Way Back When...Part III
Hello Everyone,
As promised, I am going to tell you about the kitchen and bathroom in my first home and what we had to do to get it ready for tenants. First, the kitchen really wasn't that bad. It was actually more up to date than the upstairs. It had a counter top with cabinets above and below. The appliances were also newer. The great thing about both kitchens was that they each had a walk-in pantry with plenty of storage space. All we had to do was put up shelving. The cabinets just needed a good cleaning and polishing. The appliances needed a scrubbing too. The kitchen floor downstairs was really the hardest part. There were cracked tiles everywhere. But underneath was the hardwood floor. We just had to take it all up, sand and refinish it. It took a lot of time but with a mallet we managed to get it all off. I almost forgot to mention there was really old wallpaper on the walls as well. We had to dampen it quite a bit and scrape it off piece by piece. There were actually three layers. Once we got it off, the walls were painted white. It looked so much better. Now that I think about it...it was one of the worst rooms. What was I thinking?? I would say the kitchen alone took us about a month. But the result was well worth it.
But that's not even the worst, the bathroom took even longer as we had to take it down to the studs and replace everything but the bathtub. Behind the drywall, there was this really thick steel screen around the bathtub area. We were very careful not to get any cuts from it. It was very sharp. We wore heavy duty gloves and long sleeves and pants. Plus, it was very hard to get out...and heavy. It took us two days just to remove it. We took out the sink, mirror cabinet and toilet and replaced with all new. Needless to say, we replaced the floor as well. The old color of that bathroom used to be a pale pink that seemed to have faded somehow. It looked horrible. We put in beige tile around the shower with a lighter and larger floor tile. The sink and toilet were placed with new beige toned colors. The cabinet was a light oak. We put in new new plumbing to accommodate the new faucet. Fortunately, we were able to accomplish this ourselves. My then husband was pretty handy and smart. It was during this time that he started to have pain again. We went and saw the doctors and at first, they said it was nothing to worry about, but the pain became worse. They finally took cat-scans and it showed that the tumor had returned and was growing, slowly, but growing. They decided to go ahead with another surgery. It was long but he made it through. Afterwards, they told us once he had time to heal, he would need to start chemotherapy. That was rough because we had to go into the city for it. We didn't know what to expect and at first, it seemed to be doing something. He was feeling a little better, so we decided to press on with the renovations.
We only had to finish painting the bathroom, which was easy, and I ended up doing it myself. That was okay, I don't mind painting. I had gotten used to it. Once that was complete, we were ready to rent it out. It only took us a month, but we found renters. We could finally start working on our place upstairs.
I will get to that in the next post.
Till then...Lisa
As promised, I am going to tell you about the kitchen and bathroom in my first home and what we had to do to get it ready for tenants. First, the kitchen really wasn't that bad. It was actually more up to date than the upstairs. It had a counter top with cabinets above and below. The appliances were also newer. The great thing about both kitchens was that they each had a walk-in pantry with plenty of storage space. All we had to do was put up shelving. The cabinets just needed a good cleaning and polishing. The appliances needed a scrubbing too. The kitchen floor downstairs was really the hardest part. There were cracked tiles everywhere. But underneath was the hardwood floor. We just had to take it all up, sand and refinish it. It took a lot of time but with a mallet we managed to get it all off. I almost forgot to mention there was really old wallpaper on the walls as well. We had to dampen it quite a bit and scrape it off piece by piece. There were actually three layers. Once we got it off, the walls were painted white. It looked so much better. Now that I think about it...it was one of the worst rooms. What was I thinking?? I would say the kitchen alone took us about a month. But the result was well worth it.
But that's not even the worst, the bathroom took even longer as we had to take it down to the studs and replace everything but the bathtub. Behind the drywall, there was this really thick steel screen around the bathtub area. We were very careful not to get any cuts from it. It was very sharp. We wore heavy duty gloves and long sleeves and pants. Plus, it was very hard to get out...and heavy. It took us two days just to remove it. We took out the sink, mirror cabinet and toilet and replaced with all new. Needless to say, we replaced the floor as well. The old color of that bathroom used to be a pale pink that seemed to have faded somehow. It looked horrible. We put in beige tile around the shower with a lighter and larger floor tile. The sink and toilet were placed with new beige toned colors. The cabinet was a light oak. We put in new new plumbing to accommodate the new faucet. Fortunately, we were able to accomplish this ourselves. My then husband was pretty handy and smart. It was during this time that he started to have pain again. We went and saw the doctors and at first, they said it was nothing to worry about, but the pain became worse. They finally took cat-scans and it showed that the tumor had returned and was growing, slowly, but growing. They decided to go ahead with another surgery. It was long but he made it through. Afterwards, they told us once he had time to heal, he would need to start chemotherapy. That was rough because we had to go into the city for it. We didn't know what to expect and at first, it seemed to be doing something. He was feeling a little better, so we decided to press on with the renovations.
We only had to finish painting the bathroom, which was easy, and I ended up doing it myself. That was okay, I don't mind painting. I had gotten used to it. Once that was complete, we were ready to rent it out. It only took us a month, but we found renters. We could finally start working on our place upstairs.
I will get to that in the next post.
Till then...Lisa
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