Thursday, September 24, 2009
I don’t mind hard labor but…
Seriously, I understand why people buy brand new homes. We have the rare opportunity to go in for a week before we move in and get the house ready. I planned to spend a whole day cleaning and painting. I truly thought that I’d be able to clean all the walls and floors, patch and sand holes, and paint all the 4 bedrooms and the living room/dining room, especially since I was going to have help. Ya, there was so much more work than I thought. First off, the previous owners left a crap load of CRAP behind: bags of clothes, 30 pairs of shoes, a tv, cans of food, condoms (ya you read that correctly), along with a myriad of other stuff. It took about 45 minutes walking around the house tossing everything. And don’t even get me started about the backyard – luckily between our real estate agent’s gardener and my young women from church, it looks a 1000 times better. The blinds in the living room took 2 of us an hour to clean – gross. Then we started doing everything and it was just so dirty and we had more patching than we thought. A HUGE shout out to Chelsea and Stephen who spent literally the whole day there helping us clean and paint. We wouldn’t have had a good paint job without Stephen’s expertise and now we know how to do all the other rooms correctly the first time around. We were able to finish painting the living room/dining room with the help of my mom, sister, and Eva although it took us until 11 pm. It seriously feels like we didn’t get anything done even though I know there were multiple people working all day from 7 am to 11 pm. There’s just so much more to do and we haven’t even done any remodeling with kitchen, windows, or bathroom like we were hoping. Money hasn’t run out but there’s not enough left to tackle a project of that magnitude. At any rate, I was sore, tired, and had to go to work the next day and feel like there’s no way we’re going to get it all done before Saturday when we move in – even with my dad doing drywall, my mom , sisters, Chelsea, and Eva cleaning and painting. It’s frustrating and I’m a little annoyed with myself for underestimating the work involved. And I’m a little annoyed that we haven’t gotten the a/c yet! Ah, the joys of being a home owner!
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8 comments:
I like the before pics...but I am more interested in the after pics of course. Kinda like those shows on HGTV...not that I watch those or anything... I think that is awesome that so many people came to help you out. Great people!
That sounds completely exhausting!!!!! I'm so sorry its taken more then you thought. You'll get it all done though. Just do it one step at a time! Can't wait to see pictures when you're all moved in! Any yeah...that's SICK and WRONG that they left condoms behind. And just plain RUDE that they left all that other crap. People suck sometimes!
I have been praying the rest of this week for you and Matt. What a huge project and new step at the same time! Hang in there, over time it will get easier. I love fixer-uppers but it can be overwhelming in the beginning. We are always willing to come over for a painting, gardening party-Mike included :) Just think of the fun we could have....
I, too, am anxious to see the "after" pictures. More anxious to see it in person. Good luck this weekend! It will all be worth it!
I totally know how you feel! It took us a lot longer to fix up our condo than we thought it would. It cost more and took way more effort than we planned too. We have now decided that we will never again buy a house with potential unless we have the money to do everything we want how we want and pay someone else to do it! It's frustrating but I'm sure once everything is fixed and decorated you'll love it!
That soooo sucks! If I were there, I would have helped you too! All your hardwork will be worth it and soon you will be living in and loving your own house, yea!
So not sure if you've heard it yet, but when we remodeled our condo we had multiple people say that was the true test of a marriage. And it really was! If you can survive that you can survive anything. It is a very emotionally, physically & mentally challenging/taxing/draining thing & I wish you nothing but luck! I love ya guys! And as far as all the stuff being left there, my guess is they didn't do it on purpose..because that doesn't sound like the kind of stuff you leave behind. They probably got locked out which is not uncommon w/short sales & foreclosures.
I am sure it will be worth the hard effor in the end!
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