STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Elle · Hermes

House stuff

small fry · Chanel

Elle when we cleaning up this house I could not believe how bad the tub upstairs wasIt had old lime and rust stains but I was able to get them out with some scrubbing. I put on old flip flops and got inside the tub to scrub. Oh and the walls in the dinning room/hallway was so gross- black finger/hand prints. It had flat paint so I could not wash it off. That was what we re-painted first b/c I could not stand looking at it. The downstairs bathroom had hair all over the floor and toilet- gross

Cant wait to see pics

NCshopper · Hermes

Get yourself some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and go to town. It actually sounds like it'll be kinda fun in a satisfying way. Ripping off wallpaper is really fun, IMO. If it doesn't come off easily, use a spray bottle to wet it down and if that doesn't work, try liquid soap on an old rag to unstick things a bit.

Our house wasn't too bad when we moved in, but since we've been remodeling the bathroom, we've found some seriously shady things. Like tile stuck on top of existing tile, plywood in the crawl space covering up some really rotten wood, things like that. Lovely.

When we were house-hunting, we looked at one home that was so filthy. They were using the spare shower as storage and when we opened up a closet door it was literally PACKED to the gills with random crap. Ugh. And it had pink carpet.

Congrats on closing, by the way! How exciting for you guys! I can't wait to see pics of the before and after.

Elle · Hermes

The wallpaper is the thicker, vinyl-type stuff, so it's coming off in complete sheets. We ripped a couple pieces down last night (since we could, being that it's our house now ) and it was extremely satisfying! And thank the lord they primed the drywall before they put the paper up, because we're going to be able to paint right after without any additional prep/repair.

We're going to rip up the master bathroom right away (the whole thing is rotted underneath) and therefore have to use the other hall bath while we do. It's very likely that it won't look any cleaner once it's been cleaned because everything is just too old and too far gone, but at least I'll know I tried! Not being able to rip that one out at the same time is going to drive me crazy though - the back of the vanity has no wall! It's just insulation under the sink!! And the walls are seriously grody - blood and grease and who knows what else everywhere.

I was thinking a water/bleach solution to wipe the walls & ceiling down with, unless someone's had better luck with something else?

squishy · Coach

yay for closing!! it sounds like it's gonna be lots of work, but you get to beautify your home and get a workout :)

Elle wrote:

And the walls are seriously grody - blood and grease and who knows what else everywhere.

but this... blood?!

i think i've watched one too many episodes of CSI.

Elle · Hermes

squishy wrote:

yay for closing!! it sounds like it's gonna be lots of work, but you get to beautify your home and get a workout :)

Elle wrote:

And the walls are seriously grody - blood and grease and who knows what else everywhere.

but this... blood?! i think i've watched one too many episodes of CSI.

I know! Just little specs here and there, but they're on the walls and ceilings of both bathrooms

. I mean, it's not enough that it would make you wonder if someone died there or something, but I do wonder how exactly it got there ..... I guess maybe it's not blood. But that's what it looks like and I can't think of anything else it would be! Nailpolish?

squishy · Coach

Elle wrote:

I know! Just little specs here and there, but they're on the walls and ceilings of both bathrooms . I mean, it's not enough that it would make you wonder if someone died there or something, but I do wonder how exactly it got there ..... I guess maybe it's not blood. But that's what it looks like and I can't think of anything else it would be! Nailpolish?

maybe a bad shaving nick on the jugular? i really can't think of any other scenario that would warrant blood/nailpolish getting on the ceiling. that takes talent and dedication.

but i'm sure you'll cover up that crap in no time. good luck!

Cortney1982 · Chanel

When I moved into my house it was NASTAY! When we first looked at the house and they opened the door to the garage I just about gagged! I was at least 15 feet away and rotting garbage stink just came right at ya!

When we got the house there were dead bugs EVERYWHERE, like at least 50 in each room! Vaccuming the whole house was an all day project. In the laundry room their was some ugly ridiculous wallpaper border. Oh, one of the bathrooms had this puke pink and green paint. Why anybody would select those colors is beyond me. Every carpet in every room needed professionaly cleaned. Every wall in every room and some kind of mark or dirt that needed to be painted.

