Creepies in our house!

In the spirit of Halloween, I've got to share some creepies we have had in our house lately.
The first we discovered in the wall while we were ripping down the wood paneling in the basement:

Can you tell what they are? MOUSE SKELETONS!!! EEeekkkk!!! I guess I'm quite glad they are dead, but they still creep me out. Pretty amazing how well preserved (untouched) they are. We think the grey fluff around them is the fur. Pretty gross, huh? Here are a few more photos for your viewing pleasure:

On to the second creepie that invaded our basement - this one a bit more alive:

Yup, that's a raccoon hanging out above our basement window. We're pretty sure he came down the chimney as evidenced by the sooty footprints coming out of the fireplace. Good think our fierce freaked out kitty, Gizmo, was there to alert us to the intruder's presence. Here our friend Steve and I are preparing to scoot him out of the house (I'm behind a barricade we built to prevent the raccoon from trying to escape upstairs).

 

Don't worry, we didn't hit him with the rackets. They were just protection in case he tried to bite us. With just a bit of prodding with the end of a broom, our bushy-tailed friend high-tailed it on out of there. Thankfully, we have since installed chimney caps on our chimney flutes, so we will never again have to worry about animal invasions!

Happy Halloween!

Basement Demolition

Eric and I have been working on our basement demo for the past week or so (or rather we have been watching as my dad works on our basement).
There are three main rooms: the family room, the bedroom and the laundry room. Here is a photo of the family room before the demolition:

As you can see, this room featured a suspended ceiling, wood paneling, and a linoleum floor. The bedroom was very similar in appearance. Definitely not my style. Our plan was to totally gut both rooms (rip out the ceiling and paneling), install drywall everywhere and put in recessed lighting. Here my dad and I are beginning to rip down the ceiling and paneling!

The demo is nearing completion now, though our basement is now a complete mess. Tomorrow we are taking a load to the dump, so hopefully the basement will stop looking like this:

Oh, and did you notice that the door in the entryway is now totally gone? We decided to take out the doorway to make the room feel more open. Here they are next to one another so you can see better:

Still kind of hard to tell in the photo, but it really does feel a lot more open. I can't wait to start putting up the drywall so I can really see what it is going to look like!

I'm a blogger!

Here goes my first blog post:
My husband Eric and I recently purchased our first home. The house is a 70's style split entry with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths in Minneapolis, MN. It definitely needs some updating and we have a TON of renovation projects in mind. With this blog I plan to chronicle our trials and triumphs!

So, without further ado, here is the grand tour of our house before we moved in. This is the first floor only. I'll post the basement pictures later.

The obligatory 'by the sold sign' picture!

Here is Eric standing in front of the house. You can tell he is excited to be a homeowner!

It is a split entry, so this is the view when you walk in. Upstairs goes straight into the kitchen, with the living room on the right and the bedrooms to the left.

This is the view looking back at the front door. Have you ever seen such a narrow set of vertical blinds?!

Here is a view of the entryway from the living room. The 70's style EKG-ish prints and pendant light will have to go.

Living room with gas fireplace.

The living room opens up into the dining room with a deck out back. (The deck is pretty much rotted away, so that will be a big project for next spring.)

 The dining room opens up to the kitchen.

 The eat-in portion of the kitchen.

 The kitchen (and Eric, again excited to be a homeowner and about to celebrate with some wine)!

Turning to the left at the top of the entryway stairs, this is the hallway to the main bath and 3 bedrooms. That castle-y looking thing on the wall is actually the doorbell.

The bathroom vanity and toilet/shower areas are divided by a pocket door (that no longer works). 

Bathroom vanity. You can't really tell from the picture, but the countertop has turned yellow from age and the cabinet doors are showing a lot of wood chipping off.

Toilet - I think about 8 gallons make their way down to the sewers after each flush.  :(

Shower and good sized linen closet.

Master bedroom. 

Other side of master bedroom.

 
 2nd bedroom.

 3rd bedroom (quite a bit smaller).

And there you have it folks! I'll post the basement photos soon.