Texting the Tenant

I stopped by the shop this afternoon and was showing the girls some photos of the townhouse.  They too were shocked by the gunk.  I explained how I was going to sneak over there this evening and paint a few rooms...just a little surprise for my husband.  But I had an ulterior motive:  I wanted him to see that we CAN do this on our own.  Well, Tarin (our newest Lucketts girl) offered to help!  Then, Dillon (one of our worker boys) offered to help as well.  We had a real plan here!  I was getting very excited...we might get the whole first floor done!
Okay, long story short ..WE GOT NOTHING DONE!  We tried!  But, we quickly realized...as we were trying to apply the paint that the walls were too dirty, dusty, sticky, hairy, STICKY ...just disgusting.
They left ....I cried! And then I pulled out my sidekick - the Android.
1,2,3,4,5,6,...texts later....I typed without thinking....
Still waiting for a response.

HGTV style fixer upper

We are selling our townhouse.  The last tenants left it uninhabitable! 


Now we have to repair, remove, repaint, improve this house in order to sell it.  We need to get this on the market ASAP.  We don't have extra money to throw into fixing her up so it's up to us to do it...do it well and do it cheap. 

Our real estate agent wants to rip out carpeting and put down hardwood floors.  Then add granite to the kitchen counter tops and hire just a few 5 or 6 people to paint, clean and reclaim.  Doug and I can't afford this...so our goal is to do this on a dime...and in two weeks!

Doug's not convinced I can do it.  I'm heading over to the townhouse tomorrow morning...6am...with our vacuum.  (Bring extra vacuum bags...because none of this filth is coming back to my house!)

I'm meeting with Ty's Carpet Cleaning Service at 9am.  I'm hoping we can salvage some of the carpet. 

the walls looks like this too

Stay tuned...more photos of the mess to follow.

1 1/2 years...and never been vacuumed!

We gave our tenant the typical 30 days noticed.  We gave written noticed but also gave her a call to let her know it was time to sell the house.  After the first year she was on a month to month lease, so this was not a big surprise to her.  Throughout the 1 1/2 years that she lived there we had only been there a few times.  Doug had been there...not me.  Each time, he came back mortified at the condition of the property.  I thought he was being melodramatic....until yesterday!

Throughout the house...every carpet looks like this and worse!

OMG...she moved out but left tons of furniture and garbage and filth!

Notice the broken portable freezer in the kitchen!

 The house is truly disgusting in every nook and cranny.  She told Doug she was sorry but she didn't own a vacuum.  Apparently, she didn't own any cleaning supplies as well.  And it appeared to me, that young people were living there unsupervised.  There are spills on every surface including the walls!!!

The walls are pink!  And another ..blue and yet another...dark something.  And, hard to see the filth but the carpet is covered with food, tiny rubberbands and ????

Tonight I took over a few supplies:

And more supplies:

And wait to you see the wholes in the wall and the master bath - disgusting!

17 years later

Our first home was purchased in 1994.  Mirror Ridge was a spanking new townhouse community in Eastern Loudoun.  We were implants from Pittsburgh, PA.  We were used to sweet old victorian homes, row houses, step-on-the-crack sidewalks and mature trees.  We were still in culture shock but we were entrigued at the idea of watching our townhouse go up...brick by brick!  Every evening after work we would grab a couple rolls of film, a 6pack of beer and perch ourselves on the tailgate of our pickup truck and dream.  Great times!  Oh....we were young!  We even bribed a few construction workers with a case of beer or two so they wouldn't paint the fireplace and would add extra insulation!  We were there every step of the way with hundreds of photos to prove it.  (This is where I will learn how to scan old photos!)

Now, July 3, 2012 we are about to sell our first home.  We have had great....even fantastic tenants throughout the years but our last tenant....well ..I'm speeeechless.  She, the tenant, divorced with a few kids...apparently never was there and NEVER vacuumed!  I have never in my life seen such crud.

 

Every room ...every inch of carpet looks like this and worse!

I'm too stunned to show more photos right now.  This one really doesn't show you the depths of my despair. And my photograghy skills really need to be amped up to document this fully.  I know we won't sue her....that'st just more time and money we really don't have.  But if she comes crying to us that she wants her deposit back....well, I better document. 

 

So, after a glass of wine or two....I'll hitch a ride with my husband and try to get some better photos.  It's time to pull out the IPAD - I find that a little easier to work with and better quality than my android..

