Color my world

So I've heard back about the house. There were some issues that came up in the inspection I paid for.

This is a good time to point out that you always want to pay for your own inspection, but especially in the City of St. Louis. The city inspector didn't even go downstairs to the basement, or upstairs to the attic.

WTF?!?

The sellers have agreed to fix all the issues and give me copies of the receipts.

Which means it's time to decorate the house in my head. I mean, I was already doing that a little. But I've lately developed an addition to Design Seeds. I actually had this bookmarked a long time ago; but now I've been actively searching for colors to paint my walls. Of course it helps that Sherwin Williams has this site called Chip It!. I can find a picture I like and click the Chip it! button on my IE toolbar and then I can see what Sherwin Williams paint colors correspond to the photo. 

I might be seriously addicted to decorating my house.

These are the leading contenders for my living room:

 
(all from Design-Seeds)

I have a couch which is brown and light blue and I kind of don't want white or tan walls. But I'm not sure I'm brave enough to go orange or pink. But a Nemo colored wall kind of intrigues me.

These are the leading contenders for my kitchen:

 
(all from Chip-it)

I have cream counters and a really yellowy cream tile in the kitchen with stainless appliances and a multi tonal floor which has tans and greys. I really want a hot color in the kitchen but something about that fig picture kind of talks to me.

I even have this one marked:

Which I could use in the living room with the blue furniture, or in the kitchen with the cream tile. Ooo or maybe the dining room which is in the middle! Although I seriously like the last color on the Design-Seeds tile; why did Chip-It not pick up that one and instead pick gray?

Aaaand this one:

From my my Pinterest (because I can't find it again on either of the other two sites)

Which I'd love in the living room; but that's kind of a bright pink. Who wants artificial sweetener package pink on the wall? Will people be in my living room and suddenly crave aspartame, or saccharine or something more horrible?  (I love diet soda/foods, please don't send the fake sugar cops after me.)

Seriously, how much fun is this? Hella fun, that's how much!

(This is ridiculous to say, but this post isn't sponsored by anyone, dude I'm lucky if the Sherwin Williams folks won't throw me out of the store after spending hours in there just touching paint chips.)

The American... I mean... The St. Louis Dream

This past week I had a friend tell me they had a neighbor who was putting their house on the market. Well, technically they didn't want to put it on the market but they'd already bought another house.  He said he'd talk to them if I wanted. I did because buying a house from a friend of the family is like living the St. Louis fabled life? Why?

Here's a hint:

Yeah, the house is on The Hill. In all my growing up years I heard stories of families passing down houses in that area. No house ever goes on the market on The Hill unless the people die without family; that's what we always heard. Ok, so that's an exaggeration.

Kind of.

I mean houses don't go on the market a lot there and this one is owned by a relative of the builder so I'm hoping it's in nice shape. I get to see it Saturday.

It's brick - duh - with a brick two car garage and room for a tomato garden in the yard. Yup, they actually added that. I'm trying not to be too excited. But, I kinda am.

Still looking

Ugh, I didn't find anything last week. We trooped through about 6 houses and none of them were even something I could live in. Maybe I'm being too picky.... Everyone tells me I'll just know when I walk into the right house; but everything just seemed so wrong about all the houses. Small closets, no parking, no bathroom on the main floor, musty basement. I feel like all those are things I just can't compromise on.

I love the Holly Hills area. I found a great house there (in my price range even!)


http://www.trulia.com/property/3087570173-3905-Bowen-St-Saint-Louis-MO-63116

Great except it needed A/C - including ductwork, it needs a total kitchen redo, it needs a bath redo because there's no shower and the tuckpointing is horrible.

Then I saw a house that had been flipped this winter. I had all that done.


http://www.trulia.com/property/3011075671-5947-Marwinette-Ave-Saint-Louis-MO-63116

 In fact I thought the kitchen rehab looked amazing

But they didn't do anything with the windows and the varnish was old and charred and some panes were broken and the hardware was missing on some so the upper sash didn't stay up. Plus, it was freaking hot upstairs! If you just put in A/C shouldn't you have done it so it cools the whole house?

I did see a few houses on Sunday with my mom.

One on Miami was nice but it has no parking - you'd have to tear down the back fence and build a carport/garage - then rebuild the fence.

One on Sutherland had closets only as wide as the closet door. Weird.

We saw one in Affton that I liked, but I think that's too far from everything for me.

Geez, I can't quit staring at that kitchen on Marwinette. I'm going to watch that one closely, I just have to decide if I really want to live all the way down in Holly Hills - its really far to my gym and my boyfriend.

Now if only a cool house in dogtown would come up instead of the crappy ones I keep seeing - what is up with St. Louis people cutting down all their trees? Some streets feel like the Sahara!

House hunting shouldn't be this hard

A friend of mine at work told me house hunting shouldn't be that hard. After all, they pretty much stand still and let you walk right up on them, right?

yeah....

I'm going tonight for the second round of showings in the city. The SoHa and Noha ones went ok. But out of six houses, I'm only leaving one on the list. One was cheap, but totally trashed.... way too much work. One was flipped but the kitchen was done weirdly. The rest of it was nice and they used nice materials in the kitchen, but they didn't connect the fridge with the counter that held the sink or either one of those with the counter that held the stove. They didn't want to cover up the bottom of the windows. Weird.

Tonight we're travelling all over the city from Southwest Garden all the way down to Holly Hills.

Wish me luck.... Hopefully one of these six will be a keeper!