Dirt, grime, and a discovery

So over the last few weeks E and I have come to a conclusion about our home's previous owner......she NEVER cleaned.....and I mean never.

We started to suspect this the first day we owned the house, but decided that maybe she (like me) just didn't clean as often as she probably should have. See, before painting we decided to wipe down all the walls to prep them for painting, but as we started mopping it became very clear that these walls would need more than a light sweep with the mop....they needed a good scrubbing. So, 6 buckets of Mr. Clean infused water later, and we had at least removed the grime from the ceiling, walls, and floors. It still wasn't perfect, but it would do for painting purposes.

So then we paint and move in and slowly start to see all the other bits of ick that are all over the house. The fans had a nice thick layer of dust and grime, the shelves in the kitchen were covered in dirt (no seriously dirt, like from the yard, in the kitchen cabinets) and bug droppings, the floors and base boards have a layer of filth (yes still, we're gonna have to scrub those suckers), the bathroom was just nasty...no other way to put it...nasty, the vents all have dust on them..... I'll leave it there. I think you get the idea.

So okay, I've been avoiding cleaning the kitchen cabinets, mostly cause it didn't look like it would be fun (it wasn't), but I decided Sunday to just suck it up and get it done. I throw on some of those loverly yellow rubber gloves, grab a bottle of Fantastic spray and a roll of paper towels, put on my best "I love to clean" face, and get to work. It took a few hours to get through it all, partly cause it was that bad, partly cause I had to take breaks from the ick, and partly cause I ordered a pizza at one point (hey, a girl has to eat right?).

Once I finished the cabinets I decide that I should just go ahead and clean the hall closet while I'm at it. So I go in there, and start the gloves, paper towel, Fantastic, game face process again. Now, the previous owner left some pillar candles in this closet, you know the type that Catholics use for prayer, and I had just left them in the corner of the closet where we had discovered them on the first day. I figured they were just candles, so whatever..... Yeah, not just candles. I pick them up one at a time to clean under them, and imagine my horror when I pick up the second one to find it filled, FILLED, with cockroaches.

The candles are now in the trash, my hall closet is half cleaned and I am researching pest control companies.

So that it seems a little more managable...

....I created a list of what really needs to be done in the house.

I realized while in the shower this morning that in that bathroom alone there is a ton of work to do; some of it fairly easy and cheap and some of it quite extensive and possibly expensive, but all needing to be done eventually. So in order to stop the ensuing panic attack, I decided to sit down and create a list of everything that needs to be done in the house. It does not include the yard or garage....mostly cause I haven't even looked at those areas long enough to decide what kind of work they need (though some shelving and storage cabinets in the garage, and some serious trimming of the greenery outside is certainly in order).

So this is what I have come up with so far in no particular order and as with the bathroom, some is easy and cheap and some is well....not. Those things on the list in blue are the temporary fixes we need to do until we can afford the more extensive changes.

To Do:

• Tile bathroom, kitchen, sun room
• Refinish hardwood floors
• Replace all windows with storm strength windows
• Replace all outside doors
• Replace all inside doors
• Rewire house for 3 prong outlets
• Fix switches and outlets that do not work
• Paint all floor molding
• Paint ceilings
• Paint outside of house
• Rip off railings on front porch

Bathroom:

• Renovate bathroom
• Redo tile on walls
• Rip out current sink and replace with pedestal sink
• Rip out current tub and replace
• Replace knobs for bathtub/shower and shower head
• Fix squeaking knobs on sink
• Caulk tub drain, tub, and toilet base
• Fix grout around tiles in shower
• Add storage
• Paint walls
• Change light fixture

Kitchen:

• Renovate kitchen
• Rip out current cabinetry and replace with new cabinets; add additional cabinets for storage
• Replace kitchen sink
• Recaulk kitchen sink
• Purchase dishwasher
• Purchase disposal
• Purchase island
• Purchase pantry
• Add lighting near workstations

Deck:

• Replace rotted boards
• Add lattice to sides to cover underneath
• Add additional support beams

Bedrooms:

• Replace blinds in guest bedroom
• Bleach blinds in master bedroom
• Replace closet doors
• Redo closets to improve storage

Sun room:

• Replace blinds
• Seal cracks in ceiling

Living room:

• Paint crown molding

Replacing windows and other astronomical expenses

So because it has been awhile since I have had time to update the blog, I have many stories to tell. This one is about unsuspecting new home owners, a home show, and a window company....

It all starts when one of the new homeowners goes to a home show and fills out a card to win free windows for the house. The homeowner, knowing that this is inviting spam and other nasties, decides it will be worth the spamming if she can get all her windows replaced for free (cause dang it, they need replacing). Shortly after the home show, the window company starts calling. They call in the day, they call in the night, they call so much that both homeowners finally agree to getting an estimate done. They figure it was free and really they would like to know what type of expense they are looking at for this large project (that by the way is not scheduled until about a year from purchase). So a very nice lady comes to the house one evening and begins her spiel. She measures the windows and does some calculations and then spouts out a number that made both homeowners jaws drop to the floor in utter astonishment. Never in their wildest dreams did they think that a number so high would have escaped her lips,"$16,000" she says. After regaining consciousness, both homeowners thanked the nice lady for coming to the house and showed her to the door.

True story.

