Cleaning up Bertman House

The theatre company I work with, New Century Players, has been homeless since it's inception in Dec of 2003. Recently, the City of Milwaukie was kind enough to give us an historic home to use, provided that we clean it up, fix it up, and take care of it from here on out.

Given that said house was vacant for 4 years before we moved in, you can imagine how much fixing up there was to do. Kelley spent a day simply cleaning toilets - can you imagine what 4 years' buildup looked like? I can't and I'm sure glad Kel got it cleaned up before I got there!

Anyway, we all took to the house on this bright, hot June Saturday to begin patching holes, painting, and ridding our lives of the wood wall paneling (my eyes, my eyes!).

First, we had to clean everything off. Donna is sportin' the oh so sexy orange gloves as she cleans the wall and fireplace mantel.

Then, we took everything of the walls and began patching holes. Here you can see Nancy removing a curtain rod while Sarah and Rich look for spackle.

Joe and Rich took to spackling the kitchen - look at all those holes! - as Ellen, resident costumer and newspaper reporter, heads out the door to cover a story for the paper.

Armed with a paint brush, Elisabeth tackled the kitchen walls.

And of course, no theatre event would be complete without someone taking a goofy picture. Please excuse my multiple chins...I forgot not to pull my head in toward my neck!

All in all, we got a lot done, and there are more workdays scheduled for the future. Hopefully this new house will be a blessing. If nothing else, at least we won't have to store things in the basements, garages and vehicles of company members anymore!