Here goes…

So, I bought a house.  Renovations ensued.  Seven months later, I realize this has all the makings of a great piece of literature!  Tragedy.  Comedy.  Suspense.  Irony.  So why not write it down?

Here’s the basics.  I’m a 26-year-old grad student by day, web designer by night.  I bought the house in November 2009.  It’s a 1947 brick bungalow with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (one of which was added by me!).  It’s in the Oakhurst/East Lake neighborhood of Atlanta.  I rent the downstairs bedrooms to two of my classmates.  Here’s what it looked like when I bought it:

Front of House

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Larger downstairs bedroom

Smaller downstairs bedroom

Downstairs bathroom

Upstairs bedroom

Upstairs bathroom

And here comes a list that should be interesting to make…  Progress so far:

Refinish the original hardwood floors.  Repair drywall and paint entire interior.  Except for the baseboards, because painting happened before floor refinishing.  Remove several bucketfuls of cockroach feces and body parts from kitchen cabinets, scrub over and over, and paint over and over and over.  New (semi-temporary) laminate tile in kitchen and downstairs bathroom.  Use cancer-causing chemicals to detox the downstairs bathroom.  In the attic, add HVAC, closets, insulation, electricity, and a bathroom, remove TAPED-ON wood paneling, and presto! two-story house.  Replace all interior doors.  New fridge, stove, and water heater.  New light fixtures and fans everywhere.  Aerate, fertilize, and plant grass in the yard, only to tear it all up 3 months later while building a stone patio.  Add landscaping to patio, and some parts of the front yard, and then watch and see which plants whither in the Atlanta heat.  Get the trim, doors, and exterior steps painted.  Plant an herb garden.

And, here comes another list that makes me a little woozy… What’s left:

Remove janky chain-link fence and install wood privacy fence.  Install a garden storage shed.  Dig a french drain around the patio.  Put in a vegetable garden.  Re-shingle the roof.  Really fix the landscaping and grass.  Really renovate the downstairs bathroom and kitchen, including making a pretty bathroom closet and adding a dishwasher.  Install shoe molding and paint the baseboards.  And then, sell it when I graduate and make mucho dinero!  That’s the plan at least.

Well, that’s enough to start I guess.  Next post: photos of the house as it looks now.