From Bauhaus to Our House

So we’re tentatively t-14 days til move-in (I say tentative because we haven’t secured a renter for our condo yet, and we’re staying put until the last possible date!). If you recall, we were aiming to have the living room, Jack & Jill bedrooms and bathroom usable. We’re well on our way!

The “before” of the living room didn’t look particularly bad, but you should have seen the up close. There were some obvious cracks in the paint, so we started scraping. Before long, it went from this:

to this:

A lot of the paint came off in sheets – it was paint over plaster, without primer. The plaster/concrete combo basically sucks moisture out of the paint, which causes the paint to pull off the wall. Primer is necessary people!! We also discovered some MAJOR cracks. Here is an example:

That was about the width of my finger. It had been patched with plaster and was fairly stabilized, but to be extra safe we decided to patch with hydraulic cement – in the off chance that moisture is still a problem (which it doesn’t seem to be), this will hold and not expand/dry out like plaster might.

After all the patching we did, we essentially covered every part of each wall with joint compound. I think our gallon count right now is about 10 gallons used – and we’re not quite done. The room looks a thousand times better, but we’re still doing some final sanding and patching. Hopefully this weekend we’ll be ready to prime and maybe even paint!

While Matt and I have been busy in the living room, my mom and dad have been working away in the bathroom. It looks completely different already!

Remember this?

Those patches were actually what was there when we toured the house – the ceiling was totally unfinished and really moldy.

This is essentially the same view now (with a look at the back of dad’s head):

Everything’s been patched up and primed (with mold and mildew resistant paint), the destroyed sink and toilet were removed and will be replaced, and everything feels fresh and clean.

I hope to have the “after” pictures soon!

Bonus: me on the “climbing: wall: