We Finally Got Our Keys!!!

So as most of you know, Will and I received the keys to our new place on Monday evening. After all that the seller had put both us and our realtor through – it has definitely paid off!!! We can’t wait to move into our new house! We finally gave our apartment complex notice, and will be moving out over the 4th of July weekend! Let’s hope our complex can find someone to rent a two-bedroom apartment so we don’t have to pay too much double rent/mortgage next month!

Here are some updates since receiving our keys:

Our realtor recommended her cleaning lady to come in and wipe down the cabinets and bathrooms (they were disgusting – imagine what 2 years of vacancy looks like!). So when we entered the house, it was stunning. Everything was nice and sparkly.

The first thing I did on Monday was vacuum (we asked the cleaning lady not to vacuum because we are having the carpets professionally steamed cleaned later and having some work done inside of our house). I inherited another vacuum cleaner of my Grandpa’s – it works pretty well… but I have to say that I love my Dyson!

The first thing Will and I did together was tear down a cabinet in the Kitchen and demo an existing built-in bookshelf in a bedroom. Here are the before and after pictures:

The Kitchen cabinet location before

Where did the Kitchen cabinet go? (Look how opened up it looks!)

The bookshelf before...

The bookshelf afterwards - note the existing brown carpet that we found underneath the bookshelf!

Will was a bit worried about tearing down a cabinet in the Kitchen (considering that the tile work on the countertops in the Kitchen were brand new) without any additional help! Of course, I, on the other hand didn’t even stress – until the cabinet almost fell on me (yikes!). I never knew how heavy real wooden cabinets are!!! Little do I know! Luckily, we managed to get it down in one piece, didn’t break any tiles and didn’t kill each other in the process!

As for the existing built-in bookshelf, we figured that the seller must have built this bookshelf in place. It was totally custom and jammed between the two walls of the bedroom. Will took a hammer to it… and in about 30 minutes he was finished! After pulling off the last piece… we discovered the original carpet underneath.

We are debating what to do with the mismatch carpet since at some point we would like to put in bamboo flooring throughout the entire house. I think we are just going to keep it as is, and put our matching desks along that wall. We will see.

As for the repairs… we had our new HVAC ducts installed today! We can’t wait to run our brand new air conditioner with the new ducts. I have to say that the HVAC company we ended up using is awesome – very helpful and friendly. If you plan on doing some work and live in the East Bay – check them out: Pacific Heating & Sheet Metal, www.pacheat.com. We worked with Leslie (in the office) and Cesar (in the field).

Starting tomorrow we have a drywall subcontractor coming in to scrape all of the popcorn ceilings in the bedrooms and closets. He will also be framing and finishing off the ceiling in the Kitchen where we plan on putting canned lights up (see next paragraph). We hired Matt Thrailkill from Thrailkill’s Drywall to do these repairs.

Next up on our list of repairs is electrical work. I have been meeting with contractors since Monday in regards to replacing the old fluorescent tube lighting in the Kitchen with canned lighting and rewiring our electrical panel in our Garage. There are a couple of wires installed into a single breaker or fuse device. This can result in a potential fire – so we plan on getting this repaired ASAP. Nothing like purchasing a home and it catching on fire! We don’t want that to happen to us… *knock on wood*

In order to find some contractors, my Mom recommended that we use a website called www.servicemagic.com. She used this website to find a general contractor to help her with some things around my parent’s house. I have to say – this website is outstanding! You basically put in the service/repair you would like done to your house… and then they give you a list of 3 contractors. Literally, one of them called me within 30 seconds of submitting my request! I couldn’t believe it! If you need any work done around your house – try it out!

Anyways, I will post pictures of the electrical remodel once it is finished… probably sometime next week! This weekend we are headed to OC to visit my family and spend Father’s Day with my Dad.