chug chug chug

I am obviously losing steam. Pictures are not so exciting anymore, I just want to get it done already! Still, things are coming along. The fact I am starting to care that dirt is on the floor is HUGE. It only means the place is starting to come together and the semblance of "home" is materializing. I actually cut off all "tours" this past weekend since I am starting the transition out the construction zone feel and energy. I like to control the energy (aka people) that walks through my doors.

So what's happened this past week?

• Internet/wireless installed
• Nest installed, and I installed it myself! (Mom said I am more excited about this thermostat than the house. I said, Mom, it's the reason I bought the house!) This was actually somewhat of an ordeal because I could not figure out how to turn off the furnace. Turns out there is a switch, like a light switch, ON the furnace, which means I actually had to go into the freaky as all hell boiler room. I made the electrician stay on the phone with me until I safely escaped. No thanks to my mother for making me watch all those horror movies growing up! ;)
• Ducts/intakes cleaned, furnace inspected/cleaned. The $35 Groupon quickly turned into $300 because it turns out they don't cover as much as you'd think! I ended up having them clean the filthy furnace and intakes and "sterilize" all the ducts. The place already smells better.
• Appliances delivered. The fridge and range are installed. They are beautiful!!! One more reason NOT to cook: I don't want to get them dirty. Turns out the dishwasher is hardwired so it needs to be installed by an electrician. (When did this shit get so complicated? Hardwired? What happened to plugs?)
• All ceilings painted, with the exception of the bathroom since I don't know what to do in there yet. The bathroom is usable but not amazing, and yet it's not "the kitchen", so no rush to update but need to at some point...
• Upstairs wood trim repaired. There was some wood trim and shakes hanging loose outside the master, so Stew nailed those back in so they aren't swept away by the wind.
• Another 2 yard waste containers were emptied (This is very important to Stew! He actually called me to get the yard waste/garbage collection schedule so he can keep the disposal moving as efficiently as possible. I am impressed. Maybe I should offer him a job since he is more organized than most professionals I work with.)

The carpet also came in 2 weeks early! Bob is scheduled to install it October 19 (after I move my crap in), but now he can move that up a week. Sweet! My mom and Stew are heading over today to paint the trim in the master/stairway so it's ready for carpet. I swear, they have been my lifesavers throughout this process. Things never would have progressed this far or this fast without their help and EMOTIONAL SUPPORT.

Sigh...

gina got her groove back

Things seem to be moving along. I see better now, not worse (with the exception of the kitchen, that room is still a dump). I ordered carpet this week - a grey/taupe color with fun textured lines (went with this color to make the mauve paint look less "pink"). It will be installed the week before Europe, two days after I move in. Hardwoods while I am in Europe. I finished painting the master with the exception of the trim. Ceilings in the master, stairwell (mostly), hallway, and office (somewhat) have been painted Maui Mist. Not sure if I will paint the ceilings in the dining room and living room the same color, may go a bit "whiter". All appliances are ordered: fridge, range, and dishwasher. Funny thing, I LOVE the appliances at Ikea and ended up finding the same ones at Home Depot! All Maytag, which turns out is owned by Whirlpool (the Ikea lady told me all of their appliances are "Whirlpool", so same family I guess...and totally not important).

Best part of this week? I BOUGHT A NEST THERMOSTAT! I cannot stop looking at it. It is beautiful! And Home Depot put an incorrect sign in front of the 3rd gen Nests, so they honored their screw up and gave me the discounted price. :D

And then I just got back from Home Depot (my second...er, third or maybe fourth? home) and ordered a front door. Those guys are good! They called to tell me they got my measurements into the system from last Friday, and that my front door looks like a custom door and lo and behold, Home Depot is taking 15% off all "custom" doors TODAY! What a coincidence, and call me sucker. I went in and dropped the cash.

Someone say discount?!!!

