It's beginning to look a lot like home now...

Step 1 of attic: stripping layers of wallpaper

Sailboats under the white paper

behind this plaster area lies an original window and the new roof to the addition Mrs. Womack added. We will cut a new door and finish out the attic for the boy's new walk-in closet.

What a mess!!! Layers of dust and paper cover the room on Nick's side.

 

A view of the awful mess on the hardwoods near our bedroom.

The attic after first layer was stripped away.

See the painted-on foot prints tracked on the hardwoods in the playroom? :(

A new layer of wallpaper reveals....ballerinas!

Who's gonna clean this mess?

My trusty helpers Alex...

Adrian....

and Nick.

These hardwood photos keep sneaking in. This is the condition of the hall outside our bedroom. So sad.

I doubt this is how we buff the floor honey.

Even Ash gets a job putting Adrian's bed back together.

boy's future loft hang out

Welcome to the jungle. My OCD killed me when we were living like this. 

More chaos.

It's finally coming together.

The living room is nice and cozy now.

More photos to come soon!

Hardwoods revealed

Thank goodness Jarred was feeling better today. While I worked at daycare, he and Nick pulled up the remaining blue shag carpet from the house. I got to come in to the hardwoods revealed.

The living room floors are in pretty decent shape. A few patches faded or stained here and there but overall not too shabby.

It appears that before the carpet was laid, paint was dropped onto the hardwoods...and tracked from room to room... without a care.

The playroom has tracks all over it.

So does the master bedroom. 

On the plus side though, I kind of developed a weird liking for the task of pulling up all the carpet staples. I'm a bit OCD and for me, the satisfaction of seizing each little nail and wrenching it from the flooring is akin to the obsession I feel when peeling a sunburn....all of it must go and I cannot stop until it's done! Told you it is a little weird. :)

Now onto the dining room. Two layers of linoleum are hiding some worn hardwoods. Maybe someday soon we can get this stuff outta here.

My grandparents used to have this same red brick linoleum. I could live with it better if A) a huge chunk weren't missing B) it matched the adjoining room and C) it was pretty.

The breezeway presents a slight issue as there is still a leak somewhere despite a new roof. Lots of ceiling tiles are falling out. At least we got the nasty indoor/outdoor carpet up off the concrete floor tonight. 

A pile of dirt and insulation tumbled out of the ceiling. We can't fix this room until the leak is no more.

My side by side refridgerator found a home, thanks to my husband and some very nice moving men. It was a tight squeeze all around, from having to remove the breezeway door to taking the baseboard off the kitchen floor just to be able to tightly fit it in it's new home. Poor Jarred--we realized that we hadn't put the drawers in until it was too late and the fridge was already packed in. Since there is a wall beside the door, it wouldn't open all the way. Not sure how Jarred did it but he got all the parts back inside without once yelling, crying, or kicking something. Or having to pull it back out again. Bravo, bravo! :)

Well, it's been a long day as the last week has been. Tomorrow starts a new long day. it's almost 3 am and I'm zonked. 

Catch my ramblings another time,

Lynn

Step 2: cleaning and clearing new house

Shelving and fireplace cleaned; baseboards to be washed; leaving this wallpaper alone for now. The fireplace, once cleaned and checked, will be delightful in the winter. I am so excited to live (again) in an older home with a beautiful fireplace.

My cleaning supplies; kitchen is very musty smelling. I am armed and dangerous. Will someday repaint cabinets, doors, and trim work. Can't stand the linoleum so I hope to pull it out asap. Would like to have new cabinet handles eventually or paint them. Curtains must go. Kitchen is tiny but there is a good sized dining room on the other wall and a breezeway from back door leading to garage.

Dining room cleaned and ready. We're keeping the eight-person table. Wallpaper is ok for now but will change it someday. My big dislike is the flooring. There are two layers of linoleum on here that are peeled back in a huge chunk by the kitchen door. There are hardwoods under it all so we hope to strip it off and expose the wood. I hope to get some different dining chairs one day as these are not very comfy. We currently have a decorative fireplace in our living room that will look wonderful in this dining room. We have never had room for a china cabinet until now but we are looking into getting one.

Before the new roof was put on there was a leak and water damage to a few rooms. This breezeway going into kitchen from garage will need new ceiling tiles, new flooring, and new walls. The cabinet on the end will become a pantry and this will become a mudroom with shelving and coat hooks.

Still stripping off the old wallpaper from the attic stairwell and we like the wood walls beneath. Cleaned, shined, with new lighting, and this will look wonderful.

Jarred pulled a muscle chucking the attic carpet out the attic window. 

Mine and Ashleigh's bath. Again, paint is needed on the cabinets. The wallpaper is peeling badly in here so I might be able to get it done over the weekend and paint before moving in. Going with a bright, happy color palette as this bathroom adjoins the playroom (which will be bright hues and polka dots). Washer and dryer hook up are in here but will be changed back to basement.

