It is hard to believe that we have 90 degree temperatures here in Alabama and snow on the ground in Denver in May. Let's get back and wrap up the last few posts on the Maywood house.
The basement in the Maywood house was dismal at best. When we left, we purchased a dehumidifier with a hose running to the basement drain to keep excess moisture out of the basement. Keeping this running 24 hours a day kept the rooms down there virtually dry when we lived there.
On closer inspection, it was pretty obvious that the previous renters had not followed the instructions in the contract to keep the machine running.
Here is a picture of the overhead furnace pipes covered with mildew. Wonder why?
It was fortunate that I had painted these white before leaving. Pouring straight bleach into a spray bottle was the answer. Laying newspapers on the floor, I spritzed and spritzed these tubes multiple times. Then they were dried between turns. Of course I needed to open the windows while doing this job. This was one job that I would not let the girls do. You will notice in the final picture how well they cleaned up.
Another view. Check out Grandma's vintage turquoise telephone.
Along with the mildew came the erosion of the water protected paint on the walls. My precious younger daughter scraped all the walls in the three rooms by herself. (Yes, I made her wear a respirator.)
That was a lot of scraping!!!!
The laundry room was a disaster too.
Besides scraping for hours, my little one swept all the chips up and pitched the debris. I was so proud of her.
Notice the clear hoses in the left of this next picture. These hoses carried the water from the dehumidifier in the other room. Basically, there was no work involved in emptying the machine.
Even the laundry room sink had to be scrubbed.
One of the men who helped us fix up our house was our painter, Mr. Terry. He transformed the house by painting every room, hallway, bathroom and entire basement in 8 days. We can never thank him enough for his help.
After Mr. Terry's painting.(The shower room in the basement.) All the basement walls were given a double coat of masonry paint for concrete block walls. This particular paint was excellent in protecting the walls from moisture.
The laundry room wall.
This vintage stove was the one that Grandma used to can fruits and vegetables. It still works. I was sad to leave it behind, but there just wasn't time to find it a new home. The stove made me think of one of my favorite childhood stories, Mr. Mulligan and the Steam Shovel. Do any of you recall this story?
It is amazing what 2 coats of paint will do to a basement.
A new shower curtain was purchased and hung.
The screen door from the front door was washed and set aside. Look at the cute canned goods cabinet. I painted that high gloss black before we moved in 2000. The paint held up well.
This picture shows the furnace that I had installed after I bought the house. The original one blocked part of the entrance into the front room of the basement.
On the floor you can still see where the original octopus furnace sat.
You might laugh but we left not one inch untouched in our cleaning. My oldest daughter washed down every vent on the front of the furnace.
Sewing new red gingham curtains and painting the walls and the floor in the front room of the basement shows well.
Another view.
The realtor's view. See how clean the overhead pipes became.
This basement job was one of the toughest. I didn't show the leftover garbage that the renter left. Hauling all of this junk out was the first step before we could begin our heavy duty cleaning of the basement. My two girls were amazing workers. My oldest loved the fact that I wrote every job in a notebook and she got such satisfaction out of finishing a job and crossing it off the list. I think she knew that the end was in site when all tasks were scratched off.
Stay tuned for the Bathroom project.
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