It's a pretty cool door. And yeah, it's black. It will take ~4 weeks to make the door and ship, so looking at an early November installation. Five bucks say they call to schedule while I am in Europe. :/

This week, internet goes in, ducts are being cleaned, and the furnace is being inspected. Now, why you ask are the ducts being cleaned before the hardwood is worked on given all the dust? So, I have to turn on the heat to get the house at 65 degrees by October 19 when the hardwood is being delivered so it can acclimate a week before install, so I need the furnace inspected before then (which is included with the duct cleaning in the Groupon), and I need a thermostat before I can turn on the heat...thus the internet install since it is a hella smart thermostat and uses wireless! (There is a Nest app hehe.) Make sense? Breaking it down: Internet -> Nest -> furnace (and ducts) -> wood delivery. The hardwood guys will block the ducts/intakes anyways while they work, so I think this is the best route.

time crunch and carpet

My townhome sells on October 26. I will be in Europe October 22-November 1, so I have to move my crap to Tacoma the weekend of October 17. (Never thought my career as a project manager would prove useful in "real" life.) I already have movers scheduled to help with the big stuff I cannot carry alone that Saturday. I thought I would have one room completed by then so I have a clean place to sleep and work until the hardwood floors are finished while I am out of the country...but then I hit a snag. I called to order the carpet I wanted and SURPRISE! The price was per square foot, NOT square yard. Came to $1750 for a room. Say what? I hung up and began to panic. I am hemorrhaging cash right now, so what to do? Home Depot? I drove over and learned that installation is 4-5 weeks out, so they could not complete the work before Europe. I thereby resigned myself to ideas of meager comforts for a while. Good thing I like to camp. Bust out that tent! Then - of course! - my mom stepped in. She spent all of today visiting carpet stores in Tacoma researching lead times, installation, etc. She even tracked down a cousin who will install the carpet for cheap as soon as the carpet arrives, and lead time to get carpet is ~2 weeks because ALL carpet for some reason comes from Georgia. (Yes, I realize I said previously I will NEVER do business with a family member ever again, but this is an emergency: It's called, I am broke and need every "family discount" I can get!). We are going to pick out some cheaper carpet tomorrow and have it installed before October 17. Phew, disaster averted!

Meanwhile, the electricians finally finished up yesterday. The fixtures look fabulous. They broke one glass globe and the door to my attic, which I don't consider too shabby for 20-something boys. (The toilet is another matter.) I also had a contractor come over yesterday to measure the front and back doors so I can replace the current doors which are just ugly. You guessed it, they need to be custom! And custom equals MO MONEY! Hurray! And some of the trim has to come off to install the doors, sigh...

And on that note, I had a recent "come to jesus" realization that this house is consuming my life. I have to pay more attention to my social life. So, plan for this weekend is to 1) get on bike, 2) go to Oktoberfest and enjoy some delicious pumpkin ale, and 3) remember to take all this house stuff one day at a time...and if it doesn't get finished in time, so what? And for the record, I STILL have not shed a tear. ;)

floors walls floors repeat

It's been a while, you may be saying. Well...I've had a lot going on. New job. Trip to CT from hell. Got sick after said CT trip from hell. The house, of course. And then I put my Seattle townhome on the market 9/10, so had to prepare for that. Thankfully, a full price offer came in four days later. Oh yeah, and my dog got hit by a car (she is fine!). Needless to say, blogging has not been a priority. And yet here I am world!

Where did we leave off? I think floors...yeah, it took me a week to recover from that ordeal.

Hallway after Stew removed the parquet crap. No hardwood. GASP! Fortunately, this can be repaired, and has served as truly my only bad surprise in this process to date. I consider myself lucky.

I also had to pull the laminate from the upper/master bedroom, but that literally took less than an hour (yes, I timed myself, 10:48 AM - 11:40 AM, how else am I going to have any fun?), including removing it from the house and adding it to my growing pile of trash on the patio. Here are before shots; after shots are further down. And of course, guess what was underneath the laminate? Yep, more hardwood! But interestingly, the stairs were painted forest green (same color as the kitchen) and the closet bright red (same color as the living room). I don't get it...but that's probably in my favor.

