Boy do I have news to FINALLY share. Remember how I was all excited about buying our first house and all that jazz? For those of you that know, we were supposed to close on August 1st-but we didn't. Until now, I haven't been able to say anything because we have been in the middle of a bitter potential lawsuit over the house were trying to buy. So here goes nothing...
Before I start to go on and on about the house and the issues that come up, let me preface this by saying that we had a BIG, NASTY storm destroy Knoxville in April-this would be the same storm that caused the massive tornado in Tuscaloosa and Burmingham as well. Due to this storm over 80,000 houses were in need of some drastic repairs. Seeing as the area that was hit the hardest is our prime living location, we knew that buying a house might take longer due to repairs that needed to be made. We weren't too worried about this because we knew we would put it in the contract as a stipulation. Fast forward...we went to the house to do our final walk through a couple of days before our closing, as stipulated in our contract, and found the repairs that had been made far below what is or should be acceptable. Being first timers, we decided to get our contractor friend out there to make sure we should continue with buying the house. Boy we are sure glad we did. Upon further inspection, he pointed out all the corners that were cut to make the repairs to a subpar standard, and told us that if we bought the house, we would have to spend money to CORRECT the job that the homeowner and the contractor he hired did. After pulling out our contract, reading over the stipulations-which said the repairs had to be made to 'a normal standard', we decided that we had every right to walk away from the property due to the sellers failure to execute the contract.
Well, apparently the seller thought differently. He hired a lawyer, shot us a nasty letter saying that he would sue us if we didn't buy the house, and needless to say, things got heated. Long story short, we eneded up having to get a lawyer oursleves so that we could fight this battle. Obviously the guy was just in a hard place and really needed to sell his house, but the drawn out threatening of lawsuits could've been avoided by all parties had people read the contract and done what they agreed to do. After our lawyer sent over a 20 page document with a picture CD enclosed of the reasoning behind us walking away, we didn't hear anything for a while. I'm talking 2 weeks. After the seller refused to give back our earnest money and sign the mutual release form, we realized that if we let him keep the money, he probably would. So...that is what we did. He kept the earnest money but realeased us from the property-meaning, he can't sue us. Thank goodness
So...after all that, we are still in our current house, still looking for a house. Our house remains full of boxes, and we have literally 1 pot unpacked in the kitchen, but I refuse to unpack until we are in another house!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Where did the summer go?
Oh goodness...tomorrow is the day...I have to go back to work. Ugh. This is the day that I have been dreading all summer. For those of you who feel so 'bad' for me because I have to go back to work and are rolling your eyes, let me tell you something-Teachers have the summers off for a reason...a very good reason. Do you hang out with LOTS of children for 7 hours a day? Do you make lesson plans on how to teach children to read, write, solve math problems, etc? Nope...didn't think so. While I love my job, the summer definitely gives me time to recharge the batteries so I am ready to kick some boo-tay and take some names come August!
How many parents do you know that count down the days until their children go back to school? I certainly know a few of those. Not because they don't love their children, of course, but because they miss the routine and consistency of what school brings. SO if parents count down the days until their precious pumpkins go back to school, then I am allowed to count down the days until the next summer comes!
Ok-all complaining aside, I am so excited to get back into the swing of things. I have missed my darling children so much and can't wait to start another year with new little ones!
How many parents do you know that count down the days until their children go back to school? I certainly know a few of those. Not because they don't love their children, of course, but because they miss the routine and consistency of what school brings. SO if parents count down the days until their precious pumpkins go back to school, then I am allowed to count down the days until the next summer comes!
Ok-all complaining aside, I am so excited to get back into the swing of things. I have missed my darling children so much and can't wait to start another year with new little ones!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Revives by Rachel
After we got back from vacation, which was amazing! It was so fun to spend time with my whole family. It is crazy how much fun we have together-definitely adult 'festive' fun-if you catch my drift.
Anyway, when we got back I was on the warpath to find a chest of drawers, dresser and matching mirror to refinish for our bedroom. See, last year, for my birthday Brad promised me bedroom furniture. Well, here we are almost a year later and that present never seemed to materialize...so I took it upon myself. First of all, I am not a fan of bedroom sets where everything matches, which was part of the reason we never got any. To me, it just looks too 'done' and boring-no offense if your furniture matches like this. So, after getting insprired by HGTV, DIY blogs, and a test run when we refinished Emily's, I decided that I could buy ugly furniture and refinish it into something B-E-A-utiful.
There is not a thrift store or goodwill that I did not go to in Knoxville. I looked for days and days. Just when I was about to give up, I decided to stop by the local goodwill close to our house. It is a smaller location, in a shopping plaza, so I was not expecting to find anything at all. I walked in and the first thing I saw were these bad boys...And they were PERFECT! I loved the shape, that it had all 3 parts, and that it was only $99.99! So I bought all of them right there.
Once I got these home, which took a few trips, I went to Lowes and bought a palm sander, a cabinet roller, paint brush, and paint. I already had the primer at home, so I was good to go. After getting them home and cleaning them, I took off all the hardware and put them aside. Then I sanded all of them, so that the primer and paint would stick. After they were lightly sanded, I primed them, then painted them after it dried. Here is an action shot...
After I painted, I took the existing hardware-because I liked the feminine detialing on them-and just spray painted them with a bronze hammered finish. So, here is the final product, minus the mirror attached to the dresser-gotta get the drill out for that and we have been just a tad busy.
Anyway, when we got back I was on the warpath to find a chest of drawers, dresser and matching mirror to refinish for our bedroom. See, last year, for my birthday Brad promised me bedroom furniture. Well, here we are almost a year later and that present never seemed to materialize...so I took it upon myself. First of all, I am not a fan of bedroom sets where everything matches, which was part of the reason we never got any. To me, it just looks too 'done' and boring-no offense if your furniture matches like this. So, after getting insprired by HGTV, DIY blogs, and a test run when we refinished Emily's, I decided that I could buy ugly furniture and refinish it into something B-E-A-utiful.
There is not a thrift store or goodwill that I did not go to in Knoxville. I looked for days and days. Just when I was about to give up, I decided to stop by the local goodwill close to our house. It is a smaller location, in a shopping plaza, so I was not expecting to find anything at all. I walked in and the first thing I saw were these bad boys...And they were PERFECT! I loved the shape, that it had all 3 parts, and that it was only $99.99! So I bought all of them right there.
Once I got these home, which took a few trips, I went to Lowes and bought a palm sander, a cabinet roller, paint brush, and paint. I already had the primer at home, so I was good to go. After getting them home and cleaning them, I took off all the hardware and put them aside. Then I sanded all of them, so that the primer and paint would stick. After they were lightly sanded, I primed them, then painted them after it dried. Here is an action shot...
After I painted, I took the existing hardware-because I liked the feminine detialing on them-and just spray painted them with a bronze hammered finish. So, here is the final product, minus the mirror attached to the dresser-gotta get the drill out for that and we have been just a tad busy.
Once I get my camera out and get around to taking better pictures...I'll take some with the mirror attached and of the whole room. So, all in all this cost me around $120 and two days of my time. What do you think? I think I'm going to open a store called "Revives by Rachel" because I actually enjoyed doing this. It was relaxing to me, and made me feel like I had accomplished something. Who needs to go out and buy expensive matchy match furniture when you can reuse old pieces and make them your own!
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