Category: LIFE IN REMODEL

DAY 442 UPDATE of the HOUSE FROM HELL

We began the work on the backyard this past week.  It seemed like it was going to be a straight forward project, but alas this too is a HORRIBLE pain in the butt. As with everything in the house nothing outside is square or level either.

We knew it would need some serious leveling, but we have spent days just digging up these pieces of broken block, concrete and pavers that were sticking up everywhere!  These are just what we dug up in an hour setting the base for the new gate. Unfortunately you are not allowed to throw these away in the trash and so we are are having to “break” them all apart into much smaller pieces and then use them under the sand layer we are putting down. It appears 6900 pounds of sand is not going to be enough even with using all the odd pieces of broken concrete blocks to properly level everything.

After we get it leveled with the sand we will still need a couple pallets full of pavers and sod before we can even sit and enjoy a glass of wine on the new patio. This is before the “PRETTY” side goes up.

Fencing is “supposed” to be part of the HOA fees, but we’ve been on the list for over 10 months with no hope for it getting done any time soon and figured the termites don’t care about the list so we just needed to get it done.  This is one of the better looking boards.  A good wind would knock this fence down.

I secretly believe the HOA makes everyone wait hoping they’ll do it themselves so the HOA won’t have to foot the bill. Since we are footing the bill we are building an “internal” “PRETTY” side to the fence so that in the future whoever lives here won’t be inconvenienced when the outer fence needs done again. It will also help with the leveling and paver process as we try to “square” up this mess.

Hubby did have wonderful progress on the gate.  I was able to paint the old hardware to reinstall it and we will be picking up the boards tomorrow to finish the inside of the fence before leveling the sand up against it. It does need a bit of tweaking and leveling, but we need to pick up longer bolts tomorrow before we can do that.

There are several things we would do different if we were staying, but all in all it looks like it will turn out well and at the very least be “turnkey” for the buyer.

I just pray that the vision in my head comes close to the reality when this is all said and done. I figure at the rate this is going with having to dig up all the broken bits and the fact that our backs are KILLING us from all the manual labor and sledge hammer swinging, we should be able to sit and have that first of wine sometime in late February or March.

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BEFORE AND AFTER UPDATE ~ AKA WHAT DID WE GET OURSELVES INTO?????

Our original thought as we walked through the door (after braving the jungle of a backyard) 431 days ago was WTF did we get ourselves into here.  We were weary and tired, the dogs and cat were miserable after 6 days on the road.  We honestly considered turning around and going straight back to Oregon for about 10 minutes, but that made us even more tired when we thought about it. ALSO, we had moving trucks from where we had things stored in two different states already on the way and had already spent a fortune to get here.  PLUS this was to help family so we stayed to see it through and have been working REALLY hard ever since.  I know grams is no longer turning in her grave at what her house became and is resting peacefully seeing it restored.

Coming here was supposed to accomplish three things.  The first being a place for us to settle and re-group our life after the Cancer, multiple surgeries, years of care giving for multiple people and have time to deal with the VA claim from hell.  Well, that has YET to happen as we have spent every waking hour just making this place livable. The second was to be near family – the same family that now that we’re here can’t seem to take time to spend together unless there’s an emergency. The third was to help out my aunt and uncle after my cousin’s death.  My uncle had his hands FULL since my aunt’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.  We were glad we could be here to help him especially after the fall that shattered her knee, the surgery for that along with the hospitalization and skilled nursing for the infection that ultimately took her life.  We did NOT expect him to decide two weeks later he was getting re-married and moving 5 states away.

You know how people say you’ll never use algebra after you get out of school? Well, I’m here to prove them wrong.  I loved word problems and algebraic equations and find I really do use them all the time.  This house is a perfect example.

X (minimum cash outlay) + Y (reasonable sweat labor done at a reasonable pace) + Z (fair price) = (PLACE TO SETTLE at a reasonable cost while helping family)

Seems like a simple equation right? That was before when my uncle said all the fixtures, appliances and flooring were good.  He did say the garage and backyard needed some cleanup as well as the house needing cleaned up and painted. He did NOT say that the garage leaked like a sieve and would also need major work.

