We DID buy the house "As Is," but who knew it would mean SO much work?! Well, we kinda knew it would be some, but it's becoming a bit more than "some" now.
A part of the driveway was a sort of parking area and it was basically right over the septic tank. VERY bad, in case you're not 'in the know' about septic tanks (as I wasn't very recently). So, we changed the form of the driveway to one that is safer AND, as an added bonus, more pleasing to look at... YEAY! We finished that job yesterday.
Today we started on the kitchen. We are removing all of the cabinets to clean (walls and cabinets), paint (walls), potentially re-organize the flow of the kitchen, as well as install new counters. Who knew it would take SO long to get less than half of the cabinets out!? Well, I'm sure my brother Josh would've known since he's, like, a Master builder and all. And I mean that sincerely! You should SEE his house... and know what it was... you'd be just as impressed as me. I'm sure! :)
I've found myself thinking about my brother Josh and my Dad a lot during all this. I'm finding myself REALLY enjoying this work... well, not so much all the shoveling of gravel yesterday, but basically everything else. I feel to understand my Dad's and brother's enjoyment of this sort of work. I loved pressure washing the house. I really did enjoy digging and pulling out dead bushes (which I spent basically ALL day last Monday doing). And today, I actually removed one small cabinet myself! Seriously. It felt REALLY good, too. ^_^
The work I'm MOST looking forward to doing is the tile backsplash we're planning... that's going to be my job and I'm excited about it! I'm also going to be touching up some repairs the contractors made... the walls are "orange peel" texture, but the contractors totally just made repairs without retexturing and that really bugs me. Some of the repairs they made are cruddy... so I'm going to learn how to do drywall (my sister Evelyn has inspired me in that area) and fix those spots that the contractors did a cruddy job with... then I'm going to do the re-texturing and painting. That way those dumb spots (ALL over) won't bug me anymore! ^_^
I know, amazing, right? Tori... tools... repairs... it's all so... well, it IS me now! ^_^
So, why the kitchen remodel? Well, I don't know if I've mentioned it... the residents of the house we bought were filthy.... No, I mean it. They had to have been to have had the roach infestation that was present in this house. Before we cleaned (before the painting) you could literally see the outline of picture frames. Okay, so that may not be such a big deal cause the outline coulda been in dust or sun-bleaching or something... but, no... it was outlined in roach poop! And the way I know so is because the guy who inspected for our termite-free-proof-thingy told me so. Seriously gross. Obviously, we cleaned before the paint went on (the paint being one of the many conditions of the appraisal, so it had to and did happen before closing).
Well, it's bothered me for some time that I could actually see built up roach pooh between at least one cabinet and the wall. I figured if I saw it there, it was likely elsewhere as well. And, BOY, is THAT an understatement!!!
Jessie is a guy's guy. He's a MAN. He's totally tough and poker-facey... He was visibly disgusted. And if you know my man, you know anything "visible" on him is an extreme reaction! ^_^
The more stuff we take out of the kitchen, the more full of gratitude I am that my man is willing to invest this kind of time into making our home feel safe and clean to me/us! It's sort of like we're "baptising" our home before we move in! I hope the kitchen will be done before we're there full-time and only there, but even if it's not... we'll be happy with the result when we ARE finished! It's such an exciting feeling to know that the work we're doing will profit our family in years to come... that we will have a CLEAN home in which to thrive. What a pleasure to be able to make that happen with my sweet Jessie!
Who knew I would fall in love ever more with my guy as we work together on making a sorta yucky house into Our Home! Well, I can think of at least One who knew... Can you guess about Whom I'm thinking? ;)
2 comments:
It is really rewarding to look at an end product and know that you did all or much of the work to get it there. In that way, the dry wall work was fun. But being in my 1st trimester for some of it... wasn't very fun. =) I don't know why or how I inspired you. I could use a dose though because I have yet to do Addie's room... although I'm thinking I may not do it at all. I figure our landlords have gotten a lot out of us, I'm not too keen on killing myself to get it done before we move (if we do...).
I have 2 things going on tonight, but Chris will be home. You can call our home number and he would be more than happy to tell you all you need to know to make sure all those nasty roaches are good and dead. =D He might even be able to give tips on ants if you have issues with those too. When we moved here there was a roach problem, which he--thankfully--solved. I'll try and call this afternoon. I'm not sure if Addie is really asleep. If she's not, it may be a short call, I think she knows life is going to be changing big-time soon as she's been a *bit* more demanding.
BTW. I don't often check your private blog (I'll try to change that... but you were doing updates on this one when you were posting on that one, and I haven't seen any new updates...) so maybe that's where they are... PICTURES. YOu need to post more pictures. Specifically of the house, but the girls and you and Jessie too. =)
Love ya!
You are accomplishing so very much! Congrats!
be safe.
I hope Sat's moving goes extraordinarily well.
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