My blog really dropped off there. I guess I owe everyone an update. I graduated in May and boy was I glad to be done. But also terrified. I didn't have a job and no prospect in the future. I searched for over a month and finally came across a clinic in small town about an hour west of Stillwater. It was backed up with cattle trailers and the older vet was semen checking some bulls when I pulled up. I asked his wife/receptionist/office manager if he might be hiring and it was like both their eyes lit up. They definitely looked exhausted. They told me to come back the next day for an interview. I did, and sat in a recliner in the clinic"lobby/office/storage" and talked with the old vet. We toured the meager small animal side and the more expensive cattle area with hydraulic tilt chute and alley, multiple pens, and a nice loading area. They said they'd hire me, pay insurance, and a small salary with hopes that I'd buy the clinic from them in the near future. I took a couple weeks to think about it and said yes.
So fast forward a couple weeks and we move in with my mother in law since it is about half the distance from where we were living. Now, I've got a 45 minute commute every day until I decided if I like the job, we can find a place to rent, and my husband can finish up his old job and find a new one. Well, the first day of working I was flooded with small animal cases which they said never happens and within the first week I had 3 parvo cases. I thought I was in over my head, but as the summer went on things died down and I settled in to things. I got frustrated not having a great bloodwork options, not having radiographs, and not having an autoclave, but I pressed on until I found a human hospital close by that would run same day or next day bloodwork, some vets to refer to for rads, and convinced the owners to get an autoclave. I've increased prices quite a bit, but haven't had the clients really react. Everyone for the most part is very nice. I spend most of my days getting cow poop under my nails, and most my evenings cleaning it out from under my nails... vicious cycle. I do almost all the small animal work and I enjoy it for the most part. I still have days of frustration when I wish I had a real tech or receptionist. Or when I have to drag 3 giant bags of nasty towels crapped on towels to my house and use my own washer to clean them. If I really do get the chance to buy this place I'm going to make a lot of changes/updates.
By the end of August we were really looking for a rental house and not having any luck started seriously thinking about buying one, which is terrifying. Fast forward to end of September, husband has found a great job, and we look at a house on a whim (the only house for sale in this small town) and put an offer in the next day. After a couple weeks of inspections which wasn't the greatest news and getting the sellers to put up more closing costs to cover the repairs we closed on Oct 20th and are official home owners, ahhhh. We've lived in the house for just over a month and still have barely any furniture, but we did rip out some old nasty, stinky carpet and some crappily mismatched tile and decided to stain concrete... and that was ummm, interesting. We got everything cleaned and patched (cause when you nail carpet board to concrete in leaves giant holes when you pull it up...) Here are some before, during, and almost finished pictures.
The picture above is the den (which used to be a garage) that had the worst smelling carpet. I didn't get pictures of the awful mismatched tile in the utility room, just trust me, it was horrid.)
Want to know whats under your carpet... this dirt. #dontusecarpet #worsethandrugs.
And here's the lovely paint under the carpet... and carpet glue and awfulness... and the cleaning was the worst part... it always is...
Here's the dog saying we are insane... and telling us to take out that rickety top step... so we did...
A view of the mostly scraped clean utility room.
So what you didn't see was the hours spent cleaning the floor with krud cutter, and then something much smellier, and using a shop vac to suck up the multiple water moppings... like 10 times... like until the water is clear... which takes forever when you see the nasty dirt that's under your carpet. Then, make sure you tape something over the walls to protect from over spray... unless you don't have baseboards and plan to paint after wards like what we plan to do in the utility room... someday, maybe... The picture above was after lightly mopping the floors and using a metal free garden sprayer to apply the first coat of acid stain (vivid acid stain in Jade.) It dries all crusty and ugly.
Next I waited for it to dry, put plastic bags on my feet, and in between the jade, applied coffee colored stain and let it dry for about 6 more hours. I really wish I would have let myself wait closer to 8 or 10 hours. I like it darker. After that you take a couple tablespoons of baking soda per gallon of water and either mop (I tried this first then got lazy) or just pour it over everything and then proceed with the water and shop vac until all the excess stain is up. It took 3 times for me.
Here is one of my least favorite spots... it didn't take the stain up well.
This is after it dried and before the first coat of acrylic concrete sealer.
Same...
The sealer looks whitish when you apply. I used a paint brush for the edges and a roller brush on a stick for everything in the middle. I could only find 3/8 inch nape which doesn't leave a completely smooth finish. Not sure if there is a finer one that would look better, but maybe.
More sealing.
Last picture of the first coat of sealer. I went the other direction with the second coat, but for some reason it still has some streaks of this direction. Just really try to make sure you get your coats as even as possible. Maybe I''ll get a picture of it finished and furnished.
Our next step is to buy furniture... but after that we are going to put new vinyl planks down in the kitchen/dining room... maybe in a week or 2, but hopefully before Christmas.
