The Butters: We Bought A Zoo

Well Folks, you heard it. We bought a zoo?? Whaaa? Well although that is not completely true, it sure seems as if we had.. When Grant and I first got married, we knew that we wanted to get into a home as soon as possible. We decided to start saving up and looking around for what we liked. And boy did we look. 6 months of home tours, should we's and we'll pass is what it took for us to find the home we wanted to buy. One day I was looking online for homes in the Bountiful area and I came across a descent size home that was an easy fixer upper. You see, I wanted to build a home but the Mr. was not having it. He wanted to live up on the east bench right below the temple, and for those of you that know the Bountiful area, there is not one single home that is newer than at least the 70's. So we made a deal, we would get a fixer upper now but we would be able to make it new! Anyway back to the story, I found the home I wanted so I called on it. It had only been on the market for a couple of hours and the realtor said there were already 2 offers and multiple calls. I felt defeated and very sad because it was finally a normal looking rambler (unlike some of the crazy odd homes we had seen) and it was on a quiet street with a BIG beautiful backyard. Well I will cut the story short, but after many weeks and calls with the realtor, we were able to go look through the home. Now even an hour after we got home, we submitted our offer and before we knew it, they accepted our offer! We were ecstatic and unsure of how we got soo lucky to get this home. Really though, this house is a GREAT deal and somehow we got it..On Monday July 16th we closed and went straight to work. Grant and I headed over to the house and started the long awaited remodel. We ripped out the baseboards, the nasty ORIGINAL carpet from 1962, the old light fixtures, the popcorn ceiling. You name it, we did it. It took us about 3 weeks of full remodel until we got to move in. We moved in on August 4th and I was soo excited. It is sooo amazing to own a home. Although there is a lot of work that goes into it, it actually feels like home. So we textured, primed and painted the walls and ceilings, we added in canned lighting throughout the entire home, we recarpeted and put new baseboards and crown moldings. We still have a few projects cough the kitchen, bathrooms, and don't even get me started on the basement but it is home. But we were lucky enough that the kitchen and bathrooms are in excellent condition and we will eventually get to that. And on a random note our backyard is huge like I said, but it had a small vineyard and a small little orchard! They both produce the yummiest fruit!!

The remodel was easy for Grant, in high school, he had helped his parents remodel all of the apartments that they own. Me on the other hand, I was sooo sick of painting and of home depot, but I must say it was worth every minute and penny. We love our home!!

Sorry these pictures are pour quality but it is the best I could do! These are all of the before pictures. I will do a whole other post for the afters!!!