House Tour & a Linkup

I promised y’all this house tour a really really really long time ago.  I know that it’s been over 3 months, but at least this post is jam packed with a bunch of stuff that we’ve done so far.  The house is still a work in progress, but it’s starting to feel more like a home.  I personally think it’s too big for us and the dogs.  The extra bedrooms are nice for when people come visit, but we don’t even go to that side of the house haha.  Since we don’t plan on having children, I’m hoping that when we actually buy a house (we are renting this one for those of you who didn’t know), my fiance will agree to go for a smaller one.

HOUSE TOUR INTRO

Anywho, the above picture is in my doorway.  I actually just did a bunch of yard work and cleaned up quite a bit, along with cleaned the entryway.  Since it’s not our home there are certain things that we can’t do because first of all, we don’t want to be disrespectful to the owners, and second of all we also don’t want to put too much money into something that we won’t be keeping.  Before we fixed everything up, the house was a disaster.  If you read this post, then you would know exactly what I’m talking about.  However, if you didn’t, to give you a quick run down, the management company obviously didn’t check the house prior to us moving in.  Thankfully my fiance’s mom was in Florida at the time visiting my fiance’s brother, wife, and kids, so she was able to check out the house for us before we moved.  She sent us pictures of a lot of garbage, and just pure filth in the home.

The people who lived here before destroyed this house.  It’s very unfortunate because it’s a beautiful house.  We’ve tried to clean it and fix it up as best as we could without spending too much money out of pocket.  Judging by what we’ve seen and what our neighbors have told us, it seems like this was a party house.  The guys who lived here were definitely hunters and liked to drink a few beers.  We still keep finding shot gun shells and fish hooks all over the house/property.

They also must have busted out multiple windows because I’m still finding glass everywhere.  We even found a machete in the yard!  I feel bad for the owners of the house, because I’m not sure that they even saw the damage that was done to the house.  It’s really sad that human beings can just be so disrespectful.  This wasn’t their house, and they destroyed it.  Although, I know that in this world are people who don’t care as much as I do.

Let’s move on to photos of this place, shall we?  Also, don’t mind the mess in some of these pictures, most of these photos were taken with my phone in between moving in and unpacking, so there is stuff everywhere.

THE OUTSIDE

As you can see, the side of the house is stained.  We haven’t tried to powerwash it yet, but we do believe that, that stain won’t come out.  Our neighbors told us that before this house became a rental, it was a regular house.  The woman who lived there had a beautiful vegetable garden in the front.  Our neighbor was also telling me that there’s probably good soil underneath all of the mulch so I might be able to replant something there.  If there is soil here, that would be amazing, because there is sand everywhere else.  It’s really weird, I’m so used to having regular dirt back in NJ, and here, it’s just all sand haha.  I mean, what was I expecting with living so close to the beach, but it’s still weird for me haha.

I also have my very own palm trees!  If you look at the windows in the room on the right hand side of the photo, they need to be replaced by the management company.  There was condensation build up (which is happening to the other window on that side of the house as well), and then an argon gas leak.  So, the window is basically ruined.  I also have no knowledge of any of the plants in Florida.  It’s definitely a learning curve, but I’m going to start doing some research because my neighbor told me to be careful with the palms since they spread seeds like crazy and I have NO idea how to maintain those trees.  If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

LIVING ROOM AND ENTRY WAY

The one thing that I fell in love with when I first saw this house listed for rent were the floors.  I LOVED THE FLOORS!  I wanted darker floors, only because I think it’s such a beautiful contrast when you get lighter furniture.  Because of our furniture issue that’s been dragging since February, we still haven’t gotten a living room set of couches and coffee table.  We will eventually make that room more homey looking, only because that is the first room you see when you walk in, so I feel like if any room needs to be nice, it’s that one.  We will eventually get there though.  I do love the ceilings though.  I’m not a huge fan of the fireplace, I’m not even sure why anyone would have a fireplace in Florida.  50 degrees is not cold haha.

DINING ROOM

The one thing I will say for the furniture that actually did arrive (minus all of the scratches and dings, which obviously aren’t shown in these pictures lol) is that I do love the colors.  I’m super excited because I finally have a dining room bench!  I’ve wanted one for quite some time and I finally got one!  My fiance told me that I could pick whatever I wanted when it came to the furniture.  Of course we were on a budget, but I’m really  happy with the choices that we made.  I eventually want to get a China Cabinet in the dining room for my Polish pottery set, but that will come in time.  I think my fiance might actually build me one.

