Tag: free house

House Next Door: The Dreaded Downstairs Kitchen

My younger kids are back in school today. My teaching won’t take off till next week, so today I dropped the kids off at school, came home and headed next door.

We really just have two rooms left, but they are a bit tricky. I didn’t have the trailer today and most of the stuff in the back bedroom is bulky enough that just needs to be thrown straight into the trailer. I bagged up as much loose stuff as I could.

We still have a closet of clothes that haven’t been gone through. But, I’m going to let my daughter go through them first and then just toss them straight into the trailer.

After that, I headed into the kitchen. Andy has already done a lot of work in here. There is a lot of glassware that is keepable, but we need to pack it into boxes so it won’t all break. Haven’t done that yet.

I threw away everything that was plastic and aluminum. There was an extensive amount of original Tupperware in the house. Nothing that I would want to store food in any more.

Unfortunately, there were still some cupboards with food stuff in them. I tried to look for dates and there werent any. So, old enough that they hadn’t put expiration dates yet.

That cupboard was not too bad. Mostly all glass jars and rusted out cans. I was standing up, lots of space around me, squeamish but doable.

Then I got to this cupboard..

It is in the island and I had to sit down on a stool with my back up against a cart and the bag right next to my legs and the cupboard was really deep so I had to reach way back to get stuff. I found myself whimpering and by the time I was done, I was shaking. I left one line of cans in the very back of the bottom shelf because in order to reach it I would have had to kneel down on the floor and stick my head in. Couldn’t do it. There is still one more food cupboard on the other end of the island, but I didn’t have it in me to do it today. Also, still have two fridges that need emptying.

I need an empty trailer and probably my husband there for moral support to finish off this kitchen and back bedroom. Getting so close to being done with the clean out!

House Next Door: I can do Hard Things

Today I went next door with my husband and two youngest sons, ie, “the little boys”. The little boys acted as runners for me since I was working upstairs. They carried all the keepable stuff down the stairs to the bedroom we’ve set aside for that purpose. Andy tackled the bathroom upstairs and I tackled the kitchen and pantry closet in the kitchen and the boys helped with the upstairs hallway.

Here’s the upstairs hallway:

And then after.

Here’s the kitchen:

In this pic Andy is the bathroom doorway. This is of course the upstairs kitchen that hasn’t been used in I don’t know how long. The fridge still has food in it though, but its been so long that there is no longer a smell. If that makes any sense. I did not clean out the fridge.

There’s also a pantry closet.

The kitchen wasn’t too bad, but the pantry closet still had old food in it, or rather, old rusted out cans and boxes that had been demolished by time and rodents. Speaking of. I had Andy move the dresser out the pantry and I opened the drawers. Noticed a mouse nest, threw it away, and then shortly after saw a big fat mouse go running across the kitchen floor. Which made me scream and the little boys came running and then they said they hoped another mouse would run out so they could see it. The mouse made the rest of the cleaning more stressful as I did not want any creature to jump out of something I was moving and perhaps run up my arm or over my foot or really just get anywhere close to me. Fortunately no more mice were spotted.

And then the kitchen mostly done.

Andy did the bathroom.

While cleaning the bathroom he found these.

And here its done.

We didn’t have our trailer today so we piled up things by the upstairs window to be thrown down later and then had our garbage bag pile. Definitely a full trailer load.

We wrapped all that up and then I came back home to jump in the shower. Only to discover that the little boys had just started their showers so I had to wait. So I sat on my back deck and pondered how much we have completed in one year. Just working at random times when we have had a free day. That upstairs kitchen and bathroom were rooms I had been gladly avoiding as they just seemed so gross and overwhelming. And now they are done. I have decided this house project is going to be my easy reminder that I can do hard things.

House Next Door: Upstairs Room, Take 2

I went over to the free house today to clean out another room. This particular room we had already cleaned out, though not it’s closet. But, when people were going through the house to pick out things they wanted, this room became the dumping ground for all the sorting and it managed to get full of stuff again. So I tackled the room again and also did the closet, which turned out to be a lot bigger and roomier than I first realized.

My two youngest came over to help. I set the eleven year old on fan and lamp duty. He found some fans and figured out which ones worked and then came and set them up for me. I opened a couple windows and it stayed decent. There is a kitchen upstairs that we haven’t tackled yet and the eleven year was poking around in there and realized there was a window unit AC in the window. He turned it on and it worked! But I had him turn it off cause I’m still paying the electric bill. But maybe when we tackle the kitchen and bathroom up there we can put on the AC. Though the open windows and fans do also help with the smell. I don’t know, we’ll see. The boys were a great help carrying keepables downstairs for me and they had fun poking through the stuff.

