Slowly coming back to life

First, the stuff you can’t see: the air ducts that previously looked like they belonged in a horror movie have been cleaned from “biohazard experiment” to brand new pristine. The difference in air quality and smell is so dramatic the house basically took its first deep breath in years.

And now for what you can see…

Work continued on the bedroom walls. What started as a simple project quickly turned into a full-blown archaeological dig. After carefully excavating layers of paneling, wallpaper from at least three different decades (possibly centuries), and scraping mysterious ceiling textures that may or may not have been applied with a mop…bare walls (finally!!) that are now expertly prepped for painting.

Then there’s progress in the form of changing tactics.

The horrendous texture clinging to the upstairs hallway walls and ceiling clearly had no intention of leaving peacefully. Scraping it off was starting to feel like fighting a boss battle in a video game… and we were losing. So instead of continuing the war, we’re taking a new approach: skim coating over it. Sometimes progress means knowing when to stop arguing with the house and just politely cover its past mistakes.

Our neglected little baby is slowly coming back to life. What once looked like the set of a low-budget zombie movie is starting to breathe again. With every cleaned duct, scraped wall, uncovered layer of history, and fresh plan of attack, this house seems to wake up a little more.

And to give credit where credit is due: Mark is hard at work bringing the vision to life… while Kim is bravely supporting the project by getting her nails done.