In the weeks leading up to closing, I met with a few professional painting companies and the cost of painting as much as we needed painted - pretty much the entire house - was pretty staggering. Especially considering I could do it myself. It would take a long time and I might kill myself doing it, but with the exception of the living room ceiling and that one wall in our Casper home, we did everything on our own. It's just time consuming. So it's hard to justify spending thousands of dollars to have someone else do what you could do. Except that they have a team and can get it done in a couple days vs years.... I told Ryan that this go around I wanted to get most of the big stuff done at the very beginning. I didn't want to still be painting three years later. So we opted to pay someone... from Craigslist. Now don't get offended by this, but living here we have a better pool of laborers to pull from than we did in Casper, if you know what I mean. Lots more people that know what they are doing, even if they don't work for a company. (Let's not hire any more homeless guys from the library, okay?!)
So we found this guy who works in Sante Fe during the day and does painting at night and on the weekends. His mom comes along and helps. (I met them both and they were very nice.) When I initially met with him, we walked through the house and he told me how much paint I would need for each area. Then I went to the store and bought it. I'm quite positive that's who I met up with the day we officially closed. He brought his mom and they went around removing outlet covers and started cutting in. He anticipated the whole thing taking three or four days. He would have a few days upstairs before the carpet arrived, which he said was plenty of time, and then he could work downstairs while they installed carpet. We paid him 1/2 up front. (He was roughly 1/3 of the price as everyone else. Maybe 1/4). The first night they didn't accomplish much, but the next day or two when I checked in, he had done a ton of work! He was fast and it looked great. Everything was going well.
In the mean time we played at the zoo. :)
I love this picture so much. I really think it needs to be on some advertisement for the zoo. How perfect is it?!
While the painter was busy upstairs, we had electricians working downstairs. Since there wasn't any lighting in the kitchen anyway, we opted for canned lights in the kitchen and living room, as well as a fan in the living room and master bedroom. The electrician was also hired from Craigslist, though he has all of his certifications and insurance stuff. He works for or with his dad who has done a lot of big work form companies like Intel, but he is not in good health. Our electrician brought a couple crewmen and they got to work cutting holes in the walls and ceiling. They made it very clear that they do not do any patch work... so good luck to us. And boy, good luck indeed. There were so many unneeded and giant holes cut. Take for instance the picture below. This was the hole for the fan in the living room. All that's needed was one single round cut. For several of the extra holes his workers claimed that the ceiling space was too tight with the duct work and that's why they had to cut so many. The ceiling space is really big. And the areas in question - yeah, there wasn't even any duct work there.
They made fast work of the cutting portion, but then things started going sideways pretty quickly. His helpers didn't seem terribly competent. In fact, they messed up a bunch of stuff that the main electrician (I honestly can't even think of his name right now) would have to try and figure out. Multiple times he paid his men for their work earlier in the day with the promise/understanding that they would stay and complete their tasks. Then he left to get stuff done. His men would just call it a day - never finishing what they said they were going to.
We were getting really frustrated. Then there was a day that our electrician never showed. And he wouldn't respond. I think a few days went by without any word from him and we were getting really nervous. At last he got back to us and it turns out he had been in the hospital with diverticulitis and rectal bleeding. True story. When he came back to work, he looked like death and could only work for a couple hours. I don't blame him. But the project kept dragging on. Not long after this he sent Ryan a text saying that he and his girlfriend had gone over the numbers and that he had totally underbid for this job and that he was going to need more money. In truth, yes, he probably did initially under bid. We were getting a good deal. The problem was that this job was supposed to take a couple days. Instead it stretched out over a couple weeks. Add in the fact that he was paying two guys to do 1/3 of the job he paid them to do and yeah, he needed more money. Plus we did end up adding more lights than initially planned. Ryan was willing to renegotiate, but the electricians new number was now double what he had asked before. That's a lot of money. I have no doubt a lot of it stemmed from the hospital bills that needed to be paid, and I get it - but why should it be our responsibility?
We were stuck. Refuse to pay him what he wanted and we risked having a half finished job that we may have to pay a company to redo and we would be out more than double the cost. We opted to pay him. I felt it would have been better to pay him in installments to make sure he kept coming back to finish the job, but Ryan said to just pay him in full.
That was super terrifying. Like many contractors, he almost never showed up when he said he was going to. Sometimes it was a couple hours late. Sometimes it was a day or two later. He told us over and over again that he is a man of his word and that he would get it done, no matter how many times he had to come back. That's all well and good, but there wasn't much proof.
One day Ryan had me snap a picture of his car and license plate. We hadn't seen him or heard from him in days. We were ready to take legal action - though admittedly, we didn't have a contract, so it may have been hard. We could have jumped on Craigslist to warn people I supposed.
(Hanging my head in shame.) Look guys, I know. May of you may be reading this and laughing because let's face it. You get what you pay for. Even our drunk, homeless men hiring, Baptist-Jewish Casper painter had a contract.
