$13.68 and another step

I have taken another step in the passage of home ownership. I have purchased a lawnmower.. It is a nicely used Craftsman. I picked it up today for 10 dollars at a garage sale. It was much dirtier before this picture was taken. But after a new plug and oil, I will get an air filter soon, it runs pretty good. I think the o ring at the bottom of the filler tube is shot, but that is cheap.

From research online the motor is a Tecumseh. I have heard they are hard to start but, this one is not bad. If you inspect the picture above you will notice it has the gear driven front wheels. Not something I really wanted because it makes it difficult to pull backwards, but for ten dollars what am I going to do complain.. get outa here...
I didn't time it.. I cut the front yard before dinner and back yard after. but I would guessestimate it will only take about 25mins to cut. That is if I don't have to pick up mosquito toys from McD.

Total spent $13.68

Cheese and the Kitchen Floor

I noticed that blogger now supports video uploads, so this is my first. Short video of Haley sweeping while I was working on removing the old flooring.

The spare room

This room started out with hardwood floors and a lovely paint scheme as you can see.

The only thing Amy and I could think is that it was a camoflage and it covered the ceiling as well. We put two coats of Kilz on the walls and ceiling as you can see in the picture below. The outside wall with the window only had one coat in this picture.

The ceiling and walls are painted not the trim though. Lovely painters tape around the light don't you think?

Here's the room as it is today. It also doubles as a computer room.

Living Room/ floors

This is the house as we bought it. Tanner said that we shouldn't paint the border at the top because it looked like a checked flag that would mark the finish line when he runs around the house. The Ceiling was the same color of the walls.

Day one of ownership the carpet gets ripped up. Nasty work but fun to see the results.
Especially when you uncover this. It was interesting to see the center of the room wasn't finished the same way as the edges.
I snapped this picture just before I put poly down you can see that the walls are painted too. This is after two days of sanding. In the corner by the hallway you can see the applicator and in the hall you can see where I had just put a coat on.This picture is just after I finish laying down the first coat. 24hrs later I would lay down a second coat throughout the house. I rented the sander that you can find at your local Lowes HIW. It was pretty nice, an orbital sander with three sanding pads. It really kept the dust down with an attached vaccum. The sand paper was alittle expensive but, for the floors here that weren't in too bad of shape it worked well.

The Dining Room

Original Picture
After the Carpet is gone Wood floors not in bad shape
Removed the shelves
The rest of the wall is gone and a new hole in the ceiling
The wall and ceiling have been patched and the wall is painted. In this picture I believe the floor has been refinished too, hence the drop cloth.

The Kitchen..

The Kitchen started out pretty dark with orange paint on the walls and ceiling. We Primed the walls with two coats of primer and then painted it a cool color called Lilac Tan. Next to go were the floors that had seen better days
Haley helped me out a bit as you can see in this picture. We took the two cabinets out and ripped the old stuff out. New underlayment went down and then new linoleum.


And Finnally the kitchen was put back together.

Day Two of Home Ownership!

I am sore.

At the walk through we had the city hook up the water meter and turn the water on at the street.

We went to the closing 50 signatures and initials and 37 minutes later we where home owners. Got back to the house to start working and turned the water on but, when the guy from the city hooked up the water meter he forgot to put the washers in so it leaked as soon as I turned it on. No washing walls today.

We pulled up the carpet to find a relatively nice looking hardwood floor. Just a little sanding and some poly it will look good.

Day two the water was on and we had to trace all the leaks down and tighten up the valves. Lite the pilot light and we have water now. Until we finish the bathroom demo and then it will be off until everything is hooked up. I have pictures but not here. As soon as I get time I will put some up.