Still no "serenity" time for me! Part 1 of the move.

Hi Friends! 
Just a quick post.... to tell you.... I'm still alive.,,,,,,,,.. still well......and still kickin'........but just have been SUPER busy with our move to Madras from south of Sunriver, Oregon. It's been a month since I posted... boy times flies when you're having fun (NOT!).  Lots of pictures to follow! .... and I'll try to keep it brief and mostly just pictures of our journey so far. (UPDATE: since I started this post, I've gotten a nasty sore throat and cold... yuk).

The move and preparation has been quite an ordeal to say the least. Before we moved here, we spent a couple of weeks bringing loads up in our car (it's a 1-1/2 hour drive from old house to new one) as our truck was in the shop being repaired.  We also painted 4 rooms of our new (to us) house before we moved in. EVERY room needed (and needs) painting and everything we did took TWO coats of primer first.... due to VERY BRIGHT and vivid loud colors...... then two coats of the regular paint........... but we didn't get it all done, even with the (wonderful) help of my sister.  

My sister, Barbara, putting first coat of primer over that dark blue!

Our new (to us) house is definitely a FIXER UPPER..... It was built in 1978.......  That's all we could afford. We lost our nice home in Washougal, Washington on 5 acres back in 2010... due to LOTS of life circumstances... too many and too sad to go into detail here.. suffice to say.. we lost the REALLY nice home we'd been in for nine years and one we'd given lots of love to (and done lots of remodeling to paying cash from the sale of some of our alpacas.) I really didn't think we'd ever get to own our own home again.  With lots of saving, perseverance and jumping through MANY hoops with the lender, we are very fortunate to own again. I am very grateful.

The day we signed the closing papers (with our realtor)!

First night in our new house... this was our only furniture!

Pictures below speak louder then words of what we've had to contend with as far as paint.. and I'm really not complaining, as it's OURS!  I'm a "pastel" type of person, so all of the bright jarring colors just made me cringe.

Living room - before! Bright orange! (with a non-working fireplace... you'll see what we did to it in one of my next posts).

Living room - after - with two coats of primer and two coats of a creamy off white. The vivid orange and yellow walls in the kitchen and bedrooms were just too bright for me. I just wanted a nice calming creamy white.  The living room and dining room are kind of dark, with only two windows, so I wanted something to lighten it up.  My husband calls the new paint color the color of fresh cream on the top of a bottle of milk right from the cow! I agree.

Kitchen before - bright yellow walls.... ugly cupboards... which I want to paint (or have painted?) white someday, or even better... replace them! Hate those knob thingys! very very old formica on countertops... more like the 50's!

Kitchen walls - after - a soft pretty lime green.. what a difference! It's a very outdated kitchen from the 70's... lots of work here. And  yes that's a hot water heater in our kitchen! A wall or curtain is going up there VERY soon.  Washer and dryer are there too, which I didn't like at first, but now I'm liking the convenience more and more.

Master bath OLD vanity! Did I say 70's? Looks like from the 50's! Remember those old chrome mirrors with the silver chrome boxy thing at the bottom with the plastic sliding doors? yup we got em'!! They're really pretty handy though.

Master bath looking into the BLUE bedroom - bath had dull primered walls and a bright yellow wall! ugh. It got two coats of Kilz primer and two coats of a nice soft semi-gloss gray.

Master bedroom - before - dark blue walls (a really murky blue) and the one that is white in this picture was actually a bright yellow. The blue and yellow took THREE coats of primer to cover it!  and  yup... we slept on the floor for 2 weeks... not fun.... as the bed was only a DOUBLE! (and the other air bed went flat). oh no......... sleep on hard floor? no... sleep with hubby on double bed? I guess so. Used to a king bed!

Me painting master bath with Kilz primer - two coats! see the blue wall in the bedroom?  Yuk. (I mean.. I do like blue, but for some reason, this blue was kind of a darkish muddy blue).

Primer and more primer on the blue walls in the bedroom. Yup that's me! must have been 100 degrees inside the house.. no air conditioning (of course, what do you expect for the price we paid and it's a fixer upper????) I'm not complaining though. Oh and did I say ALL the interior doors need replacing? Yes indeed.. ugly dark brown with tape over the holes.

Finally! Master bedroom done... a nice pale pink for the "cottage" look I want. *sigh**** so pretty**** I've wanted a cottage pink and green bedroom for YEARS.

Going to put white beadboard on the lower part of that blue wall.... *sigh* will look so nice when done* (UPDATE: we may not put beadboard.. hubby bought a headboard instead.... we'll see... not what I wanted.. not "cottage" style at all.. he said he can fix it up... we'll see!

Pink and white... my fave colors!  *sigh*... and of course I need green somewhere too....... and I may paint my craft room that nice soft lime green that we painted the kitchen.....or maybe pink?

Definitely not this color!

Here's the picture of our house as it looked when we first viewed it to buy back in July... not a very pretty sight huh?  We drove by it the first time and didn't even call the realtor to look at it.  Yard looked tiny.... crunched between two 2 story houses..... no.. keep driving....

Dead yard... weeds..... needs paint... looks really small.....

Back yard is all dead weeds... and this is AFTER we cleaned it up and pruned down some big vines in the corner! The saving grace is the neat rock wall raised flower bed along the back of the fence. Do I see some potential here?  Yes.. the fence needs some TLC and paint.

Rock steps up to walkway by door... full of weeds and debris. Poor overgrown yard.. I'm sure the neighbors were hoping "someone" would buy this place and give it some love!

But........ we could see the potential......we came back for a second look and for the reasonable price we paid (UNDER $100,000) and could afford, we got a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home, with a single car garage and a decent sized back yard. It's even in a pretty nice neighborhood! location, location, location..... Yes!! Yes, it'll be a ton of work, but it's ours and we can make it our own sweet home.

Here's my craft room at the house we just moved from........ that I had to pack up....... and am now in the process of unpacking! Oh woe is me. Too much "stuff".  Need to pare down.

So.........that's a start.... I wasn't as brief as I expected..... so sorry.....needless to say....... no crafting done yet....... :-(

Stay tuned for my next post where I'll show some before and after pictures. You'll be quite surprised!  and..............to complicate matters somewhat............we have a new (little) addition to our family!

Lots done since I started this post over a week ago, and still oh so much to do!  ............ until next time.......