Some inside pics...

Here are a few shots of the inside of the house:

What you see when you come in the front door

The kitchen complete with Viking appliaces and granite countertops and a custom built-in hutch

This One's for Tammy and Cody

Thought you might need a visual of our chat this afternoon!

This of course is the "After"

For the rest of you - these are the spigots for my washing machine. I never knew there was the little drain right between them... Anyway, while I was sporting the yellow gloves while cleaning the sinks, Dave says, "Hey - hit this while you've got the gloves on." How I wish I'd taken a before shot.

Did you know that the sewer can back up into that little drain? Did you know that some people don't clean up after such an event?

UGH.

And while I was scrubbing it and pouring bleach on it, some of the water splashed up on my face...

UGH UGH

The Sinks

When this house was built, these sinks were the luxury of laundry!!! They are in the basement in my new laundry room. You can see how disgusting they are... the furthest sink was victim to an overflow or back up or WHATEVER... I just praise the Lord for cleaning gloves... you know - the bright yellow ones that go up to your elbow... I've never used them until now.

In cleaning these sinks, I needed them.

These "before" shots were actually taken after I'd already rinsed the sinks out pretty well... yeah... they had layers of who-knows-what in them. Yuck. I actually had to scoop whatever was in them out into a garbage sack...

This is the NASTY one...

So I grabbed the bleach and Softscrub and Ajax with bleach and Scrubbing Bubbles - thought I'd do an experiment... Yeah... then realized that the only thing that was going to put a dent in any of it was the Ajax and good ol' elbow grease with a scrubby sponge - oh and a little toothbrush...

And here's the "After" shots!

They're still not fabulously clean but definitely clean enough of utility sinks in the basement, don't ya think?? And what an improvement, eh?

This one is still sporting some cleanser -- thought I'd try some Softscrub with bleach after I scrubbed the NASTINESS out... it didn't make ANY difference.

Still much work to do in cleaning this basement - anyone have a powerwasher I could use to clean the walls???

Note: I did remain focussed enough to complete the cleaning of these sinks but you must know that the reason I cleaned them was because I decided to switch from primer to regular paint in the room upstairs... so I cleaned the sinks so I could clean the painting supplies... but I refrained from cleaning the walls above the sinks... until I get my hands on a powerwasher...

Duct Tape

It really does fix everything...

One of the four toilets in our "new" house... The owner of the home had done a whole lot of awesome work and then had to move and ended up renting the house for the last four years. Sadly, this picture kind of sums up how well the house was taken care of in those four years...

The "NEW" House

So on Friday the 19th, we became the owner's of this "new" home! It's been an intense 4 days while Dave is diligently working on installing yards and yards of electrical wire. He is so focused. On the other hand, I can't figure what I should do next... clean the kitchen? Scrub all 4 toilets? Paint? Peel wallpaper... ??? Dude. I am overwhelmed!!!

I must tell you that I have got a thing for front porches... LOVE them. When Dave grabbed our rocking chairs from the "old" garage and brought them over to the "new" house, it instantly became home.

I must send a shout out to an amazing group of friends who have already helped sooo much!!!

1st: Dawn and Jason for snatching up one or all three of the kiddos for a pair of whole afternoons and evenings... You guys are awesome to offer and to cruise the mini-van. I sooo should have gotten a photo of that!!!

2nd: Two BRAVE women who offered to help clean -- Stacy and April both took on two of the nastiest bathrooms... I mean it's one thing to clean your own bathroom. And then it's a step further to clean your friends' bathroom... but then to come to a third party's bathroom -- do you see what I mean??? And these bathrooms were GROSS. Girls - I love you for it!!! Just knowing that there is a place for the girls to pee without my having to say, "don't touch anything!"

And then Stacy even hung out a while longer to help wipe down all of my kitchen cabinets and the fancy built-in hutch. Seriously. Good friends.

And Stacy grabbed my Meg up from school on Friday too --- so glad she and Sienna still enjoy each others' company after these almost 8 years!

3rd: Jill had Jack all day!!! Dude. We got to get you practiced up!!! AND had an amazing dinner hot and waiting when I picked him up... I'd say no more training needed... You're soo ready to be a Mama!!!

4th: Jim Billings. Electrician extrordanaire (sp?) and another guy who can focus. Love it. And thanks to Tammy for sharing her experienced and talented Hubs.

5th: Tara hung out and was witness and victim to my lack of focus last night - she helped me put primer on the room on the third story and helped me clean up the first layer of wallpaper peeled in the closet.

And I labeled those with ordinals -- not in any particular order of importance or whatever... just as I remembered each of you...
and God forbid I forgot anyone in this the first of many crazy weekends!