Update & House Quirks

So I've been spending the majority of my time running in between our apt & the new house. We've slowly been bringing things over & putting them in the basement for now. The majority of gifts we got at my bridal shower were still in the boxes and in storage on our covered porch, so everything just went straight into the cellar.  Once again I'm kind of in a holding pattern before we can really do anything, there are a few things that need to be done before we can move forward.

We HAVE to get the wood floors refinished before we move any furniture in. The previous owner had 3 cats & there are a number of pet stains on the gorgeous floors. She also kept carpets down & didn't use padding, so there's scratches all over the wood & it's worn out in so many places. Evidance of the cats:

There's also some damage to the flooring & the trim around the hearth. There's a pretty big gap between the tile & the hardwood and if you stand at the right angle, you can see into the basement - no bueno.  I'm not sure how to fix it . I've had 6 flooring companies over for estimates & I've gotten 6 different answers. The wood trim angles up toward the tile & I don't want to change it very much because I don't want it to take away from the pretty inlaid edging you can see there too.

You see that stove there in the fireplace? Yeah, we'll get to that later -
 it knocks my socks off how awesome it is.

 Side Note: DUDES! Do you know how freaking expensive it is to get your floors refinished? Our house is NOT that big (1700 sq ft and that incl. the entry, kitchen & baths which aren't wood floors), and I didn't ask for a custom job on the inlay either. Most people want 4-5 thousand dollars. That's insane.

Then there are the sneaky little things that are exposing themselves as we slowly discover them. The dryer was a total fire hazard. The entire wall behind the washer/dryer was covered in dust. The floor under it was covered too - it was like carpeting all over the concrete. It took me a couple hours of scrubbing and my Dad's shop-vac to get it all off. Thank goodness my brother-in-law is really handy. He helped me replace the exhaust tube & we'll eventually replace the outside vent too. I don't have pictures of it yet, but I promise I will.

I did take pictures of the washing machine though. Have you ever seen an infomercial & thought "But who lets their ______ get that gross?!" Yeah, me too. I saw this tutorial floating around Pinterst a while ago & I kept thinking it was weird. Unless you have hard water, whose washing machine gets that dirty? Well, after I cleaned the dryer area, I checked the washer & immediately searched for that pin.

The house has a water softner system. What IS all that crusty crapola??

We can't really complain about much of the house - they had every room (and the trim work) painted before they put it on the market. I like most of the colors too (for now) - thing is, they only did the parts you can see. Most of the closets haven't been painted in YEARS and they're soooo gross. I took these pictures after I washed down the walls. I had to be careful too, the walls were so dry they were just sucking up all the cleaner and then the old paint was coming off & revealing the plaster walls underneath. I did what I could/had to but you bet these suckers will be primed & painted with the quickness.

Quirky thing #1? The mailbox goes into the entry closet.
Makes no sense,we have plans to change that.

The pantry in the kitchen made me almost want to vomit. I took all the shelves out, washed it down with a painter's cleaner and still this is what it looks like. I mean, who paints the outside of the door, but leaves the inside uub-sgusting?

Oh & the shelves? They're covered in this weird contact paper and other strange stains. Gloves, a mask & a box cutter/blade were used to remove 3 layers of old contact paper. I was going to sand down the shelves and then re-paint them, but I think it might be smarter just to paint the closet & re-cover the cleaned up shelves with new lining.

Ew

One thing I'm psyched for is the whirlpool tub in the upstairs bathroom. I'm not loving the black tiles, but they'll have to do for a couple years because we need the money to fix a few other things first.

The switch to start the tub jets is inside the storage shelves so that little hands can't reach it, which makes sense. Quirky thing #2 which doesn't make sense? Um, why is there a phone jack in the bathroom (and obviously newly replaced too)?

Quirky thing #3 - which I can not believe I didn't notice before we moved in - anyone wanna guess as to why there might be a deabolt on the master bedroom door? Yeah, I dunno either. Musta been some freaky-deaky sh-- goin on in there.

Quirk #4: At first you might not notice it. It did strike me as odd the first time we saw the house but now that we're utilizing the bathroom more it's all kind of annoying - there are no built in towel bars, and no toilet paper holder. The free-standing ones in there now I bought from the previous owner's tag sale (they'll do for now). Also (other than the shower) the walls aren't covered in tile or wainscoting - that could get dangerous/annoying when we go to wash our face & get water on the wall, etc. I'll have to paint the room again anyway - they used a flat paint which is terrible in a bathroom because you can't really clean it & it doesn't block moisture from getting in the walls. Semi-gloss or high-gloss is best in the bathroom, so that'll have to be done. Also, the toilet is really small for the space. I mean, just look at how much smaller than the pedestal sink it is. My 6'1 husband is not gonna love that.

With all these oddities, I'm sure we'll come across some more as we discover them throughout the house. In the meantime - it's frustrating having to wait for this flooring to be re-finished. It's holding us back from moving in because we can't bring anything into the house until it's done. I guess it's a good thing since it's going to take me forever to pack-up/get rid of everything in our apartment but still - I just want to be in, even if we're living among boxes for a couple weeks.