Nobody said it was easy. (No one ever said it would be this hard.)

We finally closed today!!!  We are officially the owners of a house!  Or, as Dad put it earlier, "Are you familiar with the term 'money pit'?"

So, yes, we have a lot to do before the house is really a reflection of us as homeowners.  But we got off to a great start today!  Directly after the closing we headed over and shimmied into our work clothes, turned on the window fans, and got right to work.

The living room/hall carpet had to go.  You can see from the photo that it was all wrinkled and faded.  What you can't see is that it was also completely filthy (how do you even find that much sand so far from the coast?) and smelled horribly of wet dog.  I wish I could upload a smell, because trust me, that one would knock your socks off.

Luckily, with a bit of tugging and some box-cutter related persuasion, it came right up...

Only to reveal an equally filthy and smelly layer of padding.  A bit more persuasion (by which time our hands were starting to ache) and that came up to show us...

Genuine 1965 pure particle board.  What happened to the nice hardwood floors the realtor assured us must be under there?  Lesson 1: never trust a realtor who is trying to sell you a house.  The good news is, the particle board doesn't smell.  The bad news is, you can't put hardwood on top of particle board.  Looks like the whole subfloor has to go.  But that, my friends, is a project for tomorrow.

Did I mention that while Dad was attacking the upstairs carpet, I had my own fish to fry downstairs?  That's right, our old friend the horrible industrial-quality red and orange carpet!

It peeled up magnificently easily.  Probably, as it turns out, because the padding beneath it was ready to crumble into grimy dust.  Good thing we brought tools.

I think I need a bigger scraper.  Took a break from that to attack the bathroom and the back bedroom.

It was a close match, but I won.  The downstairs is de-carpeted!  Friends, let me tell you, you haven't really lived until you've pulled out carpet from around a toilet.  

But it wasn't all bad!  We made a few good discoveries.  First off, beneath the stair carpets lay...

Beautiful oak treads!  So at least we don't have to worry about the stairs (once we get all that foam cleaned off, anyway.  And the sand.  So much sand?!).  And now we have a color to try to match our new hardwood to.  

Also the sellers left us two walnuts under the baseboard heaters!  

That was not actually such a pleasant surprise, but at least it was diverting trying to figure out why there were walnuts under the baseboard heaters.  Possibly they were worried the mice would be hungry after they moved out?  Yes, mice.  We espied their evidence in several places.  So the first thing tomorrow: exterminators.  Second thing tomorrow: my hardwood floor is being delivered!  Tune in for pictures of (hopefully) some very pretty maple click-lock floating flooring being unboxed!  

--Lily