More Pics of Progress

We've been splitting our time in Wyoming a lot. We feel the pressure to get this place fixed up enough that we can leave it and not worry about it.

Mike wanted to paint the garage red, so that was the project for this week.

I was in the house cleaning cupboards so I sent my camera out with Jason to take some pics.  It's funny what he thought was worth documenting.

We had Brian and his family helping so that was super nice.

Brian framed in a spot for a garage door so that will be coming next week.

This isn't the best picture, but I'm adding it anyway...Charlie always lives his best life in Star Valley.  He loves to sniff out varmints and run through the fields.

I guess Jason wanted to document all the vehicles that we had.

  

On the inside (with me behind the lens), we were going through cabinets.  Jason's job was sorting the junk drawer...

                                       

We took everything out of every cabinet and cleaned it all.  No more mouse poop or earwigs...at least for now.  (Barf)

The stink was still totally ingrained in the basement.  We hauled out the rotten wheat last week but the smell bowled us over when we opened up the door after having it closed in for a week.

Brian made a vent to the outside and we painted it with Kilz from top to bottom.

Nate and Brooke skated around with fresh paint on the floor and had a grand ol' time.

We can have fun amidst the grossness?

 We left tired and feeling like we needed to bathe in bleach but we feel like we're making progress.  It's nice to see the red garage and I like to see the clean cabinets.  

Cleaning that place is always an adventure.  I wonder if I'll ever forget the earwig that got stuck coming out of the salt hole in the salt and pepper shakers. (I noticed it about a year ago but didn't do anything about it till now).  Or how close I came to puking after cleaning out the freezer.  

I know the kids will never forget the stench of that rotten wheat. It isn't something that can be described but it changed us all.

Joe was a bachelor for a handful of years and he wasn't too bad at cleaning up after himself.  In fact, the years that it was just him were probably the cleanest it had been. No clutter to speak of. But you can't expect a 75 year old house not to come with some grossness.  He hadn't used the dishwasher in years and there was a leak.  He had mice coming and going like they owned the place, and that rotten wheat in the basement affected so many rooms because they had vents that lead down to the rotten stench below.

It feels good getting a baseline of "not gross" as one of my book club friends calls it.

We walked away and will go back again soon to continue to make things "not gross".  I look forward to a time when we can go there to relax.