We would like to thank

view from the master bedroom

the following people...

1.  Our oldest daughter brought Bandanas BBQ and HOMEMADE chocolate cupcakes for all on Tuesday...it was really good and nice to not think about dinner all day while knocking out that tile.

2.  My sister...who made a wonderful dinner of lasagna, salad and bread for dinner on Saturday.  She drove 67 miles and it was still hot.  She served and cleaned up..  It was wonderful.  Although I am still bummed that she got there while I was (once again) at Westlakes and she had already had THE TOUR by the time I returned..

3. Sara our Realtor.. If you ever want to purchase property in Callaway County, Missouri please call her. She sold our house when we moved to St Louis and worked with us for close to a year to find this one. She showed us countless properties that we rejected for one reason or another.  She helped us look at the bright side when we decided to pull out of a contract earlier this year because the house was falling off the foundation and was what the Home Inspector called a "push down".  She emailed us within hours when she got notification of this property being on the market,  before it even hit the MLS (multiple service listing).  She even came with her hubby, 3 children, two trucks and McDonalds for the grandkids and hauled off the couch, chair, love seat and ottoman.  Thank you so much Sara.  We will recommend you to anyone that will listen.

And maybe it would be funny for you to hear the family observations.

daughters - both think it will be wonderful once it's done

one son-in-law thinks we are crazy and named the reno "Grandma and Pop-Pop's Extreme Makeover, Williamsburg Edition"

Grandkids -

Grace likes our "other" house better and why can't we just stay here or move it to the other place and when will the pool be ready to use?
Jackson thinks it needs to be bulldozed
Abbie loved the kitties and the flashlight
Owen kept walking around saying "wow, there sure are a lot of rooms"
Ava thought it might need to be prettier and wants to fish in the pond

Sister-in-law and Brother-in-law think it will be nice and sister-in-law gave me some good sewing room ideas

My sister thinks we are crazy but is glad we are going to have a guest room with a queen size bed and put dibs on it.

And my Mom will never visit because it takes her longer to drive from her house to my house than it does for me to drive from my house to her house.  Read that again and just let it sink in...  and she isn't talking time like she drives slower or I drive faster.  She is talking MILES, folks...MILES...  cause the miles change going east to west...

Nancy

closing and first week...

So bright and early Monday Sept 20th we left our house to drive 67 miles west and buy a house.  I know..we are crazy..We already OWN  a house. A nice two story, 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house in a neighborhood.  That last word is the whole problem.  We don't want to live in a neighborhood.  And we certainly don't want to live in a neighborhood that is 67 miles from our daughters and grandkids.


Here is the house we bought.

The front ...

 the back...

 We had our final walk through at 8am and found out that the seller decided to leave anything that she didn't want to move.  That would include a couch, love seat, chair, ottoman, recliner, small table, bench, stool, fishing rod, complete basement full of boxes full of stuff (one that actually says SALE ITEMS!), a 4 cup coffee pot, and various pieces of rug and carpeting everywhere including the front and back porch. Thanks seller....


After closing we had to go pay the deposit for county water and electric. Some lunch at Arbys (I hope to have it every weekend) and then off to our daughters to pick up a mattress and box spring.  We finally got back to the house, unpacked the Jeep and the truck and called Marks Mobile Glass (remember? we had that broken back window). DD2, son-in-law and two kids came.  Our realtor came and picked up the couch, love seat, chair and ottoman... (THANK YOU SARA!) Then we wandered around the house and kind of made plans for Tuesday.

Tuesday -

We pulled the carpet and padding up from the living room, hallway and three bedrooms.  Hubby's sister and brother-in-law showed up around 11am and we took some time to show them around the house and talk about what we were going to do...

Then the fun began..

During the walk through we pulled up the living room carpet. We found hardwood underneath the southeast corner and subfloor under the  northwest corner.  hm... wonder why?  Well....here is why....

Apparently at one time someone decided it would be cool to put red clay tile down...then someone else decided to put down carpet but they needed to cover the tile so they GLUED and screwed sub floor OVER the tile.

awesome

then carpet over that..  What The H--- were they thinking?  So...my job?  Read the following very slowly and carefully.

