The house on possession date was better than we expected... it was cleaned out of virtually everything the lady who owned it before had packed in here. ( Think LOADS of stuff with paths around it all.) Dustin and I both had nightmares that it wouldn't be empty when we came in on possession day. But, thankfully, it was. So that meant we could get to work on cleaning and painting right away.
After our realtor left Monday morning (the 15th) Dustin and I just kinda looked at each other and started laughing. There were no words to describe it. I knew we were both thinking "What are we getting into?!" and "Where do we even start?!".
We decided cleaning was priority and called in backup. Marlene, Dustin's mom, came and cleaned my kitchen ALL day Monday. Why should a kitchen take all day you ask - because this kitchen had 25 years worth of spattered grease, sticky tar like stuff, and dust, that even a Magic Eraser fell apart on when scrubbing. It was a slow process and I'm SOOO thankful for her help.
(a sample of the mystery spatter on the cabinets that should replace the use of superglue!) While she worked on that, Dustin tried vacuuming and discovered the central vac was in need of attention, so then he checked all the mechanical and did quick repairs around the house that were obvious and simple to fix... the central vac is still a work in progress right now. It "sorta" works.
I got the bathrooms (and I'll add it was by choice because I could NEVER ask someone else to clean those). I don't have words for how my morning went. I'm pretty sure my mind shutdown at some point and blocked out what I was doing. "Gross" doesn't come close to describing it!
After spending much of the day wondering what on earth would ever take all the stains off the walls, we decided painting over was probably a better and quicker option than wiping everything down. So Dustin fixed up the drywall in the boys rooms that evening too.
Anyway, that was Monday. Thank goodness it's over.
Tuesday, Marlene and I got to work on painting the boys' rooms. They picked a bright blue, that with new carpet and trim will look great! Now it looks a little off, but it's clean, so I don't care!
After 3 coats in both rooms, we realized priming would have been faster ... so we added that to the list of what to do on Wednesday on future rooms.
(Zach's room before paint...)
(Zach's room after paint... HUGE difference!) Wednesday, my good friend (and fellow Domestic Goddess), Sharon, joined Marlene and me and helped with priming. This was the day that we all kicked butt and got a TON done! Between the three of us, we got the master bedroom primed and top coated, all the bathrooms primed, the main area on the main floor primed, and the ceiling in the main area primed AND top coated! (Dustin finished up the ceiling in the evening - we were all so sore by then!)
I was amazed and am SO grateful for their help!!
(Sharon - slaving yet again on another house of mine)Thursday, Marlene and I got the main area on the main floor top coated. Including around the kitchen cabinets, which I have to say I'm glad she stood on the counters and did. With my height, I can't imagine trying to crouch under the ceiling and still be able to paint!
It was a shorter day, we only started around 10:30 and were done just after 4ish.
It was also Thursday morning that I took the boys to their new school to meet their new teachers and get a tour for Monday. I think I was on auto-pilot by this day because I don't remember a whole lot of it, except being really sore from painting!
All right, more to come....
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