I saved this room for last, as I'm most proud of the transformation here. You can see from these photos, that there was a LOT to do! The sofas (and the mice that inhabited them) went to the burn pile. The refrigerator (which had food in it and had been unplugged for the past 10 years) was picked up by Lowe's when they delivered the new fridge. Thank God! Charlie did them a favor, though, and removed all the old food, hosed it out, and aired it on the front porch first. The hole in the ceiling was fixed (abeit not so pretty) and the roof leak above it was also repaired.
Here, the contact paper is off the walls, and things are starting to get moved out.
Bottom cabinets are out! This allowed us to do the flooring from wall to wall and to prime and paint all that was hidden. With the smoke smell that came with the house, we wanted to seal up everything possible! The flooring here is also mostly removed and a lot of scraping took place to make that happen! The patch on the wall to the right is from where the previous owners took out a wood burning stove and sealed off the fireplace. One day when we can afford to replace the siding and put on a new roof, we'll remove the chimney, but for now it stays. And hey, look! A new fridge!
While we would have liked to remove the A/C unit, it was super hot and our budget didn't allow for new heating and cooling. We were actually pleased to find wall heaters and A/C because that meant that there was no smoke-filled ductwork to replace. Eventually, we want to get one of those Mistubishi wall units that heats and cools. They're not really any cheaper than going with a ducted system, but they're less labor intensive and a lot more efficient. Here, the walls and ceiling are primed and David is starting the paint on the ceiling. The subfloor by the new sliding glass door was also replaced due to water and fungus rot.
Lisa had some track lighting that she wanted to install in the kitchen. The pendant is there for extra light until all the track light bulbs were replaced! First coat of color on the walls above cabinets!
Cabinets primed!
First coat of paint on cabinets in house
First coat of paint on bottom cabinets in garage! (Over 2 coats of primer!)
I thought I could rotate this photo here, but apparently not. This is the underlayment for the vinyl floor in the kitchen/dining. We probably could have gotten away with the floor leveling putty in the termite damage cracks, but this is the way it's *supposed* to be done.
While I'm sharing prep-work, here is the bead board after being primed in the living room. It also got painted before installation.
Here is the vinyl floor the day it was laid. There was a stubborn bump in the middle, hence the boxes of flooring to weigh it down. That worked! We rolled it out, I cut, Lisa glued, and Charlie used the Vinyl Flooring roller to get out the bumps.
Top cabinets with doors and hardware back on. I should take a moment to talk about the stove, too. Upon entry to the house, Lisa plugged it in and checked it out. She found that all the burners and broiler worked, but the bake element didn't. (Later, she found a mouse nest where it connected, which would explain why it shorted out.) She took some measurements and looked up repair parts online and found the correct bake element for the stove for about $40. Lots of elbow grease (no pun intended), new drip pans, a wire brush, some Rustoleum paint and a little glue for the label up top, and the stove is in great working condition and saved us at least $400! Well, gave us emotional permission to spend $400 extra on other stuff, perhaps! :)
Lower cabinets set in place and doors laid out.
Lower cabinet doors and hardware replaced, and countertops set out. We discovered that they delivered one too many left miters and one too few right miters, so a trip to exchange that at Lowe's was in order. Yay for using stock pieces that it was an easy morning trip!
Countertops cut and in place, sink and faucet in place, and note the lighting! New bulbs and no pendant!
Lisa had a pendant light she wanted to use in place of the fluorescent light above the sink. Between what she had and what was left in the house, we only had to purchase the bathroom light! In this photo, the beadboard is also installed. It still needs trim, caulk, touch up paint, and the outlets reset and covers put back on, but from this distance you can't tell.
And here after Lisa moved in. She's great with not only electric, but also plumbing, which means that the dishwasher she obtained from a previous rental (where a previous tenant just left it and the landlord said it was hers)--well, she wired and plumbed the house and cut necessary holes in cabinets so that it could be installed! There is about 6 or so inches of countertop beyond the dishwasher, which is too narrow for any stock cabinets, but we will build a shelving unit backed with extra beadboard and painted to match the cabinets to sit at the end. We also got one of those kits for making the fake drawer front in front of the sink into useful space, and found drawer pulls that are nearly identical to the ones that were in the house. While I may have dreamed about replacing all the hinges and pulls, it just wasn't economically feasible, with one set of hinges costing $2.75. The color goes well with the countertop and floor, though, so it works the way it is just fine.
I still can't believe that we did the entire project in 6 weeks, to also include the water company installing a tap and our backhoe man installing new water lines to the house! Now we can turn our attention to some projects that need finishing up around our house and then this winter we'll tackle the barns that came with this farm.
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