Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Rent House

Welcome to our home.  This house *and please know I am very grateful we're not in an apartment* was previously occupied by smokers.  Ick. The landlady is giving us a scream of a deal for rent in exchange for manual labor.  This enables us to save for another down payment.  

What you're about to see is not a paid advertisement for Windex, though I wouldn't mind some kickbacks.  

The three weeks I've lived here, constantly running through my mind has been scenes from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, where the dad gives all kinds of uses for Windex. 

Windex works wonders on nicotine. But not miracles. 

Exhibit A:  Light switch with cover plate removed.  It is not 2 tones of paint.  The color variation is from smoke.
Exhibit B: Nicotine running down paneled walls (sprayed first with Windex!)
Exhibit C: Windex sprayed on ceiling fan, nicotine dripping. 
Exhibit D:  Which two blades have not been cleaned?
Enough of the moaning Windex advertisement, let's get painting!

This gold-ish oval mirror hung with it's twin in the master bathroom.  I took it down and spay painted them black.  They look much better.  You'll have to believe me, because I don't have a picture to prove it.
These two sweet people have worked their fingers to the bone in this house.  Bea was the sweet woman who made it her personal mission to find us a place to live for $650/month.  Her husband, David has been the uber-handyman.  Together they have replaced most of the interior doors, including the addition of a glass door in front.  They even roped their son to help for 3 days, too.
Not only did David hang doors, but he made shelves for the laundry room and hung 5 blinds.  Bea is one cleaning machine, she's one of those people who really likes to clean.  I wanna be like her one day.

I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of dear Donn, a friend of Bea's, who has painted here 4 days.  One of those days, Donn and her husband came to our house before we moved in and painted the closets and scrubbed the kitchen cabinets.  Donn was a complete stranger before we moved to Little Rock.  It was out of the kindness of her heart that she painted, and has offered to come back!

One last picture: the kitchen sink.
Notice the covers are off the outlets?  Hubby was in the process of replacing the outlets and switches today when we realized water was standing under the sink.  See the mold under there?  He was able to stop the leak...for now. 

4 comments:

Steph said...

Yikes! It certainly looks like you have your work cut out for you! All worth it though for that rent. I'm so glad you're able to stay in a place that allows you to save up... happy cleaning!!

Shelley said...

My mom was a smoker forever! When she passed away and we had to get the house prepared to sell, I was TOTALY amazed at the "stuff" that came off the walls. We had white painted paneling, and let's just say, it was gross!! You've seen it - now imagine 20+ years of that "stuff" on the walls, everywhere. I wish I had known Windex did such amazing things, we ended up calling in professionals - I wonder if they had windex in those spray bottles!!??

I'm glad you guys made it back to The Rock. Send me an email and let me know where you guys are, and when the family comes "home" to The Rock we will look you guys up. We try to get there about 3-4 times a year.

John and Pam Majors said...

Not mold again!!! It does look much better, and I can testify about the mirrors looking super!!

Julie said...

wow, I am so sorry about all this. I pray that it will be cleaned/fixed up soon and so thankful that you do have a house. Your post reminds me of the movie money pit. I pray it isn't... so nice of all those people to help fix everything up...what a blessing. I have been praying for you all and your transition!!!

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