If I had my guess, I’d say these keys are from the 50’s or 60’s, and in the neighborhood of 50+ years old. I’m delighted by the fact that someone simply *lost* them in the basement, where they’ve sat all these many years… only to be found by us, decades later.
Bob, working on spraying the wood and floorboards. We’re holding off on the walls and floor, since we want to clean things with a power sprayer. But we’re going to have a plumber come in and install some floor drains, and then we can really give the place a proper cleaning.
A clean basement! The eventual goal is to relocate the furnace over in the corner, and open up the basement a lot more.
We spotted some videos online of people using a heat or infrared device to strip paint. Instead of slathering chemicals over the paint, these devices supposedly heat the paint and allow for easier separation.
Stripping paint has its dangers – the primary one being splinters that find their way through latex gloves. Here Liz is receiving some emergency surgery from Bob (aka Dr. Robuston Bean).
Last night Liz and I went to the house after work, and spent a few hours stripping paint from the trim. We were a little uncertain if we would try to keep all the wood, as some of it is original and some of it was kind of “throw in” after the fact. But on closer inspection, we think that a lot of the wood in our place is yellow pine – something that’s rare, and harder to find nowadays (I think).
I cannot emphasize how dirty and disgusting the attic was. Liz and Julie braved the upstairs using Tyvek suits and masks, but from what they reported – the floor was littered with mouse pee and poop. There was a ton of junk up in the attic, and the mice/squirrels just had a field day with it all.
Spent Friday night with Liz, roaming the aisles of Home Depot. As many have told us, I’m expecting this to become our new favorite store. Although, given that we’re spending around $100 per trip… supplies really add up! We’re trying to be conscious of what all we purchase, as it seems like 10 small trips could easily see us spending $1,000. It’s crazy how quickly everything adds up.
While a nice homage to Thomas Edison, I found this display really creepy. Partly, the display celebrated his inventions… but it also felt like they were using Edison to shill for the products here in the building. I walked up to look at some of the items in closer detail, and had this unnerving feeling that Edison would turn to me, smile, and ask if I needed any help finding the “perfect blender.”
I arrived at the house a little after 7AM, and the next thing I knew… it was close to 1PM. I don’t know how, but we had spent around 6 hours just talking, walking room to room, making notes and discussing various options. We kind of visually deconstructed several aspects of the house, and I started to see more things I hadn’t noticed before – finding myself able to spot things that were original to the house, to things that were added at a later time.
Back at our place, we installed some new locks on the doors (something new to both me and Liz since we’ve always been homeowners). And now our place is even more officially ours. Funny to think of it, but these locks are the first thing we’ve done to the place – the first of many changes to come.
It’s official! After a little over 90 minutes of sitting at a table with two layers and signing papers… Liz and I are new homeowners! Officially, legally, for-real homeowners.
So this is the big news: Liz and I have bought a house, and we’re going to be moving to Hyde Park! We’ve kept things pretty quiet up until now, but we are in the final, final stages – we close on October 30th, in a week’s time.
Suffice it to say, there have been a lot of ups and downs – and very much so the last few days. A small clerical error (for want of a better word) had me and Liz frantically revisiting our budgets within a quick 24 hour period. All of that, only to learn a day later that a simple misunderstanding had us worried for naught.
Today, Liz and I decided to trek out to Hyde Park. Most of the types of places we’ve been checking out have been single family homes or multi-units, as condos were initially off our list. But in our planned trip, we happened to find a few condos that had open houses… so we decided to check out a few, during our walk around the area.