You Actually Live Here?

Yes, We Live In This Mess

Even George is a MESS

So you have yelled and screamed (ok maybe I'm being a bit dramatic) but yes, we are working and yes, I have been slacking off on the blog updates. So in honor of our 1-year home anniversary, here is a run-down on where we currently our with our massive renovations.

A Cleaning-Break Kiss

Over the past four weeks, we have managed to completely wrap up all system updates, ie anything that lives behind the walls. This includes our state of the art, 3-zone, brand new HVAC system, rewiring of every room in the house except for the future master bed/bath, and plumbing (our late-breaking surprise add). Gregg hooted, hollered and coerced all the contractors to get their ass in gear and wrap up these massive projects - ya he's a bad ass.

Immediately once they were completed, he worked with Danny to book a team of drywallers. Easy enough... Or so we thought. Gregg met their boss, negotiated a deal to do the labor only for drywall and spackle of all holes/walls throughout our entire house. As it was labor only, we ordered 150 sheets of drywall and 30 buckets of quick and finishing spackle (yes there's a difference), boxes of drywall screws, boxes of tape and what seemed to be a million patch kits. Did I mention that all these super heavy items were all delivered curb side meaning we had the fun task of schlepping it all into the house? No match for our guns :)

All sorts of stuff stacked in the great room

So now we have our breakfast room full to the brim with these supplies and a team booked to start in two days. However, the problem arose two days later when they never showed up. <cricket, cricket> They vanished into thin air! Luckily, Danny and Gregg scrambled and miraculously found another crew willing to start in the next few days for a mere $300 more (as Gregg says, he sneezes $300 so often he doesn't even notice anymore). In the following 5 days they installed all the drywall sheets, taped, spackeled and sanded with lightening fast speed and all on stilts. What they also managed to do was make a ridiculously large mess.

Our Tarpped Living Room

Yes, we knew ahead of time this would occur and spent an entire weekend moving all furniture to the center of rooms, tarping everything, making custom sized air duct filters, taping up protective covering over lincrusta and fireplaces, and taping down resin paper on every floor.

Wall protective covering

 However, we didn't realize HOW messy it would be. Imagine our house with a half inch layer of spackle dust left from sanding, globs of spackle dripped onto any surface left uncovered (stair case banisters, floor spots where protective covering was neglected, moved or ripped and walls.

Dust on Handrails

An example of dust covering the stairs

Gregg and the dusty dining room (and wood for breakfast room)

In order to combat the mess, Gregg and i spent an entire weekend (long 14 hour days), sanding any missed spots, pulling up tarps and resin paper, sweeping up piles of mess and tons of time on our knees scrubbing floors with buckets upon buckets of water and rags. Need a visual?

You'd have the same face if you were doing what I was

Clean baby! Clean!

So after the weekend I can honestly say I had bruised knees and felt like cheap/used labor but we managed to clean almost all of our 5,000 square feet! With that I'll leave you with this charming photo of my better half, fully enjoying last weekend's cleaning: