Weekend 1 Update

We spent the first of what I think will be many weekends working on our house. With just a week before moving in the big furniture, we're focusing on the office and the master bedroom since those needed the most work.

Friday morning Joel rented a steamer for 24 hours to remove wallpaper. He started around 9:30 a.m. and worked until about noon, managing to take off almost all the wallpaper in the office. I came after work around 6:30 p.m. and removed the rest of in the office (goodbye country landscape) as well as the border (good riddance big flowers) in the master bedroom. I was determined to not leave until all the wallpaper was gone, so Joel came back around 10:30 p.m. after work and together we removed the downstairs bathroom wallpaper (farewell black and white aztec design).

Saturday Joel rolled out of bed by 7:30 a.m. to get the steamer back before 8:10 a.m. He picked up a bunch of paint supplies and was over to the house around 10 a.m. I met up with him about the same time, after making a stop for some supplies myself - and some much needed coffee. I washed the walls while Joel spackled, filling in holes upstairs and down. We called it quits shortly after noon in order to hang out with friends.

Sunday was the marathon day. I worked solo for most of it, since Joel had to work from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. I washed the rest of the walls and then put a skim coat of spackle on the gouges and patches where the drywall showed through. By the time I was done, the office looked like the face of a teenager with acne cream. The master bedroom had less spots; instead it had a long white racing stripe of spackle to fix where the border had been. When Joel arrived around 6 p.m., the spackle was dry so we sanded it down. By the time we were done, we were covered in a layer of white powder. Joel's dark brown hair looked gray. After a quick wipe-down, the walls were ready. I went to work with blue painters tape along the window, doorways and trim in the office. Joel primed the office walls while I started taping the master closet. We called it quits around 11 p.m. when he was done priming.

We worked hard, but it felt good. With every step it feels more and more like "ours" and less like the former owners.