Checking In With Chelsea

DIY ideas, crafts, and tips for your home

subscribe and never miss a thing!

Receive Free Email Updates

  • About
  • Videos
  • Projects
    • Indoor Projects
    • Outdoor Projects
    • Craft Projects
  • House Tour
You are here: Home / Indoor Projects / The One Where I Become a Homeowner

The One Where I Become a Homeowner

February 28, 2012 By Chelsea Lipford Wolf Leave a Comment

The. Call. Came. In. Yes, that call. The one where Julia, my Realtor, told me my offer had been accepted…I’m buying a house! No sense in prolonging the process, so I got started securing financing immediately. Mortgage, insurance, appraisal, survey—all expensive to come by and necessary to buying a house. I went back and forth with my mortgage loan officer to finalize all financial background information, set a closing, found there was a problem with the self-ordered survey, thought we resolved said problem, and rescheduled the closing date.

Day of closing—literally the ups and downs of buying a house in a four-hour period. Apparently the little problem with the survey I mentioned had not been resolved. The carport on my almost property was actually two feet on my neighbor’s property. My neighbor had agreed to sign a waiver that would allow me to continue on with purchasing the house. Obviously he had not signed the waiver, and since the whole process was moving so fast, it was easy for the lack of waiver to get overlooked. Luckily, the sellers had chosen a stellar closing attorney who worked quickly with my dad to find a solution—I would sign something saying I would tear down the carport within 20 days of closing on the house. That was no problem since it kind of needed to go anyway.

Whew! That was a close one. Mom, dad and I headed to the closing attorney’s office to sign the several-inches-thick stack of papers around 11:30 in the morning. By 1:00 pm, I had signed the next 30 years of my life away and begun work on “updating” my new home! Lucky for me, Jodi Marks, co-host of my dad’s TV show, happened to be in town, so she was able to help me with some of the “demo” inside the house. We ripped up old carpet, started patching the smaller cracks in the plaster, and tore a hamper/bookcase out of the teeny, tiny bathroom. Maybe an hour and a half of work, and it already looked SOO much better.

Then came the first full work day. As I mentioned in my previous post, the house came with one major/minor issue—major and costly for some, minor for my Dad and his crew. The main beam running through the middle of the house had a dip in the middle from what looked like years worth of water damage. My dad and Tim, one of his workers, agreed to come over the first Saturday I was a homeowner to help assist (okay, they did all the work) with correcting the beam. They jacked up the house, while I was in it, and built a new pier (since the house was built on a crawlspace) for the beam to sit on.

Once they crawled out from under the house (hey, someone had to do it!), we got to work on tearing down that troublesome carport.

Read about the lengthy process of preparing the inside of the house for move-in in my next blog!

Subscribe for Free Updates!

Stay up-to-date on Chelsea's latest projects, tips, useful resources and more.

Previous Post
Finding the Perfect House
Next Post
Just Keep Fixin’

Related Content

Dining Room View from Living Room Ready to SellHow to Sell Your House Fast and Cheap1950s Ranch Brick Home on Corner Lot Pristine ConditionOur Ranch Revival Introduction and Before TourFinding the Perfect HouseTo Buy a House, Or Not to Buy a House?

Please Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome!

I’m Chelsea. DIY
enthusiast who loves
sharing my victories
and mishaps!
Learn more
here.

CHECK IN WITH CHELSEA ON INSTAGRAM

What else do you use paper plates for besides eati What else do you use paper plates for besides eating?? Spray paint onto a paper plate and dab a small paint brush to do spot touch ups! Life hack when you’re working on a project but don’t need to paint the whole surface!👏🏻
.
.
#lifehack #diyhacks #spraypainting #painttips #paintprep #paintpro #shutters #craftsman #1940style
Didn’t mean for this to be #ASMR but here we are Didn’t mean for this to be #ASMR but here we are!🤷🏼‍♀️ I bought this orchid 15 months ago to use the flowers in our hair for my sister’s wedding. I’ve already repotted it once and it’s bloomed 3-4 times! Time to do it again with a pretty new pot that matches our new kitchen cabinets!🤩
.
.
Steps to repot an orchid:
1-large pot without drainage holes
2-plastic pot slightly smaller with holes
3-trim if needed so plastic pot is at or below outside pot
4-add layer of orchid specific potting mix (it looks like bark!)
5-add orchid, fill in around roots with more bark- don’t forget to add some mix under the leaves!
6-to water, soak bark and fill up outside pot, rinse the leaves too!
7-let sit for 5-10 minutes, then drain and dry the outside of your pot.
8-set in place and enjoy!🌷
New laundry, who dis? Our laundry room was a BLANK New laundry, who dis? Our laundry room was a BLANK slate after the kitchen renovation left it reconfigured too. So Dad and I tackled simple projects that make this space functional and of course visually pleasing too!👏🏻The full project airs this weekend on @todayshomeowner!
.
.
I love that the cabinets and hardware match what we have in the kitchen since the spaces are right next to each other! Synergy!
.
.
What do you love about your laundry room?
So funny the number of people who told us they loo So funny the number of people who told us they looked at our house when it was on the market but didn’t buy. Guess we’re the only suckers🤣🤣We’ve brought her a long way since closing day though! 👏🏻😍🤩
.
.
#ranchrevival #ranchreno #1950shouse #beforeandafter #housereno #pinkgirlroom #girlsbedroom #diningroomdecor #familydining
Exploring new cities is fun but there’s no place Exploring new cities is fun but there’s no place like my hometown! Come visit!💜💛
.
.
#mobilealabama #visitmobile #mardigras #travelbloggervibes #southerncharm
Lookie! It’s a shelf for your bookies! 🤣Build Lookie! It’s a shelf for your bookies! 🤣Building a shelf unit custom for ANY space in your home is so simple and can be done over and over again to add much needed storage aka sanity! The kids were running all over the house at bedtime trying to find a book to read because we had them stashed in baskets and shelves in several different rooms. So I took advantage of this space in the hall next to a closet to create a central location for their books and some of mine too! Plus it adds a little character to an otherwise blah space!🙌🏻
.
.
A full how to video is on checkinginwithchelsea.com! Book nerds can be DIY nerds too!🤓
.
.
#booknerdsunite #diyskills #beginnerdiy #bookshelfie #halldecor #storagesolutions #storageideas #bookstorage #bookstorageideas
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Indoor Projects Outdoor Projects Craft Projects
Facebook Pagelike Widget
  • Contact
  • FAQs
  • Advertise with Chelsea
  • Media
  • Today’s Homeowner

Search This Site

Receive Free Updates Via Email

Copyright © 2023 Checking in With Chelsea • All Rights Reserved