Post no. Fifty

5-0 Wow that's a lot of picture looking and reading on what's been going on at ThirteenEleven.

Today was a nutty day at the house......

Take a look

I picked up a sack of pecans quite quickly this afternoon while I was out with Puppy. Now which box is the nut cracker in ?????

I have a busy day tomorrow with a trip to the big City so I hope ya'll have a HaPPy HaLLowEEN.

Yeah,The other pumpkin died over a week ago....but that big box retailer that I refer to as China Mart had pumpkins for $1.98 today. Wonder if that orange color is really lead paint???

Day 1 Pictures

Day 1 at ThirteenEleven..... The long awaited beginning, starting point pictures of our home 15 months ago. The pictures give you an idea on just how dirty was this place. Probably the second dirtiest place I've been, maybe the third. The thing the pics don't show is the smell. Eugh!!! I couldn't get it out of my nose for days. Then Mom suggested using the ol' Vick's in the nostrils trick. ( Yes, the very one the police use to hid the smell from murder scenes.) EUGH!!! AGAIN !!! ----- Well it worked.
Day 1 at the house was really Day4 after closing. The dude living here just would not leave. Then he left stuff here and kept coming by to pick up other things. I think we were very generous with the time we gave him and the fact that we allowed him to keep coming back to pick up stuff. But, considering the bullets and bullet holes found everywhere in the house, it was probably the best idea to let him take his time and not to anger him.....Yikes.

So here they are...

Entry Hall ( looking from front door)

*note* Pepto Pink.. Lovely choice of color.

Also note this is the wall paper didn't want to come off the walls,and made me a true disbeliever in all the store bought paper removal solutions and systems.

Living room to sun room ( left)

to dining (right) Yep, it really is Pink Carpet.

Dining Room

See that moldy moisture spot to the left.

Yes, anything like that means, whole walls have to be removed and re-built.

Including replacing the interior workings of the double hung windows.

Keep that in mind for future projects.

Main Hall back to front, then front to back.

*Notes*

-The carpet was really dirtier than shown in the pics.

-The wallpaper covered the well known Pepto Pink.

-Why would anyone place sconces on the moulding?

-Lovely drapes covering the washer/dryer area.

(To date... no doors added to wash dry area)

Front Bedroom.

"That is a Groovy light fixture, dude."

We sold it at the yard sale and the lady was going to paint it red.

Dining Room.

Why are there bricks on the hearth? Is that blob near the hearth the reason Puppy won't go in this room?

Living Room

Wow what a mirror! and it was PLASTIC !!! We were so lucky it came with the house.

Note* The mirror was not glued to the wall. It was hung on a nail and they painted around it. See the pink peeping through underneath. It went well with the pink carpet. See the logs crammed in the coal burning fireplace. They plugged in and had a red light bulb inside. Lucky Again !!! That is a bug bomb on the vent.

I insisted the former owner to set those off before he left.

Half Bath

Note* Each door in the house had a dead bolt lock.

Middle Bedroom

I forgot about the top layer of wallpaper. Two other layers were underneath.

Why was stuff left in the drawer? This is the cabinet, when removed revealed a fireplace and the infamous hearth the fell to the basement.

Back Bedroom

Showing the carpet that was over the vinyl that was over heart pine floors.

Bath

Last Cleaned in 1989. The black stuff around the sink was facial hair ( Maybe?) where the dude shaved.

Many Thanks go out to Mom, Aunt Lynne, and Marlene who cleaned this room before it was demolished for re-building. We were able to use it for a while, while we were here working. Then it became a hole in the floor for 3 months, complete with a ladder providing quick access to the basement.

I've saved the best for last.....

Kitchen

Words really won't describe the status of this room. It is best described using guttural noises. Go ahead, give it a try.....EEUUGHH, EeeeE, Augh!!! UGH.

Notes* That is cat food left for the cat he left here for two weeks. I told P.O. "Puppy hates cats". Thankfully, the trap provided by the animal shelter caught the cat before Puppy. I am not sure what the trails of splatter goo are on the floor and carpet. Did I tell you, This room made me gag. There was a pot left on the stove that had something black inside. Shout outs go to Uncle Irv, who helped take down the cabinets and 'hawl them to the street. In the pic showing the pantry, there is a door above that was full of beer cans. Beer cans were in most of the hollows in the home.

