Our first project had to be the kitchen floor. It was the biggest job to do and where most of the odor was coming from. Daddy ripped up the parquet floor and the smell was overpowering. I couldn't even been in the same half of the house it was so strong. Papa eventually sanded it down and we sprayed Kilz over the worst places. The floor was actually still damp in some places and no one's lived here for almost a year! I think Daddy's going to actually burn the flip flops he wore to do most of the demolition.
Of course, as with everything in this house, when you start one thing, you discover 10 more things that need to be done to complete the original job. Once Papa moved the stove out of it's location, we discovered a hole in the floor that had been haphazardly "sealed" with a disposable pie tin. Needless to say, it wasn't doing its job. You could see where rats/mice had chewed through parts of it and attempted to bring cat food back under the house. There was also a second hole, where the electrical for the stove went and was "sealed" with a tin can lid. Once again, not effective and actually quite dangerous. That was just the floor, we also saw burnt, taped wires on one side and more wires on the other side. Papa soon discovered a live wire pushed back into the cabinet!
Before we had bought the house, the carpet had been replaced and they kept the carpet in the dining room. With 3 small children, we knew carpet wasn't a smart idea so we decided to replace the kitchen floor through the dining room with laminate flooring. When Papa pulled back the carpet, we discovered a few more nasty cat pee places, including the opening to the 2nd bathroom. Our 2nd bathroom was soon completely gutted, to Daddy's dismay. He hopes to never have to remove the wax seal on a toilet again. It was pretty gross.
While Papa, Uncle Eck and Daddy were busy tearing the place apart, Gramma and Mommy were busy painting everything. We did Adia's room first because I had big plans for it. I originally wanted to do purple stripes, but after spending 1 hour taping off one wall, I decided we'd do 1 wall stripes and the other 3 polka dots. The end result was amazing. I absolutely love love love Adia's room. Her white bed frame looks great in it too.
We painted the twins' room a light lime green. It's almost the same color as granny smith apples. They have teal curtains and 2 twin beds almost on the ground. They don't really have any furniture though because they didn't have any in the apartment.
We then began painting the rest of the house a buttery yellow. It's a gorgeous color and only needed 1 coat. Gramma started in the kitchen and while trying to tape everything off, she noticed the strong cat pee odor in a couple corners. Papa pried off the wooden backsplash and the smell got worse. The white walls were stained, particularly around a plug in. The plug in was so corroded from cat pee that when Papa removed it, it disintegrated in his hands. That was another location that had to be thoroughly coated with Kilz spray. It also led to another run to the home improvement store to pick out tile for a new back splash.Papa also had to remove part of the cabinets around where the fridge needed to go so we could put in a new fridge.
Adia helped paint the last bit of our entry way yellow. She didn't last long, but she had fun. She also stuck her hand in the wet paint a few times. It was actually pretty funny. She'd absentmindedly put a hand against the wall while painting with the other.
The master bedroom was the last bedroom to be painted. I will never use that kind of paint again. It was awful going on the wall and definitely needed 2 coats. It also turned out much darker than I thought it was going to be. Luckily, it coordinates well with our curtains, comforter and lamp. That room is still a disaster though. It's going to take some time to put everything away in there.
The last rooms we have to paint are the bathrooms. Gramma painted the 2nd bathroom yesterday since it's gutted and Papa was getting ready to lay the marble floor.The color turned out much more vibrant and green than I thought it was going to be, but it will look great with the brown shower curtain and mat I picked out. The master bathroom is half painted, but we still have to replace the vanity and get the mirror off the wall. Neither will be an easy task. Whoever installed that stuff seems to have used liquid nails so we're probably going to have to re-plaster most of the wall.
Papa and Daddy still need to install the french doors (I'm guessing this weekend) where the slider is now. The slider isn't properly installed or sealed so you can feel the cold breeze coming from it. I've hung thermal curtains over almost all the windows in the house and the instant difference in amazing. I highly recommend them. The chocolatey brown ones in the dining room are gorgeous. I still have 3 windows that need curtains though.
Next up will be unpacking, unpacking and more unpacking. The kitchen is unpacked, but there's still boxes everywhere and I expect some to stay for a bit because we have limited furniture. I guess that happens when you go from 875 sq ft to 1845 sq ft. I'm still trying to figure out how we fit all our stuff in such a small place before. I do know the girls definitely love all the extra room. They have their own playroom that's the size of our old living room. We can also baby gate both entrances to it and they can see us, but not get into too much trouble. Their picnic table has come back out of storage and sits in the kitchen. The twins love eating breakfast and lunch there. They actually sit and eat instead of trying to run away.
I plan on taking after pictures when we're done unpacking or at least almost done unpacking. Right now Adia's room is mostly boxes. I haven't even had a chance to put all her books back in her bookcase.
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