Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Provision, Second Floor Tour- Before

A Little Of This and A Little of That

This phrase pretty well sums up this past week,
both at the "old" house and the "new" house.

The "Old" House
(which is newer than the "new" house by about 50 yrs)

With Saturday being so beautiful, we
decided to get the last of the outdoor sprucing
done before our Open House on Sunday.
Wayne sanded and painted the front door,
while Madison and I planted cheerful pansies.
We planted them in the planters by the front door.
We planted them in the pots on the back patio.
Some went to the bed in front of the living room window
and
the remaining went along the sidewalk to the front door!
I'll do about anything to get this house SOLD!

The "New" House
or as we call it The Provision!

This house will be our labor of love.
So far we've toured the first floor and ripped out carpet (see here)
then we
toured the basement, trimmed the bushes and raked (see here).

This week has been busy, too!
Last week I stated that we had yet to
start raking the right side of the house....
now we have started!
Before
This bed runs along side of a concrete
retaining wall by our neighbors driveway.
I believe that the neighbor said it had been at least two years
since it had been cleaned out.
before
We fully agree with his observation!
It was neat to see so many flowers pop their way thru the leaves.
after
We were even more surprised to see many more
that hadn't yet reached the sun!
after
I don't think I've ever had so many flowers!
While I raked the rock bed, Wayne
got busy clearing the roof and gutters of leaves.
before
Next we power washed the front of the house!
after
It is much better, however we are still needing
to find a product to clean the remaining "brown" away!
Any tips?
Today we moved onto the right side back yard.
Wayne and Zac uncovered and cleaned out the fountain,
while Madison and I raked leaves, pine needles and
trimmed trees!
Wayne then went about the task of untangling the Wisteria vine
off the house and wrapping it back around
the arbor.
A quick power wash was all it took to make
the arbor good as new!
Remember the "vintage" bar in the basement rec room?
It's Gone!
(We are praising God that Wayne decided to tear it out.
Come to find out it was being eaten by termites.
Thankfully all the entrance tubes were dry
and they had all made their way to the bottom.
I killed the ones at the bottom by pouring a gallon
of vinegar all over them!
Guess who's getting called tomorrow?)
The ceiling in the rec room is now gone as well!
I decided that these two items were worth keeping!
I'll have to find a special place for these!
(Jane they reminded me of something you would
find a special use for!)

The Upstairs Tour- Before

When I gave my first floor tour, I neglected to
give the location of the stairs going to the second floor.
These stairs currently go up from the short
hallway between the kitchen, old dining room and side entry door. 
I must warn you that the upstairs needs lots of love too!
Going Up!
At the top of the stairs turning right,
you find the front dormer of the house.
This will be closed off to make Zac's room!
Standing in Zac's room and turning left,
is the small dormer overlooking the back yard.
This area will eventually become the landing
and the dormer will be turned into a window seat for Madison!
Walking ahead at the top of the stairs is this bedroom.
The brown door goes to a closet and the white door
by the window would be
this very scary bathroom!
This room will become Madison's room but only
after the current closet and scary bathroom are demolished!
I think that it is funny that each "room" upstairs has a different
color of asbestos tile.  We are not planning on tearing these outs. 
 Instead, we will be covering these with padding
and carpet in the bedroom and real tile in the new kids bath!
At the top of the steps looking behind you is a small
hallway leading to the left dormer of the house.
We have plans to remove this wall and add a banister.
A view from the other end looking towards the doorway Madison's room.
At the end of the hallway is this small room.
The last thing we did this weekend was to remove two walls of drywall
and plaster to expose the studs in what will become the kids new bathroom!

So to follow tradition... this is what's awaiting the trash man this week.
More yard waste bags, two or three trashcans of drywall,
and part of the rec room bar.
Just to name a few....
And this is what's waiting for me!

I am linking to Metamorphosis Monday
at Between Naps on the Porch.

Have a great week!


14 comments:

Southgate said...

