I'm Back!

Well, friends, I'm back from hiatus... at least for a while. The house is bought, a lovely four-day weekend was spent with my family, and then I hit JoB with a debit card and a vengeance, as there was a LOT of work to be done. The new triplex is a wonder... the two already-rented units are cute, bright, and clean. The countertops are mind-bogglingly ugly colors, but it didn't keep them from being rented out, so no harm done, and we'll fix them later. The third apartment, however--the one we'll be living in--was a bit of a disaster. Carpet that was supposed to be tan was closer to black, the ceiling was covered in gray filth, and it hadn't been cleaned in so long, there was filth in places I never knew filth could get (like lining the doorjambs). So, we got right to work! Unfortunately, due to logistics, we had to do things somewhat out of order, but we have accomplished a lot so far. First, e-dub and I (she's my younger sister who also attends grad school at Alma Mater U.) cleaned, taped, and painted pretty much every wall in the place. Then, Mom and l-dub (my older sister, who lives in Hometown) and l-dub's adorable sweet babies (my precious nephew and niece, Zachary and Lillian, who for some reason are the only people on this blog who are referred to by their own names) came into town to help out. In case you're wondering where N.O. is in all this, he was still in Everycity, having to work. While e-dub kiddie-wrangled, Mom, l-dub and I continued cleaning, taping, and painting. There was a lot of this to be done! Then our friendly neighborhood flooring company came and replaced the disgusting carpets with fresh, new ones. Around this time, Mom and I caught matching horrible colds. Because what would moving, painting, and remodeling be without a horrible cold?! Why, where would be the challenge in that? Saturday morning, N.O. arrived in JoB with a truck full of tools and he, Mom, and I got back to work (l-dub and e-dub did their parts by keeping the kiddies out of the way for a whole day). We tackled the massive and unenviable task of scraping the "popcorn" ceilings... you know, that useless and ugly "acoustical" bumpy crud that makes homes look dated? Yeah, that stuff. Turns out, scraping it off is just as horrible a process as you would think. You should have seen us afterwards... we looked like three abominable snowmen. And this is where I was talking about things being out of order, because of course, in a perfect world, you would scrape the ceilings before you installed the new carpet. But that was the only way we could do it, logistically, so a few drop cloths and a powerful new vaccuum cleaner, et voila, our pretty, much less bumpy ceilings add value to the house instead of subtracting from it. Shortly, Mom, l-dub, and the kids had to go home, so N.O., e-dub, and I got to the task of painting the ceilings. That was even less fun than scraping them, and we're not finished yet. But we were done for a while, as N.O. had to get back to work in Dallas this morning. I'm supposed to be working, too... working around our apartment here, cleaning and packing to finish our move. So, that's it for now. Just wanted to say hi and give you an update.

When we're all finished with our place, I'll give you a nice before-and-after photo gallery. Prepare to be amazed!

Oh, and Forky, I haven't met our tenants yet, but they don't look like convicted felons. They just look like nice college girls. Sorry.