GUEST BEDROOM NUMBER ONE AKA THE PINK ROOM

We are also calling this the cowgirl room.  I wanted to go with a very country vibe for this house.  The paint colors that we went with were very Florida, but I worked with it and made it my own.  This room is not done whatsoever.  This is the room where we are missing furniture from that they never delivered but said they did.  I’m not a huge fan of the bedding set up here, but this was just temporary so that when the dogs jumped on the bed, they weren’t jumping on a bare mattress.  This is the room that has the condensation on the windows.

Since it’s the perfect spot to watch us from the window, the dogs usually go here to watch us when we leave.  I always come home to see the blanket on the floor so I’m pretty sure they run around in here lol.  Don’t worry to anyone who will visit, the bedding in this room will be washed prior to your visit haha.

GUEST BATHROOM

Just a boring bathroom lol.

GUEST BEDROOM NUMBER TWO AKA BLUE ROOM

Recognize this furniture from my blog posts over the last few years?  This is our old furniture from our bedroom.  We decided to use it for one of the guest rooms because it’s still in perfect condition.  I’ve also been referring to this room as the cowboy room because it’s blue lol, even though the pillows are clearly super feminine haha.  This room is basically always closed.  There’s no reason for the dogs to come in here, plus Lilly would need stairs for this bed, and Zero sometimes has problems jumping up since it’s so high.

KITCHEN/BAR AREA

The kitchen was an absolute disaster when we moved in.  I think this room has had the most repairs.  The garbage disposal had to be completely replaced.  When the guys came to replace it, they told me that they had never seen that many bottle caps/tabs in one disposal.  Because the garbage disposal and dishwasher hook up to the same pipe, every time that we used the dishwasher, the sink would overflow and whatever was in the garbage disposal, or rather was stuck in it would float out of it, and it was pretty nasty.

Then the dishwasher broke, and the oven broke.  The cabinets and drawers were disgusting.  I didn’t upload the really gross pictures, but I had to scrub before I relined them.  I was leaving all of my dishes and cups out on the counter because I was afraid of putting them in the cabinets until I cleaned them.  When we moved in the fridge was also on a completely different side.  It was supposed to be on the left hand side, but because when they bought the new fridge and it was too tall, instead of cutting the cabinets, they drilled a hold in the cabinets and put the fridge to the right hand side of the oven.  So, because this looked absolutely horrendous, my fiance took the cabinets out and cut them so that the fridge would fit perfectly.

LAUNDRY ROOM

If you saw my Instagram post last week, you probably saw the newest project we are working on in here.  If you look at those white wire racks, those are all over the house, and most of them we’ve actually torn down.  They are from the 80’s (or at least that’s what they looked like) and they are so old and dirty that they are sticky.  I have gone into each room to clean these racks, wire by wire, and I still can’t get them clean.  I’ve done this about 4 times already.  So we decided that taking them out was the best idea.  If you take a look at my Instagram post, my fiance started building me a cabinet with a folding station and there will also be a rod to hang clothes from after they’ve been washed.  We both only have one day “off” a week, so he built this for me on his only day off while I cleaned and cooked.  I’m very lucky to have such a hard working fiance who will do anything to make me happy.  After losing my grandparents he’s been making it a point to do things that will make me happy, and this was one of them.

MASTER BEDROOM

So I really hate my master closet.  It’s so cramped and even though it’s a walk in, the way that it was made is just so unorganized.  However, I do love the master bedroom itself.  It’s almost the perfect size, I would have liked it if it was just a tad bit bigger because our furniture is a bit big for this room.  I do love the furniture that we chose though.  I think it’s perfect for the aesthetic that I’m trying to keep throughout the house.  I can’t wait to have more money to be able to fit it with decor and plants.  My fiance hates plates, but I want some big plants.  I’m planning on just bringing them home myself, but shh don’t tell him haha.

MASTER BATHROOM

My brother doesn’t like the color of this bathroom.  He didn’t actually say that but I could see it in his face when we video chatted haha.  It’s very Florida to me haha.

So that’s it y’all!  I’ll make sure to keep y’all updated as we add more things into the house and build more things!  Now make sure to join my mom and me today for the linkup.

xoxo Monica

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