Home Improvement

This is entry #1 of what what I'm sure will be many more to come. We have a lot to do on the house we just bought, and I love the idea of documenting the renovation of it. Mainly because it is in such rough shape right now and we have such an exciting vision for how beautiful it can be with a little hard work and imagination. As so many people have said, it has a lot of "potential." ;)

But this requires me to share photos that I would have normally kept to myself. Haha. Part of me thinks, oh let's just wait until the place is fixed up and then we will post photos, and then we will have people over. But a) the renovation will take much too long to wait to have friends over, b) I find the only reason I don't want to share is rooted in silly pride (not wanting anyone to see it in it's present condition) and c) how much more fun is it to see how beautiful something can become when you see how rough it was before? It's the transformation that makes it so meaningful. And you must see where something has come from to appreciate all the work that went into what it is now. Plus, I find the whole process totally fascinating and fun, since I have never done anything quite like it before. (Joel, on the other hand is an old pro). ;) If you find the subject boring, I hope you'll bear with me here.

And so we begin.

Yesterday escrow finally closed. Joel had been waiting patiently an extra 11 days past his intended start date to get in there and get some work done. So last night, right after work, he headed straight over to the house and started pulling up the old carpet. I stayed home to take care of our son and get some cleaning done. But it was a long lonely day without him last evening, so when the opportunity arose to help him tonight, I was eager to join. After he got off work today, we all headed over together.

This is a photo taken last month when we went to see the house:

As mentioned, Joel already pulled the carpet and carpet pad out last night, but there were about 1000 staples left in the floor, so I helped pull them out tonight.

The little staples with carpet pad stuck under them.

And this is my sweet boy. He was so good tonight. He kept himself occupied by making friends with some ants outside and enjoying the porch, taking the occasional trip inside to inspect our work and point out staples we might have 'missed.' :)

It's gonna be a long week. The boy and I leave tomorrow for a wedding out of town, and we won't be able to help again until Sunday. Joel will stay behind and try to get some progress done on the floor. More updates soon!