Honey, I just ripped down the wall :-)

So while Nick is away on a job, I decided to tackle a bunch of home improvement projects.  One of my biggest problems is that I don’t finish one before i start another one.  But oh well…it had to be done.   The previous owner had covered the old plaster with some sort of weird 60′s homosote.  I couldn’t take it (obviously), so I began ripping it down tonight.  Here’s the progress.

I think Nick is going to be surprised when he gets home and see my handiwork.  Oops!

A new project begins: The powder room

First let me explain something.  My house has a full bath (upstairs) and an old servants “bathroom” downstairs that is actually only a closet with a toilet in it.  NO SINK.  And unfortunately there is no room to expand on either side (it’s blocked in by a stairwell and an exterior brick wall).  Anyways, this weekend I decided I would tackle the half bath by peeling the wallpaper.  It had been painted over several times, so I thought this was going to be difficult…but not so.   (Meanwhile, keep in mind it’s hard to photograph since it’s so small.)

A general idea of what I’m working with.

Here’s what the old wallpaper looked like when I started peeling.

Progress made.  I ended up peeling a lot of wallpaper in no time!  However as I began to keep peeling I realized that the exterior wall was covered by a weird 50′s wallboard that was super soft and not worth painting over.  So I poked a small hole…and then the next thing you know I’d torn all the wall board down and discovered an old exterior doorway that gave me an extra 8″ in depth where I’d be able to create built-in shelves!!  In a space this small…every centimeter counts!

Wow!!  I was thrilled to have found an old doorway!  At the bottom of the pic is the old baseboard.  I’m so thrilled!!  Now I have to either sheetrock or use beadboard to close it in.  (Oh, and install some foam insulation.)  I can’t wait to get you the after pics soon.

Lastly, I did some digging online and found the perfect sink for my teensy little powder room.  It’s only 8″ deep! If you have a teeny, tiny space and are looking for a sink, I can’t recommend this one enough.  It’s from the Whitehaus Jem collection and is so cute in person.  Vintage Tub & Bath had the cheapest price on it, plus free shipping.

Duh! How did I forget to officially post “after” pics of my guest room?!

It’s been almost a hundred years since we actually finished the guest room, but I just realized that I never officially posted the “after” pictures of our work.   (If you like to snoop like me, then you may have already poked around my flickr and seen them, but since 99.9% of you don’t do that…I thought it might be nice to share.)  And because everyone needs a healthy dose of perspective, here are the BEFORE shots:

Pretty bluesy, right?  I mean…those mirrored closet doors made me want to poke an eye out.  (Not to mention one of them had broken glass.)   Anyways…so here is our AFTER shots:

Yes, you are correct our floors are slightly slanted…as is easily visible in shot #2.  Also, here’s the post showing the original inspiration for the guest room makeover.  On a completely un-related note, Nick has decided that whenever someone comes to visit and stays in our guest room he’d take a portrait of that guest(s), and we’d start a portrait collection.  And here’s the first one he did to celebrate our first guest since the room’s overhaul.  (It’s my best friend and soon-to-be maid of honor Ashley.)

And of course, all photo credit for the AFTER shots goes to Nick.   All the BEFORE shots….well those were all mine. 

Thoughts on paint removal

As I mentioned previously, it’s been almost a year since we first started the bannister scraping process.  We got seriously discouraged after using Peel Away because although it did help remove the paint, it also created a bigger mess/hassle than it was worth.  A goopy slurry (as we called it) ended up on the floor and lots of other places too.  And at the end of the day, the scraping process was kind of becoming a smearing process.  Ugh.  Yuck.

So after our long winter hiatus, we tackled it again…with nothing more than a little elbow grease this time.  And I’m proud to say that it turns out that just a plain ole scraper + some muscle was the best combination for quickly removing the paint.

Our main tool of choice was the one shown in the first photo.   It was really able to get the majority of the paint off and done really quickly.   The second spackle knife (second photo) was smaller and better at detail work in the curvy parts.  Now we’ve basically gotten the entire bannister railing paint free.  We just need to sand it down and polyurethane it.  (I’m considering using tung oil on it since it worked so well for my kitchen floors.  Not sure yet which way to go on this one.)

Anyways…that’s the update.  I felt compelled to give a final analysis of it.  My friend Marisa also swears by the heat gun, which I’ve not used before…but may consider borrowing next time I have a lot of surface area of paint to remove.

Once we get the whole thing sanded down and finished, I’ll post final pics.

Guest Room (in progress update)

Reminder.  Here’s how it used to look.

Here’s the new wall color.  Note that the trim hasn’t been painted yet.  (Although it’s not going to be terribly far from what it is now.)  Also the ceiling has been re-done in this room.   Woohoo!!  Now it’s not super gross looking.

I recognize that it appears basically like off-white in these pics.  And I’ll be honest…it kind of is.  Originally I wanted to do it a wild color, but then I changed my mind.  Oh well.  What can I say?  I can’t wait to finish this room.  Once this is done, I’m planning on doing a photo update on several rooms of the house including the dining room, living room, bathroom, and guest room.   The winter doldrums have had me in their clutches, and I’ve got very few projects done on the house.  But it’s a new year, and I’m trying to motivate again.  Because come spring, I have a whole NEW batch of things to do on the house.

OMG…I’ve got renovation fatigue!

I don’t know quite what to say about the renovation work on my house these days.  I’ve got a bathroom that’s still not finished, a guest room that needs wall repair and painting, front windows that need fixing, floors that need sealing, paint that needs removing, curtains that need sewing…and the list goes on.  You name it, and I need to work on it.

Oh my goodness, I think I’m hyperventilating…  (And those are just the projects that I’ve STARTED.  I’m not even going to discuss the ones I haven’t started yet.)

For those of you that live in an old house and are doing renovations, have you ever gotten to that point where you just want to throw your hands up in the air and give up?  Well, I kind of feel that way this weekend.  There is just sooo much to do! Everyday I read all the design blogs and see everyone talking about all the cute things they’re doing in their house, and I look around at the ton of work still left undone… and just feel frustrated.  My expectation of myself is that I should be able to make things look perfect.   I expect perfection of myself and my house.  And so…right now I’m frustrated.

I can’t be the only one out there that’s going through this.  Are any of you feeling the same way?

The BIG kitchen reveal!

Well, it’s been quite a few months since I moved into the new house, and quite a bit of that time was spent obsessing over the kitchen during the renovation process. Gutting it down the bones, and building it back. Well, finally I give you the before and after photos!!

Before:

After:

More photos after the jump…

Trying to keep my head above water

Okay…I realize that I’ve been slack.  I haven’t posted anything here in weeks!!  (How DARE I?)  But the reason for that is that I’ve been trying to unpack boxes in the new house whilst traveling for work….and also preparing for the impending renovation that begins on the 14th.   Did you hear me?  THE 14th!!! 

Let the demolition begin.  I can’t wait since I don’t have a shower at the moment.  But in the meantime, I’m furiously trying to buy things like faucets, toilets, tile, garbage disposal, paint, etc.  When I signed up for a project, I didn’t realize just how big this one was going to be.  Don’t even get me started on the giant mulberry tree in the backyard.  I’ll save that for another post.