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We started taking wallpaper off the bedroom walls and soon found mold in a bedroom in the basement. It will be Holly’s bedroom. There was water leaking at some point – enough that they had to replace some rotten studs in the wall, which they must have done from the outside, since the old wallpaper was still on the wall on the inside. The siding was replaced in the not-too-distant past, around 2004? With the water came mold. I sprayed the walls with bleach and it seems to have taken care of the mold, though our house smelled like a swimming pool for over a day.

In light of the mold, I bought a mold test kit. We should have preliminary results tomorrow when I get home from work. I looked today and didn’t see anything growing in the petri dish. I’m trying to find out if the water problem has been taken care of when they added a retaining wall at the back of the house, or if there are still issues that need to be dealt with. We don’t want any water and mold problems returning after we re-finish the bedroom walls.

Along with replacing the sheetrock in Holly’s bedroom, we took off paneling in Mitch’s bedroom – for 2 reasons. Brenda didn’t like the paneling, and we wanted to see if there was water or mold problems on his walls, too. There was a little mold at the wall that joins the furnace room, but I sprayed that with bleach and think it will be OK. I will probably replace the sheetrock in the furnace room with some of the paperless mold/water resistant sheetrock.

Brenda wants tongue/groove wood on the ceilings in the bedrooms, so that will go in last, making it a little easier on me. Well, not necessarily easier as far as work that needs to be done, but easier as in fewer things needing to be done right now. I can take my time moving the electrical around to get ceiling lights/fans installed – which would have to be done first if I were putting a sheetrock ceiling up.

I talked to a sheetrock guy about putting up the walls and mud/taping them (a job I really don’t like to do). Hopefully he’ll give us a price that is low enough for me to justify hiring it done. I have spent no shortage of $$ on the house so far. I’ll need to keep watering and fertilizing that money tree we have in the back yard. Holly’s room needs new insulation, waterproofing paint, stud wall added, sheetrock, ceiling – and all the bedrooms are getting new carpet. The mower needs some parts, which I’ve ordered. I can’t imagine how farmers do it. So much work and so little time. We just have a few acres and no crops (yet).

We’ve been too busy working to have any type of fun at the house or on the lake. No time to sit on the porch and relax, no time to set up the shop, no time for fishing, no time to kill weeds and get the lawn in shape. We did see an antique car show at the Buffalo High School. There were cars from the early 1900s, including a Stanley Steamer, Buick, Olds, Ford and others that I don’t remember the names of. There were also a few cars from the 40s-60s.

It’s hard to believe that a week has gone by since we’ve lived in the new house. We’ve done a lot already, but there is so much more to do. Wallpaper has been removed from 2 bedrooms (1 more to go) and then it’s painting time for the walls and ceilings in all 4 bedrooms, with new carpet installed in them after the painting is finished.

We finally had the phone and Internet hooked up last Friday. Now, I’ll have to get the rest of the home network added in. I’ll be putting up some shelves in the furnace room to set some computers and networking gear on. We didn’t get cable service so there’s an antenna hooked up to the TV – though I think I’ll get one mounted on the roof since we don’t receive many of the Twin Cities stations very well with an indoor antenna.

We picked up a paddle boat a couple days ago. We’ll have to get some steps/stairs down to the water and also a dock set up. I think it will seem like a lake home when we get a dock put in.

We moved into our new house Monday night. There is a lot of unpacking to do. The shop (36′ x x48′) was nearly full with what we moved from the old house. We filled a 26′ moving truck 2 and a half times. How did we fit all that ‘stuff’ in our old house? Now, we’re slowly moving boxes into the house and going through them. Our church is going to have a garage sale this month, so we need to get it cleaned out.

Brenda has the house looking pretty good. The kitchen is the most ‘complete’ room of the house. We’re taking wallpaper off the bedroom walls and will paint them and the ceiling before getting some new carpet. The rest of the house is mostly OK, but we need a few light fixtures replaced and some new ones added (there are not many ceiling lights in the house, so we need to either add them or get a bunch of lamps), we should be ready to start the fun projects.

Holly and Mitch helped set up the trampoline yesterday. Mitch has been paddling around the lake in an inflatible raft. He also made a raft out of logs and wood, but it didn’t float very well. He’s been riding the go-kart around the track (driveway). Holly has been helping unpack and organize quite a bit.