I then spent the rest of THAT day cleaning the windows in the spare bedroom. Nobody had cleaned the windows in years. Gunk was caked onto the windows. The key to this task is a toothbrush. Fortunately, my mom and Stew actually think of this stuff and save things like old toothbrushes, so I did not have to buy one (and the fact I did not have to buy something as "cheap" as a toothbrush in this situation is HUGE because the costs are really adding up, sigh...). Meanwhile, Mom started to plug all the nail/screw holes in the window frames with spackle so we could prepare to paint. Progress is sweet.

A week passes...

I then proceeded to clean the windows in the master. It took hours. Yes, my life has been reduced to this. What is a social life, after all? I now speak to windows. I have not even gotten to the screens yet. I wonder what those conversations will be like.

Not sure if I mentioned this yet (my brain is in overload), but the hardwood guys cannot refinish my floors until the week of October 26, which is AFTER I want to move in (my townhome closes on October 26). Fortunately, I will be in Europe rocking out to U2 and chasing northern lights while they coat my floors with carcinogenic substances. Still, I have to return and have a place to sleep and work. Thus, the master bedroom has become my priority; my rest of my furniture will have to be tossed into the garage in the meantime. I will be carpeting the stairs and bedroom/closet rather than refinishing the hardwood so my spoiled dog has one room of carpet to roll around on post baths. So, this weekend I had to start painting. My mom helped. We went through 1.5 gallons of paint on the ceiling alone (color is Behr's Maui Mist...ooh la la). It was ridiculous. The plaster dude put a sand finish on the ceilings, so the surface area is pretty great and since this is the first (and ONLY, thank you very much) coat of paint/primer going on the ceiling, it was sucked up pretty well. We did not get to finish the closet because we ran out of white paint, and yes the closet will be white because I don't want color interfering with my clothing selection. I am fashion challenged enough.

Next, we painted the rest of the walls, and it took EXACTLY one gallon of paint (Behr, don't know the name of it). I wanted a mauve, not pink or purple, something not too feminine...hope I nailed it. My mom thinks so. The trim will have to wait for another day. Here are photos.

And don't you just love the photo with the light fixture dangling from the ceiling? My expectations are so low right now.

And as an added bonus, since you actually made it this far through the post, here are pics of the living/dining room in their current state. Nothing is painted yet. I shudder to think about how many gallons of paint these ceilings will consume.

Funny how when everything else gets cleaned up, the fireplace looks like an explosion occurred.

Entryway that used to be covered with parquet.

I will be painting the beadboard white.

Home Depot is heading over to the house on Thursday to measure the front door. I will be installing a new front door. A black door. No, I don't care to know your thoughts on that one.

my future in gifts

While working at the house yesterday, Stew got hungry so he offered to grab lunch. When he didn't return for an hour, my mom mentioned there were like ten garage sales in the area and Stew had come back asking her for cash. Uh oh.

Stew eventually made his way back and showed us his finds. For $75, he scored a giant drill press, a welder, and a mini air compressor. He gave me the air compressor as a house warming gift. Wow. Never in my life would I have thought I'd be gifted with this fine piece of equipment!

We are going to use the air compressor to shoot brad nails into the barn wood that will be going into the kitchen (to be continued). I can also use it blow up my bike tires...that ought to go well!

floors

The electrical is rewired, just need the fixtures installed.
The plaster/drywall repairs and texturing is 50% complete. It looks great.

Now it's time to address the floors.

The floors, however, are the exciting part. A big reason I bought this home was knowing the entire first floor had hardwood flooring. You could tell by a hint of what lie below the cheap 1970s-style wood laminate in the hallway closet. Whoever covered the first floor did not cover all the way to the wall, revealing the jewel below. Fortunately, other potential buyers may not have noticed this before running for the hills. ;)

 The living/dining rooms were already bare (except for the entryway between the front door and that "wall" previously removed). The two bedrooms and hallway were covered with the laminate, see below. There are no words.

