It's finally ours

We closed on our Minnesota home August 26th, and closed on our Illinois home yesterday!  We were so pumped to get in and start working that we did exactly that after we were finally released from the longest, most drawn-out closing ever.  Thanks, idiot lender.  Anyway, here is the main level of the home all cleared out so you can see the SPACE and DATEDNESS. 

It took us about 30 seconds to start tearing things apart.  The granny window treatments were the first to go. 

The big window in the living room had immobile sheers, I just can’t imagine never opening them!  All the draperies and ugly plastic blinds from the bedrooms ended up in a pile in the living room.

We removed the carpet from each and every room, the room that will be Ashford’s had the craziest carpet padding that stained everything orange.  I’m pretty sure the carpet in this room was from the 70s or earlier, it was filthy and bubbling everywhere. 

We left the pads down so we could paint the ceilings and walls without getting anything on the wood floors. 

We were also relieved to see the stair treads were solid oak and not soft pine like the last house.  I’m still wrestling with railing ideas, unfortunately it will not be changed right now, so it will be honey oak even after we refinish the steps and main level floors  

I have no idea how we will get the awful paneling adhesive off the wall of the guest room.  I’ve dealt with this once (poorly) before with some scraping and sanding, but the swirls were always sort of visible….so I’m looking for a solution that doesn’t involve re-drywalling.

The living room awaiting ceiling and wall paint…I can’t wait to cover the odd fleshy salmon color.  We are also replacing all the trim in the house with simple white. 

I will update as we make progress!