finally friday

1. I don't want to jinx it, but it appears we have rented out our upper apartment (again). We've got a signed contract for May 1st as well as the deposit and first month's rent, so we should be good to go (although last time that didn't really amount to much).

2. On the same topic of renting out the apartment, I don't think we will ever rent a unit out in November again. This time around we posted the listing on the internet around 10am and within a few hours we had around 5 calls. By the time I got home from work, we had 3 showings for that same night and over 20 calls and a few emails on it. We ended up getting it rented out that same day, without having to even post the sign in the front yard. In fairness to our downstairs unit, I think not only the time of year, but also the general rental market made a big difference in the response. There are not a lot of sub- $1000 apartments out there in South Minneapolis right now (even if you venture into less savory neighborhoods), so we were able to draw a lot of interest. But even with that knowledge, we're still gonna do everything within our power to keep these apartments on spring schedules.

3. 6 inches of snow so far this morning. I don't think mother nature wants us to get that extension ladder out to fix those last 2 pesky storm windows.

4. Monday = Twins Home Opener

5. Monday's forecast:

Not great, but I'll take it over the 35 and snow of the last few days. Of course I also think the forecast will change 5 times between now and then.

Time to go enjoy my last weekend before the baseball team comes to town!

final walk through

Here are the official "after pictures" for the apartment, for better or worse. There were of course lots of projects, both big and small, I had envisioned that we never quite got to (the decision to move was fairly abrupt). So in one final ode to our first owned space together I thought we should do a little walk through, with some side by side comparisons thrown in, to see all that we accomplished while living there. Get ready for a whole lotta pics.

Sunporch:

After

What we did:

-Replaced broken and missing windows and screens

-sanded and painted porch floors and railing

-painted house-wall in porch

What we didn't do:

-finish painting the exterior side of the porch (the white under the windows-
but this will still happen later this spring/ summer)

Hallway:

Before

After

What we did:

-painted walls, trim and ceiling

-Installed wall hooks and accent wall

-installed new locks

-replaced furnace

What we didn't do:

-replace front hall light fixture

-paint front door (still might happen)

Living Room:

After

What we did:

-painted walls, trim, and ceiling

-hung mini blinds 

-frosted closet window

What we didn't do:

-replace light fixture

-hang curtains

Guest Bedroom:

Before

 

After

What we did:

-painted walls, trim, and ceiling

-replaced broken storm window

-hung mini blinds

-repaired water damaged wall under window

What we didn't do:

-hang curtains
-hang pictures 

Kitchen:

Before

After

What we did:

-painted walls, trim, and ceiling

-bought and installed appliances

-replaced missing storm window and screen

-hung mini blinds

What we didn't do:

-paint pantry

-install dishwasher (which we owned as a hand-me-down)

Bathroom:

Before 

After

What we did:

-Painted walls, trim, and ceiling

-Painted built in shelves

-installed new toilet, including installing new stack and plumbing
-replaced pipes running to shower to improve water pressure

-replaced missing storm window

-frosted window for privacy

Laundry Closet:

Before 

After

What we did:

-painted walls, trim, and ceiling

-removed toilet

-ran new pipes and electric work to closet

-purchased and installed stacking washer and dryer

-closed off window

-installed dryer vent

-switched direction door opened 

-patched tiles

What we didn't do:

-nothing, it's perfect!

Back Stairs:

Before 

 

After

What we did:

-painted walls, trim, and ceiling

-tore up carpet 

-bleached and sanded floors (twice)

-painted stairs and floor (twice)

-installed new locks

What we didn't do:

-nothing, it's perfect!

Master Bedroom/ Loft:

Before

 

After

 

What we did:

-painted walls, trim, and ceiling

-tore out carpet

-bleached, sanded, and patched floors

-installed carpet squares

-replaced broken storm window

-cleared out crawl space

-sealed off attic from bats

-installed shelving (my closet)

-hung mini blinds 

-caulked window

What we didn't do:

-hang curtains

-switch outlet to be compatable with our window AC

-replace torn insulation in crawl space (still might happen)

-re-paint chipped stairs (still might happen)

Exterior

Before

After

What we did:

-scrapped, sanded, and power-washed siding and trim

-primed and painted (half) the exterior siding and trim

-dug out dead tree in front yard

-patched missing fence pieces

-repaired broken gate

-picked up thousands of bottle caps and cigarette butts (it had to be mentioned)

- power raked, leveled, and re-seeded the backyard

-re-screened front storm door

-painted shed

-trimmed back tree
-patched chimney and replaced chimney cap

-replaced water main (and patched city street)
-patched leaking roof (after storm)

What we didn't do:

-re-seed the front yard
-paint 2nd half of exterior
-enclose area under stairs for storage
-install path/ stepping stones to our upper unit's back door
(but most of these will be worked on this spring/ summer)