Rehabber’s Rehab

Thor, Matt and I spent the week dry-walling in the living room where the half wall was removed, cleaning gooped up paint off the walls and cleaning up the disgusting mess created by the insulation that rained down when we took off the kitchen ceiling.  This stuff was so foul that Thor even broke down and wore a face mask.

Friday:

We were trying to clean up because Thor was hoping to move in over the weekend.  The goal was to have things cleared out at home to move them and to have the sanding done and things clean so we can bring things in on Saturday.  I was at home cleaning when Thor called me in despair.  The spackle wasn’t drying, there was no way to finish sanding and things were a wreck.  An adjustment to our plans needed to be made, and it’s hard to admit the goals you set are a little too ambitioius.  Fortunately help was on the way.

Janis, Randy and Matt arrived, immediately making us feel better to know we weren’t in this on our own.  Even better, Randy took one look around at this: and said, “This looks great!”  Definitely the only person to ever utter those word upon walking into our house.  Janis promised they would never tell us that “wow, you guys still have a lot of work to do.”  They know from experience that those are the last words you ever want to hear when re-doing your home.

Saturday:

We started bright and early at the U-haul and then over to the house to load up all the old kitchen cabinets, the sink, some pipes, a metal shelf and file cabinet. With it all, we managed to fill up the entire floor of the truck.  Matt and Thor took it off while Randy began a new layer of spackle in the living room and Janis and I worked on the trim.  Thor and Matt returned triumphant from the salvage place with a whopping…$95 dollars in their hand.  What!

I was shocked.  All of that metal and that’s all we got.  It gives me new sympathy for the junk men who cruise the alleys for scrap metal.  I can’t believe they even make enough to cover the gas they use while driving around.  At least we recycled it rather than just junking it in the trash.

Next it was time to pick up the large furniture.  The couch barely made it through the two offset doorways and narrow entry.  Randy (different Randy) and Meg have the best timing, and showed up just in time for the moving to be over and lunch to begin.  Fortunately they were the ones who brought the sandwiches.  Then it was back to spackling and trim stripping.

[singlepic id="257" w="120" h="240" mode="" float="left" ]We spent the evening relaxing in the back yard among the wood pile with drinks and a bbq paid for courtesy of the old kitchen cabinets.  The sunset in the back of the house is actually very lovely.

Sunday:

We spent the morning sleeping in.  All the upheaval over the weekend had upset the cat so much that he kept us up all night, and so we told the family not to come over until 10.  10 am we get a call that they are a block away.  Thor and I look at each other, and rush upstairs to put on our work clothes since we were still in our pajamas and in the middle of watching CBS Sunday Morning.

Janis and I went off to work on a project, and returned to find the guys hard at work “planning”.  For some reason Randy and Meg showed up again for another day of punishment.  The guys went off sanding and framing the new bathroom wall, while I put the ladies to work in my trim stripping sweat shop.  We all took a break after a lunch delivery from my mom, and a break to pick out paint color for the room, it was back to work, and we got a ton done.

All in all, the weekend was pretty successful.  We finished sanding, and got most of the doors going into the living room and dining room stripped.  Although we’re no where near ready to actually ready to move in, we needed the help to power us through the slump we were in the beginning of Friday.