Our First Month at Fairview Cottage

It’s officially been 30 days since we’ve moved into our house- Fairview Cottage as I named it. Things have been crazy busy around here getting unpacked and all set-up. I thought I’d take this chance to look how far we’ve come, what’s coming up around the house, the biggest mistake we’ve made so far, and a little about why we chose the cute town we did.

what we’ve gotten done and what we still need to do

I’m pretty happy with what we’ve gotten done so far! Here’s a quick overview of what we’ve done and what still needs to be done. I thought room by room would be the easiest way to go over it.

living room

Lucy with the new and affordable faux fiddle leaf fig I just added!

The living room is our haven. One of the first big projects we did was to paint the stone white. Next we changed the  layout– it really helped the space feel finished. Its the only consistently clean and well decorated room in the house.

As far as the to do list goes- one day I will take down the textured wallpaper and paint the walls white. The walls are plaster so I’m scared to see what kind of shape they are in under the wallpaper. I do have Chinoiserie wallpaper on order to go behind the console table! I also have new drapes and rods on their way that will look divine!

kitchen

For the kitchen, the big project that I started with was painting the fridge pink! I’ve also begun painting the cabinets (I still need to finish)! They look so much better and will be a band aid until we can afford a full renovation. I also painted one of the walls and added a gallery wall. Essentially, that room needs a TON of paint (even though its already gotten a bunch)!

I’m also planning on a fun peel and stick backsplash (its on its way!). I’ve started installing new brass hardware pulls and knobs that’s helping the room feeling way more modern!

I’ve dreamed up the idea to paint the tile counter tops to look like marble and paint the grout gold. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes! It’ll be a lot of work, but could be amazing if I can pull it off!

bathroom

My bathroom is one of the next big projects on the docket. This is what I’ll be tackling in September! This will get a full refresh- new vanity, mirror, painted bathtub, toilet, and wallpaper. Its going to look sooo good and I can’t wait to get started! Stay planned for the full plan and inspiration on Friday.

don’s room

Don’s room has been a slow project. We just keep getting stalled with head scratching issues (right now its deciding if we want to remove the old chimney). Our fingers are crossed that we can make some progress soon!

This room started off with taking down the fort. Then I removed the paint from the floors. Last week I painted the ceiling and closet, installed a fan, and redid a nightstand.

office

The office is set-up with art hung (and I love it!). Since we don’t currently have a playroom- the office is full of toys. And the toys are everywhere! Besides that, there’s a bunch of boxes from lights that need to be hung and a toilet that needs to be installed. I’m really looking forward to the day this room isn’t the catchall!

A few weeks ago, my husband accidentally cut his hand while pruning outside. He cut his thumb and needed stitches. Turns out, he cut his tendon badly too. Its healing, but projects like wiring lights have slowed WAY down since he doesn’t have full use of both hands. I’m glad it wasn’t worse and that he doesn’t need surgery.

other rooms

The playroom is where my husband and I are sleeping right now. The CUTEST wallpaper is on the way!!! Once we get Don’s room done, we can move our room to the master and began working on the playroom.

The master also has wallpaper on the way (can you sense a theme?!). Technically, its a mural and I think its going to look so pretty (plus its affordable $100)! I have built in bookcases planned and a gallery wall. Let’s be honest, I really need to buy a bed frame (we sold our old one since it was too tall for the room). So there’s that.

The porch will get some love before too long. I have some fun plans to add a bit of curb appeal. We’ll see how much I can get to this summer/fall!

the biggest mistake we’ve made so far

Ugh- I hate to type this one out, but we have to replace our roof. We knew that the roof was bad by just looking at the property, but thought we’d have time to save up to get it replaced. Unfortunately, we got the call from our home owner’s insurance agent yesterday that we HAVE to replace the roof or our insurance will be cancelled by the end of the month.

My husband and I are both ticked about the situation. Why, if the house needed a new roof to get home owner’s insurance, wasn’t it dealt with before closing?! The answer is that it was like the perfect storm of crappy things coming together.

how we messed up with the roof

1. We got the house appraised, but the appraiser valued it at what it was on the market for. They noted that the roof didn’t look great, but was fine.
2. The lender didn’t require a new roof prior to closing
3. We were able to get home owner’s insurance prior to closing. It did take talking to 3 companies before finding one that would cover the old house. That should have been a red flag
4. There were so many things wrong with the house, it was hard to know what to focus on. There’s electrical, and plumbing problems. The roof needs replaced. The house tested positive for meth and mold- those two we made a big deal of and really pressed the seller on.
5. We did ask our realtor to request money back for the roof, but I’m not sure if he did. We should have pressed harder on that, and are obviously regretting that we didn’t.
6. Lastly, we were in a hurry to close. We’d been living with our in-laws and were tired of not having our own place. We were scared that if we pressed too hard on the roof (or electrical or plumbing) that the deal would fall through.

what we’re going to do about it

So we’re getting bids to get the roof replaced. We are guessing it will be about $10,000- such a costly mistake! We’ll see what we can do (like removing shingles, helping with clean up) to make it cheaper. The roof is so steep in parts that we aren’t comfortable DIYing the main roof ourselves.

Anyway, I share this in the hopes that if someone else is in the same situation when buying a house that they’ll learn from our bad situation and insist on it getting it done before closing. Or at least get a break on the house price because of it.

why we chose to live where we live

I feel like this is the longest blog post, but I wanted to touch on our location too (Logan, Utah). I haven’t talked much about it on here, but we moved about an hour away from where our friends and family live to a smaller city.

The main reason was price- this city has homes priced around $100,000 less than living in the Salt Lake valley. If we would have stayed in Salt Lake, we could have only afforded a small condo.

The other reason is that we fell in love with this city too. When I worked for a furniture company, I was in charge of the design for new stores. I spent a few weeks in Logan moving stores every few years. I worked with a local team each time and really fell in love with the people I worked with.

My husband would come up while I was working for a few nights. We’d eat at the local restaurants and walk around the beautiful city and just loved it! Its the perfect sized city- part college and part rural.

One of my favorite parts is that there are a lot of old, historic houses. Everywhere we turn, there are gorgeous houses. Pretty much, we’re really loving our new location! Sure, we miss being close to our family. But it is sure a lot closer than Florida! The winter will be pretty rough- it’ll be colder and snowier than Salt Lake. So hopefully we still love it in January ;).

Anyway, that’s a brief overview of how our house is coming along so far. Let me know if you have any questions below!This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

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