1. use the drill to remove screws in sub floor

2. use crowbar to pry the sub floor up from the top the tile

3. use crowbar AND hammer to pry each tile up and throw it away

4. Kill hubby when he tells you the next day that he "just remembered" there is a kind of "tool" you can rent that will make it go faster.  Of course he tells you this AFTER all the tile in the living room is up.

5. Go the next day and rent the tool and remove all tile from hallway....

I don't have video or photo of me chopping up tile but I do have evidence that I did it... want to see?

Yea...so I hit my left index finger with the hammer...twice...it's not funny...but it doesn't hurt...although I might have told hubby it was a wee bit sore..thinking it would get me out of work... it didn't...

and I don't have any of those fingernails anymore....{sigh}

How about a little video of that jack hammer awesome tool?  Wow...it was so much louder in person. I made him wear ear plugs...

 

Oh, we also removed 3 walls of heavy home made oak wainscoting that was horrible.  Here is a before showing our lovely wonderful lawn chair...one of 4 we have for seating...

And an after...

The wainscoting was all over that wall on the right.  And this is where we live.  Yes, I make the bed..it's the only little bit of sanity I have there.  And the seller left the TV...and the satellite was still working Sunday am when we left.

And our fancy dining room table...

So that pretty much ended Tuesday.  We were in bed by 8:30pm.  Asleep.

Wednesday.  Today, let's start demolition in the master bedroom.  Here is what it looked like
BEFORE -

DURING -

tucked back into the corner by the window is that brown dressing table.  This is a load bearing wall, so we can't remove it...but it was all covered in heavy oak and hickory and some kind of veneer..  now it's gone.

AFTER -

so Wednesday...Thursday...Friday...and Saturday we did more tearing down..  Afterwards this is what we have in the front yard...

Rich the trash hauler is coming this week to remove this...and another pile just like it a little further up the driveway..

Sunday am we were up bright and early and had breakfast at Denny's.. Hubby drove to Oklahoma for his job and I got home at 9:30am.

Oh...guess what else she left for us?

These....

This is just two of four and a momma cat.  We will feed them and hope they keep the mouse population down.  There is another yellow cat that hangs around the front and the seller came back and picked up a calico.  Oh..and there are three dogs that lay on the front walk...  we don't feed them.  We are hoping they go home.

See ya next week.
Nancy

OMG...

So....we did it...as you are reading this, we are signing papers for a new (to us) house.  We have been looking for a home closer to the kids and grandkids and a couple of months ago our realtor emailed and said "look at this"...

It's 10 acres, a pond, an above ground pool (that is FILTHY) and this house...which has two front doors..(we will keep the one in the corner that you can't see)...  

We have our Jeep and Truck loaded with cleaning supplies, a smattering of furniture and are ready to start stripping wallpaper, painting walls, building walls, adding doors, removing doors and gutting a kitchen...

I will be spending a lot of time with this...

Hopefully it makes getting 25 year old wallpaper off the walls much easier.  It got rave reviews..and you can also clean tile grout, floors and who knows what else...

This will be where we will spend our weekends for the next 9 months. Or til it's done...whichever comes first..

I will only be updating this blog once a week with before and after photos of what went on that weekend.  If you would like to watch, please become a follower... I would love to share..and maybe sometimes ask for some advice...and maybe a wee bit of whining will happen...

Basically the house has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, screen in porch, eat in kitchen, small family room, laundry room (with a laundry tub, SCORE!) and a huge sewing room (23 feet x 17 feet)... Neighbors can't be seen (or hopefully heard!), there is the 10.5 acres and that pond pictured up there in the photo...  We will also be adding a workshop building cause hubby makes furniture...

See ya next week.   We will have no TV or internet so will catch up with everyone next week.. (unless I can talk him into going into the library and checking email! lol)

Nancy

ps bad news.... as we were loading the truck yesterday...the hubby went to add a 2x4 to the truck bed and he hit the back window...and shattered it.  We now have a really nice truck loaded down with shit and a back window covered in cardboard...won't we be an asset to the neighborhood...lol  So along with everything else we have to find someone to put in a new window by Sunday am...