Painting Day

Today, we had the inside of Granny's house painted.  Wow!  What a coat of white paint can do for a house!  Mom and I painted it around the summer of 1990, and I'm not sure if it has been painted since then.

Since Mom and I are exhausted from all the moving and cleaning, we hired a company to paint.  While they painted, Mom and I worked in the shed, taking more trash to the curb and sorting more things for Goodwill.

A little more work and we should be finished.  Thank goodness!

Remodeling a House is Expensive and Exhausting

Granny passed away a year ago February, and we have still not gotten the house, garage, and backyard sheds cleared out.  We decided to focus this week on finishing all we can inside the actual house.  Up to this point, we have cleaned out, trashed, and donated tons and tons and tons of stuff.  We have moved the major furniture and heavier items all we can.  Now, we are down to the last of the furniture.  We have made space at our house for those items, which meant rearranging furniture and moving some things from one room to another.  We've cleaned and vacuumed as well.  Our house is ready, and the furniture and big items at Granny's are ready.

I am so grateful to our family and friends who have helped us get to this point.  We surely couldn't have done it without them.

Yesterday, the electrician came out.  Since her passing, the master bathroom lights quit working, then the master bedroom lights/fan, then the hallway.  It is all quite strange.  The electrician fixed several light switches and checked outlets.  We now need to change out the light fixtures in the master bedroom and hallway.  Do you know how much electricians make?  I need to leave education to go into electrical work.  They made in 2 hours what I make in 2 to 2.5 days. Wow!

The plumber will be out tomorrow afternoon to change out the kitchen faucet, replace the disposal, and make the guest bathroom sink quit dripping.

Thursday, the movers will be there at 8:00 am to move the furniture.  We are praying they are finished in 2 hours or less.  Do you know how much movers make???

Saturday, the painters will come paint the entire house, ceiling, walls, and trim, white, so it will brighten it and make it look so much cleaner.

Now, we have to decide about flooring. All of what we have done has cost a lot, money we don't really have, so we have to decide if we replace the flooring throughout the whole house now or just get a serious steam cleaning for now and replace flooring in about a year. We are thinking . . .

Now . . . what do we do with all the little items in the garage and backyard shed?  We are out of space at my house.

For those of you who have had to clean out a loved one's home, what did you do with everything?

I'm Too Old to Paint a Room

Today, Mom and I painted half of our play room.  When I was little, my parents turned the garage into a play room, and the walls were covered in a very dark paneling. Over the years, it has been Dad's Man Cave/Music Room and family Library, a bedroom, and a storage room.  Now, it will become an extra bedroom/sitting room with Dad's music and various items we need to bring over from Granny's.

At one point, we painted the walls not covered with floor to ceiling bookshelves to help brighten up the room.  When the room became a bedroom, we moved the bookshelves.  We have just now gotten around to painting the last of the paneling, and the room is so much brighter.

While I was organized and Mom helped so much, I realized that I am getting too old for painting rooms.  My body is sore, and I am tired.

Christmas Paintings

I love to paint.  I considered doing paintings for Christmas gifts this year, so I started with these two.  While they look OK, I was too nervous about giving them as a gift, so I just hung them on the wall in my living room.

Refinishing a Chest

My niece was in great need of a new chest for her bedroom.  There were a few at Granny's, so I chose one to refinish.  I could have chosen one of the others to stain, but I wanted one I could paint and make special for her.

As you know from previous pictures and posts, my niece dances competively, so I chose to do something special for her.

Each silhouette is my niece.  I love it, and she did too. 
(Yes, there are some areas I wish were better, but I am self-taught and do the best I can.)

Girl Scouts--Volunteering and Painting

Today, our girls had the opportunity to participate in two different activities.

The church, where my co-leader attends and I have been visiting, was volunteering to help build a local house with Habitat for Humanity.  We learned that our girls were not old enough to assist with the building b/c one must be 16, so we asked if there was anything we could do to assist.  There was! We brought and served lunch to all the volunteers today.  We had sandwiches, pickles, chips, cookies, tea, and water.  The girls were able to meet some of the church members as well as learn just a wee bit about Habitat for Humanity.  They also met the family that will be moving into the house.  We were invited back to the dedication this summer. The girls thought it was really neat to see the skeleton of the house before it was move-in ready.  They can't wait to go back to see it all finished.

 

Singing Grace

 

Serving lunch

 

 

Enjoying lunch

We had a little time to spare, so we let the girls play at McDonald's.  They had an indoor play area on this warm, humid day. They got to enjoy an ice cream one too.

We spent the afternoon painting.  A local teacher/painter taught the girls how to paint owls.  They are so cute, and we had a ton of fun!