Pardon My Dust...

All right. I finally have some pictures to share of my big renovation project! Hooray! It's actually not finished yet, but I think the transformation is pretty dramatic already. Let's take a look, shall we?

A while back I wrote about how I decided to strip the wallpaper in my office/craft room/potential 2nd guest room. Here's a shot of the "accent wall" in the room:


Nice, right? I took a close-up so you could appreciate the detail! The other walls were covered with something a little less obnoxious, but unfortunately, I was so darn anxious to rip it off the wall, I didn't take any pics! Anyway, as I started ripping the paper off, I discovered some sweet wood paneling. I had no idea it was under there. I would've just painted that and left it alone, but there were some tricky spots and problems... and let's not forget there was all this wood trim covering some of the seams that didn't fit together so well. Nice.

Under the paneling... plaster. Probably the original plaster from 1918 or whenever. Cracked. Falling down in parts. Not good. We started ripping out the paneling... here's a shot...




This next shot is probably the trickiest part of the whole room, the dormer ceiling. And, it was in pretty rough shape, though you might not be able to tell. I'm pretty sure there was a closet there or something.

I also must say that the previous owner of my house LOVED paint. LOVED it. So almost every single door in the house is painted, usually the same as the room inside, and the same as the hallway on the other side. Which means a lot of work sanding, priming, and painting the darn things to get them the way I want them... I won't bore you with those pictures now. But here, is what the room looked like today! (sorry if it's a tiny bit blurry)

Much better, yes?! I should've taken this picture a little more to the left so you can see the closet again, but I couldn't remember exactly which spots I stood in before...Oh well. I'm sure you get the idea! Dramatic, I think.

Obviously, it's not finished. My mom and dad will probably come back again next weekend, so we can finish sanding and then start priming (at least). I hope to have all the trim and doors painted and ready to go. This feels like it's taken forever and my mom and dad and brother have worked so hard to help me! They're such troopers! Thanks guys!

Until next time...

Up Close & Personal

My sister, her husband, and my nieces and nephew came to visit today and we took a trip to the zoo! I haven't been to a zoo in a long time, so it was kind of fun...though it was very sunny, hot, and humid and I felt like I was melting...and I got some random bug bite on the top of my foot and it itched and itched and then got all red and kind of swollen when I scratched it.

Anyhoo, the zoo isn't a huge zoo or anything, but there are some cool attractions, like Lucky the albino alligator, and the playful otters, and the giraffes. The beautiful, leggy, awkward-and-graceful-all-at-once giraffes. For just $1 you can buy a couple of crackers and feed the giraffes... so the kids and I did! Their tongues are super-long and they just kind of grab those crackers before you know it! Eventually, the taller giraffe came over and he'll allow you to pet him (the other giraffe has a bit of attitude and won't let you pet him), so we also got to pet a giraffe. He wasn't as soft as I thought he would be, and he was kinda dirty, but it was still awesome.

All in all it was a fun day and good to see my family. At the moment I don't appear to be sunburned, but we'll see if I'm a bit red tomorrow!

Weekend Warriors

This weekend was a do-it-yourself fest. My mom and brother came out to help me rip up the carpet since it still smelled bad and was still pretty dirty. I was slightly terrified to rip up the carpet because earlier in the week I had started taking down the wallpaper in one of the bedrooms (aka the office) and found...paneling. Wood paneling with all this wood trim in the corners, base, and top. Under the wood paneling? Funny you should ask! Looks like it is the original plaster, in rough shape. All the trim seemed to be covering the gaps where the paneling didn't exactly meet. I stopped working and waited until this weekend when I had reinforcements to help me assess the situation. It seems this house has surprised me a few times already, so it was with some trepidation that I faced the carpet situation.

However, we all thought there were wood floors throughout. Did I mention my home is 91 years young? So it wouldn't be unheard of. We peeked under the carpet in the corners, but it was tough to see and in one spot it looked like ... linoleum. Huh? On the other side, it looked like hardwood. So my brother started in front of the front door and cut a 3-foot strip of carpet. Here's what we found...


Nice, right? It looks like at one point there was a half-wall or built-in something there because the hardwood goes up to it... all that black tar-like stuff appears to be glue. For the kick-ass, 1960s, speckled linoleum. I nearly cried. And because we cut the strip right down the middle, there was really no turning back (plus the carpet and pad were disgusting, so it had to be taken out and everything cleaned.)

My living room is this giant 14'x24' room and the linoleum covers over half of it. After we uncovered more, it appeared that at some point one of the previous owners tried to remove some linoleum and realized how tough it would be and gave up. It kills me that the beautiful floors are covered like that!



We worked really hard for hours to get everything cut, rolled up, and bundled for the trash. Then we pulled out the staples, which is really tough work. We washed the floors with a lovely citrus-scented cleaner, which actually did help get rid of the smell of dog pee. I contemplated getting carpet just for the half of the room with the linoleum, but in the end, just couldn't do it (namely, I'm not rich and can't have the wood half refinished AND have carpet installed). So in a few weeks, the lovely wood will be covered up again... as well as the ugly linoleum.

But perhaps we finally exorcised the ghost of Puppy Pees A Lot. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

Oh, stay tuned for updates on the office wallpaper/paneling/plaster issue... that's another upcoming weekend project (that scares the bejeezus out of me).

gratitude [grat-i-tood, -tyood]

My family has been awesome always, but especially lately with all this house stuff. Last weekend my older sister and her family and my parents came to help move me in and clean some things up, which was great! My sister even wrote about it on her blog here. I'm grateful that they spent their 4th of July to help me and to share in such a big event! Thanks Mom, Dad, Tim, Kim, Ben, and Tessa. My little brown-eyed girl, Abby, even spent the night and helped me unpack and organize things. That 10-year-old girl amazes me with her selflessness ... she just kept saying, "Whatever you want me to do to help you get settled, Heidi." Thanks, Abby.

This weekend, my brother came from St. Paul, MN to help me too. I rented a Rug Doctor so we could shampoo all the carpeting in the house because there was definitely a lingering pet odor in the house and some spots in the living room. Boy did we work hard! Technically, he did the bulk of the shampooing while I did the pre-shampoo vacuuming, moved a few things around, and shampooed the stairs. I cannot believe how dirty the carpet was. We're talking disgusting, black water, kind of dirty!! Even after going over the carpet a couple of times, the water was still coming out very dirty. Blech. And I'm not kidding when I say the carpeting on the steps was nearly as bad as the entire living room! The smell has gotten better, but is probably not completely gone. It's most likely in the carpet pad, which will be nearly impossible to get out, I'm guessing. The previous owners did a great job of masking the smell when we were here for the showings and inspection... or they let it get worse after the offer was accepted. That would be my advice to a home buyer: if the carpet is staying and isn't new, write a professional carpet cleaning into your offer.

Anyway, my brother and I also ran all over the city looking for some new house numbers (you just can't see mine very well), a new mailbox, and other odds and ends. We didn't find everything, but that's OK. It was fun having him around, as always. I think that we're pretty entertaining for salespeople and whatnot, once we get going. So thanks for all your help this weekend, Brother!!