How I love an Excel spreadsheet!

My husband will attest to the fact that I have no love for budgeting.  My recent move from the workplace to staying home with the kids has nudged me in a more compliant direction in that respect, however.  Anyone who has ever worked with me can probably attest to the fact that though I don’t love budgets, I do love spreadsheets.  I also love designing new spaces from the floor up—floors, walls, tile, fixtures, fabric, etc.  This project, AKA our soon-to-be home, definitely calls for a spreadsheet.  And a budget, I suppose.

Thank you, Pinterest, for being there to store all of my design ideas as I have designed and planned and shopped over the last few months preparing for this project.  My apologies to my Pinterest followers if I have bored you with yet another post of a link to white subway tile, a 3-light wall fixture or a ranch gate that looks remarkably like the last one I posted.  Pinterest, which I once mocked as a waste of time, has, for me, become exactly what I think it was intended to be—a virtual pin board or design binder that I can access from my phone or computer.  It has helped me catalog ideas and keep track of where I found the things I like.  My Excel spreadsheet has helped me keep track of my more final choices and estimate costs.  My spreadsheet is full of formulas to total projected cost per room and the overall project of adding on.  As I purchase something, I highlight it on the spreadsheet so when my husband wants to get an overview of what we are spending he can see what we already have and what is left to buy.  I love that I have completely highlighted all the purchases for my one bathroom (blog post on the bathroom renovation coming soon).  (I also love that we will be adding more bathrooms very soon!)  Each time I highlight a purchase I feel like I've accomplished something.

Thank you, Microsoft, and thank you, Pinterest, for adding a little nerdy joy to my renovation!

On the Inside - Part II

With the house clean, we now can go about ripping things out (and making another mess).  

Job #1: the Bathroom.  

I had agreed to the move the country and to living in a small house while we add on to make it larger.  My only qualification to this agreement was the bathroom.  From day 1, our agreement was that the day Vacating Tenant was out, the one existing bathroom came out as well.  A gut-job was definitely in order.  I had no idea just how badly it was in order until we really got in there and started tearing out fixtures.

I had largely left the bathroom alone when I did my big cleaning.  It was just clean enough to use in case of emergency.  My in-laws’ ranch is only a mile and a half away, so most bathroom needs could be taken care of there with just a little planning.  (Of course, the guys just go outside and find a tree.)  We started with the vanity, which was actually in decent condition.  It just didn’t fit with my design plan.  It will get saved in storage for a future project—probably the barndominium I envision sitting across from the main house that will include among other things horse stalls, laundry facilities and a full apartment for long-term guests.  What we didn’t know was that this seemingly fine bathroom vanity had years of Q-tips hiding behind it—crusted and stuck to the wall.  I thought that was gross enough.

Then, there was the shower surround.

Once the bacteria-laden Q-tips were sucked into the shop vac, my husband, a pull-bar, a sledge and a saws-all got started on the shower surround.  His first discovery: trails of roach poo all around the top of the surround.  Seriously?!  In the handful of months Vacating Tenant occupied this home, surely he had taken a shower.  Had he really not ever run so much as a dust mop along the top of the surround?  Evidently not.  After removing the shower surround and pulling out the tub portion, we found something else he had never noticed. 

An actual rat’s nest. 

Previous Owner (or someone) had done some remodeling to the original bathroom at some point.  Yay, them.  When running plumbing to the tub/shower, they had failed to imagine that rats and/or squirrels could climb right in through their gaping hole around the pipes.  Thus, some furry critters had made a quaint home complete with fiberglass insulation and grass bedding and a plentiful food store of pecans.  The pictures don’t line up with my memory of the first glimpse of the nest.  I remember it much deeper and more imposing, but the picture was taken immediately upon my discovery so we will go with it.

My husband can deal with many things and various vermin—rats and rat-related mess not included.  Father-in-law and a hefty shop vac and some contractor-grade garbage bags stepped in to clean out the nest.  With the rat evidence gone, within a couple of hours the two of them had replaced rotten boards and installed a proper subfloor that would not invite in any unwelcome furry guests.

In all of this, we did make a wonderful discovery.  Shiplap behind every wall in the house!  God bless the 1930s.  Never again will I search for a stud for hanging heavy objects on the walls.  We already have plans to expose several sections, starting with a wall of open-shelving we have planned for the kitchen.

On the Inside - Part I

Our original contract with Previous Owner included a clause to protect the occupying tenant from being chased out of the house.  (He was actually moving in the day we first came to see the property back in July.  Pause here to be astonished at the amount of filth that accumulated in a few short months.)  The contract stated that the tenant would be given up to 75 days after closing to vacate.  He took every last one of those 75 days, so it is now November and we can finally get inside and start some work.

This little guy had apparently made his home in the kitchen.  I'm sure there were plenty of bugs for him to feast on based on how clean the sink, counters and stove were.

There is, of course, cleaning to do first because, wow—reference previous blog post regarding the astonishing layers of filth.  Vacating tenant’s definition of “clean” and mine do NOT line up with one another.  While the guys worked on more clean-up of the back pasture and the trimming of trees, I donned a mask and rubber gloves and got started on the inside where I found food still crusted in the sink and caked all over the range top.  409 and I got started on the kitchen counters as well.  I expected to need to spray them down a time or two, but the depths of the gunk ran deeper than that.  When the 409 suds turned brown after the first two rounds, I had to take a break.  And there was still the bathroom to clean.  Suffice it to say that after much vinegar and baking soda, wiping, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, carpet shampooing and many trash bags later, we deemed the house disinfected.  Of course, we hadn’t removed any fixtures yet, so the best was yet to come.

This is after the first cleaning.  It needed 2 or 3 more to reach the liveable stage.

Tree Trimming with Tractors