The Dog Who Steals Pillows

So this morning I woke up with a bit of a migraine. I've cricked my neck a couple if times during the move so now my head is angry. Anyway, I got up at six to make breakfast for James and then I decided to take a quick nap on the couch before I ran my errands, so I grabbed a spare pillow. Here's why I can never actually get in a nap on the couch: (photos taken with snapchat)

She's snoring in the above picture. Intermittently kicking the side/top of my head and snoring.

I finally gave up and decided to blog.

Aaannnnd then there's Sansa. Not only is she stealing the pillow, she brought a snack. Awesome.

As I wrote that last part, Lady shoved the bone Sansa was chewing off the couch and has regained solo control of the pillow. 

Sorry Sansa. I know how you feel.

Wood Floor Revival

Hi friends. So we've had our new home for just over a week and we have the biggest project done. The floors upstairs are refinished and cat free! Here's how we did it:

(Ok, so actually, I said "we" but what I meant was James, my parents, Andy, and Hugh. My ankles swelled up when I was up there for, like, two minutes, so I stayed downstairs and worked on other projects.)

First they removed all the carpet, padding, and strips around the walls. The wood underneath looked like this. Those black stains are cat pee. Apparently the cats that lived here were "prize cats" so I guess that means the whole world is their toilet or something.

James did some research online and talked to a couple guys who had refinished cat destroyed floors and he ended up getting an enzyme called "Urine Off" which is essentially a spray form of a specific type of bacteria that adheres to and eats away all the pet stain. So he sprayed all the spots, covered it up to let it work, and then scraped the enzyme and the stain together from the floor. The above picture shows the floor after that process had been complete.

The next thing to do was sand the floor. James rented a sander from some place up the street and the men used three different grades of sandpaper, starting with the rougher and moving to finer until all the floors were stain free and smooth. James used a hand sander around the edges. As you can see, this step removed the stains leftover after the enzyme. At this point, the cat pee smell was pretty much gone, too, which is excellent.

Last they put down two layers of poly, nice and thick. We've been letting them sit for a few days, but soon it'll be safe to start moving into these rooms. The poly smell has decreased quite a bit in the last couple days, too, which makes living in those rooms all the more enjoyable.

Also, I built a garden on the east side of the house:

The front row is marigolds to hopefully keep away the bunnies, and the back row is vegetables and a couple herbs. Here's hoping they grow!

Alright, have a great rest of the week, I'll update more soon!

New House

Hi friends! This is going to be a quick update because I'm typing it on my phone and we have so much we're doing right now. 

We own this house! Our offer was accepted in early April, but the sellers wanted a June closing date and that was done with us, so we just closed on Monday. 

Here's the house's story:

Built in I believe 1958 and owned by the same couple until a few years ago. The lady we bought it from walked into a house that hadn't been remodeled since the 60s. She did a ton of work on the house and kept it in good condition.

However, she had two cats with what I can only guess is a bladder disorder. Cat pee was soaked (SOAKED) into every room with carpet. Luckily the main floor is a mix of hardwood and tile, and the basement carpet (which was by far the worst) was removed before we closed, but the upstairs bedrooms and hallway were carpeted. James and I are both allergic to cats, so on the day we removed the carpet both my ankles puffed up like marshmallows in the microwave and both James eyes turned red. Under the carpet is hardwoods, so now our job is to remove all the black cat pee stains, sand it, and refinish it. 

We actually have several things going right now. I'm going around the house and priming some of the woodwork and the fireplace that's been painted jet black. Too dark for my taste. Anyway...

I'll blog about our different projects as they get finished, but I just wanted to update this blog quickly. Ok, bye!