Operation: This Old House

The work began at the house this weekend and though we actually got a TON of stuff done, we still have so far to go.  Unfortunately, the process will be somewhat halted during the weekdays due to the fact that Jay's ship is in dry dock about three hours north of here, in Bellingham, so he commutes home on the weekends.  Thus, that being the only time he has to work on things, we have to bust rear to get things done from morning til night all weekend long.  It is overwhelming at times, but as stressful as it has been realizing we've bitten off a lot more than we can chew and seeing dollar signs everywhere we look, we actually get pretty giddy thinking about how nice it will be once we're done.  Granted, it's going to be a rental (for now), so obviously we're not looking to sink a huge amount of money into it at this point even though it would be nice to do so, we just need to do some things to get it in a condition that will make someone want to call it home for alittle while.  This weekend, all we really focused on at first was going through the attic and the crawl spaces and clearing out 20 years worth of crap that should've been thrown out long before now, but instead was tossed into the "out of sight, out of mind" black hole.  Fortunately, we had help from my brother, Nikki, our neighbor Josh and even my nieces, clearing and disposing of everything from the inside out, even the backyard shed was piled up with junk. 

Pictured here, some of the junk that was brought out of the attic

(there was a time when my dad made Romper Room out of his house with interesting color choices, he also made the dining room into a weight room and the living room into a billiard room)

I have to say, we had a lot of fun reminiscing....I mean, how can you not get nostalgic when an entire tape cassette collection comes down from the attic?  My first Madonna album from 1984 was among them!  My brother created a scene straight from the movie "Christmas Vacation" when he came across a box full of women's clothing and an old movie projector in the attic...hilarious.  After three dump runs and a whole slew of stuff set down by the road with "FREE" signs written on them, the house was cleared and the "real" work could begin.  My and Nikki's project was to remove wallpaper.  Five rooms worth.  Not a pleasant job at all.  That took up an entire day (and part of the night before), but we got it done. 

here's Nikki, thrilled with how easy the spray-on fabric softener worked to help loosen the paper

Circa 1960-something, I'm guessing....

this was under the stuff my mom put up

Oy...color anyone?

My old bedroom....no wallpaper, no loud colors

 

Jay and the guys spent Sunday busting out the stairwell wall and drywalling old window and door frames, among other things.  Jay even came across a piece of newspaper in the wall dated August 1964. 

This was originally the back wall of the house, hence the window, but at some point, someone added on a utility room in the back.  We are closing off this window and installing a shower.

The stairs have been closed behind a door and I've always wanted to open them up like this.  It is necessary in order to allow beds larger than twin to get upstairs (we had to break box springs in order to get full size up there, anything else was just too big.  Apparently they didn't make beds that big in 1944!) 

The original back door will now be closed off for good

It's been a pretty interesting experience so far and without the help of dear family and friends, we really couldn't do this.  So thanks guys!  We just hope they come back....