702 -The clean out begins in earnest

 

Whew!  What a week of cleaning things out. 

On Saturday, I participated in a community garage sale, with some stellar extroverted help from my bestie, Katherine.  True, we didn't sell everything.  And true, Katherine might have given some things away. And true, I think we had some pity purchases.  But we did sell some things.  More important to me, there were some folks who actively wanted the stuff that looked so junky to us.  

Whatever we didn't sell went strait from the street to the car, and ultimately to Goodwill. True, I could have taken it all to Goodwill to begin with, but there's something honoring about finding someone who actually wanted that mirror with the plastic molded rose frame.  That makes me a bit happier for the stuff in the house. And did I mention that everything we put out never came back into the house? That's definitely a win. 

Tuesday, we had work done on the trees. The mulberry on the right in the picture was removed, and the sycamore that had branches threatening to go into the house was limbed up and trimmed away from the house. All of that, plus another very messy mulberry was removed from the backyard. Our neighbors said that when the tree in the back is full of berries, it's also home to raccoons, groundhogs, and skunks. Without the berry feast, hopefully, we'll begin to have fewer visitors. 

Today, we got a 30 yard dumpster delivered, and we began to fill it up. The dumpster was originally delivered to the wrong address, so we got a late start.  But we got a bunch of stuff put in the dumpster. I suspect we'll have it filled by Sunday, and hopefully be able to get out all the bagged garbage, and junked furniture.  Then we start the fun part of demolition. 

First on the demo list is removing the filthy carpets and cheap paneling. That way we can see what conditions the floors and walls are in. I suspect neither are finish-ready, so we'll likely have to to some hefty rehabbing of the floors, and probably dry-wall.  My beloved is figuring out how to run plumbing and electrical, so once we open the walls, we'll figure out what additional wire/pipes need to go where, before we put on the drywall. 

The best part for me is that once we can remove the carpets, broken furniture and garbage, I can deep clean, and then it doesn't feel like I need to take a shower after every visit. Let the cleaning begin. 

This is the living room, with bags and bags to toss. 

  

This is what the kitchen looks like after John removed a
sagging upper cabinet crammed full of dishes

Here's the second bedroom on the second floor, 
complete with tons of bags and a huge, heavy 
couch.  

To get the couch down the stairs
and around the corners, we cut it apart, 
first taking off the legs, and then 
cutting it into three pieces.  So much
easier!

This is the dining room, without the table full of glassware.
Both the table and the glassware are GONE!

And here's a switch plate, attached to 
paneling - with no switches behind it. 
Hmm.