Does anyone want to move to Texas?

Because we have an adorable newly renovated house for rent! Here it is with all its irresistible charm. :-)

Front swing

Backyard

Finished

We are finished with the interior and most of the exterior. Our hoped for deadline was July 15th and our absolute deadline was August 1st. So, completing the interior on July 17th felt great!

Here is the house as it looks now (to see how it used to look, go here). Nick and I have grown to love it, and even briefly considered renting our own home and living here. :-) The neighbourhood is so peaceful and the backyard is so green and lovely (unlike our poor yard at home, though it has been watered often!). We really hope that whoever rents this home will love it and take care of it!

Master bedroom

Middle bedroom
The end bedroom still needs to be photographed, but it looks about the same as the master.

Bathroom

Hallway
(The bedroom are along the left of the hallway, and the kitchen and living room along the right)

Kitchen

Pantry (almost too gross to look into when we first got the house, but now SO clean and usable!)

Living room

Before and After

At a quick glance, these two pictures don't tell a whole lot, but for us, they mean:
-removing trim and gutting the kitchen floor
-moisture barrier laid
-new plywood flooring laid
-silicone seal applied between plywood sheets
-new vinyl flooring laid
-sink leak repaired
-scrubbed walls
-painted walls
-scrubbed washing machine water hookup
-painted water hook up area
-cut floor trim
-painted floor trim
-installed floor trim
-caulked floor trim
-cut cabinetry quarter round
-stained quarter round
-installed quarter round
-scrubbed inside of cabinetry
-cut wood for new base for cabinet under sink
-installed base
-covered base with vinyl lining
-caulked edges

Consequently, this is probably my favourite before and after shot. :-) It represents a TON of hard work and learning.

Exterior paint

(and proof that I didn't only take pictures of this project, but actually worked on it too) :-)

So who is Sarah?

Some of you have been wondering who this Sarah girl is...We tried to capture a few photos of her, but alas, she only permitted pictures of her pony tail. Sarah's parents have been friends of Nick's parents for many years, and thus Nick views her as a little sister. I am very happy to adopt her as the same, and besides, it is very handy to refer to her as Nick's sister when introducing her to others. They could easily pass for siblings.

Sarah very kindly offered her help to us for three whole weeks, enabling us to get a lot of work done at the rental house in a short time. I was thrilled to have company, and it was a delight to get to know her! She shares my love of making beautiful things, and making things beautiful, so we got along quite well. ;-)

Sarah, thank you for all your hard work! We really appreciate it! I hope you are not entirely avoiding tuna for the rest of your life (we ate it nearly every day for lunch for three weeks! :-P), and that you weren't too exhausted from all your slave labor by the time you got home. We can't wait to see you (and every one else!) in Edisto in a couple of weeks!

Painting, painting, painting...

Sometimes the task of painting seems endless; painting walls, closets, shelves in closets, trim, and doors...and then second-coating it all. But there are amusements along the way. Like this painter after he got as much paint on the floor and in his hair as on the walls. :-)

And there is always the satisfaction of a completely repainted room. This picture does not do Nick's Mom's paint job justice. Mom, I have walked into this room just to enjoy the peaceful finished look many times since you have left! Thank you for your hard work!

The Kitchen

This room was originally so filthy and roach populated, I would not set foot in it. When the fridge and stove were discarded (roach dwellings), I felt a little better about it, but it was still disgusting in there. So, you can imagine that when Nick and his dad replaced the kitchen floor I was delighted! The plywood felt so clean, smelled great, and looked even better. :-) Here are some pics from start to finish.

Today Nick finished installing the baseboards, and all we have to do yet is clean the cupboards and replace the light fixtures and the sink.

Before and After

Isn't this improvement SO satisfying? I could stare at it all day...and Sarah actually did stare at that door all day (while she sanded, scrubbed and painted it)! Nice work, Sarah!

p.s. The strange light fixture and the painters tape are not staying :-)

Pink and Black Bathroom Updated!

Today I finished the wallpaper in the bathroom. It was a tedious job, but well worth the trouble. We are thrilled with the results, and are happy to have this room nearly finished!

Pink and Black Bathroom

Nick and I have been working on the bathroom floor. He replaced the wood in the rotten spot, and I have been laying new flooring. We are quite happy with the results. The bathroom looks a little funky, but SO much cleaner, and the black and white flooring looks great with the black and pink walls. I can't wait until the wallpaper comes in (it's on back order and we can't get it until June 26), and I can't wait to put it up (do you want to help, Sarah F. ? :-))

view from down the hall

(please excuse the dirty tub and the tools in it!)

A Fearless Hero

Crawling (likely with countless other critters) in dingy, deep, dank, and dark spaces like this...

to repair problems like this (the tub drain--completely disconnected from the plumbing under the house)...

and this (the resulting rotted-through bathroom floor)...

is my fearless knight-in-shining-armor, err... safety glasses.

I LOVE him! (and am extraordinarily glad to NOT be in that crawlspace myself *shudder*!)

Progress is...

slow around here, but it is happening. This week has been spent on the floors. The living room and bedrooms are hardwood, but it was in pretty bad shape....very dirty, and VERY stained. Whoever lived here last had more than one dog and evidently did not care about cleanliness. Yuck.

So, the floors and floorboards have been scrubbed, the carpet glue stripped from off the wood, and everything sanded three times (using a rented square floor buff sander and 80, 120, and 220 grit sandpaper).

After that we swept, then vacuumed, then swiffered, and then wiped down the floor in preparation for stain (in the living room and hallway) and varnish (on all the hardwood).

Here are a couple shots of the floor's previous condition:

And in progress....

And finished!!

The colour turned out a bit darker than we expected, but it covers all of the unsightly stains very well. And, as soon as I can get the trim repainted white and the walls tan, we think this room will look great!

At the Salvage Yard

While I do not, yet, have any pictures from today's adventure Anita and I went to a salvage yard in Dallas today. A friend from church mentioned it as a great place to get "recycled" wood. By this, it is wood from other construction or demolition that they then sell for much less. Since some of our hardwood floor is rotten, we thought we would try and find some replacement. In addition to needing a few doors, sinks, etc. So we spent an hour or two wandering around and found a lot of interesting stuff, though nothing we really needed or could use. However, we did find what seems to be a brand new Glacier Bay pedestal sink and an enamel kitchen sink. Though, I probably could have bargained for less, we got them at a good deal, especially given their condition.

Of course, Anita is thinking of having me install the kitchen sink in our house and take our sink to the rental. We shall see.

The real adventure will arise when I try and install it...

For those who know me and my family growing up, you will know we Higgins' (or at least my father and I) are not the handy do it yourselfers. But marrying a VanDoodewaard and home ownership has seriously helped me start to learn.

The "Before" Photos

Unfortunately, I didn't quite get the real before shots. These pictures were taken after part of the garden was weeded/hacked out, and after a lot of disgusting carpet was removed.

front of the house

garage

backyard...it looks lovely in this picture,
but actually has a lot of brick, stone, garbage, wire to be picked up

a quick drawing of the floor plan so the next few pictures will make more sense

living room: hardwood, but very stained and gluey

looking into the kitchen from the living room


kitchen (laundry hookup is in kitchen)


hallway


bathroom

Currently Nick is working on the living room floor, and I am working on the bathroom. We are both pretty excited to get this place looking good. Structurally it is sound, and all of the repair is largely cosmetic. So, we should be able to have it looking good in no time :-)...or at least in a couple of months. We're hoping to have it ready to rent in August.