Moving In

Our official move-in date is May Day! There is much to be done, but I must say, we've accomplished quite a lot already. Special thanks to the previous owners for all their hard work and meticulous maintenance , and to our wonderful realtor for all his advice, all he has done, and all that he continues to do for us, even after closing!

So April 13, 14, and 15 were spent stripping wallpaper. Upon moving in, only three rooms in the house, (not counting the basement and attic,) were without wallpaper. The previous owners had graciously stripped the kitchen, and the smallest bedroom was recently stripped and/or freshly painted. And obviously, (or is it surprisingly? I cant decide!) the bathroom was not wallpapered. Other than these three rooms, the house was completely wallpapered. It's not just the main rooms and the bedrooms- it is in the stairway, the hallway, the closets- it is ON THE CEILINGS OF THE CLOSETS. It amazes me that a person could be so persistent, consistent, and downrights in love with wallpaper. The best part: it is all yellow. Even the seemingly pea-green patter of the kitchen wallpaper was peppered liberally with yellow! How? Why? It matters not! The only thing that matters now is our determination to rid ourselves of it!

And the process has begun. The first day, Jason removed almost every scrap of wallpaper from the living room and dining room. It peeled like a banana. He simply grabbed a corner and pulled, and it came off in sheets. Not so in the hallway, he found. that stuff is the texture of newspaper. The glue has penetrated both the paper and the plaster it seems. Same with the upstairs bedroom (the largest one, our future office). No amount of DIF will pursuade it to loosen its hold. So I, of course, chose that first night to tackle the most stubbornly wallpapered room, the office. It is AWFUL. I have not managed to uncover a complete wall. I have spent at least 20 ours scoring, soaking and scraping, and during 5 of those hours I had my sister's help! Yet such little progress! How depressing.

In taking a break from the office, however, I curiously entered our bedroom to find that the wallpaper in there is quite peelable as well, and that after only an hour or so of peeling, it is almost completely de-papered. Just what I needed to lift my spirits! At last! One completely de-papered room that I can take all the credit for!

This process will be long and arduous, but by move-in day, we are determined to have completely painted walls throughout our home. I remember when painting was such a chore... Now it seems like the icing on the cake!

__Things to Do__
By May 1, 2009:
-strip all wallpaper
-patch all plaster
-prime and paint all walls
-repaint kitchen and guest room
-remove kitchen cabinets as necessary
-install gas stove
-repair and/or install refrigerator
-sand kitchen cabinets for painting

As Soon as Possible:
-start vegetable garden
-screen attic vents (there are bugs coming in!)
-do SOMETHING about the landscaping

By Autumn:
-scrape, sand, prime and paint entire exterior of house and garage

Some immediate problems we've noticed include:
1. There is nowhere to plug in an electric dryer, so we have to install the proper outlet.
2. We have some kind of mold in the plaster in the corner of the breakfast nook.
3. The coal chute (to nowhere) needs a new door/ possible insulation.
4. We have cable lines coming in through the strangest places, a dining room vent and the fireplace, for example, which need to be removed or relocated.
5. We need a new mailbox.
6. We need to repair or replace some of the window screens.

Nothing too major thus far, thank God!