I woke up feeling a bit more optimistic, even a little excited about how well things have been going.

 I was able to get the first layer of grout down fairly easily on the master bedroom closet floor.  The carpet installer came and measured the bedroom and said we might even be able to have carpet by next week! I also got my desk chair put together – it’s been in the box for 5 years! I also got 5 loads of laundry done, folded and put away.  I was able to put together a “rag” tote for hubby in the garage and today was trash day so spent some time hauling things out for our awesome trash guys.  They would take it all anyway, but with the beer/soda incentive they do it with smiles on their faces.

We were able to narrow down the paint color choice – FINALLY! We started with BEHR “Bakery Box”, but hated it after it was on the walls – too institutional.  Good thing each rooms needs at least 2 coats and 3 in some areas LOL.  Next we chose SHERWIN WILLIAMS “Greek Villa” but found it too plain despite what we saw in the store so it has now become the “primer” for the master bedroom and kitchen.  We finally decided on OLYMPIC “Arctic Cotton”. It will not only match the gray tone carpet, but also the whitewashed birch tone tile for the farmhouse kitchen and bathrooms.

I helped hubby move a few heavy things in the garage and that’s where our day started taking a turn for the not so great.  You’ll notice behind hubby what appears to be daylight near the floor.

Well, it not only appears to be daylight, but IS daylight.  The siding is rotting away and in about 40% of the areas not even attached to the studs so we’re looking at some serious reinforcing and rebuild in these areas.

After helping hubby and feeling so good about so much trash being gone, I decided it was time to tackle the master bath vanity in preparation of getting the new vanity.  The water was turned off due to a leak in this bathroom quite some time ago.  What I was afraid of is what came to light – mold.  We will need to tear out every wall, find the leak, change out the plumbing and build from the ground up so to speak.

I have NO idea how long the water leaked before it was turned off.  I also have NO idea why or even where it leaked so this should be loads of fun!

DAMN I was really hoping NOT to find that BIG black spot!

As it always is with water it will take the path of least resistance.  In this case it was a crack in the floor under the linoleum.

Like water, mold will follow that same path.  In this case it also traveled up the back side of the wall paper so ALL these walls will be torn out and replaced after the leak is found and repaired.

So we decided we needed a quite “special” meal and since we still don’t have a kitchen we broke out the BBQ! We added a baked potato and salad and it was perfect!

We no longer have a 5 second rule even for the dogs around here!  The things we have found and cleaned up have left us longing for a finished house. We have been in transition for so long here, but are finally seeing the end of the clean-up, at least in the house.  Under the kitchen sink and the master bedroom vanity are the only areas left to surprise – I hope! We were able to get a bit more of the kichen ripped out and was also able to get the wreath and Frosty up as decorations.

The foundation work that was done a couple weeks ago was a joke.  Their finish work on the inside holes left the fill 1/2 inch taller in the centers than the edges – NOT conducive to putting down a decent floor.  After we were able to get the owner of the company to see the problem last Tuesday he said someone would call later that day to set up an appointment for next week and we’ have at least 48 hours notice.  4PM yesterday I get a call saying they’d be here at 830AM today.  I told the woman 9 would be better since I have so many things to move out of their way.  They finally showed up at 10:15AM, didn’t bring what they needed to cover things again nor did they bring any new concrete mix.  They left for 2 hours to get concrete and “lunch” and finished the day at 5:45 effectively screwing up our ENTIRE day once again.  At least the new concrete is relatively flush with the foundation.  I did get a few new graffiti chances though.

Hubby notched out the shelving/shoe storage in the master closet for me so we could start the tile work.  We still need a few pieces though and will pick those up tomorrow along with the molding for the edges.  If all goes well, the clothes will be in the closet by Tuesday.

We have been working REALLY hard around here.  Our goal is to have the master bedroom finished by Christmas and a fairly livable living room.  It seems like for every step forward we are taking 7 backwards!

We keep encountering things like a loaded full freezer in the garage which we finally got open yesterday.  We were prepared to drill the lock, but it turns out it wasn’t locked, just frozen shut.  We can’t quite figure it out though.  Once we got the door open it was a solid block of ice.  Hubby started chipping away at it so we could bag the food for today’s trash.  Once he broke through the ice we found defrosted smelly food.  I think every Hickory Farms package my uncle ever sent her for Christmas was inside as well as bags and bags of smoked chili peppers!

Then we keep encountering outlets that look like this.  It’s a wonder this house never burnt down! We still have no light in the sewing room, spare bedroom closet or the office and the electrician has not returned ANY calls since he was here Tuesday.  I think it is time to find a new electrician!

On a positive note I was able to get the walk in closet painted!  Hopefully if all goes well I’ll lay the tile tomorrow afternoon.  Remember the foundation guys that created such havoc?  They called late this afternoon to say they’d be here tomorrow morning to break out the concrete they did wrong and redo it.  I was told on Tuesday they would call me later that afternoon to schedule something for next week.  I told the guy I needed at least 48 hours notice to move things out of the way.  So I got 16 hours notice and spent 2 hours after dinner trying to make things accessible AGAIN! As soon as they are done I will start tiling the closet.  I’m hoping to have the clothes in the closet by Monday.  That will eliminate A LOT of totes from the living room!

You can really see the color difference in this bedroom picture.  I had just a little paint left in the can so decided to start cutting in and covering some of the larger patch areas.  The nicotine stains are the hardest to cover.