So now factor in the ALL the things he DIDN’T tell us about “correctly” – like ALL fixtures, appliances, flooring, windows and doors, electrical and plumbing needing to be replaced, city and county code infractions, major drywall repair, bug and rodent infestation, as well as the fact that my cousin was a pack rat/hoarder who didn’t clean and that it would take 2 1/2 months of 12+ hour days, 7 days a week JUST to clear out ALL her trash and potential donations, not to mention the $900 or so of beer and soda to keep the trash guys happy so they would take everything each trash day (which is twice a week fortunately) and that she was a chain smoker that left everything covered in a layer of tar and nicotine. So now the equation looks something like:

5X+ (maximum cash outlay) + 20Y+ (maximum sweat labor done at a breakneck pace just to make it livable) + 5Z+ (no longer a fair or reasonable price because uncle wants same amount he did originally = (PLACE TO FLIP because it has become a money pit) AND (leaving us completely upside down in time and financial means, but at least we helped family whether they appreciate it or not)

So on to the before and after pictures. Hubby is upset that the before pictures don’t truly show how HORRIBLY DISGUSTING this place really was. I just hope the after pictures show how truly GREAT it is now – it really is turn key now!

MASTER BEDROOM & BATHROOM BEFORE

There was “STUFF” everywhere!  The walls where all stained from who knows what and the carpeting was full of melted wax and cigarette burns even in the closet.  I have to say that my cousin was evidently suffering from some form of mental illness because this is NOT how she was raised!

The picture above is what I got out of the bedroom carpet on the first pass of available floor with my Rainbow Water Vacuum. Disgusting does not begin to describe how it looked or felt.  Below was just one of the cracks to be repaired that was caused by the foundation issues.

The master bathroom didn’t look too bad until you looked close or opened a door and saw all the mold in the wood. So, it ended up getting gutted too. It took me 2 weeks, but I did get the tile clean in the shower, but we still need to find someone to professionally refinish the tile.


MASTER BEDROOM & BATHROOM NOW 

Finally a new window and completed bedroom. We used wainscotting floor to ceiling for the new bathroom walls.

SPARE BEDROOM BEFORE

The spare bedroom was stacked to the ceiling with junk!  It also housed much of her “business” food products.  What was the city thinking when they gave her a food license to operate out of this house? Not to mention it is completely against the H.O.A. rules and regulations for this neighborhood. In the photo below the bottom left hand corner was mouse droppings. YUCK!!

SPARE BEDROOM NOW

KITCHEN/DINING/LAUNDRY AREA BEFORE
THERE WAS “STUFF” EVERYWHERE.  NOT ONE CABINET WAS CLEAN OR ORGANIZED .
THE CABINET HANDLES THAT WHERE THERE WERE GREASE AND DUST COATED. THE CABINET DOORS WERE HANGING BY A THREAD.
THE REFRIGERATOR WAS FULL OF SPOILED AND SPILLED FOOD, MILDEW AND MOLD – A SERIOUS SCIENCE PROJECT IN THE MAKING AND ONE THAT THIS IMMUNITY CHALLENGED GIRL WAS HAVING NO PART OF.  THE SEAL ON THE REFRIGERATOR DID NOT WORK AND HAD BEEN LEAKING OUT FOR SOME TIME. THE FREEZER WAS ANOTHER ISSUE TRYING TO GET THINGS OUT SINCE THEY HAD FROZEN INTO ONE BIG GLOB BECAUSE OF THE LEAKING SEAL.
This is the pantry floor as clean as it would get!  We scraped off all the linoleum and sanitized the foundation before re-flooring.
BEHIND THESE DOORS (which are off their hinges and just propped there) IS THE LAUNDRY AREA AND ONE OF THE SCARIEST LOOKING AREAS.  THERE WAS A RATS NEST UNDER THE COLLAPSING, NOT TO CODE WATER HEATER base.  THE DRYER WAS NOT VENTED TO THE OUTSIDE AND HAD NOT BEEN FOR SOME TIME AS THE LINT WAS EVERYWHERE AND THE WASHER LEAKED LIKE A SIEVE!
This 10 pound bag of sugar was spilled ALL over a pantry shelf and was one of the biggest sources for the ants, cockroaches and mice.

