Mastering the Bedroom

I had more help again today!  This time Mom came over, and she was eager to start the kitchen clean-up and organizing.  But knowing exactly what that entailed (and how we probably wouldn't get very far), I said, "Let's do a room upstairs instead."  One at a time!  Room by room.

So that's what we did.  The Master Bedroom is essentially complete...well, sort of.  I'm still eagerly awaiting a nasty rain so I can see how the door holds up to water.  I'm still not confident the leak below the bedroom into the kitchen is remedied (I'm so hoping it is), and I just need to wait for a good rain to see.  And I was eager to get that nasty bathroom sticky tile floor up...

So we started with the simple part of cleaning up a room:  removing stuff!  And, my, oh, my did this room have LOTS of stuff to remove!  I had the remnants of the poor shelf job from the previous owner (massive 2 x 4's, metal brackets), tons and tons of paint supplies and paint from the whole-house paint job, a couple ladders, and various parts and items from who knows what!  The room was a mess.

Paint supplies, left-over shelving, various miscellaneous.  It all had to go!

It all has to go!

After removing the big stuff, we took out the little stuff, and then Mom started on vacuuming the bare floors.  This room was a MESS.  That sawdust that has been all over everything was, of course, in this room, as well, with the door and floorboard replacement.  Much to her surprise, Mom would fill up a couple of vacuum containers AND clog the filter a couple of times!  FILTHY!

I worked on a quick project that I have been putting off for quite some time now (a couple of weeks anyway).  The towel rack fell off the wall in the main bathroom upstairs, and I have never replaced it!  I knew it was just a simple set screw and a couple minute job, but it's amazing what you just deal with when you have so much else going on.  I literally had a towel draped over a laundry basket for the last two weeks.  JUST FIX IT, ANDY!  So I did.  It was a simple and quick fix.  Knock it off the list!

No towel rack!

Less than 10 minutes, and back in business.

I then headed back to the Master Bedroom where Mom was still cleaning every nook and cranny!  When you want a house clean, get my Mom to help.  Seriously, she is a no-nonsense cleaner.  EVERYTHING gets cleaned.  Floors, trim, windows, counters, whatever is there.  It's great.

While she worked on that, I decided to tackle one of the medium-sized projects in the bedroom:  removing the sticky tile from the bathroom area.  It's not really a bathroom as it's part of the bedroom, and I'm strongly considering carpeting this area of the room, too.  The way they had it divided was awkward and clunky.  I'm thinking that wall-to-wall carpet in this room would make the room flow better (much like with what I'm doing with the downstairs flow from the formal dining room through the entryway into the living room).  They had it divided up awkward downstairs, too, and I just don't like it.  I like floooooooooooow.

The gross and cheap sticky tile with the awkward diagonal room separation.

But regardless, the floor had to be pulled up!  It was yet another lesson in the leaky or wet areas of the home.  Many of the edge tiles pulled up very easily which meant they had been wet in years past.  Next to the sink around the exterior door, next to the bathtub room, they just pulled up so easily.  And, not surprisingly, close to the sinks, I found yet more black mold!  This house is so gross.  But right in the middle, I had to really work to get them up!  I used a claw-hammer to do so, and it wasn't overly strenuous work, but it did take some time.  Thankfully, I had plenty of that!  Mom was busy filling up the vacuum!



Bye, bye, tiles!



Oh, look!  More mold!  Nothing surprises me at this point.

I had to take over part of her job, though, as she refused to clean a couple of the areas ("Too much dog hair and filth, and I will vomit," according to her.)  ha!  Now I've seen my mom gag, and it's actually much to my enjoyment, but I decided to help her on this one.  And she was right!  This house is actually disgustingly filthy.  It's quite gross at times.  When I opened up the vents, I said, "What I would like to do is actually collect all of this hair and make a stuffed animal for my niece."  Of course, that is disgusting, but it was a comment showing just how much dog hair was in these vents!

