(I hope I can’t get in trouble for my title…) eep!
Remember the house my hubby and I were working on to help out some friends who had moved to Wyoming? She got a job as a professor in the Beef department out there and they left pretty suddenly. Their house was on the market before they left, but the realtor really should have waited to take pictures before their stuff was all out of there before putting it on the market. So it’s been for sale since last August. She called us and asked if we could go over and see what we thought could be done to make it more sellable. We went over and discovered their dogs had chewed up the carpeting in places along the seams and the padding underneath was pretty lumpy in places. It really needed to be replaced and the tile in the kitchen had a crack that ran through the hallway and into the laundry room. (We later met with an inspector and they determined it was just kind of a superficial crack and it could be covered up.)
So we said we’d go look at carpet and flooring for the kitchen, dining room and living room. We went to Karpet Korner, where we got ours and the Sunday School Kitchen flooring from. We found some vinyl plank flooring that was similar to ours, but this kind clicked and locked together and some carpeting that matched it very very well. (my pictures didn’t capture the color of the carpeting, but it was a beautiful match in person!)
Here is it when I picked it out at Karpet Korner…
We had a zillion tools and things we were using as we were working… this is a pretty messy shot but it was after the flooring and carpeting were laid.
My hubby had to put the trim back in the dining room and kitchen after the flooring had been laid. I painted it on saw horses in the living room before the new carpeting was put down. I also painted the baseboard trim in the living room just down to the old carpet. The new carpet was much fluffier so it didn’t matter.
After getting quotes for it all done in the plank flooring, or plank flooring in the kitchen and dining room and then carpet the living room and the hallways, she decided on the latter. We didn’t put down this flooring… we just picked it out. That was pretty scary picking out something for someone else, but she said she trusted me! Whew!
It was going to be about 2 weeks before they could get to it, so Dr. A asked us if we would work for her doing the things that would make it look better, so we agreed. At first I thought there wasn’t much to do, but we certainly found plenty!
So this post will just be about what we did, not necessarily HOW we did it. I must say it looked wonderful when we were finished. Neat and clean and new and fresh!
Okay, so let’s get started… I’ll just take it a room at a time I guess.
The master bathroom caulk around the sink and tub had turned brown and looked like an old rubber band, if you know what I mean. My hubby used new white caulk and filled it in and it was one of the best things we did!
Here’s the “after” picture…
He also caulked along the shower and I scrubbed out the tub with a Magic Eraser and a brush as well as the toilet and the floor and cleaned the lightbulb tops, and I touched up all the scuff marks on the baseboard trim and the walls. Fortunately they had a quart of the paint they used and it was the same for the walls as well as the trim.
The same was done in the other bathroom…
The laundry room had tile in it like the kitchen and dining room and there was a crack that had to be filled with a pourable cement. Then the flooring was put over it. I painted the top shelf, painted the trim going into the room, washed down the doors and touched up the walls. My hubby had to fix the dryer that hadn’t been hooked up the right way in the beginning. They had lived there 11 years and he was surprised they hadn’t had any trouble with it. You should have seen me and my hubby moving those appliances back in on his dolly cart, trying not to scratch up the new floor and having to wiggle things in place. He isn’t supposed to lift anything heavy anymore so we had to get creative with leverage!
The bedrooms had ceiling fans in them that needed to be cleaned with a rag and the light bulbs too… I wiped down the blinds and pulled out the nails in the walls and spackled the big holes and just painted the small holes. One wall had a big stain on it from a bedspread that had rubbed on it, so I touched up that wall and any trim that had been nicked. My hubby had to fix the closet doors with those little balls that fit in a groove to hold the doors shut. I can’t remember what they are called, but they had to be screwed in and aligned.
The living room window had been chewed up by their dogs and short of replacing the board, I decided to give wood filler a try. It took about 4 layers of it because it was a pretty big chunk of wood taken out in 2 different places. I kept filling and sanding and finally got it to look pretty nice.
…and after…
They had vertical blinds at the front window but their dogs had chewed them up some and they really needed to be replaced. I also thought it would be good to raise the curtain rod and put new curtains up closer to the ceiling. They have a vaulted ceiling so raising them up was a great idea. I didn’t make them, but found some at Hobby Lobby that I thought would work.