KITCHEN/DINING/LAUNDRY NOW
STUDIO BEFORE
STUDIO NOW
ATRIUM BEFORE
ATRIUM NOW

 

FOYER BEFORE

The door would no longer open due to the foundation issues and she used this 24 square feet (8×3) as a “CAT BOX” area.  I hate to admit that this was the MOST disgusting of ALL the house and required several bottles of hydrogen peroxide etcher after we removed the toxic 2 layers of tiles.

FOYER AFTER

New floor, new door and new paint are done and looking good. I LOVE how much light the new door lets in.

LIVING ROOM BEFORE

These are cracks, tears and stains in the atrium/living room carpeting.

It took weeks/months to get the living room to this organized point LOL.  Notice the crack near the vent?  It went all the way to the floor and was 3 inches wide.  It is also why we waited over 3 months for the highly recommended dry wall guy that turned out to be a HUGE joke. The picture below is the living room after we finally got it emptied and ready to start painting.
This is one of 3 sections of the living room carpet that had melted candle wax all over it.  She had just arranged the furniture over it.

 

LIVING ROOM NOW
We made built in cabinets in the living room to hold things like the DVD player, WiiU, movies and games, etc…

I could not get Whiskey to move so she’s in the picture! There are still many Christmas things sitting around as I get them pack up to put away, but all in all it’s looking good.

SPARE BATH  BEFORE

There was a funky built in area above the tub for linens that needed to be removed and the walls had to be re-done after the 2 layers of wall paper were removed and the wall board was peeling away. 

SPARE BATH NOW
GARAGE  BEFORE

This was after hubby spent 4 weeks cleaning and and making a path for donation and trash.

GARAGE NOW

Hubby has done wonders at creating a neat and organized garage!
It took months to get to this freezer and then weeks to get into it.  The key wouldn’t work!  Turns out the seal had failed and there was a HUGE layer of ice sealing it shut.  It then took hubby days to chip away ALL the ice and bag the food that was there. 

We are SO thankful for our trash guys.  For a case of beer and soda twice a week they took ALL we gave them.  Way more than they were supposed to or should have.  We thank them for going ABOVE and BEYOND!
ATTIC
From this point in the attic you can turn 3 directions, but they all look about the same.  We got as much stuff out of the attic as the house it seemed. It is now ALMOST empty except for some insulation that needs bagged and the storage boxes I added just around the opening for when we move.
I tried to salvage these globes covered in nicotine and dirt, but in the end it was a lost cause.
JUST A TYPICAL TRASH DAY.  It looked like this, sometimes double this EVERY! trash day (2 times a week) for 9 months!
The wiring had to be all re-done as gramps and possibly Beth’s boyfriend, Tom had done some really scary Mickey Mouse jobs that left us thankful the place hadn’t been burnt to the ground.  We found an awesome Electrician and while Tommy was expensive, he is a Master Electrician and left us with a safe feeling allowing us to sleep at night.

This was the path hubby created through to the back gate. We are anxious to get this area done next month.  Right now it is empty, but very uneven so we will begin with 100 bags of leveling sand and see where it goes from there.

Did I ever mention that the neighbor next door in a 2 story tried to buy this place because he loved the floor plan, but my uncle wouldn’t sell until the foundation work was done? In ALL honestly this house would still be sitting here in the same condition we found it if we hadn’t come long when we did.  Unfortunately for us it appears my uncle does NOT appreciate any of this. He still wants more money than it was worth and said if he’d realized it’s condition, he would have just dumped it.  If that is the case I have to wonder why he didn’t sell to the next door neighbor to begin with and honestly if he’s going to “DUMP” it why not do so to the people who spent the money for the parts and labor AND did the back breaking work for over a year?

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DAY 400 of the HOUSE FROM HELL

I’m still working on the before and after update that I hope to have done tomorrow or Friday, but we are elated today, day 400 of the House from Hell as we finally got carpeting!  It’s been a REALLY long haul and we are exhausted, but I couldn’t wait to get a few pictures and a brief update posted.

It was supposed to be installed on the 5th which I was dreading because it was supposed to be raining, but the phone rang yesterday mid morning and they said there was a cancellation for today and did we want it?  Hell yes we wanted it.  So we spent yesterday moving everything and stacking it anywhere it would fit to be ready for this.

