So many details.

The house we have purchased was flipped.  This means it was nicely renovated... but the job was slightly rushed so there have been lots of surprises to deal with.  There were obvious things, like the fact there was no appliances, but there were little things we didn't think about... such as door stops and shower curtains.  As a bonus, I now get to use a drill fairly often  :)

Here is some of my handy work with the drill: 

I installed 10 door stops!  

I installed the mirror, towel rack, toilet paper holder, and towel hooks in the basement bathroom.

With Craig's help we installed bars on the basement windows.

I also put plastic on the basement windows, but the only power tool that required was my hair dryer.

Installed the mirror in the main washroom. 

There were other small details that needed to be tended to as well.  For example, the house next door can look directly into our washroom.  I put some plastic on the window so now they can only see our silhouettes.

Now the neighbors have to use their imagination if they want to watch me shower.

Craig also changed all of the locks and dead bolts.

This reminds me, Craig still needs to caulk the dead bolt on the front door.

We have installed blinds on all of the windows that were easy to find blinds for...

I am very glad we didn't buy a house that actually required a lot of work.  We have been very busy with these somewhat small jobs!

Surprises under the snow.

This evening we spent over an hour picking up garbage in our yard that was under the snow.  We are having our house warming party this weekend and I didn't want all of our friends to see our yard filled with trash.  Some of the goodies that we found include (but at not limited to): approximately 100 cigarette butts, a baggie filled with cheerios, one very large sheet of plastic, enough Lego pieces to make a small house, one very rusty chain, many fast food cups, pieces of broken glass, a pizza box, the inside of a door knob, and one very large cardboard box.

This aspect of owning a house isn't very glamorous.

Good-bye apartment.

Craig and I have been living in a high-rise in the downtown core for almost two years.  We have decided to leave the high life and have purchased a house in a quiet residential neighborhood.  Since the end of the month is approaching, we have been frantically trying to clean our apartment to insure we will get our damage deposit back.

Between the two of us it took more than 20 hours to clean the apartment.  Note to self:  Do not let the house get that filthy.  I also learned a valuable lesson about what happens when oven cleaner gets on linoleum.  It is not pleasant... but can be removed with a Mr.Clean Magic Eraser and a lot of rubbing.

Here is a photo of Craig cleaning the screen from the patio door in the apartment's bathtub.

Tomorrow we will be handing in our apartment keys and we will never be able to use the garbage chute ever again.