A Word To The Wise

When buying a house, it might be best to buy a turn-key home or new construction or a home from a buyer who cleans once in a while! I don't think we realized how big of an endeavor a "project" house would be when we initially started looking at houses. Among our laundry list of things we want to change, we didn't realize that cleaning and painting were going to be as problematic as they have proven to be. Though we are very happy with the house, we are not happy with the condition the previous owner had left it.

Some little nuisances but nothing too big...yet:

• about 90+ nails had to be taken out from walls
• 2 inch long nails/screws used to hang pictures that were very hard to get out
• grime covered baseboards, walls, door frames
• 50 year old house = many layers of paint
• 3 ft long thistles and weeds growing all over the yard
• Inconsistent use of semi-gloss and flat paint on walls for the same room. This one might not seem like a big deal but flat walls are hard clean since the paint comes off when washed and are generally more dirty than semi-gloss.
• Double sided tape stuck on the perimeter of windows from who knows how long ago
• Dog hair everywhere

Regardless, we are slowly cleaning, having asthma attacks, and tackling the wall issues before we even begin painting. These issues have slowed down our progress but our moods have not been dampened and we will continue to tackle each problem as it arises.

Before (L) and After (R), washed the grime off the door frame. Washed with soap and water. Easy fix but back breaking effort.

More grime!!! Washed all door frames, walls, and baseboards

Before we can replace upstairs carpet,we took out old telephone line stapled to the baseboard. There was a staple every 4 inches with many layers of paint on top of the cord.

Living room before they moved everything out

Living room after we swept but before we washed walls, baseboards, etc

Overgrown yard we still have to tackle