, awkward porch roof - gone.  Smaller porch roof over new front door, with rock column bases.  New concrete siding (green!).  Newly poured concrete driveway and sidewalk.  And the dirt road I biked on as a child, is now paved!

We replaced the windows.  Replaced roof shingles.  And added shake shingles and craftsman style braces in the gables.  I'm in love with the lot.  It is over 1/2 an acre and has many mature aspen & pine trees.

Beauty ain't she?

Arizona is full of "ranch style homes."  This is the 4th ranch home we've bought.  They are all built in the 70's.  Flat front exterior.  1 car carport - usually framed in.  Same 3 bedroom/2 bathroom floor plan.  And one long run of low pitched trusses.  The goal every time we tackle one is to add character, and depth, and make the neighbors forget how bad the 70's were.  My handsome contractor and I were not alive in the 70's.  Were you?  Maybe one of you could tell me why every single house built was the built the same?  My Dad told me 7 years ago when we bought our 1st "rancher" that his 1st house was a rancher and that he built it for $29,000.  Whoa!  We couldn't believe it.  We couldn't imagine a world where newly weds could purchase a home for under $100,000.  Maybe the 70's weren't so bad.

Fast forward to 2011.  And the aftermath of a housing market gone bust.

Funny how life repeats itself.

People listen.  This bust market has some real bright spots.  My Show Low house being one of them.  She is for sale.  Get the info here or here. The handsome contractor and I have done all the hard work.  She will not disappoint.  And I will forever be jealous of you and your sunny part of the world.

Come on back for some more amazing interior before and afters.

What I learned in Realtor school

Back when Jace and I were very first married I took a job at a little place called Homestore. I worked as technical support in a department called Realtor.com. Here I took calls from realtors all over the U.S. They would call to complain about how slow their computer was. Or call to tell me that their listing on 5th Street was actually a 3 bedroom home and not a rental in the trailer park down the street. I would kindly explain to them that all the information was information they submitted - if your listing is wrong on Realtor.com, then go fix it in the MLS.

Then I would go throw up in the toilet.

Not because I thought Realtors were very unsmart because I did but because I was pregnant with a little miss Macy. But ya....It was here that I started developing ideas about Realtors.

I thought that there must be a place somewhere where they hand out real estate licenses, for any taker to take.

So, when Jace suggested last spring during the sale of our Chandler barn-home that I should save us some future $ and go to Realtor school, I thought sure, why not? I signed my 5 month pregnant self up for the 2 week course.

And? Did I meet unsmart Realtors and future unsmart Realtors there? Yep. Sure did.

But as I walked the streets of downtown Scottdale on my breaks I had to admit that Realtor school was tough. Really tough. 90 hours of law school/language trickery/boredom. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't done any schooling for 9 years. Or maybe all the blood that should have been going to my brain was instead nourishing my unborn fetus but regardless I was nervous and quickly changing my mind about Realtors. That was a TON of information to memorize in a two week period.

My exam was scheduled on the same day as our closing date. That is the day you have to pack up your house and drive away (for all you who did not attend Realtor school). Nothing like a little pressure for little Lindz. I was cussing Jace and all his great ideas.

But I passed! On the first try. Jace patted my back and told me he wasn't nervous for a minute. And if my embarrassed memory serves me right, I think I texted my scores to everyone in my phone. I was ready to sell some real estate people.

So what did I learn in Realtor school, you ask?

Not a clue. Don't remember.

p.s. The home for sale in the above photo? You are going to la la love it. I want to move into it. But Jace wishes someone else would. Come back for some amazing before and afters. She's a beauty.