A New Start

First, thanks to the Live and Learn tribe for talking me through getting this blog up and running! What seemed so daunting and confusing was easy thanks to the almighty power of google.

In the past handful of months, our life has turned upside down. We sold our home in Philadelphia and bought our "new" home in Collingswood, NJ. I'm constantly amazed how happy we are here.

I lied, the house is not new. It's an expanded American Foursquare built in 1940 and is a long term work in progress. We moved in on November 15th and to date the following repairs/upgrades have been completed:

-- replaced the garbage disposal
-- had some basement plumbing fixed
-- knot and tube wiring removed/upgraded
-- rebuilt chimney
-- electrical outlet installed in the bathroom
-- light/vent fan installed in the bathroom
-- 7 other new light fixtures (including ceiling fans) throughout the house
-- ripped up the carpets on the 2nd and 3rd floors
-- preparing harwood floors for refinishing
-- caulking around interior windows
-- Installed insulation blankets on the hot water heaters
-- New roof

Also on the list as we quickly burn through our rehab budget:

-- Repair and tighten up the hardwood floors
-- Have the 2nd floor, 3rd floor harwood floor and stairs refinished.
-- Carpet the attic.
-- Eradicate as much pink from the house
-- Paint, paint, paint
-- Have the house insulated in every way possible.
-- Remove the current hot water heaters, which are at the end of their useful lives, and replace them with one larger gas hot water heater. We're also researching tankless and solar hot water, but are unsure if our budget will be able to handle these.
-- Reparge the basement
-- Replace the sewer line

And so on. We have a long way to go. Time for an ice cold beer.