While we were moving furniture out of the room to be carpeted, we “installed” sliders onto the bottoms of the heavier furniture. These are on the oak church pew. I have to say that it was an ingenious idea that we really appreciated today while putting the room back together.
We piled it as high as we could!
Empty to the slab and completely ready!
YAY! I love purple LOL don’t worry this is just the padding.
I’d never actually seen the seaming process take place – it was really interesting and the most time consuming part.
ALL done and ready to be put back together.
This is actually the table that usually sits in the atrium, but we removed the legs and tucked them underneath to use the table as a supportive base for the Christmas tree.
Working on getting it all put together.
EVERYBODY seems ALL settled in now.

NEW LIFE to an old KITCHENAID

Back in 1994 we lived in Northridge, California. On January 16, 1994 I spent the day setting up banquet tables in my dining room and living room so I could empty out EVERY kitchen cabinet and drawer of dishes, food (including 6 dozen freshly made jars of jam) and cooking utensils onto those tables to prepare for a complete kitchen overhaul.  It was a tough job and in all honesty some things were stacked a bit precariously, but I made it ALL fit onto the tables.

After I accomplished that tiresome job I removed all the cabinet doors and had them stacked and ready for stripping and painting the next day.  I was exhausted, but I was ready for the next day full of painting. Or so I thought.

What I didn’t know when I planned that project was that the 6.9 Northridge earthquake was going to strike at 4:31 the next morning, only a few short hours after I called it a day from the prep work for the kitchen the previous day.  Long story short we lost 95% of EVERYTHING in the house and garage including my car.

It took a FULL month plus to pick up, bag up, box up and haul everything out to the curb to throw away the broken pieces of our life including furniture, walls and the jam mashed into the carpet.  We had no food except what was in the freezer.  We had a 2 week long block party with the neighbors all taking turns at cooking on BBQ’s in the street.   No electricity, no stores, no banks, no phones (the days before everyone having a cell phone)… life came to a grinding halt.

But, when the dust had settled, the insurance inventories had been submitted, insurance checks began to arrive and when we had caught our breath we began rebuilding.

One of the first things I bought was a new mixer.  I had decided that I was going to splurge and so I bought a top of the line (for the time) 6 qt. professional Kitchenaid.  At the time you couldn’t get all the designer colors so I got a simple white.

In early 2007 I couldn’t stand how it looked after so many years of use, but it is a work horse and I love it so I decided to paint it.  No since in spending money just for a prettier mixer so I chose a hammered copper paint which was popular for the time. 

Now, lmost 10 years later it was time again.  This time I chose a teal color to keep with the color theme I have chosen for this house.  Teal is my new favorite color since it’s the awareness color for Ovarian Cancer.  A day doesn’t go by that I don’t thank God for surviving Ovarian Cancer so choosing the teal is a happy reminder that I’m here and healthy. I got a little carried away and started painted a lot of things.

 Of course it began to thunder and sprinkle then rain so I had to move everything inside to finish drying.

All finished! A great 22 1/2 year old KitchenAid professional workhorse in a new custom color.

DAY 276 – LIFE IN REMODEL UPDATE – 2 BIG PROJECTS DONE

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a good update.  We’ve been working hard to get things done, I mean completely done, but the molding, caulking and painting are taking forever since we had to start from scratch and have been working with old substandard beginnings.  Honestly it would have been easier to build from scratch!

We decided to hire out 2 of our most dreaded jobs – jobs that we hate doing and decided our sanity was worth the cost of hiring out these 2 jobs.  That said, we still have to do the finish work on both jobs. The old door was solid wood – so extremely heavy and completely warped with the foundation issues.  From what we could tell my cousin had not used the front door in close to 20 years because it would not open.  It took us several weeks to even get to it and the several more to get it to open after the foundation work was done.  After they completed the foundation work they told us NOT to change any doors or windows for 3-6 months because the house would continue to settle.  Living with this situation has been a eyesore and pain in the butt, but is finally corrected!

 OLD DOOR – EXTERIOR
 OLD DOOR – INTERIOR
 NEW DOOR & FRAME PIECES
  • NEW DOOR INSTALLED & HUBBY WORKING ON INTERIOR MOLDING
  • TOMORROW I WILL DO EXTERIOR CAULKING
  • THURSDAY I WILL DO EXTERIOR PAINT TOUCH UP EARLY IN THE MORNING AND THEN START ON THE FOYER MOLDING CAULKING AND PAINT.
The window was broken when we got here.  We added the tape for a small measure of security.  I CANNOT tell you how happy this one simple thing makes me! But I bet you can guess!
Daniel and Jose made short work of the old window and installing the new one – much quicker than trying to do the front door yesterday!
After Daniel and Jose left I installed the new sill and the finish molding, caulked and painted it an voile’ I feel so much better!

