This will look MUCH better!

Painting Progress in the Kitchen Downstairs

Hopefully this won't make the color mismatch between the counter and floor look horrible.  

I think the white looks WAY better than the wood.

See December 22 for a look at the glory of the full on Rose coloured kitchen

I threw some paint on the beautiful rose colored "backsplash" area just to see 

how it would look.   Right now it is plastic that we have to take 

down, but it will look much better in the antique white 

or the beigey/tan that we're going to put on the walls.

Ugly wood paneling? No Problem, just paint over it!

Perhaps the most retarded idea so far in this house is the second floor walls. See, this house has rock-solid plaster- and-lathing for most of it's walls.



















It's very durable, and there are houses that are over 200 years old where the original walls are still there. Now when this type of wall gets holes or scratches, all you need to do is take a $1 drywall spatula, and a $5 bucket of mud, and smear it over the affected area, then smooth it with the spatula. Usually, you don't even need to sand, but you can if you want it to be perfect. Then you can paint over it, or wallpaper.

Well, in this house, they apparently must have felt that having walls that were hard as rock reminded them of living in a cave or something, so they covered the plaster up with El Cheapo wood paneling (remember back in the 1960's when people thought that wood paneling was classy?). Who knows how long it was just the brown wood paneling with it's artificial veneer finish, covering all the walls of the hallway.
Hallway? Usually, you would put that kind of paneling in a study or den. They paneled the whole hallway, but none of the rooms. Then someone, probably a later owner, decided to paint the paneled walls, rather than remove them and have nice smooth plaster walls to paint on. They must have wanted just that little extra touch of class, so they used high-gloss paint. They didn't use just any high-gloss paint, either. They used high-gloss pale ORANGE paint.

It is much orangey-er than the photos depict.

The results were a super fantastic classy hallway -- if "classy", to you, means a woman with a visible tatoo of a flower right above her butt-crack.

As I say, "classy" is a relative term.

Weekly Recap

If nothing else I will hopefully do a weekly recap

Here's where we're at on 12/29/08

• I think about 1/3 of Dave's apartment has come over, about 1/10th of mine. Lots of books, knickknacks and cooking stuff.
  
• Yesterday we put the bedframe together, but had to return the mattress pad since it was a full. It said queen. That's Marshall's for ya! They had no queen size mattress pads so we got a bazillion thread count - egyptian cotton - super lofty one at Kohl's instead. But we haven't stayed over yet. Maybe Thursday. We don't really have furniture over yet. A dresser, nightstand and bed is about it.
  
• I have almost completed the downstairs kitchen cabinets. Should be putting the doors back on tonight.
• We have investigated, and found hardwood under the laminate floor in the front room second floor. Yay!
  
• I have removed fixture covers and patched almost every hole on the first floor walls.
• About 1/4 of the first floor is primed, too. Front room could be ready to paint after tonight. Have to bring over a drop cloth.
  
• We will sadly have to tear down some mighty real old plaster walls to open up the second floor and that is going to be a pain.
• Birds live in the bathroom exhaust fan on the first floor.
  
• There is less than 2 feet of counter workspace in MY kitchen(!) right now.
  

Going UP!

Lovely Third floor stairs

the room on the left (music room)

One Day, One Mouse

How many must die in this endeavor?
(I mean mice here)

Tuesday night we went and picked up a Craigslist furniture item then went to do a little work in the house.

We took the doors and hardware off the cabinets in the kitchen downstairs and sanded them down for painting. In the picture I haven't done the lower cabinets and drawer fronts yet. With white cabinets and a beigey wall color this kitchen should look much better. We're debating about new counter top. Might not need it after the paint, not sure if we can upgrade the whole place to the point where a really nice counter will get us any more $$

READ COMMENTS FOR DAVE's follow up!

Whoo Hoo!

Signed and Sealed!

We finally signed everything and this is officially Our House!

I have to work, Dave is changing the locks (hopefully right now!)

Then finding the home in here begins.

This picture is from Sunday, December 21, 

when we did our walkthrough.

It was snowing all day, when we got there Ken, 

our realtor was shoveling the driveway!

The heat was on and the electric was on, 

nothing was frozen AND all of the appliances 

that had been an issue were there! So after 

all that hassle they didn't take any of the appliances!

The works begins today!

here's a taste of some of the beautiful stuff inside

First Floor Kitchen - 

The first floor will be the rental unit, we'll live on 2 and 3

who wouldn't JUMP to have this lovely kitchen?

Rosey red counters and peachy red tile!

Yes, these are BEFORE pics.

We won't be doing an overhaul here for a while, 

we need a tenant asap

but this kitchen will get a neutral beige-y paint job, 

white cabinets (stove is bone/black, fridge is white)

and possibly a faux concrete countertop for now.

It should be really cute when it's done.

Ignore the last few optimistic entries

Because we are NOT closing tomorrow!

I am flippin' livid here!

Pretty sure the seller is stalling because they haven't moved out. 

Meanwhile their short sale approvals expire Tuesday, 

so we have to close Monday, or not at all.  

Or start all over from the send P & S to the seller's bank.

And, of course, I have a really rough Holiday deadline Monday, 

(as in it is one of my busiest days of the year)

Our current goal is to get all paperwork emailed to 

us over the weekend so we can read it, 

Walk through the house 8AM Monday, 

get check 9AM Monday on the dot, 

run over to lawyer's by 9:15AM and get everything signed by 10AM.

I just wanna puke.