It begins
After the first two and a half days of homeownership, I think it's finally starting to sink in what we're undertaking. On one hand, it's incredible- as we work on everything we just keep thinking about what it will eventually look like, and all that we will get to experience in the house. On the other hand, we're realizing how much hard work, or "sweaquity" as Clint likes to call it, before we get there.
After the signing on Friday we first stopped by the gallery to take Clint's work down, then we headed over to the house and begun immediately ripping up the old, stained, smelly carpet. We got most of the carpet tacks up, and piled it into the garage. We also started noticing a number of itchy bites we had. I'm pretty sure that as close as we are to the river, we'll be battling mosquitos quite often.
Day two, we pulled all the staples out of the worn, but salvagable (we later found out) wood floors. We started to see what it could maybe, possibly look like- if we squinted really hard. We also began the arduous process of stripping the original trim. When our realtor stopped by later that day we checked to see if we ever sell the house if we could mandate a clause that require they never paint it again, because it is insanely hard to get those 100 or so layers of paint off. The process is slow, but the wood underneath is beautiful. This is the day that we decided it had to be done one room at a time or we would lose our minds.
Day three- after breaking down and buying the heat gun, we're finding the stripping process to be moving a bit faster- although while using it I'm in a state of constant fear of scorching the wood. We've moved on to the large window, which according to Billy we can never replace because "you can't find a window that big in America!" Also of note, this window doesn't open, and even if it did, at best it would only go up about a foot. Clint installed the exterior light, and very conveniently found my phone in the street, which had been missing for two days. I also gingerly removed part of the 90 year old trim around the door (as Clint covered his eyes) to hopefully make the stripping process go a lot easier- easier now meaning not spending an entire day on a 5 foot long area of wood. We've decided that we'll probably just end up living in that room, which is a step up from our original idea of living in the garage (which is at least as big as our apartment now). Our new goal is to try to get that done by the time we move in, although our definition of "done" is constantly changing. We'll see.
After the signing on Friday we first stopped by the gallery to take Clint's work down, then we headed over to the house and begun immediately ripping up the old, stained, smelly carpet. We got most of the carpet tacks up, and piled it into the garage. We also started noticing a number of itchy bites we had. I'm pretty sure that as close as we are to the river, we'll be battling mosquitos quite often.
Day two, we pulled all the staples out of the worn, but salvagable (we later found out) wood floors. We started to see what it could maybe, possibly look like- if we squinted really hard. We also began the arduous process of stripping the original trim. When our realtor stopped by later that day we checked to see if we ever sell the house if we could mandate a clause that require they never paint it again, because it is insanely hard to get those 100 or so layers of paint off. The process is slow, but the wood underneath is beautiful. This is the day that we decided it had to be done one room at a time or we would lose our minds.
Day three- after breaking down and buying the heat gun, we're finding the stripping process to be moving a bit faster- although while using it I'm in a state of constant fear of scorching the wood. We've moved on to the large window, which according to Billy we can never replace because "you can't find a window that big in America!" Also of note, this window doesn't open, and even if it did, at best it would only go up about a foot. Clint installed the exterior light, and very conveniently found my phone in the street, which had been missing for two days. I also gingerly removed part of the 90 year old trim around the door (as Clint covered his eyes) to hopefully make the stripping process go a lot easier- easier now meaning not spending an entire day on a 5 foot long area of wood. We've decided that we'll probably just end up living in that room, which is a step up from our original idea of living in the garage (which is at least as big as our apartment now). Our new goal is to try to get that done by the time we move in, although our definition of "done" is constantly changing. We'll see.
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