Update #3

This was an exciting and productive weekend in the Morrissey family home. Taire (Ben’s Aunt) and Kyle (Ben’s cousin) came to help out with the house. So our focus changed a little bit to increase organization for the eventual auctioneers to go though things as well as to get a few rooms to a live-able state. So that we can actually move into the house. The kitchen was pretty much there already. There are a few more cabinets to clean and dishes to wash but that’d not too bad.

Living Room and Guest Room

The living room and guest room have become our to sell/donate/trash rooms. They are slowly being organized and packed via banker’s boxes and colored dot stickers. The bed frames in the guest room have been taken apart and moved to the attic. And other furniture that we plan to sell has been moved into the room. There are a TON of really beautifully caned chairs that have been moved into the living room and stacked together. They were caned by May Morrissey to make money during the Depression so there are quite a lot of them scattered throughout the house. We plan on keeping a few but there are WAY too many to keep all of them. We plan on gathering them all together and then picking the best to keep.

The Master Bedroom, Girl’s Bedroom, and Playroom

The Master Bedroom, Girl’s Bedroom, and Playroom are the rooms we are making as living spaces in order to move-in. Between these three rooms, the guest room, and the craft room there were 16 mattresses and box springs. All of which need to be disposed of because of the mice. So one day was spent tossing mattresses and box springs over the balcony off the Master Bedroom. Because it was faster and easier than carrying them all the way down the stairs and out the door.

Girl’s Room

The girl’s room was probably the easiest of the three because Susan and Jane had already mostly cleared it. It really just needed to be cleaned. I cleaned the floor with a Swifer and scrubbed the edges with Pine-Sol because of the mice. I also wiped off the tops of all the dressers and things. I still need to go in with a vacuum and vacuum out the drawers and get something to put on the bottoms of the drawers. The mattresses were taken out and the bed frames moved into the attic. We brought Gwen’s bed frame from Ohio and we plan on putting Ellie’s mattress on the floor for a little while. So it is pretty much move-in ready.

Playroom

This room similarly to the Girl’s Room was already pretty much move-in ready. It just needed to be cleaned. The floor was Swifered and the shelves were all Pine-Soled and then Clorox wiped. The little daybed thingy that was in the corner was taken out because the mattresses were gross and unusable due to mice. Which ended up working out because it gives us a place to at least temporarily put the couch. Ben and I started pulling things out of the POD yesterday so some evidence of that is in the photos as well.

Master Bedroom

This room needed the most work. The mattresses were removed and the bed frames taken to the attic. The red carpet was rolled up and tossed, it was quite odoriferous and dirty. We also moved around some furniture. Some went into the craft room and some into the sell room. The floor was cleaned. The bookshelves still need to be gone through and cleaned. We also got two of the three new mattresses we ordered so they are decompressing in the Master Bedroom. This room is pretty much move-in ready. Just need to bring our stuff in.

Craft Room and Other Stuff

Craft Room

The craft room also got a bit of a mix around. There were 3 mattress/box springs under some boxes in there that HAD to go. They were disgusting. So most if not all of the boxes on top of them went into the closet to make enough room to get the mattress/box springs out. Taking them out opened up quite a bit of room to move things around. We added a few more pieces of furniture to help aid in organization of craft supplies like dressers and things.

Other Stuff

I learned that the original parts of the house were done with horsehair plaster. Meaning that the original portions of the house have lath between the wall studs. Plaster was then placed over the lath in several layers. The plaster was mixed with horse hair shortly before applying in an attempt to prevent the plaster from shrinking too much while drying and making it a little bit more pliable during drying. This knowledge does mean that the current wallpaper will need to be steamed off to prevent damage to the underlying plaster. And that checking the wiring may be difficult as well as the potential lack of insulation. But those are problems for a later date currently.

Thanks for reading and joining us on this adventure,

The McMullin Family