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...

The family room: Part I

Yes, that is a window from the living room, looking into another room. A bit weird. It's going to have to come out of there at some point. The room is an old, traditional sunroom. Windows all around the room, and white tile on the floor. Actually, we think the tile is just painted-over stamped concrete. Who knows.

We think this is going to be a great family room/TV room until we take the plunge and finish off the unfinished basement. That's going to take some time for us to get there, and with our two kids, we need a family and kids zone. The tile/concrete is not in the least bit cozy. So, we found a "low-cost" carpet to tide us over in there for a while.

And did I mention the wall paper? Yeah, it's not cute. A bamboo motif of some sort. We decided this will be the first room to really dig into so we have a place to hang out in the evenings.

It our haste to get at least one room done, we decided to try to get the wallpaper down and paint before the carpet was installed (today). The first layer of wallpaper came off pretty quickly. And then...surprise! Another layer underneath, plus the added benefit of it all being held up by nothing more than tack board. No plaster, no drywall. Hmm. Interesting.

I figured I'd try to patch the areas where the tack board was, and then paint over the wallpaper. Great idea, except that not only did the wallpaper buckle, it started peeling more in certain areas.

My darling husband thought it would be fine, but I knew deep-down it wouldn't. I decided to call in some experts, who all gave me different advice. After a very calming trip to Standard Paint and Wallpaper, my new best friend is Andy. Andy verified that my best choice is to strip it all, then paint with an oil-based primer, then float the seams on the walls with mud, prime it again, then spray a texture spray on it....THEN paint it.

We'll see what happens! The good news is, there is carpet...and now I'm going to take the night off for sanity.

In the beginning....

There was carpet. Crap carpet. And a lot of it. So the day we got the key to the house (Tuesday, March 2nd, at around 4:30pm to be exact), Sean and my dad ripped it up. All of it. Our new neighbors were somewhat in awe of the ripping. I made a great first impression by bringing beer and pliers to rip up carpet tacks.

What you are seeing here is my darling husband pulling out the big tacks from Coleman's soon-to-be bedroom.

But, that was the first night. It seemed uber important to pull it all up. Didn't happen. The Stella Artois tasted great, however.

The following photos help document the action of the evening. I should have taken more...

My dad, Denny, sweeping.

The remnants of carpet tacks.

It's about time...

I know, I know...I promised I would document it all. It's been a bit crazy this past week, and taking pictures has been my downfall. Our new house in Yakima - 303 N. 22nd (otherwise known as Linden Way) has so far been pretty darn great. The real estate flier called our house a "grand lady" just waiting for the right family to bring her back to her old glory. She is grand, indeed. A classic colonial, built in 1924. Poor thing has been pretty neglected, though, and I am really excited to make her shine.

Aside from being empty and very echo-ey, I can envision what we want. The trouble is going to be getting there, because it's basically going to be me during the week, and me and Sean during the weekends. In other words, it's going to be slow going. But, exciting at the same time. With that, I give you...The Russel's Redux!