Easter Hardwood Resurrection

Yeah...like we're religious. Not. But there is something to the whole spring solstice, renewal, ressurection, rebirth theme. And it has to do with hardwood floors. Oh....how they make me happy.

Most of the carpeting in the house is now gone. All that remains is the new carpet up in the attic, and some old carpet in the 1st floor office. We'll tackle the office carpet at some later point, because it could be a can of worms (linoleum that potentially contains asbestos).

Here is a picture of the nasty living room carpet.



Here's the same section with the carpet gone and Ted mopping up.



And guess what? Swanky double border with diamonds in some corners.



And lots of pet stains....former owners had dogs. Getting all the hardwood floors on the 1st floor refinished is definitely on our radar. Hopefully the majority of the stains will come out. Will pray to the home improvement gods.



The change is so drastic. Even with the floors in rough shape, it's worlds better than the wall to wall carpet. So much brighter in here. And one less trigger for my allergy and athsma issues.

Parging Pictures

Because various folks have asked what parging is....I dedicate this post to you!

Before we bought the house, we noticed that the basement walls were crumbling in various places. After discussing this with the home inspector and researching on the internet, we decided that parging was the answer. Parging is pretty much like brick repointing.

So, first you have a wall that looks something like this:



Then it gets cleaned out really good, making a nice dusty mess. After cleaning, a cement mixture gets squished into all the cracks/gaps and it looks like this:



And then after that dries really good, it gets iced like a cake with another layer of cement mixture and voila -- nice, non-crumbly basement walls:



It's almost done...and we can't wait to get the basement cleaned up and more functional. The parging will really help the basement be less dusty.

As always -- hurray Frank!!

Because Melanie insists.....

Because Melanie insists I update the houseblog..here's we're were at.

I keep shaking my head in amazement that we have almost all the important repairs/upgrades done. When I think back to early November...when I was constantly upset about how impossible this bomb of a house seemed.....just can't believe how it's all improved. I'm finally falling in love with this old place!

Currently, Frank is parging the basement. He's been knocking out the crumbling cement, cleaning up the rubblestone foundation, and re-cementing up the walls. It looks to be a little more than 1/2 done. It's so nice and smooth. Looking forward to making this a more usable space once the dust settles. Literally!

We're slowly setting up the upstairs library and Art kitchen. Been madly combing multiple Craiglists for Billy boocases and storage shelving for both rooms. Been even more madly trashpicking all neighborhoods of Collingswood and Haddon Heights. The more storage units and bookcases we aquire, the more we can unpack.

We're also slowly working on clearing out the rear 1st floor bedroom in preparation for rug removal. This room will also get a paint job, a ceiling fan installed, and a bit of ceiling repair. One day, this room will be used as a music teaching/therapy studio.

Also on the upcoming projects list are:

Fix up the front 1st floor bedroom as the guest room
Vent fan installation in downstairs bathroom
Blown insulation in ceiling/attic of 1st floor porch enclosure
Blown insulation in ceiling/attic of rear kitchen addition
Living room rug removal
Reflooring of the front 1st floor office and front porch enclosue.
Exterior Caulking
Painting exterior window trim
Dig up a vegetable patch in the back yard (sunlight willing)
Plant flowers in all the termite treated flower beds.
Rehab trash picked furniture
Get rid of all traces of pink
And so much more.....