Finally!! The pictures you wanted to see....

Well I wasn't going to post any pictures until everything is done.... but what I've realized now as a homeowner is it will NEVER be completed since there is always a project to do.... So without futher ado.... Our new house! But first... some pictures of the snowstorm we got this weekend!!

Pretty intense huh? 2 feet of snow in 24 hours :) Gotta love Minnesota!

Ok now keep in mind that our camera isn't taking the best pictures and the house isn't entirely clean... but hey beggars can't be choosers right?

Let's start with the master bedroom:
It used to look like this-

Ugggh!!! Pink Carpet!! Wallpaper? Glued on mirrors and shelves?!
Now-

We painted the accent wall red with tan other walls, put new carpeting in (bedroom and walk in closet)... As of right now we haven't done anything to the bathroom other than a shower curtain, showerhead and paint it.... but its functional :) Much better than the pink (at least that's what Dave says)

Ok remember the 2nd bedroom? That ugly paint job and carpeting?

Now it's Dave's office and we may put a twin bed in there as a guest bedroom (but we haven't yet)

Let's show you the third bedroom while we are with the theme of bedrooms:

I don't have a before picture of this one.... but just imagine bad :) Honestly since it is just us and Maggie we don't really use this room for anything.... We may turn it into Maggie's room to let her roam more when we are gone during the day... but only when she gets older. Speaking of which, we got a new puppy!! Her name is Maggie (also known as Moo, Sharptooth, McMoomerson, etc)

Here are some pictures of her. She really is a great puppy....lots of energy and she keeps us on our toes :)

Alright lets show you the basement:
We have some great crawlspace and storage space for food storage (that we are going to start soon) We think the previous owners used the crawlspace as a play area for their kids since they carpeted it and there are cable lines for a TV.... we don't use it for anything right now.... But it was a cool find when we found it (we bought the house BEFORE knowing it was there!) For me it's not really a crawlspace... more like a kneelspace.... which makes it pretty neat!

Ok here are some pictures of our stairs and the basement:

The before

Now after... the wall that the TV is against used to be halfway open, but we closed it off so it really feels like a seperate space.... This is looking towards the TV from the sofa on the other wall

Stairs leading to the basement

Stairs leading to the upstairs (technically our house is considered a split level, but it doesn't feel as much like a split level since it doesn't split in the immediate entryway of the home)

So we did some renovations on the other bathroom of the home (new vanity, toilet, tile, paint, showerhead, etc) It still isn't finished as I had to patch the wall where we ripped out the old vanity and repaint where it needs it.... but it's coming along!

The new tile (you can also see the carpeting that we placed throughout the entire house in this picture)

Ok, now where most of the work went- The main floor

Here is a picture of the entryway (I don't have an old picture for this one):

There is new paint and new tile in the entryway

Ok this was the old view of the living room from the entryway:

Now (we painted, put hardwood floors in):

Old view from the stairs of the main floor:

Now:

This is a picture of how there was no seperation between upstairs and downstairs because of the weird half wall banister.

Now: We closed the wall off (same wall that the downstairs TV is on, just the other side and put in a nice buffet with granite and extra storage space) We also put in a new light fixture and now have our dining room!

Last, but certainly not least.... the Kitchen. Oh was this a bad kitchen before.... I almost didn't get this house because of the kitchen... so here is the before:

Now- we took out the cabinets that jutted out into the kitchen and rearraged some cabinets so that the kitchen would feel larger. We replaced the countertops with granite and got a stainless steel sink. We also got new appliances (we still haven't hung our over the stove mircowave yet to give us more counterspace, but we will do that soon) and put in hardwood floors here as well.

 I didn't take the picture very well, but basically there is a row of cabinets and granite and the sink and dishwasher on the left (you can see it in the other picture) Taking our that set of cupbords that jutted out gives us so much more room in the kitchen....I also attached an up close picture of the kind of granite so you could get the details:

Well that is about it from the new place. Just now finally getting things settled... but the next task is decorating (something I am horrible at) So much thanks goes to my family for all their hard work at helping us overhaul everything!!! We love you!!

Moving.... Moving.... Moving

Well the biggest news in our life right now is that we are moving!! We are in the process of buying a house (which I have concluded is not my favorite thing in the world). We looked at many houses, but ultimately decided on one in the 'burbs that needs a little love to really shine. We love the area. We are going to now live in Oakdale, Minnesota. One of the great parts of this move is we will now live in the same city as the Minnesota temple! I feel like I'm back in Utah! So now there won't be any excuses for Dave and I....

Moving from a studio apartment to a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house is going to be pretty interesting. We close next week but do not need to be out of our apartment until the last day of September. This give us time to go in and do some MUCH needed painting and replacing of flooring. There are such great deals going on right now that we think we are going to give the main level and kitchen some hardwood floors, and recarpet the rest of the house. We are also going to take out a couple of cabinets and turn them into an island for the kitchen with some granite and new appliances.... We have about a month to do it.... And I think we'll be able to.

Some things I love about this new house:
~It's not a studio apartment
~It's got a nice big backyard with some great trees
~Three (yes, 3) car garage
~Walk in closet in the master bedroom
~It's a single family home (not a townhome or condo)
~Bathroom right off the master bedroom (no more walking down the hall to use the bathroom!)

Here are some "before" pictures just to give you an idea of the work we have cut out for us... Once we finish and settle in, we'll post some "after" pictures... Count on those in November or so.....

Add caption

Ok.... so we aren't living at the temple... but it's pretty much our new neighbor :)

So as you can see, we have some work to do... But a little sweat equity I think will go a long way.... There were other houses just like ours with the sweat equity already done asking for a lot more... But I figure this way I get to redo things how WE want them.... not someone else :)

The Pig Saga Continues!!

So after bringing Chubbs home we read up on Guinea Pigs (because lets be honest... he was pretty dang cute but we didn't know much about him) So we realized when we got home that Guinea Pigs actually live longer, happier lives if they have a companion...... So we are now a family of four!! Meet Spartacus (Spartie for short) We actually adopted him since a family did not want him... He's just a baby (only about 2 months old) so Chubbs is about twice his size! He is feisty though and super cute. They are two happy piggies!! At first when we brought Spartacus home we thought that Spartacus was a girl since Chubbs kept jumping on him, but we figured out it was just Chubbs making sure Spartie knew who the boss was. They get along just fine now. We love having them!!

Meet The Newest Member of the Pachecos

Today Dave and I got our first pet! His name is Chubbs and he is a Guinea Pig. Pretty cute huh? He already loves his new home and this handsome devil is a happy pig. So far he has gone on a car ride, checked out his new home, and lounged around with Dave... I'm sure there will be more pictures to come!