We bought a house! It’s a wonderful little home built in 1870 near downtown Portage, WI. The first steps for us yesterday (after we closed!) were to replace the door locks, take off all the cabinet doors in the kitchen, take out all the drawers, and move a large cabinet out of the kitchen into the garage. We took the hardware off the cabinet doors (handles, latches, etc) and spackled the holes; next we will prime and paint them a high gloss white. The drawers and doors are in pretty good shape, but need a little love! We also moved the fridge and cleaned underneath. We added just a few personal touches; a porcelain turtle, a green bean plant, a couple pictures. In the photo below, don’t mind the line on the right 1/3, it’s just the photo, not a tear in reality. The photo is what the cabinets, drawers, and countertop looked like before we started.
Next, we started work on the first floor bedroom. It was in need of a good priming over the doors, window frames and sills, and the walls. We got the heavy duty lead paint masks (the window frames and base boards were lead painted) and primed over all the surfaces of the walls without spilling too much on the floors. Next for that room is a white paint over the doors and windows and a nice grey on the walls. The room looks much bigger now than it did in a forest green, which is an unforeseen little bonus! Again, in the photo below it is not a ghost door, just a side-effect of a photo sphere. The picture below-left is the best example I had of the green color on the walls in the bedroom, and below-right is Tatum getting the trim all primed.
Last night was our first night staying in our new home. It was a bit uncomfortable on an air mattress without a sheet, but we made it work! Barkley loved his new house and we can’t wait to bring all the rest of the critters along.
In the next week we plan to: paint, paint, paint, move appliances into the basement, steam clean the upstairs carpet, refinish the beautiful hardwood floors, install some old glass door knobs; rake the yard, and put in a garden. In the week after that we will mostly be waiting for the floors to finish properly drying and perhaps doing some yard maintenance.
In the third week we will be: moving some furniture, replacing the doors, setting up for a fence, and most importantly making it feel like home! Soon we’ll even be ready for visitors!
Eco Flick Lab 