Prep Work

The first weekend we had the house, my mom and I worked inside cleaning every inch of the house. Because it hasn't been lived in for six months, there were cobwebs and dead spiders everywhere. Also, it appears that the people who lived there before never really cleaned anything thoroughly (example: there was grease on the cabinets near the stove. ew.). I cleaned the inside and outside of all the windows, vacuumed around the edges of the room (floor and ceiling), washed all the trim and other woodwork in the house, and cleaned the walls in preparation for painting. I am so thankful for our lovely shopvac! My mom was a great help as she was able to clean the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, as well as get the wallpaper border off in the laundry room.

Before

After

I was also able to pull everything off the walls - things like leftover nails, window treatments, the shelving that was left on the bedroom walls, and the horrible awful chair rail that was in the dining room (soon to be office). This made the house look so much more like ours and less like an abandoned building!

Due to the delay in actually owning the house, we will have to work on the house every spare minute once we close (again). Our goals before moving in are to patch walls and paint the ceilings and walls. Obviously we won't be able to get every room done before carpet and appliances go in and before we actually move, so we've prioritized certain rooms. We are definitely getting antsy to move. We've done some packing at the apartment. I am really looking forward to having rooms with a color other than brown on the walls.