We’ve made it. We lasted the journey and came out happier than we went in. We signed our lives over on a dauntingly large pile of papers while our awesome realtor and the stern looking attorney watched on. Finally, we had the keys and we were ready to get started. We immediately headed to our house, to get our “to-do” list in order.
I didn’t even come close to finishing the packing, trying to do it by myself while juggling children and every day mother things just didn’t allow it. So I knew deep down that this move was not happening in one shot. Still I held out hope that maybe a miracle would happen. We bought our paint, our new door knobs, and various other supplies we needed to start our home updating. And we walked  in and we’re ready to get started.
Now you’re probably thinking “why paint and rip things up”. The house has not been updated since the 1960’s. When you see the pictures, you’ll understand. Even the appliances were old olive-green stove and fridge. The house smelled of old lady and dust from no one living there for what seemed like years. The walls had layers of dirt that was not coming off no matter how much I scrubbed. The wall paper was half off the wall, and as old as the house, as were the carpets. Then, there are those asbestos tiles that need to come up since there are loose and chipped tiles.
After the first day. Everything seemed to go wrong. The deadbolt wouldn’t fit in the hole in the door. There is still a hole in my door today, 3 days later. Hopefully tomorrow a friend of the family will come out and check it out. It probably wouldn’t be so hard if the metal plating wasn’t there.
The next problem was the wall paper. I know you’re thinking “wall paper is a bitch to get off, you should know better”. I did know better. We came equipped with this highly recommended wall paper remover and we were all in. What we didn’t expect was that the wall paper would start shredding off during the scoring process you’re supposed to do prior to spraying on the wall paper remover. My husband yelled excitedly how easily the wall paper was coming down. Until a groan of discouragement occurred, and I ran to see that the wall paper was tearing off quite easily. So easily, it was taking off the drywall underneath. 1960’s house: 2, LaRochelle’s: 0. Back to Home Depot and buy something to fix this. That was just our Friday.
On Saturday, I continue my long day of painting. Fortunately, my mother-in-law came over and breezed through the painting. Finally, only 2 rooms and a front door remained. It looked like we were finally getting a win. Until the bathroom. Underneath the wall paper was this tissue paper like layer that was unseen until the painting was pulling it off the wall. The house was back in the lead. Luckily, the wall paper remover did save our day. Unluckily, the light fixture fell down and severed the electrical wire and killed the power to our house. The house beat us again. After repairing the wire, we cut our losses. Tomorrow is another day.
Sunday, we finally begged for help. Armed with my nephew and brother-in-law, we went in determined to get a lot done. Finally, the rooms were all painted. Now, the floor removal was to begin. And then it happened, the big win was ours: underneath the living room carpet was a very awesome looking hardwood floor. We won, house. We won.
Buying a house is half the battle. We bought the house knowing that it needed a lot of updating. We liked the idea of completely transforming a house. There’s still (a lot) of work that needs to be done, especially outside.  Our major goal is to make the inside livable to move in this holiday weekend, and worry about the outside later. To accomplish this, all the flooring needs to be pulled and a new floor put in to replace our asbestos tiles. Let’s see how the progress comes along on Wednesday’s post. What was the most difficult part of the process for you?