Two steps forward, one step back!

GREAT NEWS!! Blake and Ali flew in for the weekend as reinforcement for our house project!! We were SO in need of family help and feel SO lucky to have them here for us! They have made the biggest difference in providing desperately needed energy, kids help and slave labor!! We accomplished so much just today! Doesn't the tan paint look nice?! Things are really looking great in that department and we can't believe that all of this work has been done in only 6 days so far. However, as improvements are made the yuck that still exists becomes more and more obvious and it just takes time and a strong stomach to get it taken care of.

Ali worked on all the worst projects today and Blake never stopped moving from 7am - 9pm tonight. They weren't kidding around when they said they'd come to help. Ty finally got around to mowing our own lawn in the dark tonight, he never stops working either. Someday we'll look back on this week and wonder how we did it. In the midst of all of it today, too, we had Luke's Birthday party scheduled so it was nuts! Long day.

The house background in 83 words.

We bought the property three years ago with no intention of ever having to step foot in it. The owners were under contract to buy it back after one year (they needed to improve their credit situation and rented from us for that year) but they also spent all their money and never came up with the down payment. They've been renting since then, but we finally had to evict them. At this point we had few options but to improve the place.

Paint Progress

So these pictures are from this morning and already things are different. I went by tonight to show the home and all the walls are now tan!! They look beautiful, and I will take pictures tomorrow.

These are shots of the same areas I showed a few days ago; The view as you enter the home of the living room, the originally disgusting corner of the living room, the kitchen, what was the yellow bathroom and the entertainment center area in the family room.

Also a few pictures to show how thoroughly our painter is being with everything like the doors and of course, my self-taken picture of me working hard to patch the thousands of nail holes everywhere. I used almost that whole container of Spackle.












So the walls were finshed today and we also had the A/C repaired. Saturday Tyler plans to do the yard and all the many other fix-ups that need to be done. The ceilings get painted tomorrow and the garage is painted Saturday. Carpet will be installed Monday, the cleaning ladies and vent cleaners come Tuesday and then we should be DONE! Just in time for our highly anticipated vacation with no kids to Seattle which is Thursday! :)

I keep telling myself we can make it.

A reminder for my mom friends and me

Countertops and babies are not meant for each other.


After a busy morning and rushing to get Ashley off to school, I let my gaurd down and set Jake up on the counter. As I turned my back to make peanut-butter and jelly, he stood up to toss things off the counter onto the floor and slipped on a dish-towel! Thankfully he is fine - he cried for a long time and has a bruised and fat lip (I'm hoping that his teeth are okay), but I couldn't believe I had done that. It's a sad reminder to slow down and not get careless when watching these little kids everyday. Poor baby.

What we are saying at night...about the rental

Sunday night 8/31, on our way home from seeing it for the first time: "Well, here we go. We've put this off as long as we can and now we just have to do it... eww, smell your clothes! That is disgusting!" (straight into the shower, clothes into the washer)

Monday 9/1, after spending the entire day working over there: "I seriously think I might have lice, I itch everywhere! What kind of bugs were those?! I am googling them. Ugh. I am so tired, my feet are killing me. I really hurt my shoulder!"

Tuesday 9/2, after stopping by in the evening: "Wow! This is amazing what a difference paint makes! I can smell fresh paint now and barely the smoke smell, even with the dirty carpets still heaped in here! We're doing it!"

Wednesday 9/3, after a day of productivity on both our parts "This looks like a good rental app... and contract (looking online)." "We need 5 more 5 gallons of paint!? How late is Home Depot open?"

Thursday 9/4, The walls are now brown. They look great! I took our first potential renters through the house tonight and they seemed to like it. Nothing has been said between Ty and I yet because he is still at a late work dinner (its 8pm now). I patched nail holes in the walls there for three hours today and my feet are killing me, as a side note.

Pictures

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Maybe these pictures don't look so bad, but you have to see it, smell it and feel it to believe it. It's very sad and gross that some people live like this. Just layers of dust, grime, spilled stuff in the carpet that no one bothered to sop up... I truly don't think they have ever cleaned their home in 6 years. The good news is that the work to be done is mainly all cosmetic and we have made a lot of progess already today. Tyler has been there since 7am, pulled up all the carpet and prepared the walls to be painted. I went for about 4 hours and helped scrub the walls and Tyler laughed at how I kept saying the same thing over and over "This is unbelievable!" It is though. Luckily Bulk Trash Pick-up comes this week because our renter left half his house on the curb. That was to be expected though with him...
Can't wait to post pictures of the painting tomorrow!

