Beginning on Blaine

We finalized the purchase of the short sale across the street while we were home in January.  We were just able to get the electric turned on for various reasons, but even though we have power now the wiring is so old and terrible that it isn't really safe.  We had an electrician come out and do some minor repairs and we have some estimates to get things up and running quickly.  The house was also very full of junk and nasty old things that we wanted nothing to do with.  We got some bids to clean out the trash that were insanely high and so we spent last Sunday afternoon cleaning out the garbage and had a junk hauling company come and take it away.  I think every car stopped to look at what was going on because the curb looked so awful!

The house really  needs a lot of work, but again today another house came on the market that was much smaller for $300K more than we paid.  

This is the master bedroom(we removed all of the really, really gross carpeting.)  The fireplace will stay in a new updated format.  We also found some amazing copies of The Seattle Times from 1925 under the rug!

I personally think the hardwood underneath is very cool and I love the colors, but there are huge sections missing and it's really just a mess so it will have to go.

Here's our curb announcement to the neighbors that we arrived.

We went in again this weekend and painted a little bit (many of the walls are going to be demolished) and the kids helped us out.

We are almost finished working with the architect on the plans for renovation.  After that is done the general contractor will give us definite pricing and then we will see how long it will all take.  We can stay in our rental house until at the very least May 31 and we can extend it a little if we need to because he won't be ready to demolish our house quite that early.