renovate an old house

well Phase I anyway.

The next project will most likely be the roof. I’d like to set aside a little money from this current contract to redo the roof (I know it is at the end of its useful life). When we redo the roof, we’ll put in the new dormers & windows on the third floor. THen we can get cranking on finishing that floor ourselves (it will be my teenager’s room). We’re planning on doing most of the work on that project ourselves and have our teenager intimately involved in it. :) We’ll see how it goes. I’ll add this goal back on if and when the funding comes through (or the roof starts to leak…..)

I was cleaning up the clutter of magazines next to my bedside table and found an old This Old House that I’d been saving. I flipped through it trying to remember why I was saving it. Ran across a great article on building a screen porch using wooden storm doors that you can swap in glass panels for the screens in the colder weather for 3-season use!! I’m all over that. I ripped out the article and started a Phase II binder of ideas!! Maybe in 2 or 3 years (when we can afford it) I’ll have the details all in place?

....realized that this is where I started filling the nail holes with the wood filler. I didn’t get many of them flush so they show little indents….I thought I’d done a good job, but I guess no. Its particularly noticable on the crown molding….so even though I finished painting the foyer today, I’ll need to go back and redo the nail holes and then repaint the crown :( My hubby says a man on a fast horse would never notice, but how many fast horses go through your foyer?? Its the first spot people will see of our house and I want it to look GREAT! Especially since we’ve spent so much time and money on this house….

But the color in the foyer looks fantastic and now the whole first floor has a coat of paint. I need to go back over a wall in the living room (only has 1 coat of paint) and the foyer again, and then we can take a breather from the marathon painting!!

....played with the kids and worked on a puzzle and made lunch. Then I only had an hour to work….but I cut in the foyer green while my husband finished the crown molding. I brought my two big frames of black and white photos of the kids to hang in the dining room. I need to order one more big frame, since I really should have three to cover the space on the wall.

All that’s left on the first floor is the foyer! I’m psyched to have gotten so much done over the last couple of days! The colors turned out great!

Got started and got one whole wall done of the dining room/living room. COLOR: Lenox tan which is sort of a warm tan with some mustard yellow. Very soothing and it frames the view so great!!

My hubby & I spent the day painting the kitchen. And oh, it came out SOOOOOO great. Love the color. It really ties the whole room together. A whole lot better than valentine’s day flowers in my book! COLOR: Smoked Oyster is like a deep brown/plum. Very rich looking.

Spackled and sanded the “boo boo” spot in the kitchen ceiling and then cut in all of the linen white for the ceiling on the first floor. LOVE the color. It blends in great with the kitchen cabinets!! And its so much warmer that stark white (what were we thinking….) Hubby is going to roll the ceilings with the new color starting tomorrow! (at this point we’re considering the first coat of white paint a practice coat…..)

Then worked on the trim in the dining room. I love my hubby’s new trim brush. I gave him a LOOK (raised eyebrows) for spending so much money on a PAINTBRUSH. But boy is it perfect for trim. I got the floor trim finished :) Can’t wait to start the crown molding!!

Note to self: need to pick up a small can of polyurethane to try it on the little strip of trim on the floor. We’re considering putting poly on it (like the floor) rather than painting it (like the trim).

.....and I was floored at how easy it was to pick out the colors.
-Smoked Oyster in the kitchen
-Lenox Tan in dining/living room
-Kingsport Gray on the fireplace wall in the living room & the big blank wall in the dining room where I’ll hang the black & whites of the kids. She convinced me to get one more so I’ll have three big frames of 4 8×10s along that blank wall.
-Camouflage (a light sage green) in the foyer and up the stairs
-Templeton Gray (teal/gray) in the powder room
-Linen White for the ceilings
-stick with the Woodrow Wilson Presidential White that I’d already chosen for the trim
We were done in just over an hour. Its so great to have a whole plan for the downstairs. It cost me $87, but saved me TONS of time and saved me from making some really bad choices! She even nixed the backsplash idea. We had extra floor tiles leftover, and I was toying with using them to dress up the backsplash area. She said bad choice and recommended tin tiles instead. We can’t afford anything right now, so will just paint. But I’m going to keep my eyes open for affordable salvaged tin tiles.

Wahoo! A great day at the house!!! I also had about an hour of time to put in cleaning up the basement. Its been a wreck since the plumbers came in to put in the outside faucets. Cleaned, vacuumed and organized. Made a good dent.

Finished filling the nail holes downstairs. Also finished priming the downstairs trim and caulked the big gaps between the trim & the wall in the bathroom (they were big). Primed the downstairs doors in the front hall (basement, bathroom & closet). Luckily my husband was there to help get the doorknobs off (I don’t think they’d been taken off in 100 years!). Tomorrow the paint consultant is coming. I’ve given up trying to pick the paint colors myself. I just can’t do it.