Preparing for an Appraisal

We will be having our house appraised soon for our refinance so we had a long list of items that we would like to have completed before then.

Some of the small things were pretty fast to take care of but others took quite a bit of time. The one task that kept Chris busy most of the week was patching and sanding part of the hall. We had been putting off this work for awhile because it makes everything inconvenient – the hall is our link to the bedrooms, bathroom, upstairs, and basement.

One of the difficult parts is keeping Tucker from walking on the sanded floor (he has a very runny nose and it drips all over the floor). We had to move his crate to the dining room and keep him in it most of the time.

For the last four months, the hall has looked like this:



We had finished half of the hall back in July and covered the rest of the floor with cardboard to protect it. Even though it was covered, a lot of sanding was required to get it ready for staining. Below are pictures of Chris patching the floor and his post-sanding hair.



We were finally able to stain the floor on Sunday afternoon and we’ll apply the polyurethane this week. Fortunately this area is very small compared to the other 1,960 sq. ft. that we’ve already refinished. It’s so nice to have the floor finish line in sight!

All Chris’ work kneeling in the hall has wreaked havoc on his knees. He has big burst blisters on both knees – Ouch!


We took off the doors in the hallway to make it easier to stain and polyurethane. The doors for the coat closet, half bathroom, and basement are the nice panel doors but had definitely seen better days (lots of stains, scratches, and dirt). A good cleaning and a few coats of white spray paint and they are looking much less abused. I also painted the hinges and doorknobs a flat black (we’ll eventually replace these but it was faster to paint them for the short term). I’ll be sure to post pictures of the hallway when we’re finished.

One room that we had completely neglected has been the main level bathroom. We have plans to gut the bathroom and didn’t want to waste any energy on making it nice now. However, in order to make it look a little nicer for the appraisal, we decided to cover up all the gross stains with some primer. It took me about an hour to prime it and put up a new light fixture – cheap and easy! It’s not a huge difference but looks cleaner.



Another thing that was pretty fast was painting the vent covers on the fireplace. They were an off-white color and stood out a lot. I painted them a dark gray that makes it blend in a little better (the picture doesn’t do it justice).


This coming week, (besides the floor work) we will be installing some new lights in the hall, foyer, dining room, and medium bedroom. The house will also be getting a really good cleaning prior to the appraisal. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this appraiser is better than the last one!

We want to thank everyone that voted for our ugly bathroom – we really appreciate it! Now all we have to do is wait for the results to be announced!