(Oh my goodness! I totally forgot to mention that! Our painter in Casper used to be Baptist, which made a lot of sense to me because he talked about Christ in a way most Christians do. But then he became Jewish which is a little strange to me. He found out I was Mormon though and we had quite an interesting discussion about it. We believed many of the same things, though I will say he kind of looked at me like I was some sort of strange specimen after that. It was funny.) As awful as that situation was, we at least had something behind us. If you want it done quickly and professionally, you hire a professional. That's all I'm saying.
I just looked through my pictures and found that even around Christmas there were still lights hanging from the ceiling, so this process took at least two weeks. I think longer. Anyway, just when we were about to go all crazy on him, he reappeared. And true to his word he came back. And came back. And came back. Why so many times? Because he couldn't figure things out. His coworkers, who he finally told not to come back, had really done some strange things, but eventually - EVENTUALLY he got it all sorted out. Lights were hung, fans were installed, and we had light! We did opt to have a couple different switches for the kitchen - one that turns on just the middle two when we only need a little light, one that controls the rest, and one that's just for the light over the dining table. It is really nice. The canned lighting added a really nice feel to the home. Worth it? Yes. Would I hire him again? No. Would I recommend him? No. Would I hire a professional company next time? (Avoiding eye contact ...) I don't know. We keep doing this to ourselves because saving money is really important to us. So, I don't know. I'm not really worthy of much sympathy, am I? Haha
Now onto the painter...
Here are some additional pictures of things before the painting happened. This is our master bathroom with the hideous mustard gold:
This shot makes it look tan, but the top picture was far more accurate.
Our awesome closet. We opted not to paint any of the closets. No reason to.
Another of our master bedroom:
Looking down the stairs at one of the electrician helpers.
Pierscen's bedroom - you've seen one similar before. (All white).
Nook between the master and Devry's room.
Devry's room: All white.
Master bedroom:
Devry's room: He did do the ceiling in the master, but not in Pierscen's or Devry's.
He painted most of the hallway and about half of the stairwell. It's just a different sheen, slightly whiter white. But you can definitely tell where he left off in the stairwell. On the day that the carpet was installed, the painter didn't show. Ryan called him and asked where he was.
"I thought you were getting carpet in today?"
"We are, but the entire main floor available to paint."
"Oh, okay. Well I have things I need to get done today. I'll be there later tonight."
I nervously told Ryan that he HAD to be there that night because our appliances were due to arrive the next morning and the kitchen was still very purple. At the very least, we needed to have the areas behind and around the appliances painted. NO ONE wants to paint around an appliance once it's been installed. No thank you. He said that was no problem. He'd be there.
You know where this is going.
That night we stopped by the check up on the painting. The upstairs looked so nice with the new paint and the new carpet! Ryan is a white wall kind of guy. He really wanted to leave the kids rooms white, but I decided I was calling the shots on the painting - colors and locations and opted for a nice neutral taupe. When Ryan walked in he was really happy with it and told me I had definitely made the right choice. Same color for all the bedrooms and the living room downstairs.
Pierscen's room post paint and carpet: So warm and inviting! Apparently I don't have a picture of Devry's room, or the master, but I think I will make a whole post of furniture-moved-in pictures. That's good motivation to get things cleaned up. :)
So though things were looking really good - minus the part where he stopped painting in the stair well where the ceilings were getting too high, there was no sign of the painter.
I had a sinking feeling in my chest, but tried to remain positive. Ryan sent him a text and tried to call, but there was no response. I held my breath, told myself he would show up... then went to Home Depot the next morning on my way to the house to buy a painting kit just in case. Haha. Faith only gets you so far guys. Remember that. Faith, without works, is dead.
If any of you have ever purchased something big, or ever had to have anything serviced, you know what it's like. They give you a window of time and then you wait and wait and wait, and most likely, wait past the time they say they were going to show up.
Well, when I arrived at the house there was no sign of the painter. He had not returned any texts or phone calls. Home Depot called and said their window of time was 12-4. Any other day I would have preferred the early time slot, but in this scenario, I counted it as a tender mercy. It was clear the painter had bailed. Thank goodness we only paid him half! To be fair, he earned the half he was paid, so it's okay in the financial part of things. As far as the painting getting done before we moved in... well, I guess me getting out of the hard work was just too good to be true.
The hardest thing about this was the fact that I had two young kids in a totally empty house. How do you entertain and contain two kids in this kind of situation? I had Devry's bouncy chair which worked for a little while. Other than that I had a few toys in the car that I had purchased with a gift card Grandma Rayola had sent for the kids birthdays. I let Devry's play in the bouncy chair as long as she would let me, then I set up the Frozen tent I had purchased, threw some gold fish crackers in the room, shut the door, and hoped for the best.
Then I went to work. The fridge and stove/microwave areas were the most important. It required two coats, but thankfully it dried quickly.
