Welcome to 19 Southfarm

Today is Mike's three year anniversary with 19 Southfarm*!  

*Street name changed for privacy.

I feel like I talk a lot about things going on at my house as well as my roommates.  I thought it would be fun to compile all of my posts/photos about the house as well as introduce you to my roommates.  So, here's "where I live."

First of all, about the house: Mike actually bought 19 Southfarm with one of his friends.  It is a 2,500 square foot, 5 bedroom house, in a suburb of Hartford, CT.  Since initially "splitting" the house with his friend, that friend has left, Mike has become sole owner, and A LOT of work has been done [by us].  I love painting and decorating, so it's been a lot of fun [and a VERY rewarding experience] for me!  

Here are the updates so far [click on the link to see the most recent photos]:

Upstairs: 
- One, two, three bedrooms [the 4th bedroom was always livable]: de-wallpapered and painted
- Bathroom: de-wallpapered, painted, re-grouted, caulked, and made/hung curtains

Main floor:
- Living room: de-wallpapered and painted
- Hallway: de-wallpapered and painted
- Dining room: de-wallpapered, painted, stained and put in new chair rail
- Kitchen: de-wallpapered, painted, made/hung curtains, and deep cleaned
- Bathroom: de-wallpapered, painted, re-caulked, made/hung curtains, and wooden built-in refinished
- Cedar sunroom and breezeway: already good to go!

Basement:
- Main living space: wall removed, painted, all new crown, baseboard, window, door, and accent molding [stained and put in], made/hung curtains, and bar built from scratch
- Bedroom: painted
- Laundry room: [Still needs to be painted]
- Bathroom: [Still needs to be painted]
- Kitchen: dry wall ripped out [Still needs new dry wall, insulation, paint, and to rehang the cabinets]

Outside:
- New, extended back patio
- New shutters, painted doors, and gardens

And of course, we have decorated every room of the house, too!

One thing I realized when linking to past blog posts, there are NO photos of our master bedroom!  How crazy is that?  There was even a photo super far back in this blog of my college dorm room, so how did I miss our room?!  Here are a couple:

You might notice a common theme in the diy projects: de-wallpapering.  When Mike bought 19 Southfarm, EVERY SINGLE ROOM OF THE HOUSE was covered in 1970s-style wallpaper.  In fact, the first party he had was to de-wallpaper the house.  Here are a few photos of what it looked like when Mike bought it: 

[those saloon doors still exist between the kitchen and dining room :) ]

But, of course, we couldn't just get rid of all of it.  We saved a few pieces, framed them, and hung them in our upstairs hallway!

Now onto the roommates.  As you can imagine, in three years, with a bunch of single people, all with different careers and life plans, we have had a few people move in and out.  The top left photo was the first set of roommates in 2010, the top right is 2011, the bottom left is 2012 [at the Color Me Rad race], and the bottom right are our current roommates in 2013.  And yes, we hang these photos in our stairway like most families hang photos of their children.  

We have also had our share of pets.  Roxy was rescued 6 months or so after Mike bought the house.  Her best friend in the photo below this is Grizzly Adams.  He belonged to the guy Mike bought the house with and sadly left when he did.  Actually, Roxy used to be his cat as well, but since I took care of her for a good 6 months after he "forgot to," I refused to let him take her - not that he cared anyway.  Okay, rant over.  Now we are happy to have Roxy and Merp [our other roommate's cat]!

And now: the 5 of us.  There's me, Mike, Jeff, Dave, and Lindsey.  Jeff has lived there from he start with Mike.  He's our mountain man and went to college with Mike.  Dave moved in two years ago and was childhood friends with the kid Mike used to own the house with.  He's our sarcastic, sports freak.  I moved in on June 1, 2011 after I graduated from college, and Lindsey moved in this past summer with her kitty, Merp.  It's so nice to have another girl around, especially after going a year with 4 guys!  She is finishing her senior year of college this spring.

Clockwise starting with Lindsey: Lindsey, Jeff, Mike, and Dave

[I was taking the photo]

I absolutely love it here.  My thought is that at this stage in our lives, this is probably the last time any of us will live with anyone else besides our significant other [well, until retirement homes], so why try to grow up too fast!  

I hope you've enjoyed this look at 19 Southfarm!  I hope to have more updates soon with more diy projects.