Words with Friends

Just craziness!   Words With Friends.

TAKE I - ACTION!
 My teenage boys introduced me to it over a year ago.  I felt like I was communicating telepathically with my "I-don't-have-enough-time-for-you-Mom teeanagers"!  Just a great summer bonding with my boys!  Until they realized,,, I thought...I was bonding with my boys!!

TAKE II - ACTION!
Then I started playing random opponents.  AKA - figments of my imagination because it seemed a bit wierd playing "Bob"...who is Bob!  But, Bob and I became "close".  I thought it would help me find my keys...my phone...my purse.

TAKE III - ACTION!
A phone call from my sister in Washington State gets me back on track with blood - no more neighborhood of make -believe!  And she is good!  Though, it's a bit insane...we play 12 sometimes 15 games at a time.  She also is looking for her keys.

Ohhh, but there's 8 more games not showing!

TAKE IV - ACTION!
And after months and months of egging her on...We now got our 70 year old mother playing!  She really wants to find her keys!! (My mom is the pretty lady in the first photo.)

loading'er up for lucketts

It's a weekly event preparing to bring more goods to the shop. It's more like a 24/7...365 days a year hunt for great things for the shop. Clean them up, make them pretty, and if I'm lucky...no painting required. Items sell very quickly...we are very lucky to have such great customers,..but we're always trying to stay one step ahead of trends and I don't know about the rest of the Lucketts girls but I think in vignettes! (More about this later.)

Tuesday morning I was rockin'. By 7am the trailer was hitched, pancake batter ready for the boys and the list...scrunched into a ball and tossed into the trash can. ..and NO More Painting! Whatever's in that shed is going to lucketts...AS IS! I'm turning a new leaf...so to speak. There are soooo many DIY'ers out there that would love stuff...can't find it and I want to make MY Life just a little bit easier. So...here's what I did:

Pulled out this awesomely shaped, old wicker chair and did not paint it! (See "blogger deals" for this and other items!!)

Found upside down on another table...bringing to the shop....unpainted! Great game table and sturdy, but needs love'n and PAINT! I'm selling it as is...to the DIY'er!

(See "Blogger Deals)

Pretty obvious where this WAS going but....

saved the springs! (Add a vintage napkin, pistachios or such...and viola! Snazzy holder!

Then I pulled this out...I started painting this for Ground Hog's Day...but the drawer was stuck.

Now almost June...it was time to get that drawer ...UNSTUCK!

Hmmm? How come I didn't think of this in Feburary!

AFTER!

I didn't repaint it..but sanded it a bit and waxed it with ol' faithful - Annie Sloan dark wax - Voila!

Picked these up at a yard sale with big plans of new seats...yadda yadda but..Nope selling as is...will they sell? (See blogger deals on items like this.)

So, here's a small load and a 1/2 days work ready to take to the shop. Added a dish rack, an old metal display shelf, a vintage blackboard and some ceiling tins and it's time to load it up.

Still a heck of alot of room in there but a good day's work nonetheless - ready for drop off on Wednesday!

reuse and repurpose!

It is time to get a little creative! I have lots of to-do projects but I'm not interested in a painting project, especially on such a hot summer-like day.  I want to create something pretty...use my resources at hand and not spend a lot of money.  I have a few mixed sedum pots sitting for sale at the shop!  So I grabbed this one...

and this one....

sedum garden bowl

...and one more ..just in case!

mixed sedum sitting in little bird bath

That was easy...but now for the tricky part. My idea is to make log tree planter with the sedums. It gets tricky because I need to get my husband to hollow out the logs!. So...I first gathered a bunch of greenish, dry logs from our wood pile and put on my bestest smile. Believe it or not...he liked the idea. A few hours later "we" had the logs hollowed out. I grabbed a few bags a topsoil that I snagged at an estate sale for 25cents each (!!) and drilled a few holes in each log for drainage. Then I carefully pulled the sedums into sections, placed them into the logs and gave them a good soaking.

Viola...the Garden Sedum Log!

Sedums come in many different varieties and are virtually kill proof...love that! See above, I threw in an impatient and in a couple of weeks this log will be covered with bright pink flowers.

Sedum Garden Log

  The sedums will get fat and fluffy and spill over the sides! I'm making more - it's so easy and therefore very rewarding...I'm off to hunt for some more logs and maybe a tree stump or two!

Happy Gardening!

Anne