Taking it down, and putting it back up again

Wallpaper. That may be the one word that described our house when we moved it. There was wallpaper EVERYWHERE. Most of it was ugly, most of it was old, and generally there were at least 3 layers of it.

With my trusty yard sprayer, I doused the walls in the house with vinegar and hot water and then simply waited for it to start loosening up. Then scrape, scrape, scrape. The piles of wallpaper generally looked like this:

Some walls were easier than others. Most were really sucky, though. I was at my worst while I was removing wallpaper. It didn't take much skill, just a lot of patience. It always seemed like it would never end.

After all of the spraying and scraping, I thought for a bit that I would never put up wallpaper. Well...then I started looking at design magazines and fell in love with the idea of at least one wall, somewhere. After searching through samples, I found the beauty that would be in our master bedroom. I was told it was as simple as spraying a light misting of water on the back of it and then hanging it. Uh, yeah right.

Putting up the wallpaper was just about as bad and taking it down. Actually worse, because I had put money into it. After two days of cutting, measuring and attempting to be spacially-inclined, I nearly ripped my hair out.

This image is what happens when you follow the directions of the manufacturer. After this panel fell down on Sean and my head in the middle of the night, I decided to just actually use wallpaper paste. That was a good decision.

Two days of aggravation led to probably my favorite space in our new house: our master bedroom.

My iPhone does not do the colors justice, so I'll replace these photos soon with some from a better camera, but the wall color is really great (if I do say so myself). It's a color called "weimaraner" from Benjamin Moore's Aura collection. It really does look like a weimaraner with a grey-silver look to it, depending on the light. The silver and cream of the wallpaper (by Echo Designs) is a great match.

Here are a few more pics.

I love the flokati rug we got to accompany our new king-size bed (which actually is my very favorite thing about our new house - how did we ever get by in a Queen bed for so many years?).

And I love this photo of my mom when she was young, riding her horse in Colorado. She looks like a little Mexican cowgirl...so cool.

We also just installed a chandelier that I think is too low, so I'll be replacing it soon. Or should I say Sean will be replacing it soon, as he is our resident electrician?

Someday I will have an upholstered headboard and quarter rounds on the floor (we need to add them everywhere upstairs still), but for Phase One, I'm pretty happy with it! So is our kitty Baylor, who loves to snuggle up next to the window.

The worst blogger ever...

Ok, so I admit it - I'm a horrendous blogger. I think I'm better at being a "do-er" and truly just got caught up in my work and forgot to document it all as it was unfolding. Many apologies. I am happy to share it, however. Better late than never, as they say.

At the moment, "Phase One" as we like to refer to it, is complete. I nearly lost my sanity, with everyday getting up, putting on the same old paint-splattered pants and saying hello to my friends "Impervo linen white" and "Aura".

From April through June, my best friends included:

Lovely white vinegar mixed with boiling hot water made a huge mess, but made as quick of work as possible at taking down years and years worth of horrid wallpaper.

I have a new appreciation for olive oil. Yes, it is fantastic to cook with, and I am doing more cooking now that I am staying at home. However, it's also the only thing I found that actually took oil-based paint off of my hands. A key ingredient in clean up!

So, with those fond memories firmly in place, I think I can now walk you through some before and afters. We are far from done, of course. So many details, so many big projects yet to go. BUT, I am happy to say that after months of sweat and elbow grease, we are finally in a home that is starting to feel like ours.

The Kitchen!!

I love my sisters. And not just because they are fabulous, fun and smart. I really love them this month because they helped me paint my kitchen. I know, it's a little selfish of me. But honestly, I was about to lose it until they both stepped in and helped me. It's amazing how much easier (and so much more fun) it is to paint with someone else. Meghan, my little sister, helped me paint my ceiling and prime the kitchen. And Kathleen, my big sis...well, she helped me do the WHOLE THING. On her spring break, no less. If that's not a good sister...you know what I'm sayin'...!

Here's a before:

This is the day of the move -- note the boxes in the kitchen. Hate the cabinets. It's really dark...just old and dark. Also, note the antiquity of the oven. That's staying until we rip the whole room up and start over. I have to say, I'm enjoying my electric oven. :)

One more:

These were lovely. And Sean ripped them all out the first day we moved in. Woohoo!

Here's an after of that same spot:

Ok, it's a bit messy -- consider this a "sneak peak" of the final version.We still have some details to get to (like a cushion on the bench, outlet cover everywhere and window coverings), but at least the fridge fits and we have a place to hang coats. I'm loving the colors!

Here's another:

I love having kid-art out in the open. And, here's one more before and after of a dreaded corner.

Before:

After:

The chalkboard door is a big hit!