Here’s the closet.

This upstairs is considered the 2nd floor, but there’s a walk out basement where we have the trailer, so when I throw the trash out the window, I’m throwing it down three floors.

Here’s the window I wrestle all these bags through.

With my dog admiring the view.

I squeeze the trash bag through the window and then have to balance the bag on the little overhang and scoot it over so that it will fall down into the trailer. I was about to ask my little boys to help me with this, but then images of them leaning too far out the window made me change my mind. It feels a little precarious.

While we were cleaning my boys also discovered a snake skin in the room I was cleaning.

Which did not make me feel real comfortable cleaning out the deep dark closet. But, God has been merciful and I have not come across wildlife and bugs and snakes yet.

We are getting close to our one year anniversary of starting this project. I would love to have everything at least cleaned out by that milestone. We’ll see!

The House Next Door: Quick Clean

I went over today with the goal to clean out two rooms upstairs. My eleven year old came with me. He was mostly interested in finding treasures. He found a collection of old board games and helped me gather up pennies into a mug. He also helped carry keepables downstairs to the room we’ve set aside for that. About fifteen minutes into the project I decided this was going to be a one room project day. About thirty minutes in, I had to start pep talking myself to just stick with it. I think my energy levels are down today. Anyway, I persevered. Another room done.

I didn’t have the trailer available today, so all the trash is waiting at the upstairs hall window to be thrown down when the trailer is there.

I’m hoping I can get back tomorrow and tackle another room.

Free House: Starting to get Empty

It’s been a while since I’ve done any work on the Free House. We got busy, and then we talked seriously about selling it. Had someone who made an offer, but then we had some inspections done, and currently, it would be difficult to sell the place as it is and get much for it. If we do decide to sell, we will probably fix some key things, like foundation and structure issues first. We had several people come to the house and walk through and make offers on piles of things they wanted to buy. That got rid of some stuff. Then our youth group was having a yard sale, so we let them go through and take anything that looked sellable.

Then, we just had piles of random things scattered around the house. Today we designated one room for thrift store give-away and started trying to get the other rooms completely empty.

We filled up another trailer full of trash and made some good progress in the downstairs.

We just have a back bedroom and the kitchen to finish the downstairs, which can probably be handled in another two sessions. Upstairs still has a ways to go.

Andy also has done some work on the outside of the house, taking down old screens and fixing some windows, clearing out more brush.

And one fun note, I salvaged an old couch and moved it to my front porch and made myself a fun sitting area. I personally cleaned the room where the couch had been so I knew it had only had old clothes on it and no signs of food or animals near it. Its cleaned up very nicely!

I really don’t want to sell the place. It would be so amazing to have a home that we could offer people in need.  Right now we are just taking it one little step at a time.

Free House: Outside Cleanup

Today is a lovely Tennessee Spring Day! Andy and an assortment of kids got outside and cleaned out some bushes and trees from the yard next door.

Here’s the before:

And then the after:

And all the brush at the alley waiting for a pickup, which fortunately our city does for free.

In other news, Andy did a job for a business opening up downtown. He got connected with the owner and found out she sells vintage clothing. He told her about our Free House and how there were several closets full of clothing that had been hanginging there for years. She came over to see what we had and ended up buying a nice big pile of stuff, so that was nice!

I’m glad spring is finally here. The warmer weather makes everything feel a little easier and all this brush cleared away makes the house feel a lot more approachable.

I’ll post more later!

Free House: Getting Easier

Andy and I went over to the free House to work today and I have to say, I think this is easiest session we’ve had so far. Highlights were no poop or pee and no rotten food. Woohoo!

We are in the upstairs now.

So apparently, when our neighbor first moved into this house it was in the 80s and she rented the upstairs from the elderly woman who lived there. There used to be a stairway that went up the outside of the house. Here’s what’s left of it.

There was a door which was obviously not original to the house.

The room we cleaned today must have been her living room. Here’s the before.

We found some interesting things today, including this giant safe thats not going to be fun to get back down the stairs.

If you’d like an electric hotdog cooker, I can help you out.

We actually found a lot of vintage, odd small appliances, all in their original packaging.

