The Work Begins

This week, we started work on the house this week. And there's so much to be done! Ty wanted to begin by re-vamping the closet in the master bedroom. The previous owners had it full of organizers and it just didn't work. I don't know how they ever had it full of two people's clothes! Actually, when we visited the house when we were still looking, the wife had already moved out, so it was just his clothes and they filled the closet. Anyway, Ty completely disassembled it, removed the drawers, adjusted the length and depth of the hangers, and added shelves to the bottom for our shoes. The end result was twice the closet he started with. He did an amazing job.
When Ty was looking for all the pieces of his table saw so he could work on the closet, he brought several boxes from the storage unit to the house. A few of the boxes were full of books and games, and since we aren't making any changes to the shelves in the living room, I started unpacking a little.

We had to go through all the rooms and remove about a million screws and nails. I don't know how they could possibly had that much stuff hung on their walls! Then Samantha and I went through the rooms with this Sheetrock putty stuff and filled the holes so they can later be touched up with a little paint.
Those white ones are buggers! They are wall anchors and they leave HUGE holes in the walls. I hope the putty keeps.
Do you see all the paint stuck to those nails and screws? That is the epitome of laziness right there. They couldn't be bothered with removing them before they painted, they just painted right over them. There were several layers on those things!
I have been amazed by the things the previous owners have left behind. The cupboards and drawers in the kitchen had all kinds of things left in them.
Besides all the garbage found in the corners, I also found all this. Most of it was crap, but the dish clothes, dish towels, and pitcher are pretty nice.
The backyard is loaded with dog poop. I don't think they ever used a pooper scooper. There was also a plethora of balls, chew toys, and feeding bowls lying around the back porch and yard. But the Pièce de résistance was the cat. Yes, I said "cat"! We couldn't figure out why this black and white cat kept hanging out by the back door. That is until we looked under the blue bucket. do you see the hole cut into the side of the bucket? The bucket was upside-down and there was a pillow under the bucket. It was the cat's little home! Can you believe they LEFT THEIR CAT??? Un-be-liev-able! When we took the bucket out of the backyard, the cat moved on. I hope he's okay, wherever he is.
The cupboards were lined with this contact paper that I think has been there since the house was built in 1982! It was the butt-ugliest pattern ever created and it was peeling up all over the place.
Can you believe all the paper I pulled? It took almost an hour to get it all out. That stuff can really stick to wood, you know? The paper filled that blue bucket from earlier. It was amazing.

There is still a lot to be done. Ty has to run the gas line to the dryer so we can have a gas instead of electric dryer. There is a hole in the guest bedroom that the previous owners cut in the wall in order to get to the water line. That has to be repaired. The master bathroom's wallpaper is peeling off and needs to be removed so we can paint the walls. The plumbing under the kitchen sink is leaky, so Ty needs to get that taken care of. Tristan's room will need to be repainted because there were so many nails and nail holes in the walls that once they were puttied, the walls looked like they were polka-dotted. But you know what? It's all ours! There's a lot of work to be done, but it will all be worth it because it's all for our home. I can't wait to move in!!!