Out with the old

Upon closing on the property our first priority was to get it cleaned up and cleared out.  I went after the inside and Dusty started work on the outside.  We had 29 days from the time we received the keys for this property and the day we had to hand over the keys for our other house.  With no bedrooms, and no shower or bathtub we had our work cut out for us.
Having been vacant for about 2 years it was grimey.  Thick, black cobwebs occupied the basement and corner rooms and bugs and dust bunnies turned up in most every corner.   I scrubbed and sanitized until it felt livable and then cleaned some more.  By the time I was done inside it was mostly rid of the musty smell and was beginning to feel like home.
The church we purchased it from left behind all of the church pews, all of their Sunday school furniture, various tables, chairs and other misc. items.

Just a sample of some of the lovely furniture we inherited.

I immediately went to work listing the leftover furniture on Craigslist.  I also started hauling the boxes and boxes of random decor, books, toys etc. from the basement and other nooks and crannies to the main room for a large yard sale.
We set the yard sale for the second weekend we owned the property and had high hopes of clearing the space so construction could begin.  I filled table after table with artificial flower arrangements, vases, lunch trays, coffee carafes, bibles and more, pricing most things around a quarter.  Foot traffic was light but a consistent stream of items left the building.  On Saturday an antiques dealer stopped by and bought all of the remaining church pews and they were hauled out that day.  By the end of Saturday the remains of the sale were re-boxed and ready for pick-up by the Youth Ranch on Monday morning and I had an extra $400 in my pocket.  Once those boxes had been hauled away it felt like a fresh start and a whole houseful of opportunities.  Not to mention that Radlee could now ride his bike.  In the house.