Woodland Week 1

Okay, so we've slacked off on the updates so far. It's actually been a crazy few weeks. Right after I posted the Woodland House blog we had major complications with our lender which pushed back getting our keys a week. It was such a mess that for a little while we almost considered backing out altogether. Thank you to God and family members stepping in, it all worked out and much better than we expected. So here we are, we just got our keys last Monday and have starting the renovation process already.

Monday, March 20th- Yay! We finally got our keys. We waited longer than expected to get them. It was lightly snowing when we got up there so the house was freezing! When we got to the house we cleaned out all the kitchen cabinets and took wall ornaments down (one of them were 2 stuffed pheasants on a log- will make for a great white elephant gift) and took out all window coverings. The previous owner left all her furniture, kitchen dishes and small appliances. Michael and Emily, friends who lived up there, came to visit us and check out the place. We left starving because we didn't bring dinner and there's nothing to eat in Pine Mountain.

Tuesday- Thursday- We bought outlets and hardware to replace.

Friday, March 24th- Alan went up for the whole day and replaced many outlets and light switches. He also took the dishes, chairs, small appliances,etc. to the local thrift shop in Pine Mountain. The lady was thrilled to see all the junk we could give her. We were thrilled to get rid of them. He also put in solar garden lights to light up the walkway.

Saturday, March 25th- We both worked all day. Alan replaced more outlets and light switches. We sanded and primed all the windows, door frames, doors and closets. Our hands, backs and feet were killing us by the end of the day. We learned to use the roller paint brush much sooner in the process of painting. We only thought to use it after we had done most of the work. When we put the real coat on, the time should go by much faster. We also met with our contractor to sign the contract for him to start April 10th. We picked the paint colors for outside and went over the details of how the outside is going to look. It rained a little in the afternoon so when we were getting ready to leave at 8:00pm our doors were frozen shut to the car. We couldn't get them open at first, but after a few more tugs they cracked open. I thought we were going to have to pour some warm water on the doors to get them open.


The place already looks a lot lighter with the window and door frames primed white. We excited to see it starting to shape up. There's a whole lot more work to be done though. Anyone is welcome to come and help us out if you've got a free moment. :) Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the priming. I'll try to remember to get some pictures next time we go up and post them. I had paint all over me even in my hair which I'm still trying to get out. Thanks for all the comments. Keep them coming, I love hearing from people who read this.

Woodland House

Well, we did it! We signed the papers today to our first investment house. We bought this 2 bedroom; 1 1/2 bath to fix up quickly and sell. It's located in Pine Mountain Club, California. The area is beautiful and peaceful. It's up in Mount Pinos located just north of the Santa Clarita Valley. The house doesn't look like much now because it's a diamond in the rough. It has a beautiful view from the deck and living room upstairs. The inside has a great setup, where the rooms are downstairs and the living areas and kitchen are upstairs. It would make for a great vacation home or start up home. We'll post more pictures as we begin to fix it up so you can track the progress of the house with us.