After a few years, we were tired of renting,
and began looking for a house to buy.
One day, we walked past a house for sale,
less than a block from where we lived at the time.
A good thing, too, as this house needed a LOT of work,
which we were able to do whilst still renting the other house.
As you'll see, NO WAY could we have lived in the midst of this renovation!
We were given permission from the absent owner to begin painting, etc.,
even before the closing.
What greeted us in the front door . . .
It seems the owner was a heavy smoker (his wife died of cancer),
and there was a fireplace, of sorts, in this room,
so we think he just got the darkest color paint (and/or the cheapest)
and covered all the walls with it. We called it Monkey Sh*t Yellow.
Sears had to give us double paint (free) to cover it completely.
We couldn't take down this fake brick, so Neal's daughter Margaret painted it.
There was a pass-through from the kitchen to the dining room;
we made it into a complete wall, as that was going to be our living room.
This is the indoor fireplace I mentioned; just plopped on the floor
with some gravel surrounding it (our insurance agent was appalled).
The chimney went thru the attic to the roof; the owner had cooked meat here.
Oh yes, let us not forget the cedar beams nailed, screwed and glued onto the ceiling,
for that "Western/cabin" look, complete with wagon wheel chandolier.
You can see the pass through . . . remember, anything you see
in these first pics were what was left behind by the owner,
who had moved to his cabin Up Nort'
(where he died several years later, not to be found for weeks).
The only egress to the yard was through this door, to the garage;
we put in sliding and French doors a few years later,
as well as several levels of deck.
Saunnie Yelton, Rudy Stanley & Playford Thorson,
three friends who helped us renovate the house.
It was Saunnie's dog, Little Dog, who told us
that meat had been cooked in that fireplace
(and gristle deposited on the gravel, which LD enjoyed).
Neal (in white) & Rudy (in blue) had the idea of using a paint sprayer,
as everything had to be painted and we'd already pulled up all the carpeting.
What a disaster THAT was! After several attempts but no success,
the system was returned to Sears
(luckily, Sears was only a few minute walk down the street).
At this time, there were no home improvement big box stores,
except the precursor of them all, Menard's in Racine
(from whom, several years later, we purchased all our Andersen
window replacements, sliding door and French door).
Every windowsill, every door, every hinge, every doorhandle
had to be cleaned and/or sanded down;
everything, including the closet hanging poles,
was covered with a fine layer of soot.
(Playford contracted ALS and passed away in 2008;
coincidentally, his widow now lives only a few miles from us here in Florida.
Saunnie & Rudy, both teachers in the Kenosha Unified School District,
married and are now retired. We still keep in contact via email.)
You can see why we immediately pulled out the carpeting;
the curtains were thrown out, too, obviously. We only put blinds
on the bedroom & bathroom windows; never any curtains.
This window was eventually replaced by French doors leading to a deck
overlooking the back yard.
Once the dining room was painted,
we brought over the plants before it got too cold to transport them.
As was obvious from the scratch marks on the front door and
the front windowsill, a big dog had lived here.
When we opened the heating vents, big gobs of hair literally oozed out.
We had the ductwork cleaned.
The first thing I said when I saw the inside of the house was,
"THIS WALL HAS TO COME DOWN!"
(I said the same thing about our two subsequent homes, too).
Pounding on walls and destroying them is a GREAT way
to get out frustrations and stress, we found. As is scraping linoleum tile off the floor.
Neither of us does much cooking, but this kitchen was beyond gross.
And there's the wall we took down to convert to an "open plan" house.
The owner (and builder) nailed, screwed and glued these cupboards to the ceiling,
so we had a big mess (and insulation) when we took down this wall,
but it was worth it.
A bathroom that would give you the BLUEs . . .
we put in a new vanity, sink and toilet;
Neal & Rudy are putting together the vanity in this pic.
Eventually, everything in the house became brushed brass & oak;
light fixtures, door handles, cabinet pulls, window frames and sills
(when we replaced those), two medicine cabinets replacing a wall of mirror . . .
anything we could replace with brushed brass or oak,
we did, thanks to Menard's.
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