Full Moon

While walking out with Puppy in ThirteenEleven's backyard

(aka = Kudzu Jungle),

we looked up and saw this.......

a little closer with the pecan tree in the foreground.......

What a beautiful full moon lighting up the clouds left over from the little bit of rain we had that day. I should have taken the time to get the ol' tripod and maybe the pics could have been a little steadier. A slow shutter speed digital with low light definitely is a case for blurry shots. But these two out of about 128... ( no really about 17) turned out O.K. We'll call the blurriness... creative photography.

Dance Lessons

Yesterday while walking in "our hood" with my Aunt, I met a lady that lived on the next street towards town from us.
She was so happy we were "fixing-up" that house. She went on to say she took dance lessons in one of our rooms in the house in the 40's. How exciting, someone who remembers who lived in the house before the Worthy's. ( The Worthy's bought the house in the 50's) I was so excited about hearing about the dance lessons, I forgot the lady's name who taught the lessons. ( That Figures) I will have to go back by to talk to my neighbor again.

I broke down and "wasted" money on this pumpkin to carve for Halloween. I paid a whopping $10. I spent probably about 15 minutes finding the perfect one with a great curve to the stem and a pretty shape.... but, what I failed to do was look closely at the stem...... slightly around the edges there was a crack and the pumpkin became over ripe.... so I went ahead and carved this yesterday, knowing, it will never last until the big night.... I went and looked for that pumpkin preservative that was all the rage a couple years back... but could not find it in this town....So I used a little lemon juice??? I will let you know if it seems to work .... Being the home improver and using the tools that are handy... a jig saw blade became my carving tool.

ThirteenEleven's wish lists.......

Sink For 1/2 Bath
Fire Place Covers....... These are V.E.R.Y. ornate!!! I would love some simple ones to cover the holes in our fireplaces.... I so was hoping the original ones were hiding out in the basement. But no such luck... Everything else was there...

Close up of how it fits in the existing surround.

Spooky House Pics

I've been holding onto this pics for a while waiting for the perfect day in October to post them.

I didn't know how spooky they really looked until I saw them on the computer screen. Just in case you were wondering....... Puppy still will not go into the dining room. He went in there about 3 times, but hasn't stepped foot into the room since we officially moved in. He will look into the room from all three doors and act like he wants to go into the room, but then he looks to the left and to the right and then turns around and goes the long way around down the hall to bypass this room.........

Everything but the kitchen sink.

After weeks of preparation and gathering of all our long collected treasures.....(junk). Our Yard Sale was held on Saturday. Working late into the night , we drug out many of the belongings that came with the house from the basement to the front yard. Rising early in the morning, we drug out the boxes of clothing, glassware, old electronics, rugs, lamps, dishes, art, picture frames, and all the things that we were going to get around to fixing, repairing, or refinishing.

Somewhere close to 6:00 a.m. there was a lady plundering through our junk with a flashlight. I was trying to pour my coffee. I knew I was going to need all the caffeine I could get.

We were able to get out the bulk of our stuff before daylight and set out the signs at about 7:00. ( cool signs that I creatively painted may I add) With in 15 minutes cars were everywhere. People were flocking to our sale. After all we did have enough stuff with our belongings, the houses belongings, and the stuff Marlene donated to our sale to house a small thrift shop. The waves of people continued all morning long. At 12:30 we were about to close up and then at least 20 more people arrived. We finally closed down at about 1:20, packed up the few remaining items to donate, and took a rest.

I was amazed with what all we sold. Many things that I didn't think would sell, sold fast. Some things that I thought would go, didn't. However, I could have sold 20 sets of patio furniture, and 40 handbags.

We sold a lot of clothing, and I thought I had a creative way to display the hanging clothes. We have 2 tall yellow ladders that I placed step side beside step side and strap tied some old gas conduit that we pulled out from the basement on the steps and created a long sturdy hanging area for the clothes. I so wish I had a pic of this and the traffic backup the yard sale created. But I was too busy answering customers questions and making change to find a camera.

Thanks go out to Marlene for here yard sale donations, and Mom and Joe for helping out with the hauling and helping with the customers.

The sale was a success and we hopefully raised money for a down payment on counter tops so we can have a working kitchen sink. (By the way, The old kitchen sink didn't sale and I only had $5 on it and it was stainless) We sold almost everything but the sinks. But just as soon as we placed them on the side of the road later yesterday afternoon in less than an hour they were gone, along with my hand painted yard sale signs. So I will keep a look out with who will use my signs next.