September Showers & September Flowers

So sometimes things work out the way you want and then other times things start to fall apart.

We have run into a bit of a problem with the house purchase. We finally got our appraisal report that our lender ordered. There are a few issues that the lender wants fixed before closing. However, because of the possible scope of the issues I have a feeling that the seller won't want to pay to fix them and we can't afford to raise our purchase price.

The issues are Chipped Paint and Roof Issues. The chipped paint is spread out all over the exterior of the house. I knew the property was going to need to be painted but I was thinking it was something we could either just touch-up for now or do a complete paint job next year. Check out the chippy goodness on the front of the garage.

But the lender requires the chippyness be taken care of prior to closing. I'm not sure to what extent this needs to be repaired maybe the seller can just hit the spots with a power washer and then touch-up the paint. If that is the case then it the seller may agree.

The roof issues are a totally different problem. We knew the roof was old but we were hoping that we could put off replacing it for a few years.

Totally not the case. It has been something like 3 weeks since the last time we walked through the house and it appears there has been some damage. The appraiser found water damage on the ceiling in one of the rooms on the 2nd floor. It seems that the roof has either just started leaking or has been leaking and has traveled from the attic through the insulation and ruined the ceiling. Our lender is requiring that a licensed roofer come in and certify the roof (it can't be in fair condition) and any water damage from the leak must be repaired. Since the roof was leaking I find it unlikely that a licensed roofer will certify that roof. I would think that it is going to need some repairs if not a complete overhaul. This is the situation that the hubby and I don't think that the seller will agree to. But maybe we'll get lucky and get an all new roof. More than likely I would think that no matter who buys this house that the seller would have to make the same repairs. The only way around it might be if they get a cash buyer or someone with renovation loan.


On a much happier note tomorrow is my birthday! And my sweet husband bought me some flowers today.

He was going to wait until tomorrow but he was afraid that they would die if we didn't put them into water today. Instead of going with the usual roses; he decided to get me green hydrangea, which were one of the flowers we used in our wedding.

It was such a surprise and super sweet. I love him so much. I have another post that will be coming up in the next few days hopefully. I'm writing a list of 30 things we'd like to do before we turn 30. I'm turning 27 this month and Andrew will be 27 in December. We thought about each doing our on lists but figured if we wanted to list things that we felt were actually attainable, so we decided to do a combined list.

Blog Re-Design

Soooooo, I liked my green and brown layout but it just didn't seem very professional and looked messy. For some reason it just seemed kind of cheap looking. So after putting it off for several months I finally decided to do something about it. I decided to switch to a white background for the main part of the blog to give it a cleaner look. The biggest change other than the color palette is the new header. I wanted to make it more personal and not just a line of text.

I am in love with this new look. The scrolling pattern in the header is almost identical to the pattern we had on our wedding invites and our wedding cake. I've also finally added an About Us tab. I hope you love the new design as much as I do.

OMG! Who puts that in a bathroom?

So you have seen the outside of The Pearl, our house-to-be. Now let's discuss the first room that we will have to remodel, the full bathroom. We have two bathrooms - the first floor full bath and the second floor half bath. Well the first floor bath needs some lovin'. I don't know what the previous owners were thinking when they did this bathroom. There are a few things that tell me that it was most likely an older person or couple who lived here. The 50's tile and there are a couple of safety bars to help you get in and out of the tub and off the toilet. Please prepare yourself this is about to get weird and ugly.




That's right - we have wood shingles on the walls surrounding our bathtub. We have the lovely 50's pink and black tile. And we have floral wall paper on the upper half of the bathroom walls. The floors were originally a lovely yellowy green color. Who in the world thought that these were good color combinations?! Thankfully the bank laid new linoleum so that at least is in good shape and is pretty neutral so we'll keep it for now.

Let's not forget the brown trim. I didn't get a good picture of the vanity and mirror & light setup but let me tell you that needs work too. So our first thing that needs to be looked at is the bathtub surround. It's grosssssss! Sure people put wood shingles on the outside of the house but that doesn't mean they are a good idea for the shower.

We have no idea what is behind them. I'm pretty sure some water has gotten back there so when we open it up we'll probably find some mold. Wes, our contractor said he wants to pull everything out of there but I want to see how much we can keep until we save up a bit of money. The only thing that we will probably keep permanently is the actual tub. It seems to be in good shape so there is no reason to replace it even if it is an off-white almondy color and I would prefer white. Maybe we will consider refinishing it one day. The vanity may stay too and I can just paint the base a chocolate brown or something. The toilet seems to run a little every so often so we'll need to take a look at that to see if it can be fixed or if we need to buy a new one. I'd like to put off tearing out all the walls down to the studs but if water has gotten behind the pink tile that meets the tub, then the plaster or sheetrock behind there will probably have a mold issue. Now let's talk about some of the things I would love to see in here.

The Shower/Tub
Buy a prefab surround from somewhere like Home Depot or Lowes.

Aqua Glass 60 in. x 32 in . Eleganza Bathtub Wall Set in White - $198

A tiled shower wall would look great but I have a feeling it might just not bee in the budget. The prefab surrounds usually come in three pieces and can either be applied directly to the studs or to cement board. And they can be pretty cheap. I've seen some as low as $50. They have some fancier ones that will run you $1,300+. But who really wants to pay that much for a prefab wall when you could probably do tile for that.

The Walls
For the walls I'm thinking I'd love to get rid of all the pink and black tile & floral wallpaper and replace it with beadboard & paint. I've seen a less expensive option with that same look floating around the blogosphere - beadboard wall paper. It has all the texture of true beadboard but it is so much cheaper. I love to see it around the lower half of the bathroom and painted bright white.

Martha Stewart Living 1 Double Roll (Covers 56 square ft.) Beadboard Paintable Wallpaper - $24.98

I think I'm leaning toward a green color for the upper part of the walls. I want something that is kind of sagey green but still light and bright. So we'll probably go with something like this.

Sherwin Williams - Cascade Green

We won't be able to do all of these things right away. We'll have to slowly work our way through it when we have the money. The only reason things would get pushed quicker than anticipated is if we find some major water/mold damage behind the walls of the tub and the tile. One other thing that will need to be considered is ventilation. There is no fan currently in this bathroom. Because of the moisture build-up we definitely have some surface mold on the ceiling that will need to be cleaned up. So now I'll have to do some research to see what our options are.