The New House Day 1

Well we got our keys yesterday as promised!  There is a LOT of work to be done and very little time in which to do it which means we're going to be breaking our asses to get it done.  Yesterday Snackers ripped out the carpet in the room that will be my office and I am SO GLAD he did!  Let me tell you, it looked a whole lot worse underneath than I thought it did on top.  Years of pet urine stains piled stain on top of stain on top of stain.  In some places it was so bad that the padding had degraded and stuck to the concrete from urine alone.  One benefit of being in love with a carpet and flooring specialist is free labor but another benefit is that he let me work with him and taught me as we went.  He showed me how to use a scraper tool and I went through the room scraping glue and bits of padding off the floor ... that's not easy!!!  After that we swept the whole room out really good so he can put this special sealant on the concrete that will disinfect it and protect our new flooring from whatever might have soaked into it.

After that I swept the walls in the room from top to bottom and cleaned the vent.  Then I mixed up a bucket of pinesol and washed the walls from top to bottom, up and down a step ladder at least a few dozen times.  Went around the room on my knees to do the base boards, did the blinds, and the windows, vacuumed out the window tracks and swept the window screens from outside.  Then turned him loose in there to take down blinds, remove electrical covers, and take down the light fixtures while I went to work on the master bedroom.  Again swept the walls, washed the blinds, washed the walls, swept the vents, did the base boards, and windows, and cleaned the ceiling fan (as well as the one in the living room).  By the time I was done with that he had the light fixtures from the office down so I washed those in the sink and we called it a night.

We took the dogs with us and Vladdy LOVES the back yard!  I went out to take a quick water break and watched him run circles around the yard over and over again just because he can.  I wanted to get before/after pics of the rooms but forgot.  I'll try to remember to take some today so that you can see the difference when we finish painting and installing the flooring.  Snackers' boss came by last night as we were cleaning to drop off a few items that he is letting us borrow so we don't have to blow our whole budget on tools and he feels very strongly that the carpet in the living room is going to have to be replaced before we move in as well.  He said that the smell will never come out and that it can even permeate our new sofa because it is in such bad shape so we're going to see if we can get big enough remnants from a flooring store to save money.    He signed off on the carpet in the master and spare rooms though so we're going to leave them for now and maybe replace them down the line because they do have some burn marks in them but at least they don't appear to be filled with pet stains.  I'm exhausted and we've only scratched the surface!  The next week is going to be a LOT of work!




Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 capriotti's turkey sub
1 kona coffee
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,127




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
shopping: bought paint and tools for painting
Taping/Painting: Last night I taped off all the trim and windows in what will be my office, then we painted the first coat on the entire room.  Up and down the step-ladder a lot, again.  I can't believe how sore I am and we've barely scratched the surface of the work to be done.