Tearing apart the house

When we bought our home we had no idea the work it would take before I would be comfortable even moving one piece of furniture into it. I went through at least six gallons of bleach sanitizing every surface and steamed/shampooed every inch of carpet at least three times. The carpeting was probably eight shades lighter by the time I got done, if that gives you any idea of the level of filth we were battling. We scrubbed and painted the walls, scrubbed the bathrooms and disinfected them. I took apart the kitchen cabinets and drawers and scrubbed and sanitized them. Every cabinet and every drawer got a new layer of shelving paper. I found dirt and gunk in places I never thought would gather grunginess. Everything was brand-spanking clean and sparkling with germ-free ness before my furniture arrived.

It took nearly six days to clean and paint the place to my fairly exacting specifications. I WILL NOT live in someone else's filth, I will not live in filth, period.

This weekend I thought I was going to have to do it all over again. I ripped out the carpet on the basement stairs, having no clue what I'd find underneath. Halfway down the stairs I found a smashed, mashed, dried up pile of dog shit BENEATH the carpeting and stuck firmly to the wood. Who the hell installs carpet OVER dog shit? I can't even begin to imagine the level of laziness associated with not being able to be bothered with picking up a pile of crap before putting the carpeting down. How does this happen? I don't get it. So now, as I walk through the house, I wonder what else lurks beneath the carpeting. What will I find when we start tearing out the rest to put down the hardwood floors? More dog crap? What's under the linoleum in the kitchen? I guess I'll find out when we pull that up to put down the Italian stone I've picked out. What will I find in MY bathroom when we pull the carpet up to put down tile? I get the heebie-jeebies just imagining what's under there. I am compelled to rip all the carpeting out NOW, just so I can get under there and clean clean clean.

The renovations have begun in earnest though, so I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Hopefully by this time tomorrow the girls will be able to use their bathroom again. Sunday we spent part of the day ripping out the carpet and leveling the subflooring in preparation for the tiling of their bathroom. Who the heck thought installing carpeting in the bathroom was a good idea in the first place? Ranks right up there with putting carpet in the dining room or kitchen. Dumb dumb dumb. I'm guessing the decision makers who thought wall-to-wall carpet in every room was fancy never had children spilling grape juice in the kitchen or smashing Play-doh into the dining room carpet. Or splashing water out of the tub to soak into the carpet and rot the flooring. Fun, yes? Once their bathroom is finished, we will start on the master bath, although I think that one will take a bit more work and probably require replacing some of the sub-flooring before we can lay new tile. And I want to get that room painted before I have nice new flooring in there. The walls have been scrubbed, they just await new paint.

So much to do...and once the weather stays consistently nice, we'll be working on the deck and the pool and the yard and the gardens and the pastures. Woo hoo!