Week One

This is what we accomplished in our first week and by we, I don't mean us and some amigos . We as is in us and manual labor. Manual labor that amigos usually do. And don't go thinking we have anything against amigos. They do the work others won't do and we are thankful for all the help we can get. Anyway, all that to say this is Daddy's idea of a fun Saturday. It was really fun and gross and really hard work. I have a goose egg on my shin to prove it as well as clothes that smelled like cat pee when I finally left Peggy Sue Saturday afternoon. If it hadn't been so cold, I would have taken my clothes off before I got into the van for fear that my van would forever smell of cat urine (see pics of master bedroom) and general dirty carpet funk.

See all this carpet? We ripped it out BY OURSELVES. Daddy got us started and went to run an errand.

Here's the living room after we removed the carpet. It already felt so much cleaner, even with that dirty pad still down. We laughed and laughed at each other and at Daddy as we got that crap out of there.

Do you want to know what that black grainy stuff is behind the tackboard? It is ROACH POOPIE!! A bunch of it. We thought it was some kind mold from a old leak and started to mildly panic until Daddy quickly informed us that mold isn't grainy balls. He knew what it was right away.

Next we removed all the wire shelving in all the closets and took down all the blinds in the house. Terribly exciting I know, but we did each learn how to properly use a cordless drill both backwards and forwards.

We did have two workers ripping off the covered part of the deck and patching the roof where the deck connected. Does that make sense? Anyway, we had to clean up after those turkeys and they were messy.  While checking on their progress, we noticed they had stopped for lunch. Lunch as in Dr. Pepper and a can of Vienna weinies a piece. Since we hadn't turned the water on yet (had yet to make sure we found all the leaks), the poor things had to dig those little weinies out of that congealed stuff with their dirty bare hands. We considered offering them some hand gel or possibly a baby wipe from the stashes we both keep in our vans, but they didn't seem bothered my the inconvience so we let it ride. After fininishing their lunches, they threw their cans and Dr. Pepper bottles (full of tobacco spit-gag!!!) into the pile of wood they had created from tearing down the top of the deck. Mind you there was a trash bag ON THE DECK, BY THEIR FEET, but who cares right? Because he insists on a very clean work site, Daddy decided the wood needed to be loaded up and hauled off. So we loaded it up, Vienna cans and spit bottles and all while those two turkeys stand on the roof and watch us try not get weinie juice and (gag!!!) tobacco spit on our gloves.

And just in case you ever wondered what a roach egg thingy looks like, here you go. I (Kimmy) walked around the whole house with a flat screwdriver and scraped those suckers off every surface I could reach. Just thought you might want to know!

Thanks for checking in on the updates of Peggy Sue!! Have a great week!!

The Ugly Duckling (or the before pictures)

Here's a few (or a lot) pictures of Peggy Sue when we signed the papers. She's full of roach eggs, mama roaches and all their poop, ugly wallpaper, leak damage, really gross carpet and early 90's charm. We were itching to start ripping out and getting our hands dirty (figuratively), but getting quotes from subs and creating a budget had to come first. Daddy's initial budget was ridiculously high and scared us into thinking we had bitten off more than we could chew. Could we really even make a profit? Would it be worth our time, especially the time away from our babies? If you know our sweet Daddy, you know he does NOTHING half way. He has built a very successful business (http://www.counterdimensions.com/) on his perfectionist approach. Needless to say, we've attempted to rein him in on this venture.  After getting our quotes in and reworking our budget, we started to breathe a little easier and realized he overbudgeted almost everything,  just in case. Bless him!

We asked a few friends "in the biz" to stop by and give us their opinions, two cents and creative ideas on how to make our new girl beautiful. We got so many, our little heads were spinning! We stewed a few days and finally came up with a rough game plan.

Now that you know the backstory, here's the ugly duckling in all her glory:

the front door and ugly stoop (Jill loves this door!)

Entry-wish you really see how stained and nasty those hardwoods look

Kitchen-see the leaky spot where the fridge was?

Living Room-not much going on here

Dining Room-I have hit my head on that fixture more times than I care to mention. Thinking about taking the wall down between the dining room and kitchen. Thinking about it.

The ONLY thing going for the main bath is that it does have an AWESOME Kohler cast iron tub. We decided to work around it.

Yellow bedroom-cleanest carpet in the house

Pink bedroom-home of the stinkbug nest. They made a home in top part of the blinds.

Master Bedroom-smells like cat pee in that one dirty corner. See it? Gross.

Master Bath-see that OTHER leaky spot? How do you use this room everyday and not think it needs to be fixed? On the flip slide, this bath also has the AWESOME Kohler cast iron tub in it. I didn't put a picture of that one because 1) you've already seen the other one and it looks the same and 2) uploading pictures tonight is taking A SWEET FOREVER!

Basement room 1

and room 2 or the dead chipmunk room. I (Kimmy) found a chipmunk dead in the floor the day after we signed the papers. If Jill had found him, she would have decided to NEVER come back. She hates any creature that even resembles a mouse.  He wasn't there a few days before so he must have came in and got stuck with no water. At least it was cold so he didn't stink. He did make me say a cuss word when I found him in the dark.

Close up of that window. See that big gap on lower right? Rotten.

Downstairs bath. I don't even know where to start. Yes, I do. Remember that leaky spot from the icemaker line/fridge? This is the result of ignoring it FOR A LONG TIME. There are more pictures we could show you, but we won't. You might not come back.

Let's go outside for  a breath of fresh air. Watch your step! There's a big hole in the deck.

Ignoring the big hole, take in the lovely view of the pool. Poof! Next go round, this sucker will be gone!

Covered porch-won't be covered much longer. It might not be there at all. We'll see.

Let's walk down and take a look in the backyard/falling in swimming pool area. Hang onto the rail, the steps are a little rickety.

Well, we come to the end of our little tour of Peggy Sue, pre make-over. We would love for you to follow along as we realize our little dream. Check back often as we post updates of our progress. God has truly blessed us with this not so little project and a sweet and patient Daddy who is holding our hand through the whole thing. She's gonna be beautiful, we promise!!



Meet Peggy Sue

Peggy Sue is a dream come true. An answer to prayer. A long hoped for realization. And a mess. A dirty, musty, neglected mess. But she is ours and she has so much potential. We love her even if she smells and is full of stink bugs (really!!) We love her for what she will be soon. We hope she makes us proud! We would love for you to follow along as we transform Peggy Sue to the belle of the ball.