By Amie Riggs
I’m having a hard time naming these entries because I want them to be accurate and not misleading. My husband and I only work on the house on the weekends so Day 3 is really weekend two. The second weekend is really when much of the fun begins. Hope you enjoy!
Day 3
It’s my husband’s day to work at the house. He asked me what I would like for him to work on. In our family, I am the decision maker and planner. Jim executes the plan… most of the time. It works well for us.
I asked him to empty the bucket of Soilex that I made last weekend, and make a fresh batch and wash down all the woodwork and walls in the bedrooms. We are concentrating on the bedrooms right now in order to get them painted and livable. The basement construction will be completed once we are moved in. The bathroom in the basement is what we will use while the 2nd floor bath is remodeled along with the kitchen. Did I mention we: my husband and two kids (4 and 2 years old), are living with my parents? So… yeah. Now I remember why I moved out. We will be moving into our new home with no convenient bathroom or kitchen.
Day 4
My sister-in-law graciously made time in her busy day to come over and lend a hand. The goals for today were to remove the carpet tack strips from the stairs leading to the second floor and in the living room. I figured if stayed “on top” of the dust it wouldn’t get so bad. So I asked my brother to give my sister-in-law a crowbar/pry bar that we can use to get the tack strip up. When she walked in the door she is carrying—what they call—a mama bar. It weighed as much as she did and was as tall as I am. That was not going to help us at all. So I see a tire iron lying on the floor and decided that would be the tool that would have to get the job done. Again, I’m focused. Why is the tire iron there, on the floor, in my dining room? My husband got it out of his car for the night when the kids were demoing. Hope he doesn’t get a flat tire. Anyway, we spend the day hammering away at the tack strip and take turns vacuuming and cleaning the floors in the bedrooms. Today was all-in-all a very good and productive day.
Day 5
It is Thanksgiving weekend so we have one “extra” day of work! Closet painting. EVERYTHING in this house needs a coat of paint… or two. The current closets are the color of watered down mud. My husband brought to my attention that the color is not a huge deal since they will be filled with clothes but since ALL closets I have ever built or remodeled are typically white I have a very different opinion than my husband.
I go to our preferred big-box store to get—what I would call—cheaper paint, because after all, they are closets. Our preferred big box store was selected by my husband because it sponsors a NASCAR driver he likes. Hey, I do what I can to make my man happy. Anyway, I get 3 gallons of white ceiling paint, some rollers and some pan liners…$100! Sweet! I would have spent at least $150 at the local paint store I usually frequent.
Back at the house I’m all set to go. I start with the closest closet that I am set up next to. I cut it in and roll it out. NEXT! I cut it in and roll it out. In the meantime my mom has come over to help me. She fills all the nail holes in the walls on the second floor. As I rinsed out my paintbrush in the bathtub because every other source of water in the house has been demolished, I thought about where I’m going to do this next week after this bathroom is demolished. I didn’t think that one through because I didn’t figure adding a utility sink to the laundry. Ugh!
As I look back at these I still find myself cracking up! LOL! Be on the lookout for Part 3 of our series.