The kitchen and upstairs bedrooms are covered with pergo, but I am leaving the kitchen for a much-needed remodel down the road and the master will be carpeted. Thus, my focus this weekend was on the downstairs bedrooms/hallway.

I thought removing wallpaper was bad. Oh no, that was the easy stuff. Now we can talk about "back breaking work"...rather back/wrist/leg/neck breaking work! Everything about this was painful (and as I am writing this post the morning after, I can attest to the bodily damage because I CANNOT MOVE). I could not work on my knees because of the whole bee/sidewalk incident two weeks ago and the resultant scabs, so I ended up just bending over and hammering a crowbar under the tiles, then using my weight as leverage to life up each tile. And if I was lucky, an entire tile would come up, but more often than not a third of a tile (and another F-bomb) came up. Later, I ended up sitting on a stool. Then I moved to sitting on my butt. The entire process became an exercise in changing positions to minimize pain. Ultimately, efforts were fruitless and I got to the point where I left merely a few tiles in the hallway. That is very uncharacteristic of me, but then this house is pushing my limits big time. I am having to learn to say "enough is enough".

 

And then there was the sound! Hammering steel in an empty room is loud. Given I had thrown away my ear plugs (yes, stupid), I used my Sony headphones and quickly learned that rock music provided the inspiration I needed to perform this work. Angry, loud drums work wonders for home demo. See you naysayers...my lingering fascination with 80s metal and grunge has totally paid off!

And then there is the result. So worth it, eh? And by the way, I checked with the restoration dude. He said not to worry about removing the glue since it would go away with the sanding. THANK GOD! I caught a break.

Fortunately, my mom and Stew came over to help. To date, I have not shed a tear BECAUSE OF THEM. I have wanted to, but they continue to help and keep my spirits lifted. For instance, Stew showed me how to remove the tile yesterday.Then he and my mom went into the yard and removed the wisteria from the porch. I totally forgot to take an "after" picture, but here is a "before".

Yep, that mess is gone! You may be saying, oh no, boo hoo, it's beautiful! Why would you do such a thing! Well for starters, it is a rat's nest, meaning it's easy entry for all rodents into my attic. It's also a major fire hazard (Pemco told me so). It's also chewing up the roof tiles, and some of the fascia wood has to be replaced because of it. That wisteria has been allowed to grow uncontrolled for a long time, and leave it to my mom to say, that's enough! This shit is being tamed! Now before you get all bent out of shape, it's still there. My mom and Stew simply chopped it to a couple feet high so this thing can continue to grow in a controlled manner moving forward. It will be back! Only in a much less offensive manner.

And a special shout out to my mom and Stew because they spent yesterday working in MY yard, cleaning it up, pruning it, removing limbs that were touching the house, cleaning gutters and moss...it was an incredibly productive day. I cannot thank them enough. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

Stew is my hero...again

I got a call from the drywaller yesterday. He's like, you want me to patch up the bathroom ceiling  because the fan's not connected to a duct. It was venting straight to the attic; see below. UGH!!!

My first thought, who the hell do I call to do this work? My second thought (which should have been my first thought), Stew will know who to call! Of course, Stew was like, I'll go check it out in the morning when I drop off all that magnificent barn wood that I picked up for you at zero cost to use in your kitchen. (Insert 'thumbs up' emoticon here.)

Stew called at 6:44 AM this morning to report on what he found. (Seriously, what time does that guy wake up?!) He ended up buying some kind of saw - who knew there were so many different saws out there - so he could run the duct through the side of the house. Done. He also took out the old fan the electricians left behind. I'm like, really? My intent was not to have him do it, just tell me who to call. Amazing. I told him to go buy some Frisco Freeze and add it to my bill.

Apparently the original fan (pulled out by the electricians and replaced) was venting through a 0.5" hole in the side of the house. Ridiculous. This is what it was going through...possibly the weirdest thing ever.

