Humble Home Progress 2

John had 2 days off and we spent almost every minute of them on the house! We are both anxious to move in, so we are working as fast as possible.

     We got a great deal on the house....yes...but, the previous owners never cleaned! And the lights in many rooms are so dim (25 watt bulbs!) that I wonder if they just couldn't see the filth they were living in. But for me, I don't want to feel like I am in a hotel, in my own home....so we are re-doing the bathrooms throughout the house. Instead of paying thousands to install new baths, I found a company online that does resurfacing: www.tubsandtops.com  We had a guy come out yesterday morning and resurface the master bath, master shower, and upstairs tub for $600! Look at how clean and white they are---can't use abrasive/bleach cleaner on it though:

 Haven't painted in there yet...and we definitely need blinds...neighbors window looks right in!

John went and bought this ladder that extends to 22' so we can do our big walls soon (gonna be scary to be that high...hope it looks good though!) and I needed it to reach the crown moulding in the office(especially to tape it off--but at least that meant I didn't need to tape the ceiling. It's hard to see with the light on in there because it casts shadows, but we will take it out and put in a ceiling fan soon, since it won't be a formal dining room anyway. The colors are dramatic, and John didn't like it when I first started with the light green, but when I was done, said he took it back :)

And then after second coat: 

I like the colors and think they will look better after the dark laminate wood floors are in. I still want to get that tree branch decal too. The colors don't look exactly like the pictures--they aren't as bright or lime-greeny...it's called "soothing green tea" and "dark olive".

  I finished my second coat of the gray in the upstairs bath, and was about to start taping off the inner bathroom room, with the actual tub and toilet, when I noticed how filthy the walls and trim and baseboards were....caked on pee..obviously a boy splattered his pee everywhere while standing...disgusting. I couldnt' even scrub it off, so I was about to paint the baseboards and trim white, but asked John to take the toilet out. It was a long process.....with multiple trips to the store...the bolts and pipes and everythign is corroded...it was like it was never washed. He was able to take it apart and put it in the garage, but the hole was an odd size so the rubber stopper we bought:



didn't fit....and we didn't want the house filling up with methane and stinking when they installed the floors so we had to just stuff it with a towel. so gross all the wax from the seal, mixed with dirt and you know what...yuck. The carpet is just as gross..we keep finding earrings and bugs and hair and trash...I feel bad for the floor installers that have to haul all this dirt and nastiness away...but they're getting paid well :) The house was built 10 yrs ago, so it's collected a lot of filth. Can't wait to get the new floors and new toilet and paint in. That bath is pristine though! Sadly, the other 2 toilets are just as disgusting (as well as the baseboards.) Anyway, I like the gray I painted in the bathroom. We took down the big mirror for me to paint, and since its old ugly and heavy, we are gonna buy new vanity mirrors to put in there. I was thinking these:

But it'd probably look better to get a white framed mirrors huh? 

Before:

After:

So we are almost done with the upstairs...toilet held us back today. But John has a good amount of time off after the next 5 days, so we might just stay the night on the aerobed, especially since we can use the bath and shower now...it's a little far to drive 45 min each way after painting 12 hours, only to drive back again the next day. And with gas prices going up (thanks Iran!) we should stay up there a few nights to paint...but that means I need to make better choices even though we are eating out since we don't have a fridge yet.

  Oh and we decided to take the dogs with us today so they wouldn't sit in the crate the whole time at home. They enjoyed the house but of course stupid Tyrone had to poop in the house as soon as he came in. They also liked the yard, but it POURED all morning so it was like a sea out there.

  My feet ache, and my calves won't stop cramping. My shoulder blades hurt and my hands are calloused. And now we are home and hungry!

  And I bet you're wondering how the kids did this whole time lol.. Well, we took turns tending to them, but we had a little TV with their dvd's on, and they played with their puzzles and coloring books on the aerobed. And occasionally ran through where I was painting and touched the wet paint...lol, but they did well, and love being at the new house.

Oh I also finished up the guest room closet--and I think it made the room look bigger. I did some touching up of where the previous green paint went over on the ceiling or baseboards. It made the room feel more finished:

new floors new floors new floors....clean house clean house clean house! Soon :)
I'm so impatient...I can't wait til next tuesday when we can get back to work. Meanwhile we just got a notice from our apt saying our lease is almost up (March) and will automatically renew at $500 MORE than our current payment...AND that new management requires renters to buy renter's insurance. Good thing I have a signed copy of my notice that we are moving from a month ago. It's so convenient that they apparently "lost" it. Gotta get outta here and into the house soon!