What an exciting project! Can't wait to see your "afters"

Cindy @ Dwellings-The Heart of Your Home said...

Wow, you've been busy! I'm sure your re-do will be wonderful!
When we power wash, we always still have brown on our gutters and have found after powerwashing with a light bleach solution, using 409 Spray cleaner takes the brown off! Sometimes for the upper utters, we wet the gutters, spray 409 and use a soft plastic bristle broom to wash them and then rinse...it seems to work well for us!
Blessings,
Cindy

Destination Seaborn said...

Wow Dee Dee, you guys aren't wasting anytime! I love watching the progress. Good luck cleaning the siding, we found a scrub brush, bleach based cleaner and ALOT of elbow grease to be the best solution for keeping our vinyl siding clean. Best wishes to you, Lisa

Anonymous said...

Your Provision is so charming. You've been busy and everything is looking wonderful. Wish I had your energy! :)
Be a sweetie,
Shelia ;0

Gillian Layne said...

I'm loving this every step of the way. We spent the day re-building our back fence. It will last another year or two before we need to completely replace it. My under-used muscles are so sore! :)

Christine said...

I love that you named your "new" home Provision.
(now you have to name the rooms)
I'm praying that the Open House went well and that God has the perfect buyer, eager to move in.

Your new neighbors must be excited to have a loving family move in. You are putting some life back into that charmer, Provision.

Jane said...

Seriously, I cannot believe the amount of work you all are able to accomplish. Makes me feel like a slug!!
I loved the tour. You definitely have a great plan in mind and I'm sure it will be gorgeous when you are finished.
As far as the bottle openers go....I'll have to think on those...glad you saved them!
Jane

Scribbler said...

This is not for the faint of heart, so you must be a person of great resolve. I admire you great;y.

Michelle said...

Wow...you guys are really getting in there and getting it done. Good for you!!!

I love the idea for the window seat and for tearing out that wall to add a banister. I also really like the arbor, the daffodills (yay!), and the bottle openers (such cool finds!).

As for the power washing...there's a solution at Lowes/or HD that you can buy (I think it's around $8) that has a mold removal and cleaning agent in it just for exterior power washing. Just spray it on...wait a minute, and watch the grossness dissolve away (it works wonders that I wouldn't have believed, if I hadn't seen myself). Sorry...I don't remember what it's called, but it's in the power washing section.

Good job on everything, Dee Dee, and good luck with your open house!

Unknown said...

Wow can't wait to see what comes next! Brave souls you are!

Michelle said...

Dee Dee, I practically live at Lowes these days, so I looked at the cleaners while I was there. The one I mentioned above is called Krud Kutter House & Siding. Hubby said that there's even a better one from Zinsser called Jomax House Cleaner and Mildew Killer, and he said that sometimes a scrub brush is needed for stubborn areas (although we didn't need one with ours). Anyway...hope that helps.

Sue said...

Oh my. When we did our big house complete mess makeover back in 1990, I did a video of the house after we bought it. We had several truckloads of stuff hauled away before we could even get in and start cleaning things out and I hired a couple women to clean the bathrooms and kitchen BEFORE I cleaned them again. One of our bathrooms had the toilet broken in half and just laying exposed on the floor. It was such a project. When I showed the tape to my parents, the room went totally quiet. I thought my mom was going to start crying. She just shook her head and said "do you know how much work you've taken on"? We were really excited (and a little horrified). When I look at your pictures, I feel a little like my parents must have felt. It looks like so much work. We aren't sorry we did ours...you won't be either. I just don't ever want to do it again:)

corners of my life said...

You do have your work cut out for you. The photo of Wayne clearing the roof and gutters of leaves makes me hold my breath. Yikes!

Wendy said...

Dee Dee,
You are the perfect family to give this house the love it needs and I am so excited to watch you turn it into your home!
How lucky to have found a fire pit and arbor! Isn't it so neat to find that even without love and care, there are beautiful flowers just waiting to be found! It is so much fun bringing history to life again!
Take care and hope you take a little R&R this week!
Wendy