ONE WATER CLOSET AT A TIME – DAY 253

When we decided to come here and take on this project it was supposed to be some paint, a little remodel and updating and A LOT of sweat labor for a couple months. We were told the carpet was salvageable and the appliances worked. NONE of which was actually true.  Unfortunately it took us almost 10 weeks of cleaning out the trash and donations to even be able to properly assess the situation.

Had we been told the REAL story with the condition of this house we would NEVER have come here!  Now, we just can’t wait to be done!!  Day 253 and we just pray we will be done by day 365 with this nightmare.

This week is about FINALLY bringing the laundry area into the 21st century and up to code. When we arrived the laundry area contained my grandmother’s OLD washing machine, an almost as old dryer that was not vented to the outside despite an opening cut through the wall, and a fairly new water heater that had been installed NOT UP TO CODE on top of the original base that was now rotting through and home to all sorts of critters.  First of all I’m quite appalled that SEARS would install something so poorly and wary of ever using them in the future.

Above is the before pictures AFTER we cleaned out all the crap short of the actual base and wall behind it. We were able to get the actual floor for the water closet portion laid down and the insulation for the outside wall and the inside closet walls.

Above is AFTER our “normally”wonderful plumbers were here, but before we installed the interior walls, ceiling, light and the cabinet above the washer and dryer. I did get the cabinet stained to match the kitchen cabinets over the weekend. We did get the remaining floor laid after they left for the day.

I say “normally” wonderful plumbers because Henry, the estimator was here two weeks ago and we planned this whole project out and booked for the 1st of July.  Then after being rescheduled two separate times due to their workload I expected perfection. Unfortunately perfection was not their forte’ today.  They did not have ALL the parts they needed to accomplish this project according to the original plan so in our opinion they half-assed it and “changed” our original plans for us and we will now be going to Lowe’s or Home Depot tomorrow to purchase the parts needed to change the things they did not do properly to get OUR plan back on track:

  • elbow and long enough gas line so the line doesn’t cut through the middle of the broom closet.
  • Elbows and NEW PVC so the discharge line for the pan hugs the pan and wall and doesn’t prevent the door from closing as it does today.

On Friday we will be putting the washer and dryer on “SLIDERS” also and starting to work on the walls, ceiling, cabinet, new LED light and the actual water closet door and broom closet.

MID WEEK UPDATE on the MINIIMIZING DONATION PROJECT

Just a quick update.  In the past three days we’ve gotten quite a bit done despite my lack of energy! 897 items since Sunday have been donated, now some of those are things like Pendaflex folders and recipe cards that I counted individually because they weren’t in sets. The items below are yet to be wrapped and boxed, but we did drop off a load this morning at the Women’s Shelter Resale store which made more room.  There were 3 BIG bags of baskets taking up a lot of space as well as the three 30 gallon totes so I was happy to empty the car.

I did get the baseboard all painted in the living room and atrium as well as get the whole house vacuumed.

But the greatest find was this super sweet letter our niece, Amber wrote us back in 2008 when she left for home after a 2 week visit. 

CAPTAIN’S LOG-DAY 246, WEEK 3 MONTH 8 UPDATE

It’s been awhile since I did a decent update on the house so thought I’d sit and chat for awhile. We’ve been quite busy doing a ton of the “LITTLE” finish projects and I’ve been fighting side affects of the cure to a disease that’s actually worse than the disease itself or so it seems. So, my energy level is almost non-existent and I’m happy to get anything done. While not being able to get as much done physically I have finally gotten through ALL of my aunt’s magazines that my uncle brought over.  I’m sure it’s just in time for the next load he’ll brings.  Anyway, on to the update.

Hubby got me a father’s day present.  LOL, yeah I’m not a father, but he promised me one of these for my studio 10 years ago for my birthday and it never happened so now is the time.  I can’t wait to get organized – finally a place for everything – now to get everything in its place.

