I never wanted to blog.

This is not something I ever planned on doing, wanted to do, thought that my thoughts needed to be put out in the world for everyone to see.  I never wanted to blog.

But, I'm getting tired of racking it all up in my brain, creating the storyline in my head, letting it take up space.  I may as well just get it out, right?  Make room for other stuff.  Maybe someone out there might find something I post as useful.

I can't say this will be a normal blog.  Or a whole hog DIY blog.  Or all about interior design tips.  Or what-have-you.  

It will most likely be a story of buying a house from a flipper in Chicago who had the worst taste on the planet and did things, how shall we say, cheaply?  

And how I'm trying to make it nice using my skill set within a reasonable budget.  

Plus I guess what got me to here today is that I'm so tired of looking at ugly stuff that's affordable while the attractive simple modern stuff is expensive.  

There's got to be a way, right?......Right?  There will be.  It just takes time and patience.  

I'm sure too some trials of homeownership will be peppered in here at times.  And fyi, I have no idea what I'm doing, so I'm bound to make this thing not look right or function properly.

Our house, before

Here's the house, pre-flip, before we bought it, before the flipper got his grubby paws all over it.  It used to be a two flat and was converted into a single-family home.

It had that sad 50's stone facade, or maybe it was 70's.  Either way, it was sad looking.

Our house, after

Here's the house now, post-flip.  Or I should say, real estate listing post-flip, pre-purchase.  

It's got a fresh new facade of brick, a new door and one ginormous window on the first floor.  Although I guess it had that huge window before it appears.  Well, at least the front looks a lot better.  And at least the brickwork was done well.  It's pretty strong brick too, so say the several drill bits I broke trying to hang house numbers and our mailbox.

So we'll see where this thingie goes.  If anything it'll just be a record for myself of all that I did to undo what they all did.