Moving Upstairs

As I promised yesterday here are some photos of the upstair half of my home.  Starting off with the girl's bedroom.  It's pink, and the door says "Lisa's".  

Here is a detail shot of the creepy little attic door.  If the little door isn't creepy enough, that little girl drawing should do the trick.

This is the light switch, also a bit creepy.  Plus why did this girl have three (one not shown) locks on her door?  

The upstairs bathroom.  

The blue bedroom.  The downstairs bedroom had this same paneling in it, but we took it down.  

Ick, it was soooo hot today.  We worked for a couple hours taking down the shoe molding, but we were sweating buckets, so we decided to make it a short work day.  When I got home I was too beat to do anything but snack and nap. Maybe I'll hang out in the air conditioning, watch some movies, and paint my fingernails.  Hope ya'll are having a lovely Wednesday, and happy DIYing, chris.   

Working At It Again.

Back at the workhorse again.  Aaron removed all the large trash from the house yesterday, so today I took some photos of how the house is looking.  First here is a reminder of how the living room originally looked.  Awesome carpet right?  

This is how it is currently looking.  We finished removing the carpet (the easy part), then we spent hours scraping at the padding that had became one with the floor beneath, and removing staples along with the tack strips.  I still have some scrapping to do in front of the bathroom.  Then it will be time to rent a floor sander.  I can't wait to see how these floors polish up.  

This is the downstairs bathroom.  Behind the green curtain on the left is a large standing shower.  You can also see just how grimy the walls are here.  Look on the doorframe to the left.  Everywhere in this house around hand height the paint has been worn down on the walls.   I'm willing to be the old lady who lived here previously spent very little time cleaning in her last decade of life.  

This is the downstairs bedroom.  I've been spending the most time working on this room so far.  It used to have wood paneling in it, but my stepdad helped take that down.  My mom helped me remove the drywall and insulation from the two exterior walls.  Today I spent the day vacuuming and scrubbing this room down.  The floor is still a bit wet in these photos from me mopping.  We want to flash and insulate the windows better, and the walls.  Hopefully we will be able to do a better job keeping moisture from getting in than the previous owner did.  

This is the dining room.  We were storing the trash in here, and now it's the tool storage area.  For now we are just going to give the room a light sanding.  Clean the heck out of it, then cover everything in paint.  I definitely need to think about doing something with that hanging light.  I'll try giving it a makeover, and see how that goes, but it might just get replaced.  Currently half the times Aaron walks through this room he runs his head smack into it.  We don't currently own a dining room table, so this room might not get used much.  Buying a dining table isn't really a priority,  right now.  Though we have been pricing some fun tables at the local used furniture joints.  Can you tell I'm excited to get to the decorating part.  

This is the kitchen.  It's a great size, just a bit awkward.  This is another room we will be scrubbing down, coating in paint, and then it will be good to go.  Someday we'll give this guy a complete makeover.  It will be super fun to make this our own style.  

Here are the stairs.  Don't they look awesome?  I was so pleased there was nothing wrong with them under that carpet.  I was totally expecting to spend hours scrubbing away.  

And on that happy note I'm going to go!  I'll share the upstairs tomorrow.  Oh by the way we are having another heat wave in my neck of the woods.  I was working in 100º heat with no A/C or fan on today!  We have A/C, but I didn't want to suck up all the nasty dust I was knocking about today.   I've been doing a good job keeping myself hydrated, and a couple times today I even thought, "a hundred degrees isn't so bad.  I can totally handle this".  I must be going crazy.  Hope you're keeping cool in all this heat, and happy DIYing, chris.  

Exciting News!!!

I mentioned a few days ago that there has been a serious lack of DIYing on here, but it was due to a super special secret surprise.  Dunta - dunta - dahhh!!! 

Aaron and I are homeowners!!!  Yay!  It's a cape cod style, with a living room, dining room, kitchen, full bathroom, and bedroom downstairs.  Upstairs there are two bedrooms, and another full bath.  There is a ton of work to do, but we are ultra excited.  Old and new homeowners like to remind us, there is always a lot of work with a home.  When I was a kid I didn't dream up what my wedding would be like one day.  I dreamt about what it would be like to work on my own home, and make it into something my neighbors and friends would be proud to know the owners of.  I couldn't be more elated to own a home with Aaron.

The first two things I wanted to get done pronto, was changing the locks, and removing this stinky, worn out, gross, outdated carpet. 

It goes up the stairs, but it doesn't go into the bedrooms, or the bathroom.  Ick, so glad there isn't carpet in the bathroom.  

Luckily it mostly resides in the living room.  

I put on a pair of thick gloves, with a tough exterior to protect my hands.  Then I started pulling the rug up.  In the doorway between the dining room, and entry there was duct tape keeping the carpet down, so I started there.  A large middle band of decent hardwood appeared, and I was mega pleased.  I was expecting all the wood to be a wreck.  The padding is stuck to the floor in the front of the room, and back in the little nook by the bathroom/bedroom/basement area.  I think with some elbow grease, and a large scrapper we can get it off with little damage to the wood beneath it.  

Next I got to work pulling up the seam of staples that ran the length of the room, and around the perimeter, plus a short four foot section.  I used the hammer and the catspaw to pull the staples up.  A lot of the staples were rusty, and would break, so I used the pliers to pull them out all the way.  I tried not to leave any pieces of staple in the flooring, but there are a couple places I couldn't get it out completely.  To ensure no one snags their bare feet on them, I gave the tiny bits of metal a good beating with the hammer.  

I removed most of the wooden tack strips around the room, but Aaron helped with the last bit.  Which was awesome, cause then I was able to get a couple action shots.  He wasn't able to help today, because he had jury duty! Totally no fun! He always manages to get picked too.  Poor guy.  

A wonder bar would have been a useful tool too, but I don't own one, and didn't think to buy one.   Ya work with what ya got.  :)  We hammered the catspaw in under the nails that secured the tack strip to the floor, and pried them up.  Working from one end to the other, until the strip was loose.  

This is how we left the room for the day.  Tomorrow I will scrap up the remaining padding, and then see how they clean up with wood cleaner.  Plus I still need to remove the carpet from the stairs, and upstairs landing.  I'm excited to see how this place cleans up.  Maybe I'll take her out on a cheap date, if she looks real nice.  :)    

Like I said, I'm thrilled to be working on this home with Aaron.  Right now I couldn't think of a better adventure to go on with him!  Hope you're having a super special Tuesday too, and happy DIYing, chris.