Why should I DIY? You do it.

Andy pitched in and did what he does best for this project...wrote a check.

One of the first things Andy wanted to do when we moved in was get the floors done.  We knew it was now or never and it was way out of our DIY abilities so we got it done professionally.  Special thanks to Kham Floor Sanding out of Quincy, MA.  Our Realtor referred him to us and we are thrilled with the results.

Guest Bedroom Before

Guest Bedroom After

Downstairs Hallway

No Rest for the Wicked

Day 1: Hard at Work

The ink on our brand new mortgage barely had time to dry before we were hard at work at our new house.  Our first projects are our master bedroom and den so we can at least have a finished place to relax and sleep.  We spent Friday stripping wallpaper from our bedroom.

 

Under that paper we found some some cracked and crumbly horsehair plaster walls.

Andy started talking about ripping down the walls all the way to the studs.  I started seeing $$$ flashing before my eyes.  Luckily, after we had a slightly more skilled DIYer (my father) assess the situation, we were able to determine the walls can simply be patched and sanded.

Day 2: Our First Trip the Emergency Room

After such a productive first day, we were excited to get back to work on Saturday.  We still needed to take   down a wall of wood paneling from the bedroom, strip the paper from our den and also take down a paneled wall from the den.

Much of the paper came off very easily because the previous owner was quite fond of vinyl wallpaper.  We were able to simply rip most of it down.

The paneling, however, was another issue...

Andy got the first panel down and had it on the floor when he stepped right on a nail.  It went through his Croc and into his foot.  Since Andy hadn't had a tetanus shot in over a decade, we had to take our first house related trip to the hospital so he could get his shot and an antibiotic to stave off any infection.  Andy learned an important lesson that day, don't do demo work in Crocs.  Don't worry, his foot his fine, though his ego might still be a little hurt.

Day 3:  Back to Work

Despite a minor setback on Saturday, Sunday we were right back to work and got a bunch of yard work done.  We removed a bunch of vines that were  crawling up the side of our house and cut down some trees that had been growing through fences, out of our deck, and one that was threatening to take over our flowing cherry tree.  Finally after completing the prep for the flooring guys to get to work this week we are looking forward to a few days off.

A Little History

On Friday, July 20th my husband and I closed on our first house.  It's a grand old turn of the century fixer-upper and we are planning on fixing it up ourselves.  Neither me nor my husband have any prior DIY experience, except for making our own card box for our wedding three years ago.  This time we've taken on a slightly larger box.


At the closing the owner's daughter gave us a little bit of history of the house.  Her family had lived there for 57 years and were only the second family to own the house.  The house was built back in 1910 by a local banker for his bride.  The house originally had a formal living room and dining room, a maid's kitchen and a large pantry with floor to ceiling sliding glass cabinets.  In between the kitchen and the dining room was a sliding door where the maid could pass dinner to the butler to serve.  Up on the third floor the banker had built himself a large billiard room next to the maid's room.  We learned that around the house was an orchard of apple and pear trees and to the left of the picture of the house were the banker's tennis courts.

Now it's ours.  There are no maids, no butlers, no tennis courts and no orchards, just two less than novice DIYers who are excited to restore this house and turn it into our dream home.