The Summer of Blood, Sweat, and Tears . . . but mostly just sweat.

Four years ago I thought I was done traveling so I bought a house and settled down a bit.  At the time I felt like it was the right thing to do.  That sentiment lasted less than two years before I was off to far away places again.  I rented out the house always intending to come back to it but after two and a half years it was gently suggested that maybe I should sell the house. 

From the time I finally made it out of Saudi Arabia to the time I had to leave for England to start my Master's program in the fall, I only had about 6 weeks to get the house ready to be put on the market.  First, I had new tile put in the bathroom and kitchen.  Here it is before:

 

 Of course everything had to be moved out of the way and into the other rooms so my house was pretty cluttered for a while.  My kitchen was in the living room and my bathroom was in the bedroom.

The tile guys quickly got to work tearing out all the old tile.

Then the new tile went in and as it was drying and setting I chose some new paint color.  The color I finally chose was called 'Camel' which I found ironic after two years of living in Saudi Arabia.  The next step was to sand down and refinish the hardwood floor. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of how bad it looked before.  Then someone came to tear out all the old carpet.

 Since the front door is like the face of the house I had it replaced with a nicer door.  I also had new energy efficient windows put in to help with heating in the winter. 

 The last thing was to plant some cute flowers out front.  Since it was already almost fall, they only lasted just long enough for the photographer to come.  It was a lot of hard work but I got the house all remodeled in time and I was very happy with how it turned out.  Now for the 'after' pictures:

I tried not to get attached to the house again once it was looking great because I really felt like it was the right decision to sell it.  It was also a good time for the housing market and after only two days of back to back showings I got an offer on the house.  So with the house under contract, and Clay equipped with the power of attorney to finish things up for me, I set off to England.  I'll be doing a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics with a focus on teaching English as a second language.  It's a one year intensive program and I'm excited but nervous to be going back to school after 9 years.  So far I've just been settling in to my student accommodation and attending orientation meetings.  It's fun being in school again (although the real work hasn't started yet) and it's extra fun knowing I'll be able to do some weekend trips to interesting places around Great Britain.  But I think those will have to wait until the next blog posting.  Goodbye - or as the Brits say:  Goodbye!   It's so nice being in an English speaking country again.  :-)