We met the current owners at the house a little after 12 noon to pick up the keys and walk through the empty house with them. They've lived there for 16 years, so it was a bit emotional for them - I tried to be polite and not tell them about all the work we were going to start on immediately since they had failed to update anything since 1995 (or possibly earlier).
Pat got a really nice walk-through with the guy, who felt obligated to let us know about how to push the attic stairs back up (sometimes you have to re-position where the springs go!), all about the labeled chemicals he left for us in the basement, and finally how to back out of our new driveway. In his defense, our driveway does have one curve in it and we probably would have ended up in our neighbors yard without his knowledgeable advice. (Pat proceeded to BACK in on his first try into the drive way - we felt really accomplished for the day!).
After they finally left - Pat & I stood around for a minute, and then started ripping up the carpet, because we couldn't wait any longer to see what the hardwood floors looked like. In 3 out of the 4 rooms, we hit the hardwood floor jackpot. They probably won't even have to be refinished - maybe resealed at most! But, there was a small spot next to the register in the living room that we'll have to have replaced. (And for that 4th room - a large section had been replaced in the past, but no one bothered to even the flooring, or match the wood/stain, so we'll have to have that replaced/fixed too.)
Then we put the carpets back and took some before pictures of the whole house.
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| Living room/Dining room looking in from the front door. |
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| Dining Room/Living Room looking towards the front door from the kitchen. |
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| Office/Den (3rd Bedroom) |
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| Master Bathroom (Jack & Jill style from den to bedroom) |
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| Master Bedroom |
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| Kitchen |
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| Back hallway to garage, guest room, and bathroom This rug was nailed down to the floor; they apparently had problems with it moving? |
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| above is the back bathroom ... and the guest bedroom is below. |
We hadn't eaten yet, so we got some grub, went to Home Depot, Sherwin Williams, and Target ... and then headed back to the house to clean. We started moving out the bookshelves from the living room to the garage, and I could not breathe. I started coughing, and then it just happened ... vomiting.
It was then that we really started to look around at how truly disgusting this house was - and I mean D-I-R-T-Y. The previous owners had a cat, and we're not sure they ever cleaned - so there was cat hair and dander everywhere. We had a lot of problems opening windows - since they had probably never been opened in the past 16 years; and we removed all of the curtains, which were just covered in dirt. In the windows, on the baseboards, window sills, hanging from the wall - this is what we found ... and what made me sick. We have plenty more pictures of the dirt, but I'll just show you a few of the less disgusting ones (don't want you to up-chuck too!)
But, then we got started with the work ... peeling wallpaper, cleaning out the refrigerator, and applying a section of paint removal chemical to the brick fireplace. We got a lot done in the few hours we worked there - we didn't get started until after 5pm and I was a little drained after getting sick and then peeling a room and a half of wallpaper. (BTW - buy a steamer if you have wallpaper to remove - SO glad we did!!). Here are pics of some of the work we got done ... doesn't it already look better (and bigger?!).
Today we get to go back over there and peel the next couple of rooms of wallpaper, and see how well the PEEL-AWAY is going to work to get our fireplace un-painted! The kitchen just has to wait ... we'll probably need professional help! More updates to come, the next posts might not be quite as long! Thanks for following us here!
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| Notice that they didn't even bother to install the carpet under those bookshelves ... |
The kitchen is a little more of a mess above those panels than we expected ...
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