Based on how you look at it, we got a screamin’ deal on our house. You could also just consider us crazy. After all, who wants to deal with a bat infestation, pink walls, a garage with a broken door, mold, and a huge crack in the floor….the list goes on. We do. Or, rather, we thought it was yet another house we could tackle to gain some good old-fashioned sweat equity.

This weekend, we tackled the outside of the garage. My husband and his friend had already cut out the cement floor and the addition that we dubbed “the bat room” was cleaned and dismantled months ago.

We had a new garage door installed on Wednesday, the nice father and son duo working until after nine at night to get it completed. We picked up some burritos and were glad to send them with dinner for the road (along with a bag of homemade cookies).

The majority of the materials arrived from Home Depot (as the local lumber store was out) and so we got to work tearing off the siding. The ring of a hammer against the end of a cat’s paw to tear out the nails was a particularly loud sound in our sleepy little town. It took a few tries for me to get the hang of it, but then I was able to do it much quicker.

On a previous project, my husband had picked up a metal sweeper and it’s been a lifesaver for projects. (affiliate link) Our last place had a ton of nails and screws in the yard (the previous owner was a backyard mechanic) and the sweeper picked up all the metal we couldn’t see, so no rusty nails going through my feet! It’s also helpful when you’re fixing eyeglasses and lose the little screw.

After a hard day’s work and with the house being closed due to the heat and wildfire smoke, we decided to splurge and get take-out. Sadly, we found that our favorite little neighborhood store/deli/burger place/