Friday, March 30, 2012

So sore!!  Yesterday I decided to tackle the linoleum glue residue on the laundry room floor.  That is what I worked on ALL day!  I also decided to try nap time at the "new" house.  The younger two had no problem falling asleep and staying asleep for two hours with all the banging and stomping on the roof.  The oldest had more trouble because he always wants to know what is going on and would like to be watching rather than sleeping.  He did manage a half hour nap...good enough for me.  I did not feel nearly as productive yesterday...mainly because we had to leave with this little area of glue on the floor mocking me and my sore arms.  I went back this morning for a little while, but I just had nothing left.  Next week! 

The roofers are still hard at work.  They have all the old tiles off and are replacing some of the boards underneath and the paper.  They will take a break this afternoon till next Monday so that the fumigation can be done.  The tent goes on this afternoon.  We will be sure to get a picture and post it once it is up. 

We are planning to stay away from the house and its poisonous gasses this weekend.  Instead, we will be spending time at the hardware stores looking at paint colors and tiles.  My other project for the weekend is to clean up and paint the outside lights.  We had thought to get rid of them and buy new, but a nice outside light is rather pricey!  So we will see how these look freshened up.  We will put up some before and after pictures when we are done. 

That's it for now...I need to go rest my sore hands so that they will be ready for more scrapping next week!
     

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Yesterday sure was busy!  The roofers began taking down the roof tiles.  They spent all day working on the tile and still did not finish!  I went over this morning to pick up a few things and they were back at it.  They had taken down some of the woodwork today.  The plan is to have the tile and woodwork down and the new wood up by Friday.  Then we can have the fumigation process start Friday and be completed by Monday.  We'll see if it all happens on time!  Here is a picture of the roof as of last night...


We had the pool company come out and get us going with chemicals and a "Having a pool 101" lesson.  Just as they were leaving the key company came and re-keyed our locks.  After that the kids and I spent the morning working on random things inside...some of the must go's!  We took down all the drapes...I am thinking maybe they should go to goodwill.  They are still in decent shape, just dirty and not my style.  The weird panelling I could not leave alone, so it is gone now as well.  Here is the closet without it...


Now I just have to fill in the gazillion nail holes.  I didn't take a picture of it yet, but the pink light switch cover is gone as well courtesy of hubby.  I guess he liked it less than I did.  Also not pictured is the linen closet, in which I removed the linoleum from the shelves.  I had not planned to do it yesterday, but I tried one piece and it came off so easily I could not resist taking the rest down.  Now there is just the glue residue left for me to remove.  That should be fun!  The last project was the linoleum in the laundry room. 

Here it is before

And after

I still need to scrape the glue off here as well, but it was nap time so another day.  Here is the mornings work in summary...



We added the pink light switch and closet linoleum in the evening.  Not to shabby for a morning's work with three kiddos!  Everybody slept great at nap time!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Yeah, finally got the keys!  No more fence hopping or driving to Target to use the bathroom!  I took the kids to meet Robin (our wonderful realtor) at the house late this afternoon and Jon met us there after work.  We made sure to take our before pictures and then got busy.  We now have one clean bathroom and vacuumed carpets.  There will not be much more cleaning for now, since we need to have the house fumigated and then we will be working on the floors.  No sense in cleaning more than you have to!  The kids had fun eating a picnic dinner in the family room with the camping chairs.  Here are a few pictures of the main rooms...

The kitchen is original and will need to be updated, but that is a few years down the road.  I will be happy if we can get the linoleum out of the cabinets...yes, every cabinet and drawer is covered in linoleum, even in the pantry.

Here are the living room and dining room.  There is a step up into the dining room.  I love the chandelier...the one nice thing left in the house!  The floors are hardwood and in decent shape, so they stay.

This is the family room.  The kitchen is on the left.  We want to do something to the fireplace, just not sure what yet.  Let us know if you have any ideas!  Right now it is black brick.  The flat screen hook up and surround sound are going, as is the carpet.  It does not look too bad in the picture, but it is badly stained so we will replace it.

Here are some of the must go's...

The boy's room color!

More linoleum lined shelves.  These are in the linen closet.

Weird wood panelling with hooks in the master closet.  Now if it was cedar it would stay, but since it is some cheap wood that does not smell good...tearing it down!

Pink?  In the master closet...nope, going!

So, tomorrow brings the pool man to check out the system and the roofers to begin taking down the old roof and woodwork.  Till then... 

     

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Weekend one completed!  We did not get our keys Friday, but we were given permission to work on the yard.  Friday night and all day Saturday were spent pulling weeds, trimming, & mowing.  We had our first guests over for "lunch".  Dustin and Kristina brought a lunch and had a picnic with us in the backyard (after hopping the fence).  Then we put them to work!  Thanks to them for all their hard work!  What a difference a couple days of hard work make.



 Side yard before


 Side yard after


Back of house planter before

Back of house planter after 


Still lots to do!  Next weekend's plans...yardwork!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Signed papers today!  We are hoping for the keys by Friday so we can get busy with our project list.  We went over to the house this evening and took some "before" pictures of the outside...gives you some idea of the work needed.  Here are a few...




Here you can see the damaged wood and roof. The tiles on the far left part of the roof have started to come off. We are planning to have the wood under the windows removed completely, the siding replaced and the open area over the entry tiled over. Our new roof tile is more of a brown shade than the red it has now. Supposedly brown is the "in" color these days. We need to do a little yard work too... 


Speaking of yard work...he just couldn't help pulling a few weeds!



Monday, March 19, 2012

This is the first post of the first blog for me, so please have some patience while I try to figure it all out.  I wanted a place to post our house projects for all to see and figured this would be the best way.  Let me know if you have any comments, ideas, helpful hints...