Carpet crazy.

First week of home ownership: success!  We're waist-deep in repairs and refinishes right now, but things are coming along really well and we're hoping to be able to move into the new place in a few weeks.

We got the keys to the new house last Monday, and immediately starting ripping out the wall-to-wall carpets.  Maybe I didn't mention it before, but this ENTIRE house was covered in wall-to-wall carpet.  As in, the kitchen was carpeted.  As in, the bathroom was carpeted.  Who does that?!  The carpets came out way faster than I had anticipated.  As it turns out, removing the tack boards around the edges of the rooms actually takes way longer than removing the carpet.  But it's all done!  No more carpet!

Luckily, we had some pretty awesome wood floors under a good portion of the carpeting.  We're having the wood floors refinished later this week and then Josh and I are going to tile the rest of the house ourselves with Saltillo.  I cannot believe how different the whole house looks without those nasty, 30-year old carpets!

In addition to flooring, we spent time this week generally trying to freshen up the house.  We replaced all of the knobs/deadbolts/locks on all of the doors.  I took down all of the old-lady, knick-knack shelves and wooden bathroom cabinets.  We removed the awful metal backsplash in the kitchen.  Josh fixed the sticky front door.  Josh got to use his demolition skills on the horrible wood paneling in the office and we took down all of the built-in bookshelves.  I painted a few patches of colors on various walls so we could begin to decide on how to paint the interior of the house.  There's still quite a bit we want to do, but it's a good start!  Here are a few 'before' and 'in-progress' photos.  ("After" photos won't come until later.)

Next up: taking down a wall to create a new laundry room, tiling the floors, painting the walls and cabinets, installing a fireplace, hanging sheet rock in the office, redoing the kitchen countertops, gutting and refinishing the backyard workshop, a new ceiling in one of the bathrooms, replacing the horrible old-lady light fixtures around the house, re-routing some electrical wiring, weather-proofing the back porch, replacing some drainage pipes, installing a new water heater, adding some height to the backyard fence, repainting the wooden beams around the front of the house, installing a new bathroom vanity/sink, building closet organizers and built-in shelves, getting the hot tub up and running... 

Oh you know, just a few small things here and there.  No big deal.