Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials
You’ve seen plenty of photos, but it was ’bout time we got all 21st century up in this mother. Here’s the minimally-anticipated world premiere of our first video house tour. Sherry plays Vanna while I take on the role of Spielberg…and keep an eye out for a cameo by Burger. Enjoy it HERE on YouTube.
The weekend kicked off with what seemed to be our biggest plumbing project ever. Mainly because it required turning off water to the entire house (which involved me sticking my hand down a muddy, bug-filled hole in the front yard with a tiny wrench as my only weapon.) We were fixing a small leak the floor guys created when they re-installed our bathroom pedestal sink. It couldn’t be fixed by simply turning off the water under the sink because that shut-off valve was the very source of our problem. And the last thing we wanted was a leak onto our new floor. Luckily, we had been able to temporarily tame the leak by turning off
We got gorgeous new mocha oak flooring from Lumber Liquidators- here’s the whole rundown for you.
Remember that old wallpaper we found after demoing the chair rail in our dining room turned third bedroom? Well, over the past couple of weeks we’ve uncovered some other “interesting” design choices made by the original owners. For instance, when the kitchen cabinets came down we found this toothpaste green paint under the sink: And when the floor guys took up the layers of linoleum on Monday, they revealed the original faux-brick flooring (to match the faux-brick backsplash, maybe?): I can’t even wrap my mind around how this floor and the paint looked with the knotty pine cabinets and “green monster” appliances. But the kitchen wasn’t the only room showcasing questionable patterns and colors. This
Put a fork in ’em, cause they’re done. Actually, on second thought, please don’t get anything sharp or scratchy near the new hardwood floors. It took two full days, but the floors are officially in and officially awesome. It’s mind-blowing how they (along with all the wider doorways) totally enhanced this part of the house. It looks completely and amazingly updated…well, except for the still-gutted kitchen. Here’s documentation of the transformation: Old linoleum covered in construction dust… is now glossy hardwood. 4 different foors in 4 different rooms… become only 2. There’s plenty more to share about the flooring adventure, but it’ll have to wait because right now we’re enjoying our “new wing” too much.
7:30pm, Monday- SHERRY: Floors are looking great so far, right? JOHN: Definitely. You agree, Burger? (Burger stands in silent agreement) SHERRY: Do you think it’s weird that there’s no baseboard here against the brick? JOHN: No, it’s fine. SHERRY: Yeah, you’re right. It’s fine. 11:00pm, Monday- SHERRY: I’ve been thinking, it is weird that there’s no baseboard there. JOHN: What? No, it looks fi- SHERRY: TOTALLY weird. JOHN: Okay. So what do you want to do? SHERRY: Get a baseboard and have the floor guys install it. JOHN: But the floor guys’ last day is tomorrow and we can’t buy any baseboards tonight because Lowe’s closed an hour ago. SHERRY: Can you get it tomorrow
The last couple weeks we’ve had paint on the brain. And this weekend we finally got paint on the walls…and our hands, clothes, hair, etc. We had 3 reasons for the painting extravaganza: Flow: All the widened doorways make the house feel more open and connected, but our old schizophenic paint scheme (which included celedon, turquoise, seafoam, butter yellow, and about three shades of brown) was fighting it. Trend: We’ve seen soothing neutral colors all over design magazines and model homes, so it felt like it was time to ditch the turquoise for a more sophisticated palette. Necessity: All this demo left a lot of things “putty” and “drywall” colored, so almost every room was
We added instant curb appeal with two new porch lights to crisp things up. These affordable fixtures from Lowe’s really made all the difference, check it out!
I’m home from work today, and I get to witness Day 4 first hand. Unfortunately, all the exciting stuff is over and it’s basically just one of the Parker guys – Conrad – taking care of some finishing touches (sanding, skim coating, etc). Just like Day 3 all over again (apparently walls need a lot of finessing to look seamless). Conrad’s awesome. He’s even helping smooth out some other walls – like where the chair rail came down in the new third bedroom and where we demo’d the laundry nook. Once the joint compound is all dry, it just needs to be lightly sanded and the walls will be ready for a coat of that
When the cabinets came out on Wednesday, we uncovered some buried treasure. Well, if you consider things stuck under 50-year old cabinets to be “buried” and tattered old papers to be “treasure.” Here’s what we found: Coupon for 5¢ off 2 bars of Princess Dial soap (“the soap with moisturizing cream right in it”) Coupon for 12¢ off two cans of Campbell’s Soup for One (expires 4/30/81 – I was less than 7 months from birth!) Coupon for 15¢ off 2 packages of Soft-weve toilet paper A dentist appointment reminder card for Mrs. Floyd Pollay for April 28, 1971 at 2pm A Beginner Bible Story dated Nov 1958 A Storytime pamphlet called “God’s Helpers” dated
Day 2 with the crew was a rocky one, but still had its share of successes. The good news is: The electrician installed a new switch so we can finally turn off the kitchen light. The Parker boys finished closing off the dining room door with new dry wall. They also successfully widened the doorway that leads to the sunroom from the den. Now we have a nice, airy back entrance (the picture doesn’t do it justice) that will look great with our new washer and dryer in the newly opened nook to the right of the door. Now, the rocky parts: The electrician showed up so early (7:45am) that he caught me in my
The crew from Parker Home Improvement showed up bright and early Wednesday morning to work on the doorways and kitchen demo. According to Sherry, it was a long day with only a couple snags requiring emergency phone calls. One to an electrician (couldn’t move a light switch through a stud), the other to the vet (dog swallowed a jagged piece of plastic). But in the end, the kitchen got knocked out, one doorway got widened, an electrician rescued us (for free!), and the dog threw up the piece of plastic. I’d call that a successful day. Today, the Parker boys are back to widen more doors and spew more dust. The electrician is back too
