Robert removed the carpet, Dad removed the tack strips, and I removed the staples. The sellers had two large indoor dogs and three kids (1, 2, and 3 years old). Needless to say, the carpet was very worn and smelled awful. Robert and Pepaw worked on the floors for a whole day together, and then Robert took it from there. The two of them could barely move for several days. It was incredibly time-consuming, and I couldn't help because I had to keep Sarah away from the loud sawing and hammering. It was a tedious task, but Robert would say it was work it to save $1000+.
Next came painting. We picked Magical for Sarah's room and our bathroom, Upward for everything else, except for Naval for an accent wall in our kitchen and an accent wall in our bathroom.
The lady at Lowe's was disillusion (and so were we) for thinking that we could get by with one coat and only 4 gallons. 2 coats and 9 gallons later, we were finished. We had lots of good help with painting! Robert painting the popcorn ceiling in several rooms. Initially, I wanted to remove and re-texture the ceilings, but because we have a vaulted ceiling the quotes were very expensive and ranged from $2,500-4,000. No, thank you. The ceilings were dingy and not bright white. Painting them stunk for Robert, but again, he agrees that they look so much better! I think the ceiling took 4 gallons of paint.
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| See the difference? |
The connection for the fireplace had been shut off, so Pepaw got it cranking for us again. Sarah loves staring at the fire...and at Pepaw!
In keeping with the fact that the sellers liked to do things halfway, they had nice wood custom-cut blinds in half the windows, and the other half had broken, brown mini blinds, so we ordered more matching wooden blinds for the four remaining windows. Love it!
Again with the halfway thing, there was a leak with the kitchen sink. They fixed the leak but didn't fix the rotten wood under the sink. Ugh. Pepaw to the rescue!
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| This is how you get work done with a baby. |
We replaced the locks and door knobs on all interior and exterior doors. No more brass. Hello, oil rubbed bronze!
We did some big time furniture painting and painted a bedside table, end table, and a hutch. I'm excited to finally have a handy place to store Robert's Mamaw's china so we can get to it more easily and use it more often.
Robert organized the garage. I think the cold weather motivated him to clear up the garage so that both cars can be parked in it.
We also installed a new ceiling fan in the living room. The old set up was a track light shining on some artwork, a fan with no light, and two brass recessed lights by the fireplace. We removed and patched the ceiling where the track light was, installed a fan with lights, and replaced the brass cases on the recessed lights with white cases.
Other tiny tasks included:
- Switch fans in Sarah's room and guest room - We thought the lighter one would go better in Sarah's room. One fan was also missing a pull to turn off and on the fan so every time you turned on the switch the light and fan both came on. Pepaw and Robert remedied that.
- Fix storm door - It wasn't hanging straight so the door knob couldn't engage and fully close the door. They had tried to fix it by gluing some stuff together, but it didn't work. Robert and Pepaw fixed it.
- Close outside crawl space vents to prepare for winter
- Straightened out accordion doors on laundry closet so they open and close more easily.
- Draino all the slow drains. I found a shoe lace in one drain!
- Wash windows - Inside and outside - They were beyond dirty.
- Install shower rod in Sarah's bathroom
- Attic ladder - shorten, tighten bolts - The ladder was seriously about a foot too long so it couldn't extend safely.
- Install kitchen sink light - The old light kind of looked like a ceramic seashell - picture something from a hotel lobby.
- Put up curtain rods and curtains in the living room, Sarah's bedroom, and our bedroom
- Hang pictures
The to do list never ends, right? Here are the remaining projects for the winter:
- Chalk paint the tray ceiling in the master bedroom and write a quote or scripture on it
- Patch a hole in the garage wall
- Caulk around sinks and tubs
- Touch up some spots with paint
Spring projects:
- Paint front door
- Power wash and stain the deck and bench swing
- Install clothes line for cloth diapers
- Extend down spouts and do some grading
- Remove satellite - Anybody ever done this before?
- Landscape - Rake (I don't think they'd done that since they bought the house 8 years ago. For real.), clear out the garden, trim bushes
- Clean the gutters
I'll do an indoor before and after at once we've done those last few things, and then I'll do an outdoor before and after this spring.
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