Category: LIFE IN REMODEL

We’re at the 2 1/2 week mark of this new adventure and it feels more like 2 1/2 months.  Hubs and I have a combined 315 hours invested and still have not completed the removal of my cousin’s and gramp’s “things” from the house, attic and garage.  I even found my great grandmother’s financial and funeral records in the attic. 

Bucky was my cousin’s first hunting kill, but relax the deer was eaten for family food.  Bucky hung in the same place for so long that he has a permanent tattoo from the Mardis Gras beads that hung around his neck forever!

As you can see from these globes we will be purchasing a new ceiling fan and not even trying to clean this one!

On a REALLY happy note we did buy a new fridge today that will be delivered next week after the foundation work is done and we are extremely excited. It’s 28 cubic feet with all the bells and whistles and we were able to get it in white without an extra fee!  I’m so excited that we won’t be living out of a dorm fridge any longer!

I am going to be able to salvage gram and gramp’s head board for the spare bedroom.  It will look better than ever when I’m done. And trust me when I say EVERY piece of wallpaper in this house will be going away!

This is load 5, 6 and 7 of donations and trash with no end in sight!

While the house is now cleaner and free of all of her things the piles have now been replaced with our things from storage.  We put the furniture into a spare bedroom and the boxes are stacked in the living room and master bedroom. We are not going to unpack any more items until after the foundation work is done this next week.  We have 3 really large pieces left in the house from my cousin that we hope to get to the garage tomorrow for my uncle to arrange for their removal.

The first 2 weeks were tiring to say the least! Hubby and I clocked almost 300 hours just trying to make this place livable while we do the work.

I’m almost embarrassed to show you these before pictures, but it is what it is and the after pictures will be so good.

This is the master bedroom after 8 hours, but before vacuuming.

The master bedroom needs EVERYTHING! The paint on the walls is flat and at least 20 years old.  There are cigarette burns everywhere in the carpet and the electrical is all original except for the jerry rigging everywhere else. I’ve already blown out 2 plugs just plugging in the vacuum. I am cleaning the nicotine layer off the head board and able to salvage it for a spare bedroom.  It is my grandparent’s from the early 1930’s.

I use a Rainbow vacuum (water canister based) and after pouring off the water this colander holds the debris from the floor of the bedroom.

This room doesn’t look too bad – until you look super close.  I won’t even tell you what all was found in this room.

There was “STUFF” everywhere.  How any one person could stuff so much into one home is beyond me. After 12 days I still have more to send to donation and have used 78, yes I said 78 thirty gallon trash bags. It also has cost me $45 in beer and soda to get the trash men to take a little extra each time.  Fortunately they come twice a week.

The kitchen is usually my favorite room of the house…until now!  The kitchen also needs EVERYTHING!  The cabinets are coated in nicotine and food, and are also dry rotted, the floor is chipped and peeling.  No appliance is in the least bit salvageable including the kitchen sink.

There were fire ants all through the pantry and the refrigerator had become an overgrown science project.  The construction dumpster gets here Thursday and EVERYTHING goes!

The water heater and AC are all that can be saved.