House stuff

Originally our goal for 2013 was to finish our house projects over the course of the year so that we were in the position to move in 2014.  To start this process we had a company come out to give us quotes on our bathroom and kitchen.  When the quote came back much higher than we were wanting to put into the house, we decided it was probably worth it to have a realtor come out and give us an idea of what needed to be done for the market for our house.  Boy did that change a lot really quickly... 

The realtor essentially told us that we didn't have to do nearly as much as we thought we needed to and that he thought he could sell our house for much higher than we were thinking very quickly.  We worked with a couple of his contacts to help update our bathroom - specifically they removed the wallpaper / painted over it and we got new tile floor in place of the linoleum.  We also painted (yes, painted) the gold fixtures and shower frame silver and replaced our sink faucets.  In addition I also painted the ceiling (much needed - it was the only ceiling of the house I hadn't painted yet) and refinished the cabinets.  It looked so much nicer after.  I apparently didn't get a picture after the floor was done.   From there, we started looking for houses because I was not ready to list our house until we had something lined up given how the market was.  Particularly since this wasn't our original plan, I wanted to make sure we weren't in a position without a house.  So, we started the process with an open mind... (more to come on that)