Friday June 1, 2012

 

Helping Jere & Kristen

Clean Out a House for Their Friend

Saturday, May 26

 

 

Who could this be?

 

 

Ian was having fun with these white curtains before throwing them over the second-floor balcony.

 

 

Jared carrying something down from the attic.

 

 

Jesse

The younger boys had fun doing this, because they could throw things from the balcony to the ground where Jere, Cerwin, and Josh carried them to a trailer to be hauled away.

 

 

The street-side attic (third floor) was what Kristen wanted to empty today – because this was their friend’s storage area.

 

 

After we got rid of empty boxes and things that were not worth keeping, the room looked much better.

 

 

This room had been full and the floor was covered with old strips of carpet that were tacked to the floor.

 

 

However, the other, almost empty attic room is now full of things for Jere and Kristen to go through and decide if it is worth selling, keeping, or should be thrown away.

 

 

This is an old row house (more than ninety years old) with two or three rooms on each level – basement; first floor (living room, dining room, and kitchen); second floor (two bedrooms, bathroom, and a small storage room inside the balcony; and the third floor attic with two rooms.

 

 

Josh and Josiah had the most difficult job of the day – bringing an old clawfoot bathtub in from the balcony. I expect it was put there when they installed a shower in the bathroom.

 

 

Jere helped them maneuver it around the corner from the second floor to the first floor.

 

 

Kristen wants to keep this, so they are taking it home for a makeover. She is not sure what she is going to do with it, but knows she wants it.

Their ninety-two-year-old friend, a widow, just went to a elder-care home, and gave them permission to keep what they can use. He was born in this house. 

 

 

Josiah and Josh preparing to take a mattress and box spring to Josiah’s house. He has very little furniture, and is glad for things from his aunts and uncles.

 

 

 

 

Ready to leave

 

 

After lunch Jana and Kristen began going through boxes of stuff on the second floor, sorting things by category.  The balcony is just behind Jana.

While they were doing this, I was on the first floor going through dining room cabinets and sorting things by category: linens; candles; small tools, nails, and screws; pens, pencils, and rulers; small electrical appliances and batteries, similar dishes, silverware, etc.

Cerwin and Jere spent their time loading and hauling two loads of trash away.

By the end of the day we and gone through almost everything in the second and third floor rooms – getting rid of obvious junk, but leaving many boxes of things to be sorted.

Jere and Kristen were very pleased with the amount of work we got done. Now they have the fun of deciding what is worth taking to an auction house and what should go to a second hand or vintage store. I am sure there will be another load or two of trash.