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.