Moving and other fun stories

Well this weekend was the big move and really, it went pretty well. It could even be called smooth, especially if you take into account the fact that we were absolutely unprepared for the move. Oh we reserved a U-Haul truck ahead of time and had lots a family there to help, but as far as packing, almost nothing had been done. So yeah, could have been a total disaster. For those of you that were there that thought it was a total disaster....shame on you :) Did you not get hamburgers and get to lose 10 lbs. by walking up and down three flights of stairs? Okay then. We'll have no more negativity from you.

So it has been requested of me to post some pictures of the house now that we are moved in....two reasons for no pics yet:

1. Currently the pics would be mostly of boxes.....lots and lots of boxes housed in some freshly painted and quite colorful rooms.


2. I have no idea where the cord to my camera is. The problem with not packing anything before the actual move, is you end up losing a few things to random bags or boxes. I remember throwing the cord (and my mouse for the desktop) into a random box of craft things (possibly?) because they fit and needed to be packed somewhere at that point.

I do however have a few pictures shamelessly stolen from a friends blog that she took during painting day.

Here is the living room in all it's red glory. It's a little darker than that in person, so not quite so shocking. Also you get to see a loverly picture of the sofa.

Next we have the sun room (office/dining room) as taken from the kitchen....yes the kitchen is pretty darn sizable. It has zero cabinet or counter space but my hope is that one day there will be a massive renovation and the kitchen will become a masterpiece.

And finally the happy homeowners standing on their very cute little front porch.

The colors of my home

So this week in home ownership.....the art of painting. Yes this is the part of owning a home where you try and cover up the hideous and not to palatable choices of the previous owner, or just try and give the house a nice refresh. If you are us that means just picking new colors, cause simple touch up on the current paint isn't going to cut it.

I went to the Depot on Sunday after a morning at a home show (which had some fun vendors, but overall was a bit ahead of where we are in the home renovation project....ex. vendors for windows and doors; we want to replace all of these eventually, it probably won't happen till the next calendar year at least....or the booths for kitchen and bath renovations; again definitely in our future, but this one may be as much as two years down the road). So yes, went to the Depot and bought some of our paint for the house.

We went with a green for the master bedroom and a blue for the guest bedroom (but I cannot remember the name for the life of me, so no pic), a red for the living room, and a yellow for the kitchen and dining room/office. What do you think?











I think it will look nice. E is a bit worried that we are being too colorful in our choices, but I am sick of white walls after years of apartment living where I wasn't allowed to paint. Bring on the color I say! We still haven't decided if the yellow is going to carry over into the hallway or if we are going to purchase a 5th color......I'm inclined to say no 5th color (hey I like colors, but there is a limit), but we'll figure that out once we get a little color on the walls. Plus there is the bathroom.......hmmm.... What goes well with maroon and grey tiles? Anyone? Yeah, there's a reason we're still mulling this one over.

E had the day off today and so has been painting all day long, and I am joining him soon. So hopefully there will be some great pictures to post of all the wonderful progress we are making, hooray!

And after signing my life away....

We have a home!

Okay so, I had not seen the house since our first walk through with the realtor when we decided to purchase the place. All the visits for the inspection and the final walk throughs were done during the week while I was working, so E was the one to do all those. You can imagine that I was excited to go see the house last night; the first night it was officially our home.

My mom met me at our apartment and we drove over to the house (E was working) just as it was getting dark. The first thing I did was walk into what I remembered to be our large backyard, and hmmm.....the yard was a little smaller than I remember. Oh well, it still is a good sized yard and will be fantastic for entertaining.

Since it was getting dark and the mosquito's were coming out, we moved inside. We walk into the front door and hmmmm.......the living room is much smaller than I remember. Well.....okay, um..... It will fit our new furniture, no worries there, but somehow with the furniture the previous owner had in there it looked bigger. Maybe she had a big mirror in there (note to self: buy big mirror) and that's what made it look bigger.

The rest of the house was as I remembered. The kitchen really is quite large and there's a little sun room that we will make into an office and possible dining area (this is still in discussion) that is larger than I remember it, so that's nice.

Overall it's a charming little house; a good starter home as real estate people like to say. We did however discover a lot of little things that had been overlooked/cleverly covered up and so the tally of things to spend money on has increased yet again. In fact this morning we went to the house to measure everything and decided to go to the Depot for a new window in the bathroom and buy that new back door that will go in the kitchen. In the walk through last night it was discovered that those had to be replaced immediately. The window was broken and was pretty much just tape......lots and lots of tape. In other words, I don't know that it really qualifies as a window anymore.....more of a hole in the home. No holes in my house please.

Speaking of holes, the broken back door that we knew we would need to replace is a total mess. I was going to wait to replace that till next month since it didn't seem to need immediate attention, however upon closer inspection last night I realized that we had yet another gaping hole in our house. The current door is similar to this:
















It looks as though someone broke the glass in the door and the previous owner bought replacement glass that was too small for the door.....the width was correct, but the height was off by probably 4 inches. How this happens, I don't know; maybe she didn't measure, maybe she couldn't find the right size, but either way this leaves a half inch space above the glass and a 3 inch space below the glass. I kid you not. It was cleverly covered by tape and a 2x4, but it was there. Talk about wasting A/C. I mean forget being energy efficient, that just a waste, and moreover..... Oh sorry, ways to make the house energy efficient is another post.

So anyways, we are home owners. As the man at the Depot said, "if it's not one thing....it's two things." Ah yes, so true.