Waverly House Renovation Highlights

So I had great intentions to document our progress daily. Ha ha! All week we have been crashing into bed sometime between midnight-1:00am with a hundred more things to do. Blogging seems to have lost its place on my priority list. ;o) So here is a brief recap of some of the highlights:

Day 3: Angie & Austin spent the whole morning cleaning up after the popcorn ceilings were scraped. Austin says it's the messiest job he's ever done. Glad it's over with! Lincoln had a cranky day and hardly slept all afternoon, so I spent half the day taking care of him. I officially gave up on the foyer wallpaper for now and returned the rented steamer. At the rate I'm going it's going to take until Christmas just to get the wallpaper off. :op Angie basically painted the entire guest room upstairs by herself. She even picked the wall color. It looks awesome! We did discover that there is not hardwood underneath the living room/dining room, so we're just going to clean the carpets for now and after we're done with the dog's and little kids' messes we'll replace it with something else.

Day 4: Angie went home and my other college roommate, Sarah, arrived. Sarah painted the inside of the master closet and helped take care of the kids. She helped finalize paint color choices so I could go purchase lots and lots of paint. She also vacuumed my whole Denver house when we got home at night while I finished the laundry. What a blessing! Austin's brother, Tyler, also lent his muscles for 2 days and washed down all the walls and ceilings with TSP, among other things.

Day 5: I ran errands in Waterloo in the morning and my mom (Grandma B) arrived at noon. It was a traumatic day for Emily b/c she fell off the couch in the morning while watching a video and I think she hurt something. However, we couldn't get her to tell us exactly what hurt or where. It's a hard concept for a toddler to grasp the first time. We still don't know. It might be a pulled muscle in her left side. It was quite a kadoo getting in and out of the car seat 4 times. Lots of tears and screaming. My mom took her to the Bremer County Fair a couple blocks away in the evening. Emily had a complete meltdown when we got home at night.

It was also a disappointing paint day. Each day seemed to increase the timeline multiplier by one. We're up to 4 times longer than we thought. At one point the entire house was professionally painted with a sprayer. Everything was painted the exact same peachy/pinky color (walls, trim, everything). The paint was some kind of high quality enamel/lacquer something or other that is almost impossible to paint over. With all the trim we're down to washing it with TSP, scuffing it with sandpaper, wiping off the dust, priming and at least two top coats of white. Yuck! The ceilings have been washed with TSP and require primer and at least one top coat of ceiling paint. Luckily, the walls seem to cover in one very thick coat of paint after being washed with TSP. We've continually revised our goals. We're down to just wanting to get the living room & master bedroom done and working around the rest.

Day 6: Finally some wall color! Austin put on the first wall color and it looks great! My friend, Julie U., came and packed up my entire kitchen for me. After hauling it to Waverly in two vehicles I spent the rest of the day and night unpacking and trying to organize it in Waverly. That's a HUGE thing to have settled ahead of time. We ate free hamburgers at the fair at night. Emily had another bad day and a huge meltdown at bath time. It took both me & my mom to hold her in the tub kicking and screaming. But after 2 days at the fair and only a sponge bath last night skipping a bath was not an option.

Day 7: Austin rented a Rug Doctor to clean the carpet in the living room/dining room this morning. Our wonderful friend Rod came to help finish painting the master bedroom and tore up the carpets. The hardwood floor underneath is absolutely gorgeous and in great condition. Only the edges are a little yucky as the paint sprayers got to them, but most of that will be covered by dressers. We also discovered the baseboards went all the way down to the wood floor underneath the carpet, so there is some touch-up trim painting to do. Our friends Allison M. & Kevin D. stopped by at night to help scrape/clean up glue & residue. Rod & Austin stayed late to get the plasma TV wired and hung up above the fireplace mantel. Priorities! ;o)

Day 8: Today was mostly a clean-up day in Waverly in preparation for moving. Austin's parents arrived to help in the morning. Austin's mom helped me pack up the rest of the loose stuff in the basement in Denver. We also moved all the fridge/freezer food in two trips. Austin & I finished packing up the rest of the house by midnight. Ready or not--here we come!