Fixer Upper Week 2

On Saturday I spent 6 hours at the house and Ben spent about 9. Ben spent most of the day demolishing the bathroom. We had toyed around with the idea of doing something different with it- the shower was just gross- black mold everywhere. And then there was this huge tub, but the tub itself was actually really small and shallow, just the setting around it took up a ton of space. We had gone back and forth on if it was worth spending the money to do it now rather than later, but we kind of had a feeling that the mold might be worse than just lack of cleaning on the previous owners part. We felt even better about the decision when we found a small amount of water damage directly below the bathroom in the family room ceiling and crown molding. So it definitely had to go! As Ben was demolishing it he found more and more mold- something in the water fixtures there just wasn't correct. I felt a little uneasy tearing it all apart when we didn't really have a solid plan of how to rebuild it (we have the start of the plan now) but that's a moot point now because it's definitely out!

I spent a big part of my day finishing the spackling and sanding on the walls! I'm finally done (I hope!) with wall prep. Holy cow, I had no idea going into it what a huge job that would be! Our friend Dan, who is a professional commercial painter and is helping us with our paint job, validated my efforts saying that if he were doing the house he would have brought in a team of 4 guys and they could have spent three solid days just doing the spackling and sanding. It took forever. I also spent 3 hours on Saturday pulling the staples out of the wood where the carpet was. I'm realizing how many little jobs (like that one) that you don't even realize you have to do until you are in the middle of it!

On Monday I had my first "I didn't do it the right way the first time so I had to redo it" moment of this remodel. Last week I had been working on filling the nail holes in the newly installed baseboards. At first I was smoothing the caulk on very carefully- trying not to leave any sign that a hole was ever there. When I checked the work I'd done on Saturday I realized that as the caulk dried it settled into the holes leaving a noticeable depression there. So I decided that I would just put a big chunk of caulk over each hole and then sand it away to create a smooth finish. Monday I started "sanding" those spots quickly realizing that they didn't sand! We didn't buy sandable caulk. SO FRUSTRATING! So then I spent some time digging and scraping all that caulk away so I could refill the holes for a third time! The third time I used a wood filler putty that I scraped on with a putty knife and dried quickly to sand away to a beautiful smooth finish. I probably wasted 4 hours of work doing this the wrong way (twice). Live and learn.

This picture shows just one of the places we had to add baseboards- 

these angles were really difficult to cut (for us rookies)

This week Ben and I have also both worked on filling the old swamp cooler holes in the ceilings upstairs. We've got it all done and mudded and ready to paint! Ben and Will also started taking down a wall that was bugging me and I didn't want. But it turns out that that wall is load bearing (darn it!) so we have to leave some of it- we are still working out the design for it. Hopefully it looks okay when it is done and doesn't take too long! I also officially completed all the spackling and sanding of walls. I snapped a pic of one wall- because this wall was so dark it shows just how many holes there were to spackle. This was not even the worst wall in the house- I'd say this one was average.

My goal this week was to get the kitchen cabinets all washed and sanded and ready to paint (doors and hinges removed, etc) Well late Friday night I finally just started washing them! Needless to say the week didn't really go as planned (sick kids, my dad's surgery and a few other responsibilities took over a little bit and I didn't spend as much time there as planned).

Overall, week 2 of the project was a success. Of course we wished we'd gotten more done, but since we are basically learning everything as we go, it's bound to be a little slow. Also, I think we made 8 trips to Home Depot just this week. Between Ben and I we actually made five trips to home depot in a 24 hour period (Fri night to Sat night). By the time we actually move in I'm sure we'll feel like we've put plenty of blood (Ben did cut his finger over there the other day), sweat (lots of it!) and tears (I'm likely to have a melt down at some point during this process- hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time) into the place!