Here’s a before picture with the blinds…
My hubby had to drill new holes for the curtain rod and I had to fill in the holes with spackle for the old holes…
I hung the curtains up and then had to steam them before they could be hemmed. (That’s when I wrenched my back… stretching up to get those curtains on the rod.) They were about 2″ too long and puddling them on the carpet just didn’t look right. I sat my sewing machine up in front of the window and did it while they were still hanging. It was much easier than trying to get them the right length by measuring them.
…and after they were done…
Dining room:
I took out all the nails in the dining room and touched up all those spots…and painted the front of the island. I cleaned the track of the sliding glass door and painted the trim on that wall and washed the window. We left those vertical blinds up because they weren’t too bad. They were reversible and could be turned to the white side.
We had tools literally on every flat surface we could find…
Here’s a few shots of the tile in the dining room and into the kitchen.
Kitchen:
In the kitchen I cleaned the microwave and the vents above it… then the stove and the walls. I touched up as many places as I could see. I cleaned out the sink with something (I forgot) that made it look like new again..it had gotten a dull corroded look in the sink drains. My hubby cleaned under the frig with his long brush and we carefully moved it back in place…same with the stove. The stove hadn’t been hooked up right either so he redid that.
…and the gargage…
I swept down all the cobwebs with a broom, while my hubby was moving things around and gathering up stuff that needed to be thrown away or recycled. I don’t have an after picture but it was wonderful… This picture shows the washer and dryer in there until the floor was down.
My hubby had to buy some new drain thingies for the gutters outside… the inspector said so. So my hubby worked on those while I worked at the front door. We cut back a great big plant that was growing over the sidewalk. My hubby also used some of that pourable concrete and filled in some holes on the back patio.
So the day before we got all finished, my hubby was thinking it was looking a little “stark” and too much white so we went to Lowe’s and Hobby Lobby and found these 2 pictures to hang up. He said it needed “something.” He picked out both the Bon Appetit picture in the kitchen and the big blue picture in the living room… this one…
Since we did all these improvements, they have chosen a different realtor and new pictures have been taken and it was started over to Day 1 again…
So now we just have to see if the house sells any quicker… :o)
This is “Joanna” signing off for today!
Just kidding,
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Wow, what a lot of work you both did in that home! You found all kinds of “little” things to fix, but combined, makes for a much more polished and “move-in-ready” place!
I’ve been meaning to ask, since I haven’t heard, did you get the pictures I sent you about a month ago? Pillowcases…..
Wow, what a transformation, Jeanne! You have made that look like a brand new house! It took my computer a while to get all the pictures to show up, so I had to wait for awhile for them to load, and I couldn’t imagine how many pictures there were, and my gosh, you two should go into rehabbing houses and selling them! I guess that is unrealistic to do, but you both did a wonderful job! The heck with a real estate company listing it, it should be the Wiedlocher Real Estate Company doing the listing and getting the commission!
I think all us of have those little things that need to be done in our own homes, and it sure makes it easier to do it in an empty house! A lot of times furniture hides those little things, but in this case whoever buys this house can see instantly that there are no ‘surprises” in store for them when they move in and see the house without furniture . so that really helps a lot, even though it isn’t quite as homey looking. George did an excellent job of picking out pictures! They do help break up tall the white walls.
All In all, you both did a wonderful job!
Oh my Gosh – wish I could hire you! You and George really did a remarkable job. All those fixes really add up and what a difference. I never would have thought to just set my sewing machine up right there to shorten the curtains. What a time saver – you are so cleaver. Sure hope your back is recovering.
Yesterday, here in Michigan, we awoke to a sunny morning and -14; today we are again treated with a sunny day and it’s 10 degrees warmer – Yippie. Go glad I got those cuddle duds. Stay warm.
What a lot of work you and George did. It made me tired to look at everything – and I just got up! Now I feel guilty about not cleaning my house better.
I hope your friend’s house sells quickly now. It looks amazing.
Wow, getting rid of the ick factors has so improved the home. I picked up that term from a neighbor who just couldn’t picture living in a place that had any. And I didn’t mean it as an insult to your friend’s housekeeping, as ours too has many of those unsightly features. It’s part of living and using a home. The pristine move in ready place is now prime to relist. I know, a ton of work on your and George’s part, but the results are quite amazing. Must recaulk the shower here soon. 🙂
Glad to hear that it is warming up for many. Have a great weekend.
I’m so glad you showed us this. I had been wondering.
It’s inspirational. The other day I had to go for a mammogram callback, no one’s favorite thing. The man who shovels snow for me volunteered to drive and put down a lot of gravel on the driveway so I wouldn’t slip and break my leg before we even started. I looked at your pictures and went out and swept up the mess.
