We made it!!

Fred and his dad putting the kitchen island together

Two weekends ago, we spent the first night in the house. We hadn't moved any furniture yet, so we slept on an air mattress... I'd like to say it was a wonderful night, but it wasn't. First, there are no curtains up yet in the bedroom, so the street lamp that is right beside the house was shining brightly into the room all night. It was a cold night and I thought a quilt would be enough warmth... it wasn't. Then, the wonderful air mattress started to deflate in the middle of the night. Our first night at the house was a perfect example of how the project has been... Nothing has gone right in our transformation of the house, including our time sleeping there. We have a real bed over there now... that shouldn't deflate.  I'm determined to beat anything the house can throw at me! It was very nice waking up in the morning and being in my home. The coffee maker was set up and we had gone to the store for a few items..... it's coming along.

Dining set

We brought over my beautiful dining set. It's perfect for the dining room. Although, Fred wanted to put all four leaves in to stay, which made our very large dining room look very small.  We took out a leaf and it still had 8 chairs comfortably around it. Now we just need a rug. We had gotten a red one, but that was when we were going to paint the room brown. Now, the red walls and red in the rug clash... that rug will go to the guest room. Now I'm thinking a pretty gold rug to match the gold curtains I want.

We're starting to move boxes and furniture. We still have a lot of packing to do, but there's time. We moved over the guest bedroom set and put up curtains in there. That will give us some conveniences. I have also moved most of the kitchen over. We're slowly making the house a home.  We now have curtains in all of the rooms, making the house look so much better.

This whole process has taught us a lot. Most importantly that if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself. Our contractor was great for the big things, like the kitchen, but when it comes to the details, I don't think as much time would have been put that we put into them. We have put blood, sweat and plenty of tears into this house. It has been completely transformed from a house that no one loved and sat empty for years, to our home that we are so proud to have restored. While, it has been very frustrating at times, I am so pleased with the job we've done and what the house has become. I can't wait for everyone to see it!

There's no way we would have ever been able to finish this house had it not been for  the hard work and dedication of Fred's parents. His dad has been at the house nearly every weekend for the past 8 months. He has taught us new ways to address problems and how to be handy. We are eternally grateful for all of his hard work and will never be able to repay him, although we'll try.  

We're almost there!

Fred painting the last spindle

After 8 grueling months, we have almost made it to the end! The house has been scraped- and sanded- and primed- and now painted! And, we pulled up the paper off the floors. I've forgotten how beautiful they are!

Paper pulled up in the guest room

Fred's dad working on spindles

The last few weeks have been hectic and we would've finished by now, but there were a lot of factors as to why we didn't. But, we made it! Getting the painting finished wasn't so much difficult as tedious. We have a lot of corners and trim and EVERYTHING needed a second coat. I'm sure we'll still come across places that need to be touched up. The house looks beautiful though. We're so excited to finally be able to enjoy our new (old) home.

Beautiful floors

We've finished pulling the paper off the floors and have gone through each room cleaning up where paint may have splattered on the oak toe kick. Then, we cleaned the house from ceiling to floor and have decided that we need to hand wax the floors. It will offer better protection for years, but it's going to take forever.

We also have a few projects still in the works, but they won't prevent us from living there. We still need to scrape, sand and paint some of the interior doors and shelves. We're also still working on painting the muntins of the windows. Fred's dad is doing an amazing job on them and there are only a couple left to complete.

Banister in the rear stairwell is back!

As we near the end of the project, I reflect back on what the house once was and feel proud and blessed. We have created something beautiful that we will be able to enjoy for years. It's almost surreal that we're nearly complete...... now, who wants to help us move? ;-)

Painting the town (well, the dining room) red

Master

We've been busy painting the last couple of weekends. Now, every room has color!

