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Woot! My parents are finally moving out! Woot! Woot! Wooooooooot!

So, I am having a housewarming party soon. A few of my new friends have volunteered to play. I don't know what kind of band they are, but it sounds like fun! Before I can have a party though, I really need to do some major work. My parents adopted a puppy, who has had a hard time understanding potty training and has decided that the living room is actually the bathroom. This wouldn't be so bad, except that they don't understand that you have to clean that up, so I've wound up trying to steam clean every day. Despite my best efforts, however, the floors in the living room are destroyed. The pee and then the water from the steam cleaner have eroded the wooden supports under the floor, creating lots of problems for me. The floors are going to have to be replaced.

That doesn't really bother me, because I see replacing the floors as a big art project! I went and looked at flooring, decided that I was tired of carpet and the pain that comes with it. I think that I would like to go with vinyl instead, get rid of the vacuum, get rid of the steam cleaner, break out the broom and mop. I would so much rather push a half a pound mop then a 20 pound steam cleaner.

However, I have never put down flooring before, and there is no way in hell that I'm paying those installers $3000. That's over twice as much as the flooring itself cost! My Gramps has put down flooring before, and he said that as long as you measure properly before you cut, it isn't that difficult. He explained the process to me, and as long as I don't have to do any advanced seaming (because I don't know that I can do it well on my first job) I'm pretty confident that I can get it down with a couple of other folk. Not being very physically strong, what with the geekiness, I'm gonna try and play the uterus card and get a couple of my big man friends to help me haul the big rolls and s**t. I'll get them pizza & alocohol- it'll be ok.

This house was a little run down when I bought it anyway, so no harm, no fowl. I've already got a lot of work done; the office is completely finished except for the floor- which is awesome, because the windows were completely stripped of insulation in there, and I think that now my electric bill is going to fall significantly. I hate paying for that anyway, because we're on coal power, I can't find a co-op in Richmond, and my family has worked in coal for generations, so I know that every time I turn on a light, I'm giving someone black lung. My Papaw died of black lung about a year ago, so it's still particularly sore for me. Very happy to have that room more energy efficient now.

The hallway has been painted, so it only needs flooring and weatherstripping on the doors, and it will be finished. The kitchen and bathrooms are ********; completely ********. They are going to require the most work, but I feel up to it. I just worry that I will be unable to afford the materials that I need, because it is such a big job. I don't know anything about plumbing, so these are particularly difficult spots. I need to do some DIY research and see what all I need. The floor under the sink is even worse then the floor in the living room. And in the master suite, the floors have completely rotted out. The toilet and shower are both sitting on absolutely nothing; the floors under them are rotted because the previous owners ignored plumbing problems.

However, I am getting it cheap (less then $20,000) so I expected to rip everything out and put it back the way that I wanted it. I was just thinking aesthetically, as an artist, when I really needed to be looking as an artisan. I kind of assumed that there would be a basic foundation, but I was wrong, and I need to learn a lot more about houses, the way that they are put together, and such, so it'll be a great experience.

I'll be uploading pictures as I get finished. I don't know that I should upload before & after pictures, because I've already painted and started in a couple of rooms. But I think that as soon as they get their stuff out, I can actually tell more about the size and condition that it's in, and what I have to work with. I'm excited. I think that I may upload before & after pics.