Manual labor

Well, we have been doing a lot of planning, thinking about and working on the rental house that we are in the process of buying from my brother. We are to sign the final papers this week, so it's almost a done deal. This is the back of the house - the view from my mom's house. The deck needs a new coat of some sort of sealer, but that can wait until a future date for now. This walnut tree is a bit ill and we suspect that it will need to be removed at some point.

The most recent renters were a bit hard on the place and so we are in the process of making the arrangements to have some improvements and repairs done. The most important is to replace the carpet that has been soiled with cat urine. We think that these stairs are the offenders. Once this carpet is removed with padding and the floor sealed, we will be able to sniff out if there are other sections of carpet that are also bad.

We are having the whole place painted, of course. The dining room hard wood floor is badly scratched and worn, so we're having laminate put in. A few light fixture changes are already done. The major work we are having done by a contractor that our property manager recommends. But the bathrooms we are repainting ourselves. They were very dark with teal paint, so we are lightening them up with a lighter teal-ish blue color. The first coat is done now.

My mom provides free labor as well. Here she is cleaning out one of the paint rollers after our hard days' labor. Hopefully is a week or two we will be all set for new renters.

So that's what I've been up to lately. It seems like just one thing after another...