Day 2: Getting to Work!

Sorry for the delay! We were so busy working that I never got around to posting, and we are just now getting back into the swing of things (it's possible I might also have gotten derailed by a Netflix disc of "Glee"). Lots to post, so let's get to it!

Let me begin by saying that Dan and I are SO grateful that Mom and Cliff came to visit and helped us get so much done. Before they came, we were feeling pretty overwhelmed and nervous about what they might uncover when we started digging a little deeper, but I'm happy to report that Cliff has declared our house to be a solid house. Granted, we still have many more projects to tackle, but we have been assured that we did not go wrong when we bought our house, and given all that we have found, that is a tremendous relief. Whew!

On Saturday, Cliff and Dan didn't waste any time getting straight to work. To start, Cliff took care of fixing our front door which made a ridiculously loud noise when it scraped along the threshold; some new screws (to be followed by a little sanding) mean we will now be able to open and close our door without frightening the neighborhood. Cliff also took care adding a register to our furnace closet door in the basement to improve the air flow. As usual, Elsie was around to supervise.


After that, Cliff and Dan got busy on the electrical work to be done on the house. We had a number of ungrounded outlets, some funky wiring in places, and some outlets and light switches needing replacement. Cliff stepped in with his expertise and came to the rescue! Dan also got the great opportunity to be his electrical apprentice.

In the meantime, Mom and I started with tackling the upstairs bathroom. I had semi-unpacked this room but still needed to finish putting things away, cleaning the closet shelves, and lining drawers, so Mom helped me out with that. Here is the bathroom midway through the bathroom organizing project!

Once we got going on the bathroom, I realized how much I wanted to keep working on it and try to get things fixed up in there. First on my list was sanding down and repainting the bathroom vanity, which is sorely in need of a fresh coat (not to mention some new hardware)!


While I finished up in the upstairs bathroom, Mom kindly stepped in to do the dishes. And then, she proved just what an awesome mom she is by offering to clean the basement bathroom, which has gone untouched since we moved into the house. If that is not real love, I don't know what is!

Some of our last projects for the day included Cliff taking a look at our underperforming bathroom fan (which was in desperate need of a good cleaning) and fixing some very loose drawers in our kitchen.

Unfortunately, one of the kitchen drawers took a tumble for the worse, but Elsie soon discovered it was a terrific hiding spot! (And, no worries, Cliff is fixing the drawer for us.)

And, in the midst of it all, Mom and Cliff's dog Gypsy was around to keep things light.

It was an exhausting day, but it felt awesome to get so much done. And this was just day 2--stay tuned for more progress on days 3 and 4!