House

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The Renovations are Now Completed on Our Alabama Home

Fact #1: Moving your family to another state is stressful.

Fact #2: Remodeling a house is stressful.

Fact #3: Trying to do those two things while keeping the budget as low as possible is stressful.

I feel like Andy Bernard in The Office when he declared, “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life. I haven’t had a very hard life.”

As of today, Labor Day 2024, we have now lived in Alabama for 100 days; which is how long it took living here for our home renovations to finally be considered “complete”.

I can feel it. I feel the relief, as well as the amazing sense of accomplishment, that as a family, we collectively remodeled the 28 year-old house we bought, and just as my wife aspired it to be:

“Like a cute farmhouse”.

Right now I’m thinking of a certain scene from the movie, “Meet the Parents”…

Well that’s how I feel about shiplap.

It is official:

Anything in our home that could be “shiplapped”, has been now been shiplapped.

Our kitchen ceiling. Our master bathroom ceiling. The kids’ bathroom wall.

I’m also now in on a home renovation secret: Not only does nailing up boards make them look “like a cute farmhouse”, but they also are probably covering up something not so cute and farmhousey behind them.

There is no question: This entire process has been a complete family effort. And when I say “family”, I mean my parents, as well as my sister’s family.

It took all took of us working and sacrificing most of this year to get where we are now.

We spent spring break this year basically gutting the house; taking out the cabinets and the ripping up the floors ourselves, to prepare the contractors to install the new ones.

Once all that was completed, then we had to build new door frames and baseboards.

Even as I’m describing it, I feel a little guilty using the word “we”, when I was simply the assistant. Without my family, I would have no idea what to do!

So yeah, I guess it’s important to realize that this entire process had indeed been stressful. However, I am now living inside the reward.

For me, it’s much more that my wife’s vision of making this home beautiful.

What has been my inspiration has been to set up a warm and welcoming home environment to raise my family and to welcome guests.

I love that our home is one story and has an open lay-out. I feel like our family is closer because of it.

While there while always be some kind of upcoming renovation on our home, our family can now live in the reality that a new level has been unlocked:

Cute farmhouse.

 

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Dear Jack: You Had No Complaints about the House We Bought!

13 years, 2 months.
Dear Jack,
Over the course of the past five months, our family has driven to Alabama several times to view houses for sale. Through the process, you openly announced your issues with each one we saw.
Fate would have it that the house we ended up buying last Friday was the one house that you and your sister didn’t get a chance to see.
So a few minutes after walking into our family’s new home, as the ink was still drying on the paperwork from us closing on the house, I asked you:
“Jack, what is your favorite part of our new house?”
Your response: “All of it!”
This marked the first time we visited a house that you didn’t even have one complaint about.
What a relief!
Our new house in Alabama is only 50 square feet bigger than our house now in Tennessee. However, our Tennessee house has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a bonus room; whereas our Alabama house has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and no bonus room.
That means that literally every room in our new house in Alabama, including your bedroom, is bigger than our current house; even all the closets!
And your “second bedroom”, the garage, where you are often slipping away to work on your projects, has much more space for you in your Enneagram 5 Batcave/Fortress of Solitude.
So yeah, you’re going to like our new house.
Love,
Daddy
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7 Best Moving Tips You Must Know

Moving is not an easy task. A lot of hurdles and tiny little things come in when you are moving your things but a lot of Moving Professionals from different industries made this task so easy that everybody can now quickly and perfectly do it by just considering some tips in their mind which can help you to convert this stressful task into an easy job.

Make an Agenda:

Begin two months before you move, and utilize a week by week agenda to keep the procedure on track. Remaining on the calendar will assist you with avoiding a minute ago issues and cerebral pains. The steady work you’ve done marking off your errands already will help make moving day a breeze.

Create a Packing System:

Thinking of a packing system is an extraordinary association strategy for your effects, and can guarantee they end up in the correct room when you moved into your new home. One technique you can utilize is shading coding with markers, for example, blue for the kitchen, and so on.

At that point, on your moving day, draw a snappy sketch of the floor plan of your new home with each room marked and hang it someplace your moving organization can without much of a stretch see it.

Sell Away the Things You Don’t need:

If you have plenty of things in your home that is not upgrading your life, or you don’t feel will be vital in your new space, don‘t pack it just to toss it out or stuff it into capacity someplace later. There are numerous famous mess things that are deserving of abandoning, selling in a carport deal before your turn, or simply offering them to loved ones.

Purchase Necessary Things in Advance:

Maintain a strategic distance from potential difficulties, for example, coming up short on packing tape the morning of your move by buying every one of your provisions ahead of time. At a convenient time in your moving procedure, you should begin social affair supplies, including boxes, tape, bubble wrap, and so on.

You can likewise pack with materials you officially claim including bags and plastic compartments and utilizing pads, scarves, and towels to ensure delicate things. You can also employ proficient packers, which would drop much more weight from your shoulders!

