week 2: wallpaper removal continued

It took me a whole day to get the rest of the wallpaper off. Finally! We're wallpaper-free! Max spent his time taking down the wrought-iron fencing around the in-ground spa (future dining room) and taking apart the shelves in the utility room (future workshop and golf cart
parking). It looks bigger and better already. Next weekend: popcorn ceiling. TIP: Don't be chintzy on the wallpaper remover and be patient. The instructions for the remover say "saturate" so do it. The instructions also say "wait 15 minutes" so wait. The stuff works so you don't have to. PICS: Top - Max clearing the way for the new addition; Bottom - Original utility room.

week 1: wall paper removal

WALLPAPER SHOULD BE BANNED!! We spent the entire weekend stripping wallpaper. Max started pulling wallpaper during the week. He said the wallpaper was so old that it was coming off the bedroom walls pretty easy.
We anticipated a quick job of getting the rest off, but unfortunately the paper was put directly on the drywall in the bathrooms. We spent 2 full days stripping wallpaper, but we weren't done yet! PICS: Top - Original master bedroom with country blue wallpaper, lace curtains, rollershades, and trees blocking the fantastic golf course view; Bottom: Master without wallpaper or curtains.

the beginning

We've always talked about moving to Sun City West "someday". So starting January of this year, we started looking for a home there. The first house we looked at was exactly what we wanted. But, we didn't want to buy the first house we saw and we figured more like this will pop up. Boy, were we wrong! Houses were out of our price range, too much work, or snapped up before we got a chance to see them. Tensions were rising rapidly after 2 months of looking almost every weekend. Max wasn't willing to up our budget, I wasn't willing to give up the golf course lot. But one fateful day in March, a house hit the MLS that had potential. We did a drive-by that night and LOVED it! We called our realtor and said we were ready to put an offer on this house sight-unseen. She said we better move fast because the listing agent was already waiting for a contract to be faxed. We saw the house (didn't really care too much) and wrote up the offer. By that evening, we were in a 3-way bidding war. We were victorious in the end, but in reality it's just the beginning.