Getting all the excess furniture out of attic rooms today. This area must be stripped of wallpaper and repainted first due to allergies/asthma the boys have.

Stripping the nasty wallpaper off reveals beautiful wooden walls. We will leave these exposed, cleaned, and sealed.

Nick's side of the attic room minus carpet. 

Not only will this be Adrian's bedroom but we have enough space to put the boy's futon, a coffee table, and TV area up here for a teen crash area between their rooms!

The "Elvis bath" gets a cleaning. Toilets were NASTY! Jarred cleaned them so I wouldn't gag from the layer of SLIME built up in them. Gross! I have no idea how to make this room look masculine until the wallpaper comes out, but it won't get done right away. We must work around the black toilet, red shower, and gilded ornate gold medicine cabinet which is bolted to wall. lol

Another view of the boy's attic space. Under the eaves of the house on Nick's side is an entire room the size of his. Jarred has plans to turn it into a huge walk-in closet/storage area. It is very exciting to see the potential here. :)

I'll add basement photos another day. The basement is unfinished. It has half cement-half dirt floors. Our washer and dryer will go in it. We also plan to add a wood stove for heating and cooking during storms/power outages. Eventually some of the leftover previous owner's furniture will go down there along with a rug remnant, to at least give it a cozier feel and to provide seating in our storm shelter. Our dogs, Callie Roo and Oreo "Cookie" plan to sleep in the basement every night. That's what they told us anyway. ;)

Well, it's lunch time and time to head back to the new house to work. 

Blessings,

Lynn

No place like home has a NEW home!

  Some of you have kept up with my family blog in the past, and you know how my husband battled with some life or death illnesses, and eventually lost his job from the missed work time. You know that I had to give up homeschooling and returned to work and college, and that I am now finishing up my ECE degree from Western Governors University (visit my teaching/daycare blog at www.Iteach16kids.blogspot.com). You may also know that in addition to my Bachelor's degree courses I have already taken one course on running a preschool from home and am now taking an additional course on starting a preschool at home (I want to have plenty of job options upon graduation so I can repay those big ole student loans!). Some of you know that in the midst of all this we have been looking for a more affordable home, and we looked and looked and looked. We found a few we loved that were too pricey or ended up having structural damages, and it was heart-breaking. But the first house we looked at ended up being the one we got. Life's kinda funny that way.

  So these long-time country dwellers are moving back into the big city (hah!) of "McVegas" as we call it here in jest. The street we're moving to is actually very quiet considering it's basically in the heart of downtown. We will be within walking distance of all our town's main street events, and I love that.

  I always told people I wanted to live in a two-story home and I'd like to remodel an older home. Well, be careful what you wish for! ;) Our new house on Highland Drive, aka the Blue Cottage (if I had a home preschool one day wouldn't that be a cute name for my small business--"The Blue Cottage Preschool"?) fits that bill. It is a 1940's cottage style home with a solid, sound structure, new windows, new roof, new water heater, new wiring...just needs a LOT of cosmetic updating. It's an answered prayer as we needed a budget-friendly home that was good and solid and this is it.

Here are more "before" photos of our home. It was once occupied by a school teacher from Warren county, a Mrs. Womack. As she is elderly and in assisted living, much of her old furniture remains to be cleared away. That is step 1. 

back side of the house

Ashleigh's room

dining room

the "Elvis bathroom" (guy's bathroom)

entry way

blue bathroom (girl's bath)

blue bath

living room (looking into master bedroom and attic rooms)

living room view 2

master bedroom

Nick's attic room

future playroom

another view of playroom

recessed shelf in playroom

entry way

breeze way (future mudroom)

Jarred's future work room/office

another view of Jarred's workroom

Step 2 is massive cleaning, because of the mold and dust accumulated from the home sitting locked and vacant for a couple of years. Step 3 is removing the blue carpeting/kitchen linoleum to reveal the hardwoods that are underneath. Step 4 is to try to strip the wallpaper from the rooms where it is already peeled or falling, and to try to paint those rooms for now. Step 5 is to move in by next week! Whew! Steps 6-1000 are to work on a room at a time, stripping wallpaper, painting, laying new flooring in breezeway and entry way, updating and just generally making this house our home. This will take some time and money. I am slightly short on both at present. :) I told my family I feel as if I just enrolled in the "Room-of-the-month Club". Ha ha. My mother in law shared her wisdom with me yesterday in the form of a saying. "Lynn", she said, "how do you eat an elephant?" (pause for dramatic effect). The she answers her own question with "one bite at a time." So there you have it from Meme's own mouth-- this will indeed go on for a very long time.  But all in all, we are EXCITED! We've had the chance to view a lot of updated homes in our search for a house and we can see the potential this house holds to be beautiful. Jarred fell in love with it the first time he saw it. And as we are both big history buffs and love old things, I think this house is a perfect fit for us. So as I have time I'll continue to add photos of our progress, and I hope you'll check back often.

Blessings,

Lynn