Monday, August 18, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Naughty Roary
Roary has been exploring our house more throughly than even our home inspector. She has been up in our drop ceiling in our basement twice (and had to be rescued). We also had quite a scare when she pushed the cardboard over that we had put in front of our heating vents after removing them for painting. She then proceeded to explore our heating vents. After a few tense minutes, and frantically calling her, she reappeared- in a different room from a different vent, dusty, but no worse for the wear.
We are in, tired, and the kitties have returned
On Sunday, August 3rd my parents came down with the truck and trailer. My cousins Warren and Karl, my Uncle Jeff and John emptied the trailer. Sarah (Karl's girlfriend) also came to help. My Dad got back on the road, and my mom stayed to begin her long week of painting. John and I had spent the entire weekend trying to get wallpaper border off. Each layer we removed brought a surprise second, third and sometimes fourth layer of the old homeowner's bad taste. We were ready to begin painting- or so we thought.
We started to try to get the outlet plates off the walls. The old homeowner painted with them in place, so there was years and years of paint gluing them onto the walls. They are all also very odd colors, so we get to buy new outlet, phone and cable plates. John also gets to rewire all the outlets because she painted that part too. In some cases, you can't even plug anything in because of the amount of paint that is in the outlet. ARGH! She also painted all the registers over and over again. Years of caked on paint. We painted them white, so if we ever get crazy enough to paint again at least the registers don't have to be done again.
It took the better part of the week to paint the living and dining room. It had been burgundy and forest green. Its now a much more livable light blue.
We had rented a truck in Wausau on Friday. Our plan was to finish the painting, and on Thursday take my mom home, stay with my grandparents and then go up to load the truck on Friday. By Thursday morning, we had pretty much finished the living dining room, the half bath was done (we had painted over yet another burgundy color, with a light gray. Although we though this room would be cake because 2/3rds of the wall is tiled, after removing some shelves the old homeowners left we discovered that this room too had been wallpapered, and when removing the old paper they had done a crappy job and then just painted over it. The whole room had to be sanded. And the half bath has a blue tile floor with walls that are white tiled with blue and gray specks in them. Who thinks burgundy goes with that?!? But I digress....) and the accent wall in the den was also finished (the wall was originally, wait for it, burgundy, and is now a rust color).
But, we hadn't even hit the master bed or bath, and one of the extra bedrooms which had wallpaper in it needed to be addressed because where the wallpaper had been removed was a different color.
So, my mom volunteered to return and continue painting. The plan was that john would drive the truck back to Milwaukee from Wausau after we loaded up our stuff from the storage unit, and my mom and I would follow in our car. So we stayed over night with my grandparents, and then drove up to Wausau to get the truck. My Uncle Darcy and Grandpa met us up in Wausau to help load (I still can't carry much). So we start loading up the stuff from the unit. It suddenly become obvious that we aren't going to get everything in the unit into our 24 foot truck. So we got rent another one. By about 5:30 pm we finally get everything loaded, and start our caravan back to Milwaukee- John leading in his 24 footer, me behind in my 15 footer, and my mom bringing up the rear in our highlander. We are really lucky that my grandpa and Uncle Darcy were there or we never would have gotten the trucks loaded.
We get in at 9pm, we all take a shower, eat some dinner, and crash.
Saturday morning at 9, Jen Shaun and Sarah come to help us unload what is now two trucks full of stuff. About 9:30 Warren, Karl and Sarah come. By noon, both trucks are unloaded and the stuff in strewn about in the basement. What a mess. But we are able to keep painting. John then stayed up most of Saturday night, and reorganizes the basement so you can walk around down there, and get organized.
Sunday my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Nancy come back over. While my mom continues to paint, Uncle Jeff helps john move stuff in the basement and garage. My Aunt Nancy washes all of my kitchen stuff, and we get it put away. Suddenly, things aren't looking so bad. Our living room and dining room have furniture, and not too much clutter. Our kitchen is usable. We can eat in the kitchen.
Monday, I return to work. John and I come home early, because the man is coming to install cable, and I have a CT scan on my leg. My mom is still painting. After the CT scan, we get the smaller bedroom painted and done.
