First day attack

Saturday was our first full day working at the house. We got there at about 9am. We brought the dogs with us. The previous owners ran a family day care business and left 4 daycare cots, or as we call them now, doggie care cots.

We started in the first floor bedrooms first pulling out all the screws and such. I scraped the windows as much as we could and we vacuumed the rooms completely.

Vacuuming wasn't enough though. We had to wash down all the woodwork and only made it through one bedroom. 

We filled all the holes and patched some of the ceiling. The walls are plaster...and very thick. I got this joint compound that is like fluffy frosting. It worked really, really well patching the holes.

We took off the huge radiator covers in the living room.  We think the cast iron radiators are less overwhelming in the room and might work better if not encased in the wood boxes.

We took off the mirror over the fireplace. It really isn't our style. Luckily it was just attached with four screws. Behind the mirror was some lovely wall paper from the 1940s. Some sort of classical garden architecture. We were trying to figure out if the wall paper was removed when they painted and as I ran my hand across the wall I found a soft spot. Wall money stash???? No... electric box...just wall papered over. Lovely. Something else for the electrician to look at.

Living in White Plains is going to be quite a change. Although our lot is 1/4 acre, most are half that.  We walked the dogs around the neighborhood and people overall were really friendly. We met one of our new neighbors whose back yard is adjacent to ours. They have a dog and a young girl. Our house is about 10 feet from their pool (they don't have any grass in their back yard.  I was working in the window of the rear bedroom and Artie said hello and welcomed us to the neighborhood. I literally could only see his eyes over the fence and shrubs. Artie said if we needed any help on a ladder with gutters or anything to just ask. We both haven't lived in such close proximity to people in years. These people seem like friendly fun people...so hopefully it will be a good change. We also think Artie is one of NYCs bravest. The former owner said the neighborhood is almost all cops and fireman. Hopefully that means a safe neighborhood. They said the chief of police lives on our street too.

Artie said "the house needs some work, but it is a really good old Italian house"... meaning the people that lived there for years.