Here are the grimey ones that my mom wanted to see to get a better idea:

Labor Day weekend Project

This is a link on craigslist about our rental that we get to revamp and rent out this month. We plan to make a home video like the show "Flip this House" but ours will be called "Dump this He-- Hole". Notice no pictures posted of the inside?! We will keep you all posted with the befores and afters... AND, we already got three calls today! :)

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/apa/818367513.html

UPDATE:
It is Sunday night and Tyler and I just returned from the dreaded house. It was my first time really getting to examine the place now that we have the keys. Oh my. Let's just say I couldn't find anyplace to set my purse down, and I can still smell smoke in my hair right now. Literally THE most disgusting home I have been in in my life.

Right now we are committed to getting the place in better condition. We have an Oxidizer in the home working to reduce the smell of smoke, we have a painter coming Tuesday to cover every single surface with a pre-treatment of "KILZ" paint to seal in the smell and put a nice beige semi-gloss throughout. Thursday the vents will be cleaned the cleaning ladies will be there scouring the place, the windows will get done, and Friday the new carpet arrives. We pray it all works out well.

I would never believe that this home had any hope of recovering except that my cousin recently bought a fixer-upper and it was shocking what new paint, flooring and some serious elbow grease can do. As unfortunate as it is that we are in the situation now, we are excited to learn how to do all this and to see what the finished product comes out like.

I plan to post before pictures tomorrow night after spending part of the day there. Cobwebs, filth lining the edges of the carpets, broken blinds... etc. etc.

At any rate, I'd better get some sleep.

"Bow Chica Wow-Wow!"

One room down, a few to go. I dropped Ashley off at kindergarten at noon, had Jake napping at ten after and hit the bathroom for the next three hours. Not on the john, but painting! Sadly, I didn't remember to take a before picture but it was just the beige color you see on all my other walls.

For four and a half years now I have been happy with my beige everywhere but now I am ready for a change and I am going for it. Painting the bathroom was tedious, Ali had mentioned that bathrooms are the worst and I wish she would have mentioned it more like, "bathrooms are the WORST!" But Zach and Katie's Wedding CD and Josh Groban serenaded me through it and we managed just in time to pick up the kids. I worked it.

The irony of the situation is that I chose this color in part because I think it looks cute with my shower curtain. I got it to match, and then dribbled wet paint over it as I swung my loaded roller over the floor. Dumb. So I did hang it back up with the paint splotches on it, but that won't do anymore. Time to go shopping for new towels and accessories to match the fresh, clean paint. Next week maybe, I need to pace myself.



Here are the before pictures of all the other projects I am anticipating. I will update you all as I complete them throughout the next month. And to see them all in person, you'll just have to COME VISIT!

We've been Robbed.

So, we got our credit card bill last night only to find that it was much larger than it should have been. I immediately thought "Crud, what have I bought this time?!" And upon further investigation found that some lucky, dishonest soul had a shopping spree at The Children's Place and spent $800 with our card in the Bronx, NY!! How?!

Tyler talked to the card company last night and we will be getting a reimbursement but I am still ill at ease about how that managed to happen. The way the purchase went through was as an 'in person' purchase, not an online or something else and I know for sure it wasn't one of us, plus I still have my card in hand. So, what I think happened is that a store employee got my number from a purchase I made and passed it around to someone else or something. It just too convenient that it happened at the store that I often shop at... not some other weird place.

So, friends beware. Had I used a debit card instead I wouldn't have gotten the reimbursement as easily. It's a case for using credit cards first, I guess.

Stop me now...

I am on a painting rampage. Yesterday I got a bunch of samples from my cousin's house of her wonderful paint colors and I have splashed a little color on several walls in my house today! The kids' bath, the guest bath and a nitch in the living room are going sagey green, a wall in our bedroom is going light blue and Jakey's room is turning into a big boy 'Thomas the Tank Engine' room with red and blue walls... you can close your mouth now mom.

I will post pictures in a few days of the finished work. That is, if I am still alive after Ty walks through the door tonight! Just kidding, he'll love it!
(I hope)

Tyler's Trip to Germany

Tyler had to go to Germany for work this week. In hindsight, we wish I would have gone with him, but we thought about it only a couple days before he left. Next time he travels Internationally, I will join him for sure! I have missed him SO much and thank goodness Jana came to keep us happy and entertained... because it made the time go quickly by.

Anyway, he gets back tonight after being away a whole week. We are all happy about that!
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Yay! It is so nice to be together again. These are some of the pictures he brought home. They are of the Berlin Wall, the silent Tomb (the last picture, I think). Some shots of the office there and the PWC building - funny he can't seem to get away from them! He had a good time with the people there and loved the scenery and fresh weather. Brought home wrapped gifts for all of us.. perfume for me, books for the kids and the biggest Toblerone Bar I have ever seen! :)