Progress

One thing i've been dying to do and that is CLEAN the front of the house. I asked cleaners, painters, mothers, anyone for advice on what would be the best concoction to rid the front of the green moss, mould, mildew and tree sap that was caked on the outside of the money pit. What i ended up doing was mixing water, Ochlor (chlorine based product) and sugar soap. I am NOT advising that these products 'should' actually be mixed together but hey i needed something potent. I used Dad's old pest spray pump and sprayed this on the front of the aluminium cladding and waited. The waiting was probably a little longer than i would have but our gernie was on the fritz and dear hubby was fixing it, but impatient me went ahead and sprayed. Turns out this was a good thing. All the mould, mildew greeny brown muck started to turn orangey-red, (which a painter friend had said would happen) and then we gernie-d it all off and it was as easy as that, the muck just literally washed away. The house looks so clean, it was amazing. 20 min job took years off the place. I continued along the house but ran out of my concoction of cleaning supplies and i didn't wait as long before i gernied and found it didn't come off as easy so will have to redo a few places and finish the rest of the house but oh my, it looks so good. It is back to basics, literally, the house is now base aluminium, there is no paint left on majority of the house, we can see a bit of old paint up near the fascias, now the mould is gone, but the house was so neglected there is basically no paint left on it. Something else that is progressing is my HUGE double lounge room. Half of it has been gapped and painted when friends and family had a working bee, and I was continuing onto the bigger area. I have officially finished gapping ALL the tongue and groove walls in the lounge room areas. It only took 43 1/2 tubes of gap filler and hours of elbow grease. YAY! I'm so proud of my efforts. Now this weekend i intent to start prepping for painting. This will include putty, filler, sanding and masking off floors, doors, and windows. The ceilings still have to be filled and i haven't bought the ceiling paint yet but one hurdle at a time. This room is the biggest in the house so i feel great that i have accomplished something in this room, which just so happens to be my favourite. Hubby has been busy working on a few projects, something i have been advised shouldn't happen. One job at a time was the recommendation but those people don't have nagging me as a wife and two rug rats desperate to move in. Poor hubby. Anywhoo, hubby has removed the rusty old back stair stringers. YAY! Replaced floor boards and wall boards in the spare/craft/i-want-it-to-be-the-dining-room-but-hubbys-resisting room, replaced half the floor boards in the kitchen, (half to go), helped me to gernie the front of the house, helped my dad and uncle remove trees from the back yard, organised and picked up the floor sanders ready to go when all the floor boards are down, also chasing up any tradesmen and builders for advice or services. Plus his usual work 50 hours a week and study law full time. The man is a machine. Electricians have a couple of small jobs left to do and they are done. Front and back yard look like a cyclone has ripped through, but at least the sun can reach the house now. My cousin - in - law is organising a new kitchen bench top, until we can afford a complete kitchen reno, this will be great as a new hygienic food prep area. We can see small progress but its progress none the less. Have had a few comments from community members regarding the house and the progress they can see aswell, biggest comment seems to be the tree removal and actually SEEING the house, so thats encouraging as everyone is keen to see the finished result (as are we).