Out with the Old in with the New

We moved in all our things over four days with some help from family and friends.  The move forced us to reflect on our relocation the previous year.  When we came down from Washington we fit everything we had in the world into an 8'x5' space, the overflow was either jammed in our Mini or sent to Palouse Treasures (the local thrift shop).  This time we rented a 14' truck and in no time we had that thing packed like a can o' sardines.  About four more trips with our cars and the apartment was cleared out.  The only thing we had to abandon at the dumpster was an old office chair. We moved the furniture into the garage mostly and the boxes into the dining room.

And then the work began. 

They say on HGTV to live in a house a while before making any changes, because after you have lived in it you will know better what changes need to be made.  Yeah, screw that.  I know myself better than to believe that crap.  If we don't do it now it ain't never going to happen.  So the Tuesday after we got the keys and the second day of actually living in our house, our house, oooouuuurrrrrr hoouuuuuusseee (I still LOVE saying it!) we had carpet installed in the TV room and Millie's room.  We got it on Craigslist special from an out of work flooring contractor.  $635 for the two rooms and the remnant removal.

 The old stuff, uck!

 The TV room stripped with just the fresh padding.

 A peek at the beautiful hardwood floors before they get covered up again.

 Ahhhh, nice fresh carpet for Millie to scoot around on!

TV room complete with fresh carpet, fresh paint, lazy boys and media center. 

Just missing one thing...yeah... the TV.

The next project was emancipating the hardwood floors in the living room and hallway. In one night I ripped up the living room and rolled the musty, old, shag carpet up along with the pitiful, disintegrating, yellowed padding.  I managed to tear up most of the staples and one wall of tack board before calling it a night.  The following day Adam helped out, he ripped out the carpet in the hallway and the remaining tack board, what a guy!  : D

A lot of dust came up with that carpet.

The hardwoods look pretty good, there is a little water damage in a couple of places but it's nothing that we can't live with for a while.  The plan being that when we remodel the kitchen we can refinish the floors then, right? Righhhhhhhhht. 

After three weeks of living in our house we figured it was about time to get our hands dirty.  Tiling the hall bathroom sounded like an easy "weekend project".  Uh-huh. Will helped me take out the toilet and Adam removed the vanity.  But, yeah, I totally underestimated the amount of elbow grease and will power that it would take to rip out the old laminate.  As per usu I was able to start the job over my weekend and Adam was able to finish it on his weekend.  Then I went to Lowe's and grabbed grout, a grout kit, and some "self-leveling" quickset =  $70.  We laid the quickset one night and started tiling the next.  It worked pretty well, me laying and Adam cutting. We grouted the tile the day after that and by the weekend were able to replace the toilet. The quickset didn't really "self-level" to expectations so the tile isn't super level but it looks pretty decent, at least for first timers.  

 

Before...During...After

Now that we have the floor tile done the next step will be tiling the tub surround.  We picked out some nice glass tile the other day on our lunch break.  All that's left to do is find some time.