Since we cleaned the hallway last time, we were able to throw things out the upstairs hall windows instead of hauling everything down the stairs, which also made everything easier. We could have kept cleaning but our trailer was completely full again.

Here’s the after picture.

We’ve been talking a lot more about what we’re going to do with the house. On days when we are feeling poor and overwhelmed we tend to feel like just selling it. But then we revive and think of how amazing it would be to have it fixed up and available for use. That is still the plan, but sometimes it feels a little impossible. So we push on, one step at a time. We’ll do everything we can and then when we hit a roadblock we’ll reassess. For now, there’s lots of cleaning to be done, yardwork, and several repair projects we can do with minimal funds, so no roadblocks in the near future.

Free House: Moving Upstairs

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here. We had one of the busiest holiday seasons I’ve ever had. It was a lot of fun, lots of good memories, great time with my kids, and we ended with the wedding of my oldest son! Then all the kids that came home for Christmas left, school started back up, and this weekend is the first time that I’m feeling like I can catch my breath a bit. It’s been a great day, I got my grocery shopping done first thing this morning, assigned my kids some chores, and then Andy and I went next door to tackle the next project. We worked three hours, came home, showered, and now I’m looking at the rest of the afternoon and evening with nothing on the schedule. Woohoo!

Today’s clean out was a lot more physically intense than normal. We have finally moved upstairs.

Which means everything has to come down those stairs, then you have to climb back up those stairs again to get back to work. We tossed lighter things down the stairs, but we escorted the big giant trash bags. At the top of the stairs is a rather large landing that had been turned into a bedroom.

We filled our trailer.

And then still had lots of stuff to fill another trailer load.

So, this is how far we got today, both of us working. I feel a little bit like an archeologist as I try to figure out the time line for the house. I found mail on the floor upstairs from 1999, which seems to be a significant year as I really haven’t found much mail or newspapers from before then. The upstairs ceiling is lath and plaster, and that started to fall apart at some point in time, so they put a cheap drop ceiling over the lath and plaster. Then I think enough of the original ceiling collapsed that it weighed down the drop ceiling and made that fall as well. So, we were cleaning up a lot of house debris today. As usual, I am always amazed at how much stuff can be crammed into one small space.

In other news, one of my older daughters went through some of the clothes that have been hanging in closets and tried washing them to see if they’d come clean, and they did! She is an eclectic dresser, so she had fun finding some things. This silk suit didn’t fit. Not sure what I’m going to do with it. But it’s clean!

Free House: Basement Take 2

This past weekend my husband Andy got over to the free house and worked on the basement. He had already cleaned out a lot on a previous occasion, but there was a corner he hadn’t got to yet.

He cleaned it out and filled another trailer load of trash and made a good pile of scrap metal for the people who drive around picking that stuff up.

He strung up some new lights.

And he did some work jacking up old beams that support the floor above.

He hopes to replace those when money allows. We’ve also got another support beam that has termite damage and will need to be replaced.

Fortunately he knows how to do all that stuff. We just need time and money!

The next little bit of time is going to be really busy with holidays and end of semester music events and we have a wedding in the family coming up quickly too. I have no idea how much time I’ll have to get over next door, but whenever I do, I’ll keep you all posted.

Free House: Finally Finished the Bedroom!!

Today has been one of those amazing days. I woke up early and got up for no reason except that I was awake. Nowhere I had to be immediately. And then, I actually felt like taking a walk. This past year I have not been exercising much at all. But three weeks ago I started a new program that started off with 10 minutes of walking a day for 5 days a week, and each week we’ve added on another 25 minutes a week. So, I took off before anyone else was up and took a lovely walk on a mild sunny fall morning. And then I spent the rest of the day being productive. Which means, that this afternoon when I realized I had no pressing thing to finish, I decided to head next door and see how far I could get in the downstairs bedroom.

This room has been kicking my butt. It was densely packed in and while we have found lots of treasures, it also just had a lot of trash, and it appears to be the place that all the animals decided to poop and pee. So, lots of really smelly things, and so much poop. Today was my third session. But, I did it!

Where I started
Finding dolls in unexpected places is not fun.
Finally done
The side of the room
Anyone familiar with this highschool?
And I would love to know what this is??
Trash of the day

That concludes the downstairs. The kitchen is not completely cleaned out, but I made a deal with my husband that he would do that. So the next step is to start heading upstairs. With the holidays coming up I’m not sure how often I’ll get to work on the project, but I’ll post when I do!