Looking like an apartment.

It was about two weeks after Mom had seen the mess, taken pictures, and given the tenant notice. We were expecting the worst, and it's a good thing we did. According to my mother, the place still smelled horrible. The walls looked bad, the floors were nasty. They had huge stains everywhere. The walls and ceilings had cracks in them from it not having heat in such a long time. Plus they were horribly stained. And so the research began. How to get a smell that is soaked into the walls, and floors out.  Also, I looked into how to get the smell out in general. Taking down the window treatments he left, was one big one.  My Uncle, who is a contractor told us to try Kilz paint. In the following pictures you can see where my Mom and a few others had started Kilzing the place, and putting stuff in the holes and cracks. You can see the stains in the walls and on the floors. The bedroom which was one of the least damaged rooms is below.  Another thing to take note of is the windows. The all open in. I positively love them. My mother was very serious about putting in new windows, but I did everything I could to make her keep them, which she did. And thank goodness, because they add a bit of personality to each room.

The least damaged room was the bedroom.

Another of the bedroom, you can see my small hallway that leads into the apartment.

Here you see my bedroom closet and my windows. Which I love.

 

The bedroom Kilz'd. Don't you just love my windows? My mother wanted to replace them, I made it clear to her that wasn't happening.

The living room was horrible. The stains on the floors were just heartbreaking.  Mom and I had several talks about it. At times she was sure that it all would have to be tore up. I was in tears the first time. I thought that meant i'd get stuck with carpet, or the fake wood stuff. It wasn't how I remembered the place.  Of course I was on prednisone at the time, so that could account for the overly emotional reaction.  I'm still not sure why the hardwood floors were so important. I guess when I first saw the place as a teen, the floors were what I originally fell in love with.

This shows you the window facing the back yard, the doorway leads to the kitchen. As you can see the floors were a mess. The walls, also stained, with the cracks.

The other side of the backyard facing windows. The open area leads to the hallway, which has the bedroom off it, and leads you to the stairs, where the door is. You can also see the door to the closet in this picture.

This is the otherside of the living room, it is facing the front yard. You can see another closet door here. And look at the windows. I love how they open.

The other side of that set of windows. You can see how bad the wall stains were.

The living room Kilz'd

Otherside of living room Kilz'd. Again... the windows.

The kitchen had to be gutted, as did the bathroom. My mother said it

The kitchen as the tenant left it.

The kitchen tore up and Kilz'd

The bathroom gutted and Kilz'd. This is the one window i'm allowing to be replaced.

Mom reported that the smell had gone away once the whole place had been Kilz'd. Of course they had to have the windows open now from the paint smell. It was a huge step in the right direction.  Also they had no electricity, or gas while doing the work. I had called to have the electric turned on, but when the tenant turned of the electric, the electric company took out the meter. So we had to have an inspector come before they'd do anything.  When the inspector came, she told us that we needed to wiring on the outside of the house.  My mother called an electrician, and he said it would be at least 3 weeks. But my mother wanted to get this done for me. So she worked day after day, after day.  

It was all coming together. We had one issue solved... the smell. And It was looking like an apartment again Up next the painting begins, and we figure out what to do about the floors.