Sunday, December 2, 2018

Pool Table

Today we loaded up the van with Mark's tools and tied the box spring from our bed and the boy's mattresses to the roof of the van.

We got about halfway down route 19 when one of the mattresses flew off into the street. We parked off the side of the road and ran back to rescue the mattress. As we dragged it back to the van a voice asked if we needed any ladders. A nice woman, who it turns out donated to the y building project, had seen what happened and offered us a couple of ladders so we could retie the mattress to the roof.

Once that was accomplished, we continued to the house. We took the mattresses to their respective rooms and the tools to the hanger. After a lunch of leftover pizza, Mark started hooking up the washer and I started to take apart the pool table. Mark was successful on the washer. We made a discovery on the pool table.

After taking apart the sides, I started to pull up the felt so we could take out what we thought were slate plates. However, we discovered it was simply plywood. We slid it out to the Carnegie room where I originally wanted it to be. Once there, however,... it really is just too big, so the table will be going to the hanger.

We tested the washer by washing the curtains from the Carnegie room. It works.
So, pool table figured out and washer and dryer set, we called it quits for the day.

We have so much left. SO MUCH. But we got a great start.

More to come...

New House

November 27, 2018 we bought a house.

It's been a long road and I wish I had been in a place, mentally, to detail the journey. But here we are. A new house.

After signing on Tuesday, we went to the house by ourselves for the first time -- every other time we had the real estate agent chittering. We walked through each room talking about what we wanted or need to do first.

I went alone on Wednesday to steam clean the carpets and taking all the things left on the walls - off. It turns out there was quite a bit left. I spent at least an hour going room to room and figuring out what screw driver was needed. I spent about 4 hours cleaning the carpets. It will probably need to be done again, because the water kept coming out black. I really wish we could afford to replace the carpets with hard wood.

By the time I was done, the carpets were damp, the walls were bare, and I was done.

Thursday I stopped by the storage unit and took the lawnmower and yard tools to the house to get them out of the way in the unit, so we could more easily access the rest of everything. I also grabbed the paint totes and the cleaning totes. Then I headed to the house alone with the intention of cleaning the cabinets.

I unloaded the yard tools from the van into the garage and took the cleaning and paint things inside. The first thing I saw was the pile of things I had taken from the walls and left on the pool table. So, I got an empty tote, put together a box, found an empty garbage can, and got a garbage bag. I began to separate items. I put the wicker and basket things in one, the wooden and ceramic nicnacks into another, the unreal amount of phones into the garbage can for recycling, and the dried flowers into the garbage bag. This made the family room look much better.

Then I started the process of cleaning the refrigerator. I filled the sink with hot soapy water and started to pile up every drawer and partition on the counter. I washed each item and stacked them along the counter. Then I had to clean out the freezer and fridge itself. After that was done I put it all back together. It now looks like a place we would want to store food.

The last thing I did was clean the front of every drawer and cabinet. This alone took nearly an hour. By the time I was done, even though it had all only taken about 4 hours, I decided to call it a day.

Friday November 30

I had a history meeting at 10 and Mark had to work, but planned to leave early because we had a roofer coming to check the roof. I picked Mark up at  11 and we had lunch at Beef O'Brady's. We stopped by the storage unit to pick up the ladder and fill the van with more things to take to the house.

Once at the house, I started to clean out the the inside of the cabinets and Mark tried to get the baseboards off the Carnegie room. The roofer came. Mark helped me clean the two cabinets that were deeper than I could reach. We then made a list of what we needed to get from Kokomo.

The first stop was Lowe's. We finally decided on a color for the Carnegie room. We got paint and some work lights and a couple of shower heads. I could spend a lot of money here, if we had it.

Done for the day, we went to a Pizza Hut for dinner. Turns out it was a bit "sketchy" to use a William term, but it was hot and edible.

December 1

We got up early because we were having a washer delivered and the delivery times were between 8 and 5.

The first thing we did was take down the overhanging cabinets between the dining room and kitchen. It took some work, but we got them down, and it is so much better! It is the favorite thing we've done so far.

Next, we started the painting. Mark did all the cut work for painting the Carnegie room and the areas above the windows and door as well as the area below the windows. I rolled all the paint on all four walls. The red wall took a coat of primer as well as two coats of paint. The other three walls took two coats of paint. It took For EV er.

While Mark was doing the cut work, I cleaned off the walls in the fireplace room. I think nails need to be neon colored, because it hurts when you wipe down walls and run into a nail unexpectedly.

Another question I have is: Why do screws have to have so many different heads? Seriously.

I actually got my 10 thousand steps for the day just from walking around the house.

Exhausted, we picked up some Papa John's and headed back to the apartment.