Hello friends! If you've wondered where the Manor updates have been and why I've been MIA lately, here's the short version: Husband & I bought screen printing business. World got turned upside down. The Royals went to the World Series(WHOO!). Business went crazy and world got put in a blender & set on froth. Then it was Halloween and I don't do anything that's not Halloween related for about a week leading up to October 31st. :) That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I swear, sometimes I think I have a disorder where I say to myself, "What can I do to add some more stress to my life?. Hmmmmm...renovate a delapidated old house that's 2 hours away: check!...buy a business where you are not only the owner but the accountant, graphic designer, shipping department, purchasing department, head of quality control, delivery driver, customer service rep, etc...: check!". One of these days I'm going to sit in a lounger with a BIG margarita or glass of wine, stare at the "finished" Manor with a cool breeze blowing through my hair and have absolutely NOTHING to do and nowhere to be. It will be a glorious day!
But until that day comes...gotta keep moving forward.
So here's where we are at. Soffits: 3 DOWN, 2 TO GO!!! This is beyond exciting to me since we have been working on them for over a year and the one we just completed last weekend was the biggest one on the house. Don't ya just love how I say "we" finished. Hey, I'm a pretty good fetcher and I successfully tossed a tape measure about 25 feet in the air up to Jeremy while he was in the lift which I think entitles me to say "we" this time around. ;)
So just in case you need a reminder of how rotten this soffit was, here's a little flashback for ya.
I can't really even say it was "rotten"...it was GONE. Now are you ready for this? *cue angelic choir*
Now while "we" were working on the soffits this last weekend, I had realization and discovered a little something about myself. I'm a pyro! We have a burn barrel on the patio and the first thing I do when we get there is find something to burn in it. As soon as I get out of the truck it's like some force takes me straight to the burn barrel and I have to light something on fire. It could be 110 degrees outside and I've got 4 foot flames shooting out of the barrel. *shrug*
This thing has been very handy though and if you should ever find yourself renovating an old house like this, get one! They're also nice to have when it's freezing outside so you can huddle around it and watch people drive by and look at you like you're a crazy homeless person. :) From the way the weather has been lately, it looks like we're going to especially need it this winter. Plus I saw 2 wooly worms and one was completely black which I think is a sign for armageddon winter...just great.
Every once in a while the Manor reveals a little secret about herself and last weekend she did not disappoint. I really didn't pay much attention to the floors when we first bought the house because they were not really pretty or exceptional or even noticeable really. The upstairs is completely covered in some kind of ugly linoleum and the downstairs is covered in parkay flooring. Bleh! I'm not really a big fan of parkay floors but I thought, "Well, it's what's here so I guess I'll have to get used to it". I'm not sure what drove me to do this but last weekend I walked in the house and I was determined to find out what was under that floor. I went to a corner with screwdriver in hand and popped up a few tiles. When I first popped them up all I saw was black glue so I was disappointed. Then I noticed a few lines and realized that there was something there. I took a chisel and scraped some of the black away and BAM!!! Beautiful hardwood floors.
Unbelievable! I'm not sure why on earth anyone would cover these floors with another type of wood floor but people did crazy things to their homes back in the 60's and 70's. Getting this black glue off of the wood is not going to be an easy task but I'm really hoping that the floors are in good shape when we sand them all down.
This weekend we'll be back at it and braving the cold with a couple of helpers that we're bringing from KC. I hope they'll still be friends with us after we get done. ;) The itinerary includes (you guessed it) soffit number 4!...and my favorite...DEMOLITION! We'll be tearing off a room that was later built onto the house that's muy rotten and needs to go. I call it, "The Bad Room".
