More before pictures + how we removed heavy smoke smells from the walls

Well, we did it. We successfully moved into the new place, which we are now referring to as the "sweet dump." I am tired. It's been non stop moving, packing, organizing. We close on the old place tomorrow.

We got lucky and both renters moved out April 1, so we had about 2 weeks to clean and paint, which has made a HUGE HUGE difference. The pictures below were taken after both tenants had moved out and the place was empty, as we just started painting. The big thing which cannot be expressed by these photos is the incredible SMELL of the first level. The former tenants smoked heavily. Here's how we got rid of the smoke smell.

Smoke removal for walls and rooms with heavy smokers
-Wash all rooms where heavy smoking occurred repeatedly with TSP
-Wash all rooms repeatedly with a product from Odor Matic, a local Twin Cities company, which did wonders and actually leached the nicotine out of the walls.
-Repeat. Some rooms got washed 8-9 times. Wash until the wall stop oozing nasty nicotine. Yuck!
-Primed the walls, ceilings, and all all woodwork with a product called BIN. This is a product similar to Killz but works better for woodwork and for smoke.
-Repeat
-Painted 2 coats with regular paint (we have had good luck with Behr paint.)

So, um, that was a lot of work. My job was to write the checks, as I was lucky that the guys on Chad's landscaping crew were willing to do this dirty work. I loved the feeling of sitting at work while all the nasty crap got done on the house. I think we've already done more on this house than has been done in the last 50 years.






We already have a good before and after shot just from the tenants moving out:

Before:




After:

Pictures of the new place - BEFORE

Well, it is happening. The old shitter is really ours. I suppose we need a new nickname now that it is almost ours (tomorrow). I think we are hurting the house's feelings with our negative talk. We need a new nickname with a little more encouragement. We need to boost up it's self esteem. Start to give it a little love.

There's a book from the 70s that posits that if you talk to plants, they grow better. We need to start applying this theory to this new house project of ours. No more negative talk. It's got a lot of "potential." It's gonna be beautiful - one day. It's like a pimply teenager. A little awkward, dressed up all funny, squeaky voice, bad manners.

So with that introduction, here are the pics. Squint your eyes a little and imagine something totally different, just the same shape on the outside. All grown up and beautiful.

Oh - and where is it? It's in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis, 5 blocks west of our current house.

House Pictures :Exterior, Before

Our house is a 1920s craftsman style bungalow -- with a total of 820 square feet. One story, 2 bedroom, one bath. We bought the house just over 2 years ago. Here is what it looked like when we bought it:



We've since redone the front yard, with the help of Chad's landscaping skills ( www.diggitlandscaping.com). I'll post after pictures if I can find them on my computer.

Here's a detail of the front step before:

The front yard is totally redone and looks awesome! I hope that I can find some pictures so that I don't have to wait until the spring to post them.

Our next project: THE KITCHEN!