"Mom, just think, EVERY breath you breathe in this house first had to pass through the heater through these ducts and through these hairs until it ended up in your lungs."  Yes, I'm a terrible son, but it was a reminder for both of us as to how gross this house really was and to get to cleaning it even more!  Seriously gross.

And I learned that I had even more inefficiency in my vents!  One of the three vents in the bedroom had pulled apart from the floorboard and was dangling to one side.  Granted, most of the forced air would still be forced into the room, but it was obvious that some of it would be making its way in between the two floors of the house, AND whatever air was in between the floors of the house would be making its way into this bedroom when the air was not running!  I had to fix it right then and there.



A good start to a stuffed animal!  Gross!  And note the right side disconnected.

So much better!

The two other vents both required deep cleanings, as well, as well as some sheet metal repair (bending them all back into place or re-supporting them into the floorboards).  Small but necessary repairs!  One room at a time.  I like that.  Just work one room at a time.  "Mom, what I need to do is make a list of all of the items that need done in each room, and just start checking them off."  Each room needs something!

I finally had all of the tiles removed, and the room already looks SO much better without the cheap tiles visible.  Those sticky tiles are just a cheap fix, and I don't care much for them.  Especially in a house like this.  It needs higher quality.  And just as I suspected, the room looks bigger!  It flows from side-to-side.  The verdict is still out, but I think I will go carpet from side-to-side.  The toilet and bathtub will still get tile, but I don't necessarily need tile in front of the sinks.  I think carpet would look great.

The bathroom looks better already.

From the bedroom, we moved into the walk-in closet, then hallway, and then down the stairs.  Mom kept vacuuming.  I removed the threshold from between the bedroom and hallway, and ew!, what a mess!  Seriously, dirt and pet dander everywhere.  Just gross.

I plucked out remaining staples from the stairs, and Mom kept up her vigorous cleaning, filling up that vacuum!  Oddly enough, several of the nails holding down the floors were up (loose), and I had to nail those back down.  What an odd house!  Seriously, way too many nails had popped up.  It's so weird.



One of the corners of the stairs.  Dirt, dirt, everywhere!  And look, even a nail popped up!

Once we were finally all done with the stairs, Mom attacked the stair rails.  My house started to smell lemon-y fresh (I loved it!), and the rails took on a look all their own.  They are BEAUTIFUL.  I absolutely love the look of fresh wood, and these really popped.  I had to scrape off paint marks from both my painter and the previous paint job (think yellow), but they were coming right off.  The rails are now gorgeous!  And the house smells great!  And the stairs are clean!  And the hall is clean!  And the bedroom is clean!

Beautiful color!  And CLEAN!

I just love the amount of wood in this house.

I can't fully put into words just how gross this house has been.  Some (a lot) of the dust was from the contractor sawing inside, but in other areas, the dirt is from a couple decades of dog and living.  When I walk barefoot, I feel it.  There is a reason I tell everyone to PLEASE take your shoes off when you walk on the new carpet.  Every step you take in this house before you get there is on dog, dirt, dust, and gross-ness, so when you step into those rooms with your shoes, you are taking that in there, as well!  I know it's a royal pain to do it EVERY time (trust me, when I have to go into the bedroom numerous times in a row, I hate it!), but it's keeping the new new until the rest of the new comes!

But what a huge step in the right direction!  The house is getting clean!  Yay!

What a huge Master Bedroom with flow into the exposed bathroom sink area!

So fresh and clean!  Just needs carpet!

Thanks for the help today, Mom!  I have a huge Master Bedroom awaiting my bed!  All it needs now is carpet, and it's 100% finished!  How exciting!  Of course, with the job loss this week, it will most likely be awhile to get my funds in order, but it's still a VERY exciting step in the right direction.  I want to make sure no water comes in through the new door, too, before I put carpet right up against it.  You know, just to be sure...

But I am ready for the stairs and upstairs to be carpeted!!!  Woo hoo!  Half of the house is almost done!