Tuesday, my mom continues with the master bedroom and bathroom. Tuesday evening my Grandma and Aunt Sherri come down to pick my mom up. They along with Jeff and Nancy, Karl, Warren and Sara (Yes, Warren's girlfriend is also named Sara) come over for dinner. We have pizza, and hang out for awhile.
That evening my mom finished edging all of the rooms we have to paint. All that is left for us to do now is roll.
I really hate moving. Nothing is really put away or anything right now. But we'll get there.
We also got the cats back. They, look like they are doing ok:
We started to try to get the outlet plates off the walls. The old homeowner painted with them in place, so there was years and years of paint gluing them onto the walls. They are all also very odd colors, so we get to buy new outlet, phone and cable plates. John also gets to rewire all the outlets because she painted that part too. In some cases, you can't even plug anything in because of the amount of paint that is in the outlet. ARGH! She also painted all the registers over and over again. Years of caked on paint. We painted them white, so if we ever get crazy enough to paint again at least the registers don't have to be done again.
It took the better part of the week to paint the living and dining room. It had been burgundy and forest green. Its now a much more livable light blue.
We had rented a truck in Wausau on Friday. Our plan was to finish the painting, and on Thursday take my mom home, stay with my grandparents and then go up to load the truck on Friday. By Thursday morning, we had pretty much finished the living dining room, the half bath was done (we had painted over yet another burgundy color, with a light gray. Although we though this room would be cake because 2/3rds of the wall is tiled, after removing some shelves the old homeowners left we discovered that this room too had been wallpapered, and when removing the old paper they had done a crappy job and then just painted over it. The whole room had to be sanded. And the half bath has a blue tile floor with walls that are white tiled with blue and gray specks in them. Who thinks burgundy goes with that?!? But I digress....) and the accent wall in the den was also finished (the wall was originally, wait for it, burgundy, and is now a rust color).
But, we hadn't even hit the master bed or bath, and one of the extra bedrooms which had wallpaper in it needed to be addressed because where the wallpaper had been removed was a different color.
So, my mom volunteered to return and continue painting. The plan was that john would drive the truck back to Milwaukee from Wausau after we loaded up our stuff from the storage unit, and my mom and I would follow in our car. So we stayed over night with my grandparents, and then drove up to Wausau to get the truck. My Uncle Darcy and Grandpa met us up in Wausau to help load (I still can't carry much). So we start loading up the stuff from the unit. It suddenly become obvious that we aren't going to get everything in the unit into our 24 foot truck. So we got rent another one. By about 5:30 pm we finally get everything loaded, and start our caravan back to Milwaukee- John leading in his 24 footer, me behind in my 15 footer, and my mom bringing up the rear in our highlander. We are really lucky that my grandpa and Uncle Darcy were there or we never would have gotten the trucks loaded.
We get in at 9pm, we all take a shower, eat some dinner, and crash.
Saturday morning at 9, Jen Shaun and Sarah come to help us unload what is now two trucks full of stuff. About 9:30 Warren, Karl and Sarah come. By noon, both trucks are unloaded and the stuff in strewn about in the basement. What a mess. But we are able to keep painting. John then stayed up most of Saturday night, and reorganizes the basement so you can walk around down there, and get organized.
Sunday my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Nancy come back over. While my mom continues to paint, Uncle Jeff helps john move stuff in the basement and garage. My Aunt Nancy washes all of my kitchen stuff, and we get it put away. Suddenly, things aren't looking so bad. Our living room and dining room have furniture, and not too much clutter. Our kitchen is usable. We can eat in the kitchen.
Monday, I return to work. John and I come home early, because the man is coming to install cable, and I have a CT scan on my leg. My mom is still painting. After the CT scan, we get the smaller bedroom painted and done.
Tuesday, my mom continues with the master bedroom and bathroom. Tuesday evening my Grandma and Aunt Sherri come down to pick my mom up. They along with Jeff and Nancy, Karl, Warren and Sara (Yes, Warren's girlfriend is also named Sara) come over for dinner. We have pizza, and hang out for awhile.
That evening my mom finished edging all of the rooms we have to paint. All that is left for us to do now is roll.
I really hate moving. Nothing is really put away or anything right now. But we'll get there.
We also got the cats back. They, look like they are doing ok:
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