We did finally get the floor in the studio closet and then I built the cubbies on the side walls for storage.  For some reason I didn’t get a picture of those yet, but will do that for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Hubby has been working hard get the garage walls reinforced with pressure treated wood.  He’s then sistering the old studs and finishing the walls.

I have been on a very specific diet (20 carbs or less a day) per doctor’s orders, but did manage to get a couple new recipes tried and will get the recipes posted soon.

The mosquitoes are horrendously bad this year!  So, I’m planting Citronella all around trying to make a less friendly environment for them.

Hubby and I decided to finally get the living room TV hung today, but it turned into an ALL day project – one of those domino effect projects.  While we were getting ready to mount it we realized that the cabinets below where it was going to be needed to be raised for the bottom doors to clear the future carpet.  This meant we had to empty the cabinets of ALL their contents and move them.  By raising the cabinets we also found we then needed to relocate the power for the TV and accessories which required cutting a couple new holes.  At least I did get all the games, CD’s and DVD’s sorted through and donated a bunch while organizing the rest.  Love these CHEETAH mounts though!

6 MONTH UPDATE

I realized I hadn’t done an update recently on our LIFE IN REMODEL.  Besides working on this project we call a house we have been dealing with a critical situation with my sick aunt. She could use everyone’s prayers to pull through this. What little time I had before is non-existent now so, I’ll make this quick. 

This week has NOT gone at all as planned.  It Started with Sunday night and early Monday morning with 17.2 inches of rain and the shut down one of the largest cities in the country.  Fortunately we did not have any serious flooding with our house, but the garage and back yard are another story.  I did walk down and take this picture of the overflowing bayou not too far from our house.  The birds were enjoying the fresh water.  Tuesday brought another downpour and then Wednesday did too as well as Thursday!  Friday and Saturday have been downright gorgeous though!

These are those great fire proof file cabinets we bought at Habitat for Humanity to organize hubby’s garage.  He’s working hard to get organized and do his part for this month’s minimalist challenge to eliminate our excess of stuff.

The rest of the flooring finally came in for the kitchen and alcove off the master bedroom and we got that laid.  As you can see finish molding needs to be next on our list.  We’re going to use the same flooring in the spare bathroom and hope to get that down this next week.

I’ve been working a bit more on that “TRASH to TREASURE” mirror project.  As you can see in this top picture we now have it screwed to the wall, but now I needed to find a way to disguise the screws.  I found some cut balsa wood pieces at the craft store and used 2 pieces to build the design below.  I hope to get it all painted and finished on Monday. I’ll do a follow up once the bathroom is finished.

We finally got the spare bedroom emptied, carpet, padding and tack strip removed.  Then we began to paint and paint and paint again.  The walls were like sponges – so thirsty! As you can see I tried one color and then another until I was happy with it.

The flooring went in fairly smoothly! YAY, we needed a break. The flat woven rug I originally chose for the dining room is in here now and I have to say I’m really liking it. Hubby got the spacers removed and the baseboard up today so we could move furniture in.  I’m still painting the larger dresser in the garage and there will be a chair that has yet to be purchased, but ALL in ALL I’m liking it! We’re calling this the “family room” because every photograph or art piece was done by a friend or family member.

Once again we cut it pretty short.  This is all that was left over from the flooring.

30 DAY MINIMALIST CHALLENGE

As you know we have been working around the clock to get things under control in this house.  Just to recap, we made a deal to come here last October and rehab my grandparent’s old place that my cousin had been in since 1993 when my grandfather passed away.  She passed away in 2014 and the house sat. Sigh. The hard part was that my uncle did not have a real clue as to how bad the house was under the “clutter” of my cousin’s things.  He was trying to work on it, still work and take care of my aunt who has Alzheimer’s disease.  So as you can imagine, it wasn’t getting done.  He told us it was going to need some cleaning out, paint and a little TLC.  Let me just say that my uncle had no real idea and that if we had not had our elderly animals with us, we would have turned around immediately gone back!

Even working long hours and at a fast pace it took us over 6 weeks to trash and donate the clutter so we could even get started.  

