WORK!

If I had to describe the month of July in one word it would be: WORK! From the time we took possession of the house back on June 30th until today has been nothing but work. Our last tenants did not take good care of the place at all and trying to get the house back into shape after 5 years of hosting renters has been quite the challenge.

Honestly. Who would want a drink from that fountain? CLEAN, people, CLEAN!

We ripped out the carpet ourselves and had the place painted on a Monday, cleaned it on Tuesday evening and had new carpet installed on a Wednesday.

Susie just loves manual labor

Reminding Susie that her freedom isn't free ;)

We were continually amazed that a mother with two small children would let her family live in such filth.

I wonder if her kids had allergy issues? 

Don't worry about a trashcan...just throw it under the washer and dryer

We hired professional movers to get our stuff from the storage unit to the "new" place, but still had to move our everyday items from Susie's. As you can see, my convertible is quite the hauler. ;)

Hop in!

We did things a little backwards and moved everything before going through it to see if there were items with which we could part. Rookie mistake by seasoned movers. :(

"Eddie Teddy" was Jackson's childhood pal and somehow made the move with us?!

Above-the-range microwave! 

We not only painted, re-carpeted and cleaned the place, we also did some improving. There wasn't a microwave here so we got an above-the-range microwave to save counter space. We actually got the microwave for free because Home Depot made the carpet ordering such a nightmare. Jackson is the king of getting stores to "make things right."

Note the shoe racks :)

Jackson also built me TWO new shoe racks. I asked for THREE. He called this an "inventory control measure" and claimed to be out of space for a third rack. *cough, BS, cough*

I firmly believe another rack could have been installed....somewhere...

We were also amazed that the tenants NEVER CHANGED LIGHTBULBS! There were 6 lights in the kitchen and only ONE worked. Who does that?!!? Lazy. Lazy. LAZY.

Handyman Jackson

Since we'd never loved the light fixtures anyway, we bought new ones and Jackson installed them himself.

We even stocked them with bulbs! Amazing! 

 We also replaced the hardware in the bathrooms because the water here is mineral packed and stains the fixtures when someone doesn't CLEAN occasionally.

This project stumped Jackson a bit...

after a few trips to Menard's he was in business!

The new faucets looks great! 

The garage was a mess when we moved in. The tenants left us their trash scattered around (we just love them- can you tell?) and had a HUGE oil stain from their car on the floor. Jackson thought we'd just have to live with the stain. It bothered me so I took on its removal as a project.

Jenna-1,  Oil Stain- 0

We finally accomplished our goal of getting the garage in good enough order to park both of our cars inside. HOORAY! A small victory!

Success! 

We also installed a new garage keypad to allow us to lock the place up when going for walks without carrying our keys. We love it! We have washed down the entire house with a soapy sponge (or 5) to get the siding to return to its original color instead of "dirt." We have cleaned the windows, replace the shutters as the old ones had faded, trimmed bushes, put in new mulch, edged the yard, pulled weeds from the sidewalks and driveway, torn out dead plants and put in new flowers, pulled 789 thistles from the flowerbeds, cleaned the exterior lights, replaced the mailbox, put in a new walkway between our house and the neighbor's place, cut back our grass plants (nightmare!), picked up at least 89 pounds of litter, and repaired a broken screen. That is honestly a condensed list. We're still in the process of order new countertops for the kitchen and replacing the toilets. We did cheat a little and had the tiles professionally cleaned. All of this while working full-time. It has been SO FUN! ;) 
One good thing we discovered was a Facebook group where you can list household items for sale and local people bid on them. It is like Craigslist, but on Facebook. We made well over $1,000 selling things we either couldn't fit in this place since it is so much smaller than our other home or things we just didn't love anymore. I spent hours getting the washer and dryer that our renters used into good enough shape to sell and made a pretty penny on them. It almost made my time spent cleaning them worth it. Almost. 

MacKenzie returned to her original "magic door"

We think we are getting close to having the place in good shape again. We've ordered the countertops and toilets so as soon as they're in and a few things find their new place on the walls, we'll be set. By then I am sure something new will pop up and need our attention. The fun seemingly does not end when it comes to homeownership.