Clear the Way for Movers:

You can help make your home move out prepared for Movers by unplugging machines and light installations on the off chance that they are accompanying you to your new home. Likewise, ensuring that the way from your home to the moving truck is clear.

Clean Your New Home Before You Shift:

While your new home is unfilled, it will be a lot simpler to clean, paint or make some other enhancements you have arranged. Before you move the majority of your furnishings and boxes inside, make sure to complete an exhaustive cleaning including vacuuming, tidying, and washing the floors before specific spaces are inaccessible.

Hire Professional Movers for Your Moving:

The best thing you can do is to hire professional movers if you yourself cannot do the job then movers will get the job done for you. They will charge you a little bit, but they will cleanly and carefully provide you moving services, and you will no more need to be in stress.

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Simple Tips to Keep Your Plumbing in Good Condition

Very few people think of their plumbing systems until there seems to be a problem somewhere. This is one of the most important systems of your home or property and you should do everything possible to keep it in the best conditions to avoid costly repairs and replacements. Drain Rescue Plumbers can inspect and maintain your plumbing and also carry out the necessary repairs and replacements even in emergencies. However, if you use simple care advice, it will greatly reduce the amount of time a plumber really needs to rescue you. 

Tip 1: Minimize grease build-up in your kitchen sink by using a strainer to pick up the fatty items and dispose of them in the trash instead of running down the drain. To keep the same problem at a low level, consider letting hot water run down the kitchen drain to get rid of any buildup of existing grease and soap. 

Tip 2 – Avoid letting the hair fall out of the bathroom. This is one of the things that bring plumbing problems in the bathroom and that can prevent you from being cautious with what is in the drain. A wet, dry vacuum can be useful in removing any clutter that may be around the surface of the drain before it finds its way down into your line and causes problems with your plumbing system. 

Tip 3: Be careful when draining chemicals in the toilet or in the toilets of the house. You may not think it’s harmful, but there are chemicals that are very aggressive and end up devouring the pipes and causing damage and leaks. Find a better way to eliminate any chemicals, including caustic chemicals, so that you do not end up damaging the pipeline and repairing replacements and expensive repairs. 

Tip 4 – Replace old pipes in your system. This is especially important when you move into an old house that may have been remodeled. Remember that the materials that were used a few years ago are not as durable and of quality as those currently available. A replacement project before problems appear can be a very good idea instead of waiting until you start having one problem after another with the old pipes. 

Tip 5 – Always prepare for the weather. For example, before winter stabilizes, try to condition the pipes so they can withstand extremely cold conditions. The heating in your home must also be updated and functional. You will be saved from so many common problems when you can prevent your pipes from freezing. If you are not sure how to do it, let a reputable plumber guide you. 

Tip 6 – Keep an eye on your water heater. A leaking heater can cause you many problems, so be sure to keep it properly. You can reduce the problems by draining them every season so that there is no sediment that can cause the failure of your heater. The water pressure around the house should also be good enough so that it is not too difficult to handle for the pipes. 

 

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Attempting to Be the Next Chip and Joanna Gaines By Painting Our Back Porch (Two Different Colors?!)

As we have recently have decided not to make the easy $80,000 profit from selling our house right now, the focus has instead become finding ways to make small upgrades without having to spend too much money; as our agenda is to pay off our mortgage as soon as possible.

While my parents were still in town for my wife’s birthday so we could enjoy going to the Kenny Chesney concert in Nashville without worrying about the kids back at the house, my wife suggested we run out to Lowe’s the morning after to buy supplies to stain the back porch again.

Admittedly, I had been faithful to keep it stained… up until our daughter was born over 2 years ago.

Being the thrifty Millennial parents we are, we decided to check out the “Oops” section at Lowe’s, in an attempt to keep from having to pay nearly $50 for the stain.

I had remembered from last time I stained the porch that it took one big can and one small can to do the job. Turns out, there happened to be one big can and one small can there in the “Oops” section, with labels clearly confirming they were the exact same shade.

When we got back home, my wife chose dibs on the railings, which meant I would handle the deck itself. Once she opened her small can of stain, she mentioned her surprise that the color was more of a classic red; as opposed to the more natural look I had used before.

But oh well, we spent only $17.50, as opposed to nearly $50. Not to mention, as least we would be improving the quality of our back porch; even if it meant changing the color.

My wife was already a few minutes into starting the railing before I opened my big can of stain. Then I saw it… I shouted, “Hey! Stop. Look at this…”

I showed her how my can, despite the label indicating it was the exact same shade as her small can, was actually more of a salmon color, instead of classic red stain.

After a 2 minute deliberation, we decided to just to go for the two-one, knowing that A) we will likely stain it again (all the same color) before we eventually sell our house, and B) that most people probably wouldn’t even notice the colors didn’t match anyway…

Unless I made it obvious by doing a blog post about it.

Oops!