A note about the paint. The colors I used were all from the Sherwin Williams color deck. But Sherwin Williams is crazy expensive. I had planned on just going to Home Depot and having them color match. Before we had closed on our house, our carpet guy asked us who I was planning on using.
"May I make a suggestion?" he asked. "Use Diamond Vogel. I used to use Home Depot, but then I tried these other guys and their paint doesn't even compare. And it's cheaper than Home Depot."
So I decided to try it out. Guys. This paint is magic!!! I have always struggled with avoiding paint lines. I have done tons of reading and YouTube watching and I just can't get it. With this paint the first coat looks terrifyingly horrible while it's wet. Like - you set your toddler loose and yelled, "Have fun!" as you ran away. But then it dries. And there are no lines. Anywhere. It is MAGIC I tell you! As long as I have an option, I will never use anyone else.
And a note about our carpet guys. We used C&V Flooring. They were amazing. They were the absolute best price and did a great job. They took two days to install, only because one of the installers had to leave early. They returned the next day to finish the job and vacuum. They were awesome.
Anyway... the paint color for the kitchen is called Sea Salt. I love, love, love it! It is both calming and invigorating to me. It makes me feel both peaceful and happy. Sure, someone may come in this house later and wonder why anyone would choose this color, just like I did with the purple. But I love it. And it is me. I have been determined from the get go to make this house my own early on. And this kitchen is absolutely mine.
Look how clean and fresh it looks! And miraculously it changed the appearance of our counters. The Formica counter tops we have looked rather purple next to the purple walls. We had planned to replace them pretty early. But now they don't look half bad. Sure, it would be nice to upgrade some day, but they are okay.
Don't they look pretty?! It makes it feel like a real house! So exciting!!! (There you go, Ms. Lone Officer. We installed appliances.)
Once they left, we called it a night and went to pick up Ryan from work. From here on out I knew I was on my own with painting, so I just needed to decide what was priority. I opted to finish the rooms upstairs before we moved furniture in. First I painted the ceilings. Below is a picture showing the color difference, though it's not super obvious here. Look at the paint right next to the light. It was much more yellow.
I really dislike painting ceilings. Can I just say that? It is so hard. And gives me a guaranteed headache. But I got it done in both rooms and did the touch up in all three rooms.
As I am writing this, I am remembering other things that happened along the way. The trailer was one of those things. We had had it parked at Sharon's house, but since it was in an HOA, some neighbors complained about it being there and the HOA contacted Sharon. I felt horrible. She was super gracious and said she figured it was coming. But we didn't know! One of her friends offered to let us park it on their property a few miles North of Placitas. We asked someone from the ward if they could help us move the trailer, which was not an easy task because not just any truck would do. It had to be super heavy duty because that trailer was packed to the brim and EXTREMELY heavy. We did get it moved and thankfully nothing happened to it while it was parked out there.
That morning I posted on our new ward's Facebook page that we were moving in and asked for help. The response was amazing. I can't say enough good about this ward. We had a great group of people show up and everything was unloaded in less than an hour. Pierscen was so excited to be reunited with his train tracks that he didn't leave his room pretty much the entire night. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that helped!
Below is a care package my mom sent with all sorts of amazing Christmas goodies:
Thank you a billion, Mom! The kids loved opening all the wonderful homemade goodies and I am now officially addicted to those Trader Joe "Joe Joe's" (Oreos with candy cane pieces.)
Saturday night we went to the River of Lights at the Botanical Garden. Parking was at the zoo, then we took a bus to the gardens. It was cold, but amazing!!!
I don't have a ton of pictures and wish I had more, but it was awesome! The lights take months to put up. Some of them were so intricate! And many of them moved. I've never seen anything like it. It was such a fun night!
Do you recognize that spider web?
I am really looking forward to going again. Totally worth it.
To end this post, I present the Drawer of Destiny!
We discovered this drawer after we moved in. When you sell a house, any realtor that has a showing is supposed to leave their card. This drawer was filled with them. Sure, you could look at it and say, "Wow. That many people saw the house and didn't make an offer? What's wrong with the house?!" But I believe the answer is two-fold. First and foremost: most home buyers don't want work. They want move in ready. For being a foreclosure, this house is in great shape. But it is was not move in ready. Foreclosures scare people. Secondly, this house was meant to be ours. I have no doubt of that. The impression that I had to make an offer was personal and direct. This is where we are supposed to be. Put aside all the chaos and hang ups (in and out of our control) and the point is, we still got the house! The Lord paved the way and held our heads above the water when the storms hit. It's almost been a year since we moved to Albuquerque and though there is part of me that still can't believe we aren't in Wyoming any more, I know this where the Lord wants us. I am immensely grateful for my testimony of the Lord, for the guidance and assurance prayer brings, and for the incredible help and love of family and friends, without whom we could not have done this.
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