Painting and Flooring and Plastering...Oh My!

So, the Hudling is coming along...slowly, but surely. Rit has been spending all day, every day at the Hudling this weekend. Meanwhile, I'm working feverishly to get our current abode ready to show. Yep, that's right. We're selling our house!

After looking around for five years, we've finally found a house we can agree on. Although leaving this house is bittersweet and we've loved our time here, we're anxious to be settled in the new house.

The Hudling is really starting the look transformed. Rit's been working really hard on the kitchen cabinets. Since the wood cabinets were nice and sturdy, we decided to simply clean them up and give them a fresh coat of pain and some new hardware. They look AWESOME! Even better than I imagined. Although the hardware isn't on yet, here's a sneak peak at the new look.

Our sweet friend Jan came over to help Rit cut and lay cement board to prep for the tile. Although we aren't laying the tile until after the walls are painted, they started with the prep. (By the way, our big purchases this week included a texture sprayer and a paint sprayer...YEAH!!) Here is a view of the back hallway leading to the kitchen.

The upstairs bathroom is the most desperate of the lot. It's almost completely gutted. We've removed all of the fixtures plus part of the wall to the studs and the subfloor over the bathtub plumbing. We're relocating the shower/bathtub plumbing the other end of the space. Why? Because the previous owner in all their wisdom installed the shower on the slanted ceiling. Not even I in my towering 5'5" glory could have stood up straight in the tub without hitting my head on the shower head. Nice. Plus, in removing part of the built-out wall, we can install a typical 54" tub instead of the 48" tub that was there when we laid eyes on the wonderful disaster. It's a sorry sight now, but it will shortly look fabulous.

We are going with carpet in the upstairs bedrooms and as a runner on the wood stairs. I felt that carpet would be fine in the living room. Rit disagreed...and won. We are not only going with wood in the living room (which will look amazing...), but we are also installing it ourselves. Huh. We've never installed wood flooring. Should be interesting.

Meanwhile, the Hudling gets cuter and cuter every day.

Old Ed

Yep, here's Ed. For those of you who don't know Ed, he's our neighbor. As a retired farmer, Ed appreciates a hard day of work. Although his stamina has faded in his old age, his desire to help is alive and kicking. Sometimes it's hard to find tasks that feed his hunger to be a workhorse, without risking cardiac arrest! So, here he is helping clean up after demolishing the cabinet in the basement.

A little house party and the HUDling gets plastered!

We opted for a day of fun and a day of work this weekend. So after a picnic at the beach, a matinee movie, and some fun at a friend's open house party, today, we headed over to the HUDling to roll up our sleeves (ok, no need to roll short sleeves), and get dirty. Today was plaster day and the HUDling surely got plastered...cracks, holes, loose spots - all targeted by our lean, mean, plaster repair team (Kate, Rit, and Mel). Thanks to Mel for her help again this weekend! And thanks to Frank and Peg for the toilet Mel delivered! Finally, a place sit down to take a break (there are no chairs over there).

Our kind neighbor, Old Ed, also chipped in and helped tear apart a cabinet in the basement. Neat old cabinet, but really was doing a better job serving as a moisture/mold sponge, so it had to go!

Pictures, you want? Yep, took some but left the camera over there so enjoy the suspense.

Sing along: I'm being swallowed by a....

Vine-a constrictor? Yes, and a very hungry one. One that swallows windows, gutters, antenna, and anything else in its path! Check out this thing! It was so merciless that it practially ate Kate while she wrestled with it! Actually, we only finished two sides of the house. That means we have two more to go! I hope its growth doesn't catch up with us. Otherwise, we will spend the rest of our days circling the house, battling the V.O.U.S. Vines of Unusual Size? Don't think they exist? (Watch your back!)

But because it looks cool, we just tamed the beast rather than putting it entirely to rest.

Yes, we're still alive...and so is the HUDling!

OK, we have not accomplished nearly as much as we had hoped by this point in the summer, but we are still working toward our deadline of completing the HUDling before school begins....Yikes!

Here are some pictures from our recent work (removing the tub, getting down to the studs). Check out the newspaper clipping found in the walls - October 1950 Sheboygan Press - what a deal on blouses!

Thanks Ted! and other stuff

Dry laid stone foundations were common 100+ year ago. Inspector Brad noted that although this house's foundation was in good condition and is structurally sound, some of the stones on the interior wall were loose and the mortar on a small portion of the exterior had deteriorated due to vine growth. So, Ted came today to do some tuck pointing. I forgot to take the camera along, but the deed is now done! Thanks Ted! I'll take pictures tomorrow and add them to the post.

Didn't get a whole lot else accomplished there today.....tore out the carpeting in the basement, topping off the already full dumpster...time to get it emptied! Also took out the really bad wall framing in the basement. The paneling that it once flimsily supported was already long gone. And I tore down some of the aggressive vines on the west side of the house...in part to get them out of Ted's way.

We also picked out some paint colors today - Heirloom Lace for the kitchen cabinets and Winter Wheat for the walls, most likely living room, kitchen, dining room. The online images don't look like the paint samples we picked up, especially the winter wheat. I don't even know why I included the links here. It is really more of a warm yellow.

Playing Cinderella

Scrubbed kitchen cabinet doors today....scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed (my hands are so fatigued I'm having a hard time typing!). There was all sorts of splattered food, sticky schlaar, and fuzzy mold spots from what I can only assume was years of cleaning neglect! Fortunately the top cabinet doors weren't bad at all :)

Plugging along at a snail's pace.