Some setbacks, and other things.

The auction is DONE! We're still hauling stuff that didn't sell or didn't get picked up from the yard, but it's over and done with - a huge relief. We even made more $$ than M&D "expected" apparently - that means nicer appliances! Maybe.

We started tearing out vinyl flooring in the hallway before D stopped us and said that it might have asbestos in it. Great. Now we get to send each type of vinyl in the house to get tested and hopefully we won't die in the meantime.

We found a stain that we love for the floors, it's going to look REALLY nice with light colored walls and newly painted white trim! I think we also decided just to buy new cheap 6-panel doors instead of painting the existing ones and putting on fake moulding to make them "look" like panel-doors. We really wouldn't save much money that way.

Since we're leaving for PHX this next week, we won't get much done until the end of May. We have a floor sander rented for May 31st-June 1st so we'll get all the floors sanded off by the beginning of June! The next step will be painting the ceiling and doing the walls (we're going to do a plaster-ish textured wall to cover the paneling since the paneling is proving too hard to tear off without destroying the sheet rock underneath). Mike's co-worker used to do plaster finishing for a living, so she has been kind enough to offer advice and says she'll even come help us when we get to that step. After that, we'll stain the floors! In the meantime, we'll have major demolition going on with tearing out the bathroom stuff and putting in everything-new in there.

I hope we don't have many more setbacks. We've also found old termite damage. Who knows if it was ever treated...

Mike gets to use his new drill

This was last week, but I just now got pics. uploaded. While I was cleaning out the refrigerator (it was quite nasty), Mike got to use his new drill to start taking out bathroom cabinets. We're going to replace all the cabinets with some pre-assembled stain-them-yourself ones we found at Lowe's.

Taking out the shelves in the above-the-toilet cabinet. Did you know that the white paint on them was SPRAY-painted on? It's all blotchy and you can see runs.
Hey, where'd the cabinet go?Now he starts in on taking out the stuck-in-cabinet above the stuck-in-counter. This was fun. The cabinet was glued, tacked, screwed, and nailed to the wall. We have some dry wall repair to do.... Mike had to get out his angry face. He finally got the last of it off the wall yesterday.
Now he's starting in on the lower stuck-in cabinet, but that one is nailed to the real cabinet, so that will be fun.

We've also been working on cleaning out stuff in the basement and garage. We got a new garage door installed (it looks great!) and running, and Dad spent most of one day tearing a bigger hole in the side of the garage to put in a REAL side-garage door with a lock on it. It looks great too! Dad also re-wired the garage for more lighting and he re-wired the laundry room so there isn't a switchplate with 34928023 switches on it and you never know which one to flip. Things for the auction are coming along well, though it's hard to see "progress" with cleaning out all the stuff because it's cleaned out and then stuck in a pile somewhere else in the house. It will be good to get this auction over with so we can see an empty house with room to work! I'm sure M&D are anxious to get it over with as well...

We're going back out to the ranch today to work, who knows what adventures lie ahead of us...

The task at hand..

We have decided to live at the Double Diamond Ranch for a few years to keep the land/home in the family. In order to do this, renovations are needed. Many of them. The preliminary stages are underway...M&D have been throwing away old junk, rolling their eyes at some (like the WWJD stamp with the JD shaved off so that Gramps could have a WW stamp - his initials..), and getting everything else ready for auction.

It's quite a daunting project, but we're really quite excited to get our hands dirty and see the finished product.

So far....we've bought a rug. Step one is complete. Next step: Everything else. :)

Rug (to go in living room....picture it MUCH bigger. When we unrolled it I said "WOW Those leaves are huge!" I was used to seeing tiny leaves on my computer screen...)

We've picked out some paint chips that match the blues and red in the rug so we can use those colors as the basis for curtains and throw pillows. We thought the rug was especially nice because it blends contemporary modern style with the nature-cabinesque feel. It reminded me of something Granny may have liked when I saw it, so that was definitely a factor in our purchase!