If it weren't for my mom and Stew, I'd be a headcase right now.

In the meantime, I drove to the house last night to drop off cash for the sheetrocker. While there, I got a first glance at the ceilings and walls. Um...wow?! I think this is the first time the house looks like it is improving, not getting worse. The light! I see the light!

The ceiling is sort of a sandy finish. The wall texture is a heavy skip trowel design. Jeff said this is in line with the era of the house. And for the record, Jeff does phenomenal work.

Still need to primer/paint everything, but progress is being made!

the plaster dude

My plaster guy, Jeff, started his setup today so he can start the work tomorrow. He called and said it will be risky to plaster/texture directly onto the living room ceiling in its current state since there is a layer (layers?) of paint that is bubbling and/or peeling off in areas. The plaster may also bubble as a result. So, Jeff said that despite my valiant effort, he recommends putting 1/4" sheetrock on the ceiling. Ok. :( He also said there is some weird paneling in the "office" closet and he is not sure what is behind it. While he was on the phone with me, he starts to rip it off and tell me what he finds. (I love that I can listen to my house being ripped apart on the other end of the phone and not stress out...I must be getting good at this!) Yeah, he said, that needs to be sheetrocked, too.

Otherwise, things look good and he will get started tomorrow.

I told him to ignore the kitchen completely, except for the pantry (which I demo'd two days ago), since I have other plans for that room...very fine plans that I am not sharing with anyone yet. (Hint: It's going to kick ass and could possibly be the BEST KITCHEN EVER!!!)

His quote, minus the sheetrock, came in at $6500. This is $500 less than what I expected, but the sheetrock may take it up to $7k so I am right on budget so far...phew!

Oh! You are not going to believe this. Yesterday, my mom and I dropped off some light fixtures at the house. While there, I got curious about the far wall in the kitchen, like what is really behind the beadboard? I started to pull it off and I shit you not...there is more painted wallpaper! So...one more wall to go. There goes next weekend. :/

I officially have PTSD due to wallpaper and popcorn ceilings.

cottage cheese nightmares

I don't understand why they call it a "popcorn" ceiling. When that stuff gets wet, it is DEFINITELY cottage cheese. I had an entire day to study this, so I am certain.

But the good news...the "cottage cheese" from my dining room and living room ceilings are gone! AND I did it in one day, ahead of schedule, which means I get a weekend. ;)

Granted, this was my second attempt at getting the stuff off, and I sorta scored just this morning or it may have gone badly. I dropped Gemma off at doggie daycare since I didn't want her running around the house while I made a mess. Robert, the owner of the daycare, also owns a construction company. (I swear, I don't know what he doesn't do.) I told him I would come back for Gemma either today or tomorrow, depending on how long it took me to remove the crap from the ceilings. He went on his soapbox about what to do and recommended the greatest tool ever to complete this task...a floor scraper, of all things!

 

Do you hear the angels singing? It cost $25.

I draped plastic on every wall and then on the floor. YouTube (which makes this stuff look way easier than it actually is) recommended 2-mil plastic. I went with 0.31-mil plastic so I could reduce plastic waste, OF COURSE! It also came in a 12' x 400' box for $25 which was plenty to cover both rooms, and it draped on the walls nicely (secured by basic masking tape). However, I had to be very careful not to tear it. I even went through this entire removal process barefoot to prevent tears. It worked great; but if I ever do this again (hopefully not), I would get a dropcloth for the floor and cover it  with 0.31-mil plastic.

Before. How very "Dexter", eh? Wonder what the neighbors thought.

After. Not pretty, but it will work. The drywaller comes in next week.

The carnage. Stunning how heavy this was...and it is the small room!

Here are photos of the living room...

I was actually more interesting to look at in this process, how messy it got. You'd think I just stepped out of a mud wrestling ring. Unfortunately, friends and family are avoiding me like the plague right now (I think they fear I may ask them to help? ;), so no real opportunity to get shots of me in action. Lucky for me, I suppose...