So, while I wouldn't have chosen the cabinets, the floor or the oven/cooktop, it's definitely livable. I can be happy here for a few years. And, I'm so proud that my sister and I did it ourselves. Sanding, priming, sanding again, painting, sanding again, painting. It was a process, but we got through it together.

Now...on to the next room!

Two down, just a few more to go...

I took complete advantage of my family coming into town for spring break, and have been powering through painting bedrooms. After a few days of lovely kid-sitting from both my parents as well as my mother and father in law, I made some headway: Coleman's room and the guest room are painted!

Here's the before of Coleman's room:

Here it is "After":

And another with his "bunker" beds (he calls them that)...one of the many bribes in our move to Yakima:

The guest room before:

The after photo is still to come. Stay tuned. Now...on to the kitchen (with help from my lovely sisters!

The Room From Hell

Ok, I got the wallpaper off of the walls in Sophie's room -- the smallest room in the house -- in seven hours. Sucked.

Here's a glimpse into what the walls looked like mid-way through:

When I was taking it off, I had a feeling that the white walls underneath, which happened to be the only ones with paint on top of the plaster, were evil. But, I was so exhausted, I put it in the back of my mind and just kept on going. I patched the cracks, and knew that the next step would be to sand those patches and then prime before painting.

Sean offered to sand, because I really hate sanding (bless my lovely husband). There is something about wearing that mask that just freaks me out. Anyway, I was worried about the possibility of lead paint being on the walls, but Sean wasn't so concerned so I decided to not worry too much either. Sean sanded, cleaned up (thankful that we have a HEPA filter on our vacuum).

I primed the next day with oil-based primer, which nearly killed me. FUMES fumes and more fumes. But, at least it was primed. Ready to paint the next day...lovely.

Today, I went in to Standard Paint, and my friend Chris told me I should do a lead-based paint test before I did any sanding to the doors and windows. Seems that's where the most lead-based paint generally is. So, I loaded up on the tests and guess what?! Of course...we tested positive. Now I'm freaking out. Sean assures me that he did not sand the actual walls, just where I patched. But, let's just say that it was not our finest hour. We have now thoroughly cleaned it, and the next step was to cover it all up with the new paint.

It was even hard to paint. I think the fact that it was small made it just a bit harder to maneuver. But, here's a peek at it, freshly painted with Sophie's "big girl" bed in it.

The walls outside her room are not actually yellow. I'm learning that my photos from my iPhone are just not cutting it. Next up: getting a new memory card for our other camera, so I can take better pics...

Wallpaper, wallpaper and more wallpaper

I honestly curse whomever it was that decided to create wallpaper. Now, I know that it was necessary and stylish back in the day. But dear lord, why does it have to be so hard to get off? If I ever do use wallpaper in this house, I promise to do so sparingly, if only to save the poor soul who buys this house after we leave. I don't wish this horrible job on anyone!

While the job itself was pretty messy, and very time-consuming, I actually got it down to somewhat of a science. The key was actually to be "green." Initially, I tried steaming. Yuck. Took forever and dripped hot water all over our fir floors. Second, DIF. Worked a bit better, but the spray bottles were so small, I couldn't imagine using it on all of the walls I had. Then, my hero at Standard Paint, Andy, told me that what he hears works best is half white vinegar, and half hot water. I got myself one of those lovely sprayers for the garden, and set about hosing down each and every room. The key was to get the paper absolutely drenched...which meant being very patient. One of my biggest weaknesses. It was a long few days.

Now, the next step for these lovely plaster walls? Oil-based primer, wall patching, and then painting. I'm hoping to have the four bedrooms done by Easter. My professional life up until now has always required me to be deadline driven. I'm thinking that's probably not going to work with this house...but we'll see!

Chop Chop

Where did the weekend go? While I have always had an affinity for weekends, I look forward to them even more right now because it means I have more time to work on projects since Sean and I can tag-team the kids. I know -- we are quite the exciting couple!

First, we decided it was a good time to take down a 90-foot tree that was about 5 feet from our house. Now, I'm a big lover of trees. I planted five alone at our last house, and always felt a sense of pride in taking a tiny bit of CO2 from our air. And the old trees? Even harder to do say goodbye to. However, not only was this tree completely covering up our house, it was too close for comfort. I have a friend who had a very close calls with an evergreen crashing through her house, and I didn't want that to happen to us...especially given that the kids room are right in the line of fire if the unthinkable were to occur. Thus, our house was a hive of tree activity on Thursday and Friday.

Here's what it looks like now. Pretty darn nice, if I do say so myself! Now, we just need to figure out some great plantings, but I think that may need to wait until next year...