Welcome to the neighborhood

It was great for Daniel and I to have the next few days to explore the quirks of our new home and neighborhood.  We prepped the bedrooms for a clean coat of paint which took some effort, probably more than really necessary.  The walls had a bit of a "chicken skin" texture, so we bought a power sander (fun!) and smoothed the walls, as well as ripped out the baseboards and built-in closet shelf.  As I said before, everything about this house was thoroughly installed!  The baseboards were actually one inch half round dowel strips installed at the bottom of the wall and about 3 inches up the wall to give the look of a full baseboard.  It must have been the style in the 50s.  The closet shelf was obviously a "home owner's special" and had to be ripped apart in order to get it out of the closet.  The clothing rod was a solid metal pipe!  Amongst the sanding and removing, we discovered that the rooms were once pink and mint green, the original yellow tile still lined the window sills, and there was parquet flooring under the pink carpet.  We thought that maybe the floors were salvageable, but the 50 year old glue wasn't holding very well anymore and the parquet would have to be removed too.  Before that could be done, we had to test out the new paint spray gun!  Once Daniel got the hang of it, painting took no time at all.  The set up took the most time, taping things off, cleaning the walls, figuring out how to use a stupid pour spout that was too small for the 5 gallon bucket lid, scooping spilled paint back into the bucket...

A man and his machine... and evidence that a pour spout got the better of us.

Pink and mint green paint layers.

Original yellow tile which we will keep.

During our many trips to Lowe's, we got to discover the neighborhood a bit.  Most of the neighbors have lived in their homes for awhile and get together often for holidays and barbecues, which is right up our alley.  When searching for a house, we wanted an intimate neighborhood with sidewalks, and we got it!  The lake that the neighborhood surrounds is stocked with fish and free of alligators, thank goodness.  Our little pups would be prime alligator snacks.  With the lake so close, there are many different birds that roam the hood, including wild peacocks!  They're everywhere!  They show off their feathers, hang out in trees, and yell at you when you hit the speed bumps too fast.  Our dogs are going to have a heyday barking at all the different critters.

One of our neighbors.

Upon returning from one of our outings, we met the next door neighbor.  His son had just returned from his freshman year at UCF, the same school that Dan went to, and had parked his car in our driveway since it had been vacant for so long.  They were very nice and happy to welcome us into the neighborhood.  Later that night while we were painting, our doorbell rang.  There was our neighbor, advising us to take the renovations slow, then handed us two cold beers.  This is definitely the neighborhood for us!

A fun and silly coincidence: the old air fresheners from the previous owners were labeled on Daniel's birthday.