WINNING!!!

Barely. I estimated 5 days...took more like 10 days to remove that blasted wallpaper. And then right when I got down to the end, the sellers stuck it to me again. They used trim at the top. One more dig. But...THE WALLPAPER IS GONE! I win.

Here are a few 'in progress' pics. Notice who is doing the supervising (aka Gemma and Mimi). That grey wall on the right is my worst nightmare. That wall alone took 4 days to peel and we have bonded big time. And note, my mom helped with that wall so I would still be peeling if it weren't for her. (Thanks, Mom!!!) Sadly, she won't allow me to post any pictures of her on this blog.

Overall, this process was beyond painful. I have never in my life been so exhausted, and I have done some fairly strenuous things like hike and mountain bike for hours on end at ridiculous altitudes. Nothing compared to this. And let me make something clear. I still have not shed a tear. I came close. My mom talked me down from the ledge. Still only blood and sweat...and wine. Lots of wine.

I actually tried to get a jump start on the popcorn ceiling this past weekend, but that crashed and burned. Hard to do when you can't lift your arms (some of you heard about the bee/sidewalk incident on Friday morning). But I've put in some good downtime this week and am determined to peel that crap off this weekend before the drywall guy starts next week.

The first phase of the electric work ends today! They will be back to install fixtures (which I still have to buy, shopping, oh lord...) after the drywall work is complete.

wall texture...thoughts?

It's about that time when I have to make a decision on what sort of wall texture I want. The fun stuff! This is what I came up with. It fits the period of the house. Also thinking of going with smooth ceilings. And yes, I decided to remove the popcorn ceilings myself. Now THAT ought to be an awesome post. :/

gutted

The house electrical was removed yesterday. All knob & tube gone. Wow. It's happening!

No, I am not doing the electrical work...

New electrical wiring will be installed within 6-8 business days. I figure the amount I am spending on this rewire will have to be worth at least double, equity-wise, eh? (Just say 'yes'. Thank you. ;)

this too shall pass...

Yep, that's my mantra for the day. Seven hours of work. See before and after shots below. This chore is really starting to annoy me. I cannot use a scoring tool because the wallpaper layer is so thick that the blades do not reach the adhesive. So it's a dry scrape...scrape...scrape...sounds like a horror movie. Well in my world, IT IS. Absolute horror. I figure I have at least another three days to get this room wallpaper free, two to remove the first layer (HOPEFULLY, since this is the high risk portion of the task) and one to remove the adhesive. My hands/wrists are a wreck. Funny thing, I have a trackpad with my Mac, not a mouse. Typically it takes more effort to push that thing than a mouse. I just sat down to write this entry and the trackpad feels effortless. After four days of scraping wallpaper, I have man hands!!  Now there's a perk to home remodeling. :/

I already need a break and I am just getting started. Sweet.

Grayson Cellars - wine review #1

I'll let you in on a little secret. The point of this renovation isn't really to renovate a house...I bought this place so I had a good reason to spend a lot of money on really good wine! Yes, hard work deserves good wine. For those of you who do not know my wine style:

• I don't drink white wine, or 'rose/blush' or whatever you call it, or dessert wines. Never. Sorry excuses for wine in my book.
• I like wine that taste like the bottom of the barrel. Musty, like a basement. Tons of tannins. Tobacco. Earthy. Minimal fruits.
• I have preferred Alexander Valley wines for a while now. However, Washington is putting out some amazing wines these days, so I tend to stay local whenever possible. 
• I rarely buy the same bottle twice. I like to explore. $10 is my target price, but I only buy bottles that are ON SALE at $10. They usually cost more. For this house, I upped my target price to a whopping $15 per bottle. :)

I discovered this one from Harbor Greens in University Place. They have incredible deals on wine. This one was on sale for $10. WOW.

FYI, I tried another one last weekend at a wine party (the Cab). It blew my mind. Sheridan Vineyard, in Zillah, WA (Yakima area). Double WOW!

