house cleaning -- part 22 of 487

.

We bought this house in 1985. From an estate.

The first time we saw the house, it was full of furniture, etc. I am no expert on furniture, but it looked like nice furniture to me.

There were cigarette burns. EVERYWHERE. Clearly someone had laid lit cigarettes down, and just let them burn themselves out. EVERYWHERE.

This is the kitchen floor, right by the fridge door. The whole house wasn't this bad, but this is the idea.



I was astonished that the house didn't *reek*. Until I learned that the man had been hospitalized for some months before he died, and we didn't see the house for some months after that. It's really rather amazing that it hadn't burned down to the ground...........


The house was in good shape mechanically, except for the roof over the family room, which we replaced the minute we got into the house.

Cosmetically, though......

EVERY surface, inside and out, required attention. There was wallpaper everywhere (many layers, in some places). The paint was coming off, the floors needed attention.

Over the course of the next year or so, we addressed every square inch of walls/ceilings/trim (and most of the floors). Inside and out. Personally, just the two of us.

I scrubbed the walls and ceiling in the living room, to get rid of the crap from the cigarettes that was everywhere.

I guess I didn't do a good enough job.

Over the man's favorite chair (as evidenced by more burns in the floor there than other places!) the paint did this alligator thing.

This is the wall in his bedroom, where the light is better for taking pics, but this is exactly what the ceiling in the living room looked like yesterday morning.





Almost ready to paint. The sectional is, alas, trash (costs way more to recover than to replace!). The stereo/tv cabinet has become a dinosaur (along with the crt tv it houses), so it's going to the basement. We're having the floor refinished, so it doesn't matter if paint spatters on it..........





This is from the day after we painted. You can't see the ceiling, and this isn't "his corner", and my pics of the VASTLY improved ceiling are just blurry.

But I am thrilled to report that the paint we used yesterday did an amazing job of covering over the alligatoring. (It stinks more than I wish it did, but I guess you can't have everything..........)

Huzzah.



We got the ceiling done (clearly missed a few places, but they matched the paint color so well that it is really hard to tell where we've been and where we haven't been), and we finished the cutting in.

We need more paint (one gallon not enough for what we've done so far, so the two we started with won't be enough), but finishing the room should go quickly. And the rest isn't nearly as onerous as the ceiling!

.