Domestic art now becomes the art of home renovation...otherwise known as the scariest, dirtiest, most exciting, thing we have ever endeavored thus far

we just bought our very first house, which isn't easy here in Seattle. The amount of space you can get for your money is frighting to a couple of young mid-westerners such as us! So we looked and we looked and we weren't really seeing anything that we thought could be our first place then we saw this "gem". It was a short sale and we made our first offer on February 24th and didn't get the house until July 8th(Rhiannon's birthday and she was here to boot!) After almost loosing the property 3 times due to the negligence and broken system of communication @ the bank, turning a shady Realtor into the MLS, contacting the owners, jumping constant hoops and obstacles, we finally got the keys. Now it's our mess and what a hot mess it is, which leads me here today. I'm going to try my best to take you along with us on our adventure into home ownership of a 1914 farm house that needs serious repair and love. Nearly every surface needs to be dealt with, not only is it filthy but very very poor decisions were made in the "updating" of this house. So we are going to try to get it back to some of it's roots with a twist of our style and as many green, efficient, earth friendly products that we can afford. Here are the first set of photo's... more to come soon.

here she is...Blue Palatine

living and dining, note the floors and lovely choice of red

1970 wood stove with pink tile hearth???

guest room

bath up stairs

bath tub

master

master- looking out one of it's 3 doorways, is this a cedar lined hallway or closet, if you hung your cloths here would you have to do the worm to get into your bedroom???

kitchen- with outdoor tiles(that have intentional cracks and crevices)for a food surface...what a great idea!!! 

kitchen-looking twords back deck, sans dishwasher

the only appliances that came along with the place

garbage pile in back yard

a really weird shot of Mark's awesome studio, its HUGE!!!

the deck, which has a view of the Sound that we will be able to see...when the tree's a barren!

sorry these got a bit out of order, this is in between the deck and the kitchen, just found out this extension and the deck aren't up to code and need a new foundation, so it slopes. However this space is soon to be our master closet and more of a part of the kitchen. Though I do think that everybody needs a breakfast nook too small for a table and a bar-counter in the same room???

dirty hand-rail-less stairs to a walk out basement with 10'ceilings!!

2nd bathroom, oh so clean!

and lovely super square tile work!!

downstairs bedroom aka the old grow room, thanks for the black mold!

hand made vent for their plants

basement great room, this will be my studio and our hang out spot...some fine day far from now, when we get to hang out again!

another shot, all the yellow will soon be gone as it is moldy drywall with NO insulation

This is what Rhiannon and I found when we came back from the store, he can really keep him self entertained, note the cute sun hat and beer in hand! Today is his 30th birthday!! Happy birthday sweets!!

the yard was overgrown with weeds, we made Rhiannon help us on her vacation, some of the weeds were so strong it took both of us to get them out!!

side yard, in the far distance that is a sauna!! that's right a dirty, rocky, homemade sauna, the first time I discovered it 2 cats came running out! just a place to relax and rest your naked butt! Soon to be my gardening shed. So there it is, more to follow! wish us luck