DEMO DAY

I got the attention of the men out there, didn't I?!

This day was certainly fun. It actually took 1.5 days, but who's counting?

Items that were removed:

1. All baseboards from upstairs, so the electrician has easier access. (Note: All outlets in the house are currently located ON the baseboards. Some are vertical, some horizontal, some slatnted, some higher/lower than others...super shotty job. The electrician will be moving them - with updated electrical - onto the walls. Because I'm "classy" like that. ;)
2. All 3/4" baseboard "trim" downstairs, so the hardwood floor refinishers can have access clear to the baseboards. That and the trim was downright ugly and needed to just go away and die a quick death.
3. All closet units. They were mostly made of cheap particle board, and someone had a sale on cherry wallpaper because that shit is EVERYWHERE. I would rather have no shelves to store my crap than cheap/ugly shelves. But that's just me.
4. That ugly-as-all-hell "wall" or whatever you want to call it that stood at the entry and qualified a makeshift foyer. You walk through the front door and ta da! I think the previous owners built this atrocious structure so they could mount their giant TV and X Box system. Only in 'Merica!
5. Crap from windows, like old blind/curtain attachments and random nails. A sign of major laziness in the past.

Baseboards
Stew took the lead on #1 and #2, of course. He loves to pull shit apart. What made this scary however is that upstairs, the nails used to secure the baseboards were pulling out big chunks of plaster in areas. Yikes! My mom and I will do the repair ourselves in a week or two. She's good at it and will teach me her ways. The 3/4" trim downstairs came off in about 30 minutes, if that. Stew's that good. I also got my first lesson in the "sawzall". (P.S. Please don't call OSHA on the second photo...)

Closet units
You've all heard the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words".

Enough said? The closets are now empty, all clean slates. Oh what a feeling...and notice the removed baseboards behind the sledge hammer. That was a clean removal. It happens on occasion.

That "wall" thing or whatever...
Currently, the front door is glass. Not rain glass, but clear glass that anyone can just see through. So, if you consider that, perhaps there was a minor use for this "wall". But in general, it was an ugly piece of crap that cut the living room in two and did not gel with the style of home at all. Unanimously, anyone who had seen this "wall" in all its glory took one look at it, made a questionable face, and said, "I think that has to go". A gigantic (50"?) TV was still attached to it. I made a deal with Stew: You remove the "wall" and you get the TV for your man cave. That wall was out within three days. He even pulled in his brother, Zack, from Oregon to help.

Here are the before pics. Notice said front door. Super secure, eh? Of course, I never mentioned all the NRA stickers I had to remove from the windows before I even went to Peru (yes, that is called a "priority"). Perhaps it was assumed they work better than ADT signs? And see that open space below the TV? Another WTF?! Seriously, my cuss quota is so through the roof right now.

Here is what you saw when you walked into the house with the "wall" in place. Seriously? This is such a bad feng shui infraction I don't even know where to start. Chi tries to get into this house and it's like "Ouch!!! WTH?! I just hit my head against this retarded wall thing...screw this house, I'm gonna leave!" Yeah, no chi flow in this house. Shame on you, previous owners!!!

And then Stew happened...

Hear the angels singing?

New view when you enter the house. The room felt like it doubled in size. But now this means I need a new front door. No worries, I have one picked out already...and it's BLACK! ;)

Window crap
The prior owners proceeded to added curtains, blinds, you name it, to every window in the house without removing prior hardware. Every time my mom walked in the house, she said "OMG that has to be removed. I'll remove it next time I come over." I did her a favor and took care of it all. Here is an example of before/after. Just small stuff, but what a pain.

Tools of the day, as follows (there were actually three tools that rocked my world; the wrench is missing, which helped immensely with the stripped screws). Note, this is my grandpa's drill. I inherited it when he passed. He used it for his plumbing and holy shit (no pun intended), this thing kicks serious butt. Cordless drills be damned! Stew said a couple days ago, "You shouldn't be using this drill. It has too much power". Music to my ears.