Georgie Part 5

Whew! We made it! Now to get to the business of fixing and upgrading things. While Georgie had good bones and was serviceable as he was, he certainly needed some love to be comfortable and easier on the eyes. As you can see in these pictures, it was quite a bit of love needed. The first order of business was obviously a good cleaning. That’s really the first thing you do anytime you move into a new house. Every surface had to be wiped down, and the carpet thoroughly cleaned…..I mean ripped out and thrown away. My Rainbow vacuum was sucking dirt through the padding then the carpet from the thick layer on the plywood subfloor. That’s when I decided there’s no way the carpet was going to be usable, not even temporarily.

Separate of the cosmetic issues, there were a few mechanical and systems things to work on as well. Plumbing being one of the major things. I was able to make a cosmetic upgrade whilst repairing some of the functional stuff. Just replacing the kitchen faucet made a huge difference in the look and feel of the interior. Along with that I fixed some leaks and removed some previous “repairs” that had been done to the pipes. The results speak for themselves. The fresh water pump was original and was leaking. So, it had to be replaced too. I also added a shut off valve on the water line for the toilet. All using push connector adapters and new Pex tubing. The holding tanks were also a little worse for wear and needed some repair as well as new dump valves.

After all that it was time to get all the appliances up to snuff. Which, thankfully, wasn’t too difficult. I was never able to get the generator fixed, But the fridge just needed a new control board. Easy job to switch that out with a new Dinosaur one. The rooftop a/c was acting up a little bit, bit that was just a loose wire. The water heater, the range and furnace all worked great. After replacing some heater hose, the furnace actually blew hot air out of all of its vents.

Now for the real cosmetic update project. Paint! One might think that a small space is easier to paint than a big one… not so, as it turns out. There were so many small panels and corners and trim pieces. It was tedious to say the least. But what a huge difference it made! The flooring was also a bit fiddly, but so worth it. I used a peel and stick vinyl “wood” plank, with an additional adhesive under it. It was relatively easy to install. Last but not least was the flat panel TV mounted where the ancient, tiny CRT used to be. I just never got around to finishing the flooring, or replacing the carpet in the living and driving area before Georgie moved on to the next owners.