Today we closed on our new house! This house has been vacant for a little over two years. The couple who owned this house before us was an older couple, and both of them passed away within six months of each other. The house sat vacant on the market for two years before we came along and made an offer. Today we got to meet their son and hear a lot of history about the house. This property was apparently very important to Mr. and Mrs. Lucas (the previous owners). They loved working on the house, and Mr. Lucas especially loved landscaping. All of this love is very apparent in the house, and was one of the reasons we wanted the house! They especially loved children, and loved their grandchildren visiting the house. Their son told us today that they had play rooms for their grandchildren all over the house. They immediately asked about our daughter and were very pleased to hear there will be a little baby who gets to grow up in this house. It was very touching hearing about how much this house meant to them, and how sentimental their children still seemed to be about it.
After we closed, we went and purchased all new kitchen appliances (which were necessary). Then we got out to the house and got to work! Jason cut chunks out of the big vine in the back that is growing up the back of the house, so it will die. I removed all the drapes and blinds from the first floor. We also cleaned the downstairs toilet and replaced the toilet seat. I started removing the window treatment hardware, but my electric screwdriver died. We dumped RidX down the drain to get the septic system primed. The last thing we did was set off bug bombs all throughout the house to kill the current inhabitants. Here are some "after" pictures after we finished working on day 1.
After we closed, we went and purchased all new kitchen appliances (which were necessary). Then we got out to the house and got to work! Jason cut chunks out of the big vine in the back that is growing up the back of the house, so it will die. I removed all the drapes and blinds from the first floor. We also cleaned the downstairs toilet and replaced the toilet seat. I started removing the window treatment hardware, but my electric screwdriver died. We dumped RidX down the drain to get the septic system primed. The last thing we did was set off bug bombs all throughout the house to kill the current inhabitants. Here are some "after" pictures after we finished working on day 1.
Living Room
Living Room
Dining Room
Dining Room
Kitchen Door
Kitchen
Downstairs Bathroom
New toilet seat!
I made many discoveries today. There are a lot of "faux" wall coverings throughout the house, most of them from the 70's, and most of them undesirable. I discovered today that it appears the "faux" brick in the dining room, the paneling and chair-rail in the kitchen, and the wall laminate in the downstaris bathroom will all come off the walls fairly easily. We also made a bad discovery today. I discovered the dining room walls are actually painted wallpaper. In the process of pulling back some of the wall paper, we discovered mold. I believe this is just topical mold, since the back side of the same wall has no mold, and some of the mold has been peeled off to reveal clean wall beneath. Tomorrow I am going to take water and bleach and try to "wash" off a small area to see if the mold can be removed.
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