Kitchen Done

I finally have everything done in the kitchen that is going to be done for now. Eventually, when I get some other stuff paid off I want to redo the cupboards and stuff in here, but I like how it is. I am still working on before and after pictures, but here is a preview. I posted this picture of the retro clock that hangs above my kitchen sink:



And here is what that area looked like before. Basically it was a nightmare. The first layer of wallpaper came off easily, but then there was another layer under that. I have had no luck removing the first layer of wallpaper in this house. So I went ahead and sanded it down as much as I could, sealed it and skim coated it, primed it, and painted it. You'd never know that there was paper still under there.


more to come... soon (i promise!)

More done in the living room...

I think the last major trace of pink is gone from the living room and I couldn't be happier! Yippee! The good news is that the living room is very close to being done and I'm loving how it looks. The bad news is that James and I both wasted a lot of time painting these shutters and then I didn't even end up using them.

The living room had these built in cabinets that ran along the wall with the fireplace. The top 3 shelves were closed up with shutters, and the bottom shelf had a wood door with a big ugly knob on it, which is unfortunately not visible in this picture.



So... I took off all the shutters and James spray painted them. I then took them and did a couple coats of regular paint, and in the end they looked presentable. I went to take off the bottom doors and realized that I'd never get them back on again. I asked James what he thought about leaving the bottom part open. He thought it was a good idea, and I started to think of things I could put down there so I didn't just have a big empty space near the floor.

As we started to attempt to put the shutter doors back on, and realized this wasn't going to be a fun task either, James suggested I just leave ALL the doors off, and have built in bookcases. Great idea! Sometimes it takes 2 brains to figure out the best way to do something. So, here's how it looks now, all painted and finshed and ready to go. I was going to buy a bookshelf anyway, so this saves me space and money!



I'm also just so glad that the sheetrock is all finished. I was so sick of looking at all this insulation, as seen below. I can't even believe that it's been 5 freakin' months since I had that done. Gawd I'm slow!!



On another note, my shower is almost done!! It's all tiled and waiting to be grouted. I can't wait to post some pics!

Who has purple floors?

This girl, that's who!

Here's my basement, or at least a corner of it.



As you can see, the floor was a sad lookin' piece of work! I knew it needed to be painted but I didn't want to go with a traditional gray cement paint. So I ended up painting it the plummy gray that I was considering (and have now rejected) for the outside of the house. My basement is so pretty now!

Kitchen light

When I got this house, the previous owner had put a drop ceiling in the kitchen. I couldn't figure out why someone would do this, but when I removed it I saw what was going on, though I'm not sure if it was to cover up the damage or the horrible avocado green paint job. Who knows what happened here.



So, I chipped away what I could and got out my trusty joint compound and fixed it up as well as I could. I did get a bigger light that would cover some of the damaged area since I couldn't get it perfect, but I think it looks pretty good!

Front Entry

This isn't even totally done but I'm kind of in the middle of projects right now and don't have much to show. The entryway was, like everything else, coated in this horrible Pepto pink. Who does this? Anyway, I went with this kind of mushroomy brown color. I think it looks nice against the white trim. It looked like chocolate cake batter in the can, and it looked delicious.



You can see the roll of vinyl flooring that is going in there too. I'm just waiting until the hardwood floors are refinished to put it down.

Green walls finished

I've finally finished painting the 2 walls in the living room green. At first I was a little scared of the color, the first coat was very yellow and streaky, but after I finished a few coats it looked much better.



The next thing I'm working on is the entry way. I've already painted the ceiling, changed the light fixture, and painted the trim. I'll be painting the walls tomorrow but I'll have to wait on the new vinyl floor until after the hardwood in the adjoining room is refinished.

Dining Room Built In

I'll start by saying that I've had some problems with tendinitis in my shoulder, wrist and hand on my right arm, and since I'm right handed and need my hands to work, I've been laying off the house stuff for now because I need to give this time to heal. It's a bummer and it's actually got me a little worried about my livelihood, so I guess it's better to have the house take a bit longer to keep being able to go to work and make a living. So I guess I'll take this time to try and get caught up on posting some of my progress since the last update.

I got the dining room built in painted and added new hardware.





To the right you can also see the little door that opens up to the little telephone cubby.

First I took off the door and the wood frame. Please excuse the mess, this was one of the only horizontal surfaces to place things for a while, so it became kind of a catchall. Since I have only one phone jack, you can see I already had an electrical outlet placed in this area so I can put in a cordless phone.



I stripped the door and frame, primed, painted, added a new knob and put it all back together:

Living Room ceiling done!

Many thanks to my cheap labor and good friend James for his 40-some hours of work sanding, caulking, priming and painting my living room ceiling. I have been criticized by some people for not keeping the wood stained, but it wasn't that nice in the first place and that's so not my taste anyway. It looks so much better now, it really opens up the room. It looked a ski lodge before, and that's fine for some people, but it's not what I am going for here at all. Now I just need to get the new lights up to see if they work in the space, and I can get started on the rest of this room.

Bedroom almost there.

First of all, I am almost done with the bedroom. There is a built in armoire type thing that I had to paint and fix up, and I love it. It looks so cute now! All I have left in the bedroom is the refinish the doors.

Painting

Let me start off by saying that I never knew what a huge pain in the ass painting is. The prep work really sucks. I have so much wood with built ins and trim and doors, etc.. that I don't know if I'll ever get it done! One step at a time. I do have a helper. One of the main issues was the living room and the vaulted ceiling. I had hired a painter and they guy flaked out on me, never showed up or called. So my friend James is helping me for free (well, maybe for some pizza and White Castles). You can see the way it started out, with the wood stained black(ish) and pink painted in between. I'm going to be boring and do all white for the ceiling. Originally I wanted to put the color the walls will be (light lime green) on the pink area between the white beams, but that would just be so much more work. Too much taping, too much detail, too much to drive me even further insane than I already am from this!! Sorry for the crappy quality of this pic, I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone.