Uno, Dos, Tres Gates!: Vacation Day #3: Cleaning House!

So our third day of vacation, last Friday, was really not our idea of a fun or relaxing vacation day. But it was very necessary and we are thankful Tim had a day off to get our house back in order. You see, about two weeks ago, we had a guy come and start some work on the house. The original plan was to have him put up crown molding and trim in our dining room and fix a few things like re-spackling two walls and finishing a pantry area in our kitchen. But when he gave us a great estimate to also drywall the ceiling (we had nasty bowing tiles), we couldn't pass up the opportunity...

So next thing we know Tim is pulling down tiles in our dining room late Friday night and ends up finding crumbling plaster underneath all the tiles. This meant that he had to remove all the wooden planks and tear down all the plaster so that drywall could be hung properly. Not cool. Tim ended up working till 3 in the morning and getting back up at 8 the next morning to finish the clean up. And let me tell you there was quite a mess. We originally thought the tear down was going to be easy and fairly clean so I went to bed that night without covering up anything. Well, needless to say, plaster dust spreads everywhere and when I came downstairs Saturday morning I was greeted by a thin sheet of "snow" covering EVERYTHING on my first floor. Disaster. We realized there was no point in cleaning it all up while there was still work to do so we just avoided the downstairs as much as possible for the next few days while the house was renovated. This was not easy with a toddler but we managed to stay out of the house for most of the day and then ate our dinners outside.

Sooo when all the work was completed Thursday (while we were at Sesame Place), Tim spent that night painting the dining room (up till 3am again) and then Friday was our clean up day. We literally cleaned from the moment we woke up until 9pm that night! Every little thing had to be dusted or cleaned in the sink. It was insane. And did I mention that we had my brother's family come around 9m that night to stay for the weekend? Or that we were having family in both Saturday and Sunday for Micah's birthday? I was feeling just a little stressed. But I am happy to report that it all got done in time and we are really happy with the work that was done. The ceiling and trim are still not painted because there was no time for that so that still lies ahead for another weekend.

Below are some photos of the transformation process.