MLS Photos

Since I've been wanting to research our home's history, I asked our realtor if he could find any additional information about its previous sales or owners.
He sent me all the listings for the house on the MLS system.  There were a total of 5 listings, including the one that was included in our house search this past spring. 
And there were 2 pictures of the house that I had never seen before.  One from 2003, with the house clean, the yard maintained, and the roof unstained.

2003 Sale Listing

And the other was from 1997.  The roof looks similar to how it does now, a bit rust-stained, so it must've been replaced between 1997 and 2003.  But the landscaping is adorable!  Lush green grass, bright rose bushes, white stone edging and lights along the path to the door.  Now I know why we found so many rocks buried under the layers of dead grass in the front yard!

1997 Sale Listing

It's inspiring to see this little house all dressed up with a fancy yard.  That's our hope for the yard next year, to brighten it up and give it a lot more curb appeal.  We were so overwhelmed with the moving this summer, and then it was so hot, that all we could manage was ripping out one of the giant, overgrown bushes, and putting two potted hibiscus next to the front door!

I wonder if it would be annoying to do that rock border again...

Revealing The Stairs

The stairs up to my office are wooden and gorgeous, from what I could see peeking out from under the green industrial-strength carpet runner that is nailed over them.  The carpet itself wouldn't have been so bad except that it probably hasn't been vacuumed in a decade!

The stairs on the day we moved in....  With lots of goodies left for me!

Looked at the stairs mid-day Sunday and decided today was the day to take that carpet out.  Started at each end and worked towards the middle, yanking out those claw-like carpet nails with only a couple hammers.  K was off to the big football game with our friends, and I couldn't find her cats-paw tools, so I had to make do with hammers.

My tiny hammer!

Under the carpet was so. much. dirt.  Like an inch in some places.

Dirty!!

A few hours and a pile of carpet nails later, I had the carpet off and rolled up into a thick, dirty bundle.  Swept and vacuumed the stair treads, and then went over each tread and rise with a strong solution of Dr. Bronner's and Murphy's Oil Soap.  The wood was SO dry and neglected.  It glowed when I was finished!

One tread is really cracked, and K is going to fix that later.  It is fixable and makes more sense than replacing the tread, since the wood probably wouldn't match.  At some point, I do want to sand and refinish the stairs, but that will have to wait, for now.

But they look SO much better already!

After

Before