Subway Tiles, Cat Fur, and Lead Based Paint.

In case you didn't know, my work-horse hubby has a new hobby: Rental Properties. We recently bought a house that is right next to our old house that we rent to some friends of ours. The house was in pretty bad shape, but from the moment the For Sale sign was in the yard Daniel wanted it. Three things sold me on the idea (I can be a little stubborn when it comes to financial chances):

1. The house was really really cheap.
2. The kitchen has brand new cabinets. Kitchens sell houses people!
3. All the improvements were do-able. I didn't want to get in over our head with a project we didn't know much about.

Here's what the house needed in order to be ready for renters:
1. New Siding
2. New Windows
3. Central Heating and Air
4. Cleaning Cleaning Cleaning!
5. Two Additional Bedrooms
6. One Additional Bathroom
7. Every Room Re-Painted
8. Oh, and did I mention CLEANING??

Up until this past weekend, numbers 1-3 had already been completed by Daniel and with the help of some friends. Now, onto the hard stuff! Daniel's job for the weekend was to hang drywall. Since we wanted the two extra bedrooms and the bathroom in the basement, he needed to get the walls hung and ready for mudding and taping. My job was to clean and prep for paint, and let's just say the cleaning was a little more in depth that I thought it was going to be.

Here's the house with new windows and siding. Looks pretty good, minus the trashy yard. Don't worry, there's already some flowers growing in that front bed. :)

My man hanging drywall like a pro. Just watch a couple YouTube Videos and you can do it too.

A couple of the doorways that I scraped to prep for paint. I'm sure my lungs are completely saturated with toxic lead fumes but at least I'm finished. Hope the primer and white paint will cover everything!

We like to write our supply lists on sheet rock and on the back of color swatches. Just like pros.

My Nana came to help with the cleaning. This woman is my hero. There were massive amounts of cat hair in the refrigerator that she graciously cleaned up, along with whatever else was growing in there. Not quite sure how the cat hair got into the fridge in the first place.....Maybe the previous owner liked Chinese food?? haha.

Daniel laid some funky new tiles in the upstairs shower. Kinda gives the bathroom a mod vibe. I dig it.

I mentioned that the cabinets were new, but they were unfinished. I watched a couple YouTube videos (surprise!) and just followed the instructions on how to stain wood. Pretty simple. Just clean the surface, apply the stain in the direction of the wood grain, and let it dry. I've always heard that Minwax brand is the best.

The top cabinets have the stain, and the bottom is still unfinished. Pretty big difference huh? Out of everything I did this weekend, I'm probably the most proud of how the cabinets turned out.

The Work Weekend turned out to be pretty successful, but man were we pooped. Even Josey resorted to napping on some leftover insulation.

More improvements to come. Stay tuned!