What we accomplished in August

It's been a long hiatus from the blog - but only because we've been working so hard.  The pictures won't make it seem we've accomplish as much as we did in July, but it's only because we haven't hired anyone to do help us this month. Everything done inside the house during August was done exclusively by us ... while Lucy watched copious episodes of Carebears on my laptop.  We are not ashamed to use technology as a babysitter.  It's all we can afford right now.

She's not complaining.

Our biggest accomplishment is the laundry room.  This baby took us ALL MONTH to do.  First we peeled off the two layers of linoleum, which was surprisingly easy because the previous owners had not use any adhesive.  Easy, but gross.  No adhesive under linoleum means water gets under there and creates some serious funky mildew and mold.  This required several scrubs with bleach water.

Real men scrub floors.

We installed new 'peel and stick' vinyl tiles in the laundry room.  This part was extremely easy, save for the high school geometry we had to whip out to figure out how to cut the squares that met the walls.  During the work on the floor, we were peeling off the wall paper.  This took us a lot longer than we had anticipated, even with our wallpaper peeling lessons from Juan.  After the wallpaper was peeled, we knew we had a problem.

The wall paper on the bottom half of the walls had been applied incorrectly, and then reapplied over that the incorrect application.  (Ah, parfait house, how I love your many layers.)  When we tried peeling both layers of wallpaper, the glue was too strong and ended up peeling off small parts of the sheetrock and drywall.  We were planning on simply painting the whole room, but in order to do that without looking like we live in a hovel, we would have to replace the sheet rock. 

Although Caleb learned how to sheet rock from Brian when he was here in July, sheet rock and drywalling is expensive and our budget is growing ever tighter.  Instead, we decided to do something else within our budget, but beyond our competence level.  We decided to add Wainscoting to the bottom half of the walls.  We found a product that made the process relatively simple for people who have no idea what they're doing, it even comes with a handy youtube 'how to' video.  The wainscoting put us back an additional $200, more than the $50 we had anticipated spending on paint, but it was cheaper than new walls.

And, if I do say so myself, I think the end result is quite lovely.  We used Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter on the top half.  We still need to caulk the areas where the boards come together, to make it look seamless.  We're also going to caulk the top and bottom edges to make sure water doesn't get in and make more mold friends.

We had some extra Revere Pewter left over, so I decided to paint Lucy's bathroom in the color as well.  It was a yellowish-ivory color before, and not matching the modern colors of the rest of the house.  The transformation isn't quite as dramatic as other rooms (mainly because we need to replace the ugly mustard countertops), but it's a step in the right direction.

Finally, Lucy's room is finished being painted.  Purple walls and dark purple ceiling - per her request.  We ordered some vinyl wall decals with trees from Etsy to break up the purple a bit.  We're in the process of putting this up, slowly but surely.  My mom has actually taken the helm on that process.  The blue parts you see are the contact paper that comes on it to keep it from sticking to itself.  By the time we're done, the contact paper will be gone and it'll just be white trees, green leaves and pink birds.

So, that is August.  We still have a few things to do ourselves over the next few months - finishing the deck and basement.  But the major action coming up is the demolition of the kitchen and master bathroom.  The designer and construction company have finally been able to come to a compromise on a design that is within our budget, but will still look really good.  I'm excited to see how that will come along - and hoping (praying) that it's done by the time we have to leave our rental house (Nov. 1).

What a difference paint makes!

While I was feeling overwhelmed with fixing up the house because my arm was broken, we decided to hire CertaPro painters to take on our major painting projects.  So, no, we're not John & Sherry Petersik from Young House Love.  We are not DIY masters, nor is this our full time job.  I feel slightly guilty about this, but the professional results are so beautiful that my guilt is short lived. Like, I'm already over it.

The Family Room is almost done - just one more coat of white on the brick.  I am so happy we decided to paint the trim white (and not just any white, Benjamin Moore's Chantilly Lace).  It looks so clean!

We painted our Master bedroom the same color (Benjamin Moore's Stratton Blue) as the Family room - because they're directly above each other and get the same light.   I love how airy it feels.

The 3rd bedroom, which we are optimistically referring to as the "nursery" (no baby on the way, but some day?) is also so much happier.  We used Benjamin Moore's Antiguan Sky, and figured it could be paired with greens and deeper blues for a boy or pinks and purples for a girl.  I'm also amazed at house the blues on the walls make the wood floors look more orange.

The most dramatic difference is in the office.  I do not regret for one second painting the wood paneling.  It's a completely new space (one that doesn't remind me of child molesters).  The walls are Benjamin Moore's Classic Grey.  We figured using a neutral in this room would allow us to hang lots of Lucy's colorful art on the walls without being competing.  

 

I am so excited about the transformations underway in our house!  It is really beginning to feel more like ours. 
 

The painting crew from CertaPro is mostly Latino - Mexican and Honduran.  I've brushed off my rusty Spanish in an effort to communicate with them.  Other than the occasional miscommunication (i.e. the word for 'hammer' in Spanish is not 'maleta'), my Spanish has gotten me some definite brownie points.  Yesterday I was at the house attempting to peel the wallpaper off in the laundry room while the crew was painting the gardening room.  Juan, the crew's leader, came in and very patiently told me I was doing it wrong.  In minutes he had peeled twice as much wallpaper as I had in an hour.  Thanks to Juan's free wallpaper peeling lessons, I've made some serious progress in the laundry room.

The coming week holds more painting and wallpaper peeling, but we're also going to try to finish up the porch once and for all.  We need to add the stripping to the outside of the screen, to cover up the ugly staples, and we need to stain the beautiful wood that was hidden underneath the many layers of carpet.  Hopefully, we'll also have time to slap on another coat of Dri-Loc in the basement.