Weed Pile

 

I have been slowly adding to this pile. It has quadrupled in size. The renters before had piled some dead branches and other plant material they decided didn't need to be growing in the yard. They didn't touch the oleanders for some reason...

I have successfully cut down all the oleanders in the back yard and 5 of them from the front. I also cut out 2 of the grape vines. There were 3 total and 1 was entirely dead. I accidentally cut the wrong branch on the second and it was the only part still alive, so I just cut it all out, and left the last one. It looks healthy and I hope we'll have grapes at some point in the future!

 

If you are one of those people who absolutely adore oleanders, don't read anymore, but I think they are an ugly obnoxious weed that stinks. So out they all are coming! I asked the neighbor if she wanted to dig up any for her yard and she'll be coming to dig out 3 of them! Yay for her! And yay for me! I don't have to worry about digging up some of them this winter! She has plans to plant them in her backyard. Someone likes them on our street! My yard will look tons better to me though to have them gone!

An Empty House

This is the 2 bedrooms now:

And the living room and kitchen. They just need to get the last of the drywall off the ceiling. But do you see the chopped electric cords hanging from the kitchen? Yeah. They cut them. Like right next to the ceiling. We can't turn the electric on anymore. At all. Why????

I'm excited though because this has been the biggest visible change of all! We will have a house soon! We have a guy coming today to give us a quote on drywall. The whole house smells so wonderful! No more overwhelming animal pee or perfume! It was soaked in the old drywall! It will smell even better when all the rest of it is gone! I can't wait!

A Busy Weekend And The Other Half

We celebrated my dad's 50th birthday on Sunday afternoon, and then our niece's 5th in the evening! A busy birthday day! Here's my dad's cake:

We also had a tear off crew come and start pulling all the drywall out of our new house on Sunday! I remembered to take pictures after they moved all their tools/stuff in!

So here's the extra bedroom: 

And a blurry picture of the other side:

The only bathroom:

And the tub (notice the brown strips of wood the previous owner added to the doors?):

And the master bedroom I couldn't take a picture of the closet as the guy was in there tearing it apart!:

They should be finished today and then we can work on getting the drywall reinstalled and making it into a home!

My New Backyard

This is the enclosed back patio we will be taking down and rebuilding:

This backyard looks overgrown and uncared for:

It once was very nice:

It even had a pond!

The patio coverings are all different:

2 metal awnings from a mobile home, and a wooden one all mashed together here:

The backyard even has another enclosed place for a jacuzzi that works but is all crackled so we won't be keeping it:

I cannot wait until winter when we most likely will be living there and can make it nice again!

Half Of My New House!

We just got our keys yesterday at 2:30! It needs some major remodeling. Here's the kitchen:

The living room floor carpet didn't look like this when we put the offer in! We were actually sitting on the bare carpet at that time! About 99% of the stains are from the renters! Cat pee, dog pee and very dirty feet. They attempted to clean the spots before they left but it didn't do anything. It smelled so awful and I cannot see how people can live like that! And they did this all in a little over 1 month!

We pulled the carpet out and as we were pulling the padding out, we discovered some lovely linoleum underneath! I say lovely because even though it is hideous, it extends to cover the whole house!!!! Even the pee carpet in the bedrooms has linoleum underneath! I am so thankful because that means the pee didn't soak into the concrete!

I found a "lovely" broom that flutters as you sweep and swept up this pile just from the living room! Do you see why I despise carpet??? You cannot ever clean it! Achoo!

The kitchen had some post opening thingy going on which must have been all the rage back in the day when everyone wished they were in jail or missed stair railings way to much. These came out right after the carpet. This whole wall will be disappearing. My personal view on the whole blocking off the kitchen thing is it's the most disrespectful thing on the planet to completely close off the person cooking to the rest of the house and other people like they're supposed to be hidden or something and not welcome to join the conversation going on in the living room. It annoys me to have a kitchen blocked off completely, so bye bye wall!

Can you imagine this living room in pink carpet? Yup! That is the color of some of the fibers sticking to the tack strips! So this "cute" linoleum was first, then they got sick of it, and covered it with pink carpet. The new owners must have replaced that with the grayish carpet when they moved in 6 years ago and we're just going to take it all out! 

Here's the view from the front door looking towards the garage door in the kitchen:

And another view of the kitchen so you can see the different linoleum style in the kitchen, front entryway and bathroom.

I am so excited to finally get my new house! I will show you more later!

New House? And Animal Thoughts.

I spent all day yesterday cleaning our condo. We have the appraiser coming today. I somehow mixed up the days of the inspection and appraiser. The people buying the condo will be coming to inspect on Friday. I want the condo to look like new again so the appraiser will appraise it for a higher number and the people buying it will still like it and see exactly how new everything is. I was washing appliances, organizing, wiping walls and door jams, and anything else I could think of as well as the regular deep cleaning I normally do. I feel like my condo is fresh and sanitized. I love my house to be clean. I can just relax and enjoy it for a few days! I will be scrambling tomorrow to scrub it all down again for the people coming on Friday!

I am wondering if we'll still be getting our keys to the house today. We still don't know who will be giving the keys to us! I'm sure we'll be trading out the locks right away though because I don't trust those renters to not come back after all the damage they've done.

I am so anxious just waiting  to see who has the keys from the renters, or where they are. I cannot wait to get them! I plan on taking Cruizer to see his new house, but I do have to admit I'm a little nervous if he might get sick from the animals who were there because they were not well cared for.

Sometimes I feel like such a stuck up snob thinking I'm better at caring for my animals then some people, but I always think right after at how easy it is to just bathe your dog and clean up their poop or messes. It's not that hard to brush them either! Dogs and cats tend to love any kind of attention as long as it doesn't hurt them! I had 4 cats at one time before and cannot remember a time when my house smelled so awful of cat. I kept my cats bathed (ouch!) and I tried to keep their litter box clean which I'll admit was hard while I was working and had 4 cats using it, but the smell never permeated the entire house!!! It's impossible to just blame an animal if your house smells because it's entirely your fault if it does! I will admit we had 4 cats, 2 dogs, 10 lovebirds, 1 canary and a fish tank all at the same time in a musty mobile home and the only time my house smelled like animal was when my older cat had a bladder infection and was (TMI) peeing out blood until the medication healed her. I cleaned every spot where she had an accident. It's not that hard! I was working full time too! The only way a house smells  is when you get too lazy to clean up after your animals and neglect their needs. I think to be a responsible pet owner is to be one who keeps their home clean. I became overwhelmed with all the animals about 5 years ago and realized they didn't have the life I dreamed of them having with me working such long hours so I found places for all of them except Cruizer. We had raised Cruizer from a small puppy and my husband was attached to him. So he stayed and is awfully spoiled.

I love petting a clean dog! I gave Cruizer a bath yesterday. Have you ever witnessed a dog right after a bath? It's hilarious! Right after you finish drying them off, they streak around the house like a bee just stung them on the butt and act like a crazy lunatic! Tongue hanging out, gigantic smile, ears flapping just galloping and slip sliding all over the place running about 50 miles and hour! It is a hilarious sight to see! I think they love getting baths even though they look at you with sad eyes the entire time you're bathing them thinking you're trying to drown them! Either that, or they're celebrating the fact you didn't drown them!!! :-D

Thoughts Of Dog Stuff

Since we will be moving soon, I have to think about where will I place all the dog stuff? It has worked out great here to put his bed and toy basket under the stairs where he really enjoys it:

He fluffs his bed a lot and will empty the toy basket one at a time until he finds the toy he wants to play with.

I also have to think of where to keep his dog food and bowls. They have been in the downstairs bathroom here for a while.

I guess once we have the whole house torn apart, we will be able to plan a spot for him.