This Our House, episode 2: Meet Stella

It's been a week today since we took posession of the house, and a lot has happened! We have (in no particular order):

1. Changed the locks on the front, back, and garage doors
2. Reprogrammed the garage door opener
3. Went around and collected all the miscellaneous stuff that the people left that we didn't want (and threw it away!)
   
4. Cleaned the two bathrooms to within an inch of their lives (my husband volunteered for this!)
5. Vacuumed the rugs
6. Swept the floors
7. Swept out the garage
8. Sorted through all the paint cans and other junk in the garage
   
9. Took down all the ugly curtains we didn't like
10. Washed the curtains we're going to keep
    
11. Took all the nails out of the walls in the master bedroom (there were a LOT)
12. Took down the ugly light fixture in the master bedroom
13. Patched all the many holes in the walls in the master
14. Re-caulked all four windows in the master
15. Sanded all the trim and built-in shelves in the master
16. Painted 3/4 of the trim and all the built in shelves
17. Painted two big walls in the master

It feels really satisfying when I write it all in a big long list like that. (We won't talk about the fact that it is BARELY a fraction of the total list.)

We've been over there every single day doing something. Today, we're taking the night off. I'm getting my hair cut, and Brandon is going up to McGuckins to buy a lawn mower and a weed whacker before we get overrun by tall grass. Then we're going to take ourselves out to eat.

The master bedroom is coming along swimmingly. It's kind of an odd shape, so picture this: there is one long wall that runs the entire width of the front of the house and has four windows in it; that wall will be painted bright white. All the other walls will be "milk chocolate" brown with bright white trim and a white ceiling. (The carpet is a sort of blue grey, like the carpet at my parents' house.) We've got two of the brown walls done, and it looks really good!

Everyone told me to pick one room and make it perfect, so the master is that room. The downstairs doesn't need too much; we need to patch a hole or two and clean it really well, but that's doable. The other two bedrooms will be painted next, but I'm not sure if we'll get to them before we move in. The smaller of the two will be our office, and I want to paint it bright green, possibly with black and white pinstripes. We'll see how ambitious I am when we get there. Not sure on the color scheme for the guest room yet.

Last night we cleaned, and I don't know what it is, but something about the fact that it's other people's dirt and junk that we are cleaning really creeps me out. There are certain things I don't mind keeping — like a couple of shovels, a hose, some nice wood hangers that were left in the front closet — but other stuff just skeeves me out for no reason. The squeegee for the glass shower doors that they left is probably perfectly fine, but I think we're going to get a new one because it just gives me the heeby jeebies. Why? I have no idea.

I DO have plant photos from the back yard for playing "Name that plant!" but I can't upload them now. Next time!

On a final note, Brandon has decided that the house is like an abused puppy that we are rehabilitating. He has named her Stella.