I think we bought Murphy's house.

I was told this would happen, but really didn't want to believe it. I thought/hoped things would be rainbows and stickers with the purchase of our first house but Murphy says differently and what can go wrong does go wrong. I am not here to complain, but to vent some frustrations and to try to see things a little differently.

The house in and of itself is really not that bad, however after having 7 different families living in it its going to need work and we didn't realize how much work was needed until after closing. We closed on Monday and were so excited we went right over to the house to see our new home. When we got there and saw all the work that was needed and saw some new problem areas with the house and it was just very overwhelming, but we thought it was manageable because of the help that was offered. We had framers and contractors from our old ward offer help and they had the expertise to repair and correct some of the things we needed fixed. It became apparent when they wouldn't answer or return our calls that we were on our own and that's when it became overwhelming. At first we just kind of went in circles and nothing got done, there was so much to be done it was hard to pick a place to start, we both wanted to sit and cry. After sitting down and prioritizing and making a list of what order things need to be done we were able to get started and be productive. Then Murphy's law came back to bite us in the butt. I had planned for 3 days to shampoo the carpets, my sister was going to help, and they had problems getting the water turned on. Then we had no heat, and inside the house the thermostat said 45 degrees and it was snowing outside. We tried to get the heat going and could smell gas so we had to exit the house for an hour for someone to show up and see whats going on. Come to find out our furnace is not properly vented and installed too close to the water heater. This scare ended up putting us further behind. I also went carpet shopping on Friday, good grief, its so complicated and a 4 step process. I found the carpet I like and I have the measurements but they want to drag it out. Then Saturday was Halloween and we had a party all afternoon so we didn't get much done, but who wants to spend a holiday like that working on a house. It was a very rocky start to home ownership and we were ready to let the house burn down. Its definitely not what we were expecting. I actually think its been more complicated since we closed than the whole 3 month process since we put the offer on the house, and that was pretty complicated.

This week things have already turned up and its just started. Its amazing what a little bit of paint can do to a room, even if the colors don't turn out like you want. Ross also has a friend that is willing to help us with the wood floors in the living room and hall, which will make a HUGE difference, and hopefully by this weekend we should have new carpet on the steps, in the family room and the hall. We will have the kitchen and bathrooms cleaned and sanitized today and we also met some of our neighbors and they seem very nice, it seems that we are in a neighborhood with older people, but hey, as long as they are nice people I think I can handle that. We figure if we can get our bedroom painted and the bathroom and kitchen cleaned we can at least move in and do things a little bit at a time, except for the carpet in the main living areas, they are just too disgusting and not salvageable. I think when things get finished it will be a good house and it will not look at all like the old house. Its kind of exciting now that we can see progress and possibly an end in sight. I know we will continue to find things that need to be fixed but we have stopped looking for things and hopefully we won't find them for quite a while. I still don't have pictures to put up yet, I want to wait until we finish these rooms before putting the before and after, and they are such a huge difference. I am however looking forward to working on the yard next spring and being able to plant a garden, that's so much easier for me than home repairs. One of the easiest parts of this is the fact that Ross and I both have the same ideas on what we want to do with each room and its fun to work with him and to have his support when things get to be too much.

Also, I kind of feel like we live in one of the houses in Whoville after the grinch visited. The previous owners took all the toilette paper, almost all the light bulbs and there are literally hundreds of nails in the walls.