Chapter Two

[boxerdc]

Alright, It doesn't really belong in Architecture, but there is a building involved...

My partner and I will be starting on chapter two of our lives together a week from tomorrow. We just got the settlement date on our new house, which is the 11th of December, and we'll finally be sharing one place..

Now we have the fun and happy task of moving the stuff out of his house, and moving the stuff out of my house, then combining it and moving it all into our new place, while finding people to rent our old places..

And the new house is desperately in need of a gay mans touch, there's hideous wallpaper and horrible paneling everywhere, and (horror of horrors) a chain link fence!!

So, I'm excited that we've reached the point in our relationship where we know that we're going to go to bed and wake up together every day for the rest of our lives, but I'm really not looking forward to the work involved.

We'll also be leaving the District of Columbia, and moving a mile into the state of Maryland. The house is large, and it's still close to work for both of us, but suburban living is not something that I'm accustomed to.

The neighborhood is friendly, and a lot of houses have gay flags flying outside. We've met our next door neighbors, and they're really quite nice.

Lots of changes, but all in all I'm pretty excited. I've never OWNED a house with someone before, and neither has he.. We're both a little nervous, but it's really as close to a marriage contract as we can get right now..

So, wish us luck, and give me ideas for how to make an old house look good for little or no money..

[marshlander]

The very best of luck to you both. What an adventure!

I shall refrain from offering design tips since I come the school of home décor that believes in leaving things in piles until you move them about for a change of scenery.

[fredv3b]

Good luck to both of you. My and my bf are in a similar position. We've just bought an Apartment, I'm moving into it next week and him the week after. Decor is actually fairly bland but reasonable, just needs a bit of life putting into it. The cooker is ancient and will be replaced shortly. In desperate need of curtains. But all things considered its all going pretty well.

[princealbertofb]

The very best of luck to you both. What an adventure!

I shall refrain from offering design tips since I come the school of home décor that believes in leaving things in piles until you move them about for a change of scenery.

Lol; sounds like home, to me... :tongue:
Good luck with the new home you two...

[ardus]

Good luck with your new home, I've got no sense of style so I can't offer advice on decor I just know how to build things so if you need any advice in that area hit me up.
Richard

[boxerdc]

Good luck with your new home, I've got no sense of style so I can't offer advice on decor I just know how to build things so if you need any advice in that area hit me up.
Richard

Thanks Richard,
I can build, and I'm good at it. It's basically what I do for a living, so that's not a problem..

I am however colorblind, so I can't match things, and all my taste is in my mouth unless it comes to motorcycles, men and tattoos..

Luckily, my partner is really good at decorating.. sadly, he's not very good with budgeting..

So, if you can find the $6000 couch he'd like for $1000, or find me plans so that I can build it for less, I'd love your help..

Otherwise, I'll be working my ass off so he can buy us pretty things for the house.

[marshlander]

That is so cute

Gotta love honeymoons!

[peterinmalaga]

That's great. Your new house sounds brilliant. By accident my bf and I discovered a cheap way of decorating. We bought a pot of paint for the walls that turned out to be far too dark, so we mixed it with LOADS of white paint and now we have a nice, light, creamy beige colour in our living room. We like bland! But it's nice to have lots of house plants (also cheap, generally) and just a touch of red to brighten the room up. We like oriental carpets but they're impossible with our dogs – too much hair. So we have a carpet on the wall. Our apartment was new when we bought it and has nice marble floors which are easy to keep clean and are nice and cool in the summer: it gets pretty hot here in July and August. We are also lucky in that we actually prefer Ikea furniture and this just happens to be cheap. Spanish furniture can be very dark and heavy. I don't like the trend in the UK for black decor: it's a bit too funereal for me. I really like pale colours with lots of green plants. Good luck in your new life together. Be nice to one another. Was it John Lennon who said “Make love, not war”?

[fjp999]

[COLOR="Purple"]Chain link fence cant imagine...

BIG BIG CONGRATS

If youre lucky your wallpaper was put on perfectly and you can finish it and then paint on top of the wallpaper. If it hasnt been put on perfectly then you got a mess! Dont believe anyone about some product magically ungluing it off without a lot of elbow grease.

I do like color on the walls but you really do have to be careful about going too dark. My master handyman says after you pick a color go one shade lighter.

Wish I could help you with the color picking but it is such a personal choice. Another thing my handyman says is is that once you have all the furniture and shelvings and stuff - the wall colors will blend and you wont notice the wall color that much.

I love adding framed items/art everywhere and of all sizes. It is a lot of fun and breaks things up. I am adding a lot of shelving to the walls also.

Not sure if you qualify and you probably know already that there are a lot of programs out there for new home owners.

Again, best of luck to you both.[/COLOR]

[boxerdc]

We do qualify for some programs, but not all, as this is my second house, and his as well.
We'll be selling his, and renting my old one (there's already an apartment downstairs).. so I'll be able to afford to have someone come in and remove the wallpaper..
Incidentally, it's exactly the same wall paper that my mother put up in her house back in the 70's..

That's a little bit scary to me.