Have fun cleaning and painting! Hopefully yours won't take two weeks!

halleybird · Hermes

Here are some stories for ya...

When we moved into our first house, which was brand-new, built for us, we invited my parents over. About 10 minutes before they arrived, our guest bathroom toilet decided to basically turn into Old Faithful. It soaked our entire entry with toilet water. It turns out the construction crew had never removed the cap from one of the pipes.

The first day we moved into this house (which was in good shape, but was basically covered in wallpaper!), we didn't have furniture yet. (I think it was a Friday, so we were waiting until the weekend.) We left the dogs here when we went to work, and Halley went nuts. She tore out a 2x3 foot square of carpet in the family room, all the way through the pad to the concrete. She also somehow moved Sully's crate off of its base (with him still in it) and chewed on that. Not five minutes after I arrived and discovered this, the doorbell rang. It was the old owner, "wanting to see what you've done to the place." He was super anal-retentive about his house, so I made up some lame and probably rude excuse to not invite him in.

Metric · Gucci

Our house seemed really clean when we first moved in, nothing notable, until we tore out the living room carpet to have the hardwood floor installed. Underneath the carpet, between the carpet and the under pad, was a layer of dirt. Not just dust or wear-and-tear dirt but a layer of garden soil. To this day I can not figure out how or why it was there.

When we were house hunting we saw some horrific places. We went to an open house and the place was disgusting. The walls were covered in dirty hand and foot prints, holes punched in walls, the kitchen counters and lino floor were covered in grime so thick you couldn't tell what color they were. I asked the realtor (not our realtor but the one hosting the open house) WTF? How can you show a house so disgusting? And she said to me (no word of a lie) that the people were Asian and that's how Asians live. Like Hell! We high tailed it out of there. I couldn't stand to be in the same room as such an ignorant imbecile. I have Asian friends and none of them live in squalor. It was a terrible experience.

NCshopper · Hermes

Metric wrote:

Our house seemed really clean when we first moved in, nothing notable, until we tore out the living room carpet to have the hardwood floor installed. Underneath the carpet, between the carpet and the under pad, was a layer of dirt. Not just dust or wear-and-tear dirt but a layer of garden soil. To this day I can not figure out how or why it was there.

LMAO! That is the strangest thing I've ever heard! Garden soil?!?! WTF? I wonder if they were using that instead of a better carpet pad.

And she said to me (no word of a lie) that the people were Asian and that's how Asians live.

Wow. That's just.....wow. Really, what an incredibly ignorant thing to say.

House-hunting has to be one of the weirdest experiences. It's just so strange to poke around someone else's home and try to imagine yourself living there.

AllieGurl · Marc Jacobs

Congrats on the new house, I am sure that you will make it look amazing!!

mikacat · Coach

Congrats on the house!
How exciting--
After a little TLC from you it will be ready for House Beautiful I am sure.
Good luck with it>

Tati · Chanel

I'm hardly in here now, but I wanted to make sure to let you know that I'm so happy for you! Congratulations on your new house! and I'm sure you'll make it look beautiful!!!!

the owners that we bought the house from weren't that dirty but one of the first things we did was change the toliet seats!

Elle · Hermes

I think I might have figured out the blood on the ceiling - bugs! You know how if you smash a spider or mosquito who's recently bitten they leave a big blood splat on the wall ....? Half our windows/doors don't have screens on them, but that didn't seem to stop them from leaving them open all the time judging by all the bugs in the window tracks and on the floors and the ones I keep having to kill.

So far we've painted the ceilings in the entire house, the walls in the bedroom, kitchen, dining room, hallway, and living room, replaced the front door and the door from garage to house, had the carpets shampooed, and put a new ceiling fan in our bedroom. It's looking much cleaner!

Tati - toilet seats are the next thing on our list !

I've been taking pictures with our new digital camera, but haven't figured out how to plug it into the computer yet . As soon as I figure it out I'll be back with pics!