Boo, hiss

Unfortunately, we didn’t get as much accomplished over the weekend as we’d hoped we would. I guess we’ll be spending the rest of the month making up for lost time, although Kevin nicely padded some of our projects so that we’d have some wiggle room in terms of getting things done.

On Friday, AmeriClean came in and cleaned both our HVAC ducts and our carpets. Because of the nature of our HVAC system, we actually had a greater than normal number of ducts to be cleaned. We also had our living room, hallway, and three bedrooms with all closets cleaned. The jobs were done by two different workers, and both actually used the word “gross” to describe their respective jobs to do at our house. Yikes. The company was able to cut us a 10% deal on cleaning our carpets since the house was vacant (usually the fee includes the worker moving your furniture around to clean the carpets), so the total for both jobs that day was $497. That kinda seems like a lot, but the difference it has made in the smell and air quality is pretty profound, so we figure it was well worth the cost. Eventually, we’ll be tearing up all of the carpeting, and we’ll probably continue to get the ducts cleaned once every few years.

Some of the concreteboard hung for the tub surround

The craft room

This is what this room used to look like. Progress!

New 50s lamp on a tension rod from Artifacts

Table lamps from Artifacts

On the docket for tonight after work will be finishing hanging the concreteboard in the tub surround, starting to tile, and continuing to prime the walls for painting.

Poop

Poo!

I think Kevin took some pictures last night, but I didn’t have the energy last night to worry about uploading them, so here’s a picture of the sewer pipe coming out of the old toilet, rimmed with a glorious coating of poop. I know it’s going to make your day.

Last night, there was some sort of snafu with the screws not being long enough to hang the sheets of concreteboard on the walls for the tub surround, along with issues with the wall layers not being the same depth, so I think Kevin and Mark did a lot of standing around and scratching their heads, until they finally decided to call off work for the evening until the next day when longer screws could be purchased. Thank goodness Mark is willing to work on it during the day while we’re at work.

While they were mid-scratch, I set about completing the cleaning of the kitchen. I scrubbed out the fridge with some sort of orange cleaner, finished wiping out the cabinets, gave it a thorough sweeping, and even managed to clean up the filthy window sashes over the sink. It’s ready for move-in! Tonight, I’ll probably spend most of my time running carloads of dishes, pots and pans, and food between the houses to fully transfer the room from our rental to the new place. Actually having some of our belongings in the new place will further solidify that it’s really ours.

I had already scheduled to take tomorrow (Friday) off in order to be there while the duct and carpet cleaners do their thing, and through a happy coincidence, Kevin may be able to take the day off as well. Last night after Mark left, we spent over an hour cleaning everything up upstairs, gathering up the last of the trash, and moving Kevin’s “keep” pile down to the basement. We were able to swing a 10% discount on the carpet cleaning because I told them we wouldn’t have anything for them to have to move when they did it, so cleaning last night meant that once work is done tonight, we can just shove the few items left in the living room into the basement or bathroom to keep my promise. The living room looks so much bigger when it’s empty! Let’s hope we don’t fall into the old habit of filling it with crap.

Into the abyss

So, we had our first night of working on the house yesterday. We ended up plugging away at going through and sorting trash from treasure from about 6-9:30pm, and even though we weren’t at it long, I think we honestly got a lot done. The basement is over halfway empty, and Kevin’s dad worked on getting the rest of his belongings out of the upstairs. Here are some pictures:

The living room

The other side of the living room

Doorbell and phone nook

Bathroom

The bathtub we both want to save

What will eventually be my craft room

Piles of stuff in Kevin's old bedroom in the basement

Shelves filled with who-knows-what

More piles of crap. You should have seen it before.

Check out the creeping black mold in the corner!

More updates to come!