Here's the breakdown of colors:
Master- Labradorite
Guest room- Privilege Green ( or supposed to be- I'll explain further down)
Upstairs bath- Beeswax & white
Small guest room, office, halls, stairwells, kitchen- Canoe
Dining room- Showstopper red (or supposed to be)
Downstairs bath- White
Living room- Pewter Tankard

Dining room

Last weekend we really went crazy painting and put color on the walls in most of the rooms. Fred went and picked up the red. They didn't carry that color in the line we had been getting (We're using the Harmony from Sherwin Williams (low voc)). They only had it in the Duration, so we got it in that. It claims to be low voc, but it's not! It smells like feet! I put on the first coat which was extra bright and hurt my eyes. That and the smell gave me a massive migraine. I told Fred he could put on the rest of the coats. It was supposed to get darker the more coats we put on, but it's still bright red. I'm kinda of irritated about the fact that it's not the color we chose. I know that the swatches are typically a bit different from the actual color, but this is way off. Like fire engine red vs brick red off.  Fred loves the color though. It may grow on me, or I may not ever be able to go in the dining room without sunglasses.

Up the main stairs

Guest room

My other issue is with the guest room. I put the second coat on Saturday. It was late in the evening so it was kind of hard to see if there were any lines. The overhead lights are not very bright. So Sunday, I checked on it only to find that halfway on the wall, the color changed! It was where I had opened a new bucket of paint. They're supposed to be the same color, but they're not. The second bucket is an entire shade LIGHTER. So we had to repaint to that line and completely cut everything in again, to get the room the same shade. Grrrrrr. I'm thinking we're going to have a talk with the paint guy.

Office

Small guest room

The rest of the painting went well throughout the house. All of the rooms have had two (or in the case of the dining room- four) coats of paint. All that's left is edging to the ceilings and around the trim with the color. A few rooms have that done. I've been working on painting the trim. I still have one room left to paint the trim and then all the baseboards. There are a few missed places that need to be completed and then the stair spindles. Those, I imagine, will take me a day to do. I'd say we're getting pretty close to finishing the painting. Then, we get to scrub the house, clean the floors and somehow protect them.

Anyone know about old hardwood floors? We're pretty sure they're too old for the poly trend. We think they're waxed, but aren't sure. We've been trying to research the best way to clean and protect them, but it's hard to decipher through all the opinions online.

We have color!

It has taken us over six months to get to this point, but yesterday we made it! We finally started to put color on the walls. My house is no longer white, brown and blue. (white-primer, brown- hardwood floors, blue- blue painters tape). We still have a long way to go, but we're way beyond the half-way point.

Stairs and spindles primed

Living room primed

Last weekend, Fred's dad and I finished priming the house. Most of it had been completed, but there were a few odds and ends that needed to be done. I had to rim out the corners of a few rooms and take on the task of priming the spindles of the staircase. We have 90, so it took forever! Thankfully, Fred's dad helped too. He had also found another spot in the plaster (this time in the dining room) that needed to be taken out and redone. So that pushed us a bit behind, but we got it done and the dining room is ready for color- RED!

Master painted- Labrodorite

Fred spent the weekend painting ceilings, while I painted the closets. All seven are now done! Once that was done, I was able to start with the most wonderful sight of this renovation.... painting the master bedroom. We chose a color called Labrodorite (From Sherwin Williams). It's close to Williamsburg blue. Since there was so much of the W-burg blue in the house that we scraped away, we wanted to pay homage to it, by painting our room that color. It looks much better on the wall than as the trim color. Once I finished the walls in the master, Fred's dad started trimming out the edges and corners. He's almost done with it and the trimmed out parts look so good and gives it a great finished look. I also cools the room off some. With four windows in there, the rooms gets a lot of light and the color tones down the blinding sun coming through.

Guest room painted- privilege green

My next task was the guest room. This room is a color called Privilege green. It's a little lighter than a forest green. Once again, there are four windows in there, so it will get plenty of sunlight. The rest of the house will be a color called Canoe, which is a cappuccino color. It's also the same color as the kitchen. We're testing out some reds and trying to decide which one we like best. We're going for a deep red in the dining room. I don't want it fire truck red. We really like a color called Show Stopper, if we can get it to the right tone. That may take several coats. And did you know that if you paint a room red, you need to use a P2 primer? It has a gray tone in it to mute down the color. White comes through red easily) So now we need to reprime the room, so we can get the right tone. I think using the P2 primer will be better than having to put five coats of red on the wall.

The house is continuing to be a work in progress, but we're getting there. Two of the largest rooms have been painted, which gives us hope that we can get the others done rather quickly. Then it will be getting all of the trim and windows painted (24 windows left to paint). We're just a few weeks away from finishing- we hope....