Day #1

So day number 1 of home renovations is behind us...and what an eventful day it was. We picked up the keys from the realtor early in the morning, and immediately had contractors show up to start giving us bids. The other main task for the day was trying to prevent Abbey from eatting Decon mouse poison tablets that have been strewn about many of the rooms. (That's a real comforting sign to me since most of you may know that I'm not a big mouse fan unless he was created by Walt.)

With an empty house, it's easy to see the many, many "opportunities for improvement" everywhere you look. Extensive before photos have been posted here in case you want to feel really good about your own home.

We also discovered that the previous owners managed to exist by P.O. Box alone, and hadn't had mail delivered to the home in years. We decided a mailbox made more sense for us, so first project was installing a new mailbox. Yes, it's the first project completed. No, it wasn't on the project list. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it adds a good $50 of value to the house...Money well spent. Plus, we now have somewhere to receive our mortgage bills.

It also served as an official ice-breaker for the neighbors. I think installing the mailbox was the most exciting thing that has happened in the cul-de-sac in years. Nearly every neighbor had to come out and say hello (which was actually kinda nice.) It's also comforting to know that we have watchful neighbors looking over the place when we're not there.

Unfortunately, we also discovered that the nicely manicured landscaping has been left for dead by the previous owners. By the looks of it, they turned off the sprinkler system a couple weeks ago. Most of the flowers are wilted, and the backyard has a few giant brown spots now. We really appreciate their help in maintaining what was the best feature of the house. Hopefully it's an easy fix though.

Judging by the speed and efficiency with which we installed a mailbox (it only required five hours, two trips to Home Depot and a number of neighborly chats), I think we'll be ready to have guests at the Napa house in 2015.

Cheers!

-Trever & Spence