The callback went fine. The scars had some calcification and that and the new 3D mammogram machine made the mammograms look different. I mention this because someone on here talked about surgery after cataract surgery, and that made me feel better about having to have mine checked. I think the problem was the same and the solution is fairly simple for an eye surgeon.
Dear Jeanne, oh my goodness, you did a ton of work! You are truly a good a friend. You treated the house repairs as if you were fixing your own house. What a wonderful gift you gave to your friends.
How fun to see all the changes and the cleaning up. It looks totally different and very nice. You both are amazing.
My son and I renovated several houses for a few years – then I had back problems and could no longer demolish and redo the houses we purchased. It was fun and then to see the finished home was so exciting. Of course my husband, the builder, oversaw the plans and work we did but it made us very proud of what we accomplished.
I’m sure this house will have new interest.
My sister Deb just showed up for a surprise visit…so I probably won’t make it to your comments….sorry…but I loved reading them…
Blessings, Jeanne
Where do I start?! This transformation was totally amazing. It is a sweet little house and should be a wonderful home for someone. It amazes me how many household appliances are not installed correctly, and could actually cause serious problems. Thankfully your hubby fixed those so things will be safer for the new owners.
My sister-in-law was a big one for “puddling” curtains, but I tend to like them just touching the floor. I have a home/landscape design program I play around with when I have the time, and I always seem to do the curtains where they hang from near the ceiling to the floor.
You’re right about the caulking. My bathroom sink needs to be redone. I’ll probably ask my son to redo it for me when he comes the next time. He’s good at it. So’s my hubby, but he likes doing the bigger things and leaves the finer details to our son. Yesterday and today he and his dad worked on trying to figure out why one of the drawers in my pantry would not slide correctly. Turned out to be a factory defect in the one part. It is a drawer where I put my canned goods and I use it a lot, so they made me a happy camper.
I love the living room picture. Very nice. And the flooring is definitely an improvement over the tile. I like the color of the carpet too. When we redid my kitchen we replaced the tile with very nice flooring. Really improved the space. My study is off the kitchen and we plan on doing that and the sunporch with the flooring also. Whenever. Another work-in-progress.
I dread the day we decide to sell our house. We’ve lived here going on 29 years and there is so much that we live with daily that would need to be fixed appearance-wise before we could even put it on the market. Such as the baseboard that was never put back after we got new carpet several years ago. Our living room can only be arranged one way and it’s such that there is furniture covering every wall, so out-of-sight, out-of-mind sort of. That would not pass muster when the furniture is removed.
We put in a new kitchen about four years ago and while what is done is lovely, the fine-tuning is still to be done. One wall needs painting (the rest is papered) and the molding put back up. My hubby made a gorgeous vent hood for over my stove, but it still remains to be stained and put up. He keeps getting caught up in projects for other people, and, like the story of the shoemaker whose kids had no shoes, our (my) stuff often goes begging.
CHRISTMAS IS GONE!! That is I have reclaimed my dining room. The last of it was put away today and my son helped me box up the tree and put it in the garage. It took longer this year because of my reorganization efforts, but I’m glad I took the time to do it. It will be much easier to decorate next year because of it. And I did get to enjoy my tree and village a little longer, but after awhile un-decorating begins to hang over your head like dirty dishes. But I got it done in time for Valentine’s Day! lol
And I’ve nearly finished reorganizing my sewing room. Still have the little items to deal with, but the big stuff is done. I have a decent sized room for my sewing room, but I have a lot of stuff in it. I love to do different things and everything seems to have a lot that goes with it, so I need to maximize my space. I often have things in front of my cabinets that have to be moved when I need to get in the cabinet. A couple years ago I hit on the idea of getting small floor dollies to put under my stack of plastics boxes. Then when I need to get in a cabinet, I just wheel the stack to another location. So far I have two of those set-ups and will be buying another floor dolly this Sunday. It will go under a laundry basket containing old jeans and bulky overflow fabric. I should be able to return to sewing next week. Yes!!!!
Have a wonderful time visiting with your sister.
You and George did an awesome job on your friends’ house. That looks like a time-consuming project. It’s so good that George knows the correct way to hook up the appliances. Now everything will be safer for the next owners. Everything looks so much more appealing when it is clean and freshened up, and I’m sure all the hard work you did will help get it sold.