The house ended up needing EVERYTHING! from the foundation up.  We have now replaced ALL fixtures, electrical, plumbing, cabinets, windows and are almost done with the flooring as well as everything in between.  Our things had been in storage for several years and quite honestly we have been OVERWHELMED dealing with ALL of gram’s and gramp’s things and all of Beth’s things too as well as ALL of ours now in the midst of a MAJOR construction zone.

But the construction zone has become a home – I can cook real food and move forward with getting settled in! Our home is still full of boxes full of things that need permanent homes and I’m still a little bit overwhelmed.

Even though we don’t have a lot of stuff (we’re still currently missing crucial furniture – sofa, chairs, coffee table), we have a ton of stuff. Seeing everything piled high and wondering “Where am I going to put this?” is exhausting for both of us so we’re going to do something about it. We’ve been making regular trips to our local donation sight, but it’s NOT enough.  I’ve been setting aside anything that could be sold on Ebay, but that pile is HUGE and I want a fresh start. So this is like the shampoo bottle says, Lather, Rinse and Repeat. 

So here on day 180, our 6 month mark as a house warming gift to ourselves, we’re beginning a 30 Day Minimalist Challenge. For the last 6 months we have been living VERY basically so believe that we won’t even miss many of the things we choose to get rid of. Even though we already got rid of TONS of things, I bet I can still meet this challenge.  I originally found this idea on a blog about 2 years ago.  It’s pretty simple, and brilliant, really. Every day, for thirty days, you remove (trash, donate, or sell) items from your home.

Day 1 – 1 item
Day 2 – 2 items
Day 3 – 3 items
Day 4 – 4 items
And so on, until you reach day 30 and are removing 30 items. That’s AT LEAST 465 items we’ll get rid of. One of the hardest parts is keeping the inventory list, but I just found a clip board and put an old spiral notebook on it to keep it handy for the month to come.

Donation inventories and receipts to date for 2016 – hope to double this over the next 30 days. 

BTW that’s my new carpet those pages are laying on, do you like it?

GREAT START TO THE WEEK!

Thought I would do a short update before I do my normal Monday blog hopping. I have high hopes for the week and Monday did not disappoint!  The studio floor that started out poorly yesterday went lickety split today with hubby’s help. We even got the hallway done also.

This is where I began yesterday.
This is where I ended yesterday.
This is where we ended today – the floor ALL in and the furniture in place.  I even got all the felt pieces under the furniture as we went.
The hallway meshed up with the living room, bathroom and spare bedroom well.  We’re not sure yet whether we can salvage the carpet in the spare bedroom, but we’re sure going to try.  It’s in good shape except for a couple “unknown” stains.
It finally feels a bit more like a house!
When we bought the flooring they only had 10 boxes which is 13 square feet LESS than we calculated that we needed.  Fortunately we had VERY LITTLE waste and this is all we had left!

BYE BYE YELLOW, HELLO CRISP GREEK VILLA

So far it has been a VERY productive week.  We decided to take a break from flooring today -since we need to go buy more flooring plus it’s getting hard to scoot around on our butts day after day.

So hubby worked on the spare bathroom and a few odd projects while I started on the studio paint.

I could NOT wait to get rid of this horrible yellow in my studio.  Don’t get me wrong, yellow is a perfectly acceptable, bright and even pretty color.  BUT, it belongs on flowers and such NOT walls!! And of course this room needed the most patching so it also took the longest! It took me ALL day, but the entire room and ceiling has now had 2 coats and ALL the yellow is gone! Now to find the right flooring for here!
Have you ever seen this trick?  I taught hubby today and he thinks I walk on water now.  He was putting up the Wainscotting in the spare bathroom and came across an area that had 3 cut outs.  You can measure and draw it all out, but I read somewhere that if you use lipstick and then put your wood up against so you’ll know EXACTLY where to cut.
I don’t normally pay much attention to other people’s trash, but this mirror that my neighbor was throwing out caught my attention the other day.  It was actually quite ugly, but I figured painted it white it might just be what we needed for the spare bathroom.
So I taped up the actual mirror and started on all the crevices with canned air to clean it up. Then 3 coats of white paint later we have a winner for the spare bathroom. It was getting humid outside so I brought it in to finish drying, but forgot to get a better picture before I set it aside to finish drying.
But the true high point of the day was my dining room rug was delivered! We just LOVE it!
And a sure sign of spring, my air ferns started blooming!