Moving in a Heatwave

Hello there!

We've been a little MIA on here between attempting to get the flooring out of the kitchen, figuring out where our property line is, and moving all of our stuff into the house. This weekend and into this week there has been a heatwave here in Pennsylvania. Of course this was also the weekend that we had to move all of our large furniture from the condo to the house (isn't that how it always goes?!). Fortunately, the house is less than two miles from the condo, so it was relatively quick - but any amount of time spent outside in the heat is exhausting!

We had help from both Brandon's and my families this weekend, so special shoutout to them for making this move as bearable as possible! Also shoutout to the air conditioning units that we installed to keep the house as cool as possible (which is decently cool - it will probably be excellent when it's not 95+ degrees and we're not already sweaty from moving heavy furniture, and opening the door repeatedly) until we can have central air installed. So here's a little rundown of what we've been up to:

The Kitchen

Two weeks ago I told Brandon that I wanted to rip out the horrible green carpet in the kitchen. Realistically, it was in maaaybe okay shape and maybe could have stayed for a while, but it honestly had a bit of an unpleasant odor and I felt like it was kind of unsanitary and needed to be removed before I could really be comfortable living in the house. Especially since that's the room where we prepare food - seemed like it needed to feel a little cleaner!

We discovered that there was tile under the carpet, which we believe was asbestos. Under that tile is the home's original hardwoods. We weren't entirely sure if the hardwoods would go all the way to the back of the house, since part of the kitchen was added at some point after the home was built.

Brandon spent DAYS removing the carpet and the tile (with proper gear/mask because of the possible asbestos) to expose the hardwoods. As it turns out, they go all the way to the back of HALF of the kitchen ... the other half has some sort of subfloor instead of hardwood. So we're not entirely sure what the deal is with that, but we will probably be laying down some sheet linoleum to cover up the floors until we renovate the whole kitchen later.

The tile under the carpet ... ALMOST as ugly as the carpet!

Hardwoods being exposed - here you can see all the layers of the flooring.

Clearing out some more.

All cleaned out! Next step is to remove all of the staples from the hardwood so we can lay temporary linoleum.

The Piano

This isn't exactly a home renovation story, but it's something fun that I'm taking on and I'm excited to see how it turns out. A few months ago, my cousin sent a message to a group of our cousins, asking if anyone wanted to take our grandmother's piano. It had been in his house for years and he didn't use it and felt like it was just taking up space. I told him then that I was interested, but life happened and it fell off my radar.

A few weeks ago it randomly occurred to me that the piano would be the perfect addition to our new place. I reached out to my cousin and asked if he still had it - which he did! He said he'd thought about getting rid of it, so I'm feeling pretty lucky that I remembered to ask him about it. He brought it over last weekend and with help from his kids we were able to get it safely into the house. This thing is HEAVY so I'm glad it made it inside in one piece!

I'm going to try and restore this piano. It definitely needs to be tuned and generally cared for, and the wood should probably be refinished. The keys will also need to be replaced or at least tended to somehow. I'm so happy to be able to save this little piece of my family's history. It'll bring music into our new home (once I relearn to play, since I really haven't played in probably 10 years) for years to come, and will hopefully some day be passed down in the family as it has been passed down to me.

Several generations have sat at this piano and played. And now, it sits in our sunroom, where hopefully more generations will play.

The Move

On Saturday we moved all the large pieces of furniture out of the condo and into the house. We still have until Thursday to get the condo fully emptied, so we decided to focus on the big stuff while we had help from our families and Brandon's dad's truck. We moved more dressers than I can even remember, a bunch of side tables and lamps, a large chest, a bunch of bins full of clothing and miscellaneous stuff, our couch and chairs, the dining set, and two sets of box springs and mattresses. It's actually a miracle that we were able to fit the box springs up the steps - they take a 90 degree turn and the landing is relatively small, so for a few minutes there we weren't sure if we would be able to get them upstairs. Fortunately, Brandon and his dad were able to figure out how to maneuver to get them up there, so we have beds!

It only took three or four truck loads and a few smaller car loads to get everything over there. We still have to pack up the kitchen and a few closets, but that's all stuff that we can do this week without needing a truck. I can't even imagine if we were moving out of a bigger place - the condo is just over 1000 square feet and the amount of stuff we managed to shove in it is actually pretty alarming - and it's not like it was overflowing with stuff. It's just incredible how much furniture and random items we keep in our homes.

I didn't take many pictures while we were moving (since, you know ... we were pretty busy moving), but here are a few photos and videos that I do have of the move and the aftermath.

Hopefully we will not be making another big move for a VERY long time! Be back soon with more updates. I'm hoping we'll have some finished (or at least somewhat put together) spaces to show by the end of the month! Don't forget to check us out on Instagram @stoneandblue for more frequent updates!

xo,

M+B