Weird Paint Jobs

Buying a foreclosed house means that you don't know much about your house's history. But from looking around our house I know one thing, the previous owners weren't the best painters. Here, let me show you:

I get not wanting to paint the 9 foot ceiling awkward nook by the bathroom & attic, but couldn't you at least paint a straight line where you stop?

A roller is really all you need. Brushes are overrated.

You know, if the bed is there is there a point to painting behind it?

The wall, trim, crown moulding, ceiling, & doors are all painted the exact same flat paint in this bedroom. 

Test paint patch (same color as the dining room) that never got painted over

This is a nice effort, but the stripes are a little much for me.

Weekend Update #10

This is a late update, we didn't even go last weekend because of Christmas parties, this all happened the weekend before last. These updates take forever and life got crazy.

This Last Last Weekend We:

• got the mower bed off the tractor & put on the snow plow (with 2 extra people helping)
• partially plowed the driveway
• worked on the tractor (the control for changing the direction of the snow blower broke)
• shoveled the walkway
• sanded & painted the linen closet drawer fronts & painted the drawer insides
• started stripping the paint off the window & trim in the bathroom (3 coats of stripper wasn't enough, hopefully 2 more will do it)
• completed more steps towards getting the ceiling lights working again (getting power to the ceiling lights up in the attic is much easier than getting power down to the light switches)
• installed the toilet paper holder & hand towel ring
• pulled up some of the carpet in Bedroom #2 to see a big piece of the wood flooring
• used our BRAND NEW STOVE/OVEN!
• found a delicious new way to reheat pizza (toast in a frying pan with some oil with a lid or a piece of foil on top, then the crust gets pan fried and it is amaaaaaazing)
• had people over for social reasons for the first time!

Here's the mower bed off of the tractor:

And the tractor with the snow plow on:

Toilet paper holder!:

After 3 coats of stripper you can start to see the wood. There's a LOT of paint on this window:

There are lights in the kitchen!:

A peek at the wood floors hidden under our gross carpet. Once we finish the kitchen & master bedroom we will refinish these beauties:

Weekend Update #9

This Weekend We:

• saw the house covered in snow for the first time!
• borrowed a truck & moved a new-to-us futon into the living room
• tried to sand the linen cabinet drawers & realized a different type of sander would be better for me to use
• put new handles on all 4 doors for the linen cabinet, replacing the old latches that didn't really work
• mopped the bathroom floor & got off the paint drips from painting the cabinet last weekend
• put up the shower curtain rod & hung the shower curtain & liner
• replaced the back door lock
• ran the Romex cables from the basement up to the attic as Step 1 of a seemingly endless amount of steps to get power back to the ceiling lights (that used to be powered by the knob & tube that we removed)

We didn't get as much done this weekend as usual because of moving the futon in, but it's nice to start to have real furniture in there instead of just camping chairs!

The Romex comes from the box, goes up the stairs and

And runs up the stairwell in the attic and 

runs across the floor to the 1st floor ceiling lights

New futon!

New shower curtain!

New handles!

They used to have latches that didn't work very well

The Bathroom To Do List

Thankfully with a little shopping I can cross off a big chunk of this list. I hope to be done with the bathroom by January, except for maybe the art part because I want to take my time with that.

• replace the piping with PEX tubing
• replace the drains
• take down shower doors & caulking
• patch walls where doors left gouges
• paint bathroom walls
• paint linen cabinet & drawers
• power-sand drawer fronts to get old handle marks off
• wax the drawers so they slide better & re-install all the handles
• buy a shower curtain rod
• install shower curtain rod & hang up shower curtains
• buy a shower curtain
• buy a shower curtain liner
• buy & install the toilet paper holder
• buy & install the hand towel ring
• buy & install 2 short towel bars on the side of the linen cabinet?
• buy a garbage can
• buy a stainless steel shower caddy
• buy toothbrush holders for the medicine cabinet
• buy a floor mat & hand towel
• make a little decorative curtain for the window, somewhere between this and this, but I think with a little tension rod instead of a wood block thing
• reglaze the cast iron tub
• recaulk the tub, tile, window crack, & sink edges
• make/buy art to hang up
• take down the grody hooks from the back of the door
• fix, strip paint off of, & stain the door
• strip paint off of window, window trim, & the door trim
• stain the window & window trim
• repaint the door trim & floor trim?

Thankfully I am very happy with the toilet, sink, faucet, medicine cabinet, & tile that are already there.  Once we reglaze the tub I'm happy to let the bathroom go without major rehab for many, many years. With all the other major renovations we have planned, I'm glad that the bathroom just needs some cosmetic changes & a few additions (new paint, towel bars, toilet paper holder etc).

I don't think the linen closet will be there for the long haul, though. After getting intimately familiar with it last weekend I know that the fresh coat of paint didn't fully hide all the chips & paint drops from previous paint jobs. And with the condition of the cabinet I'm not up for all the work it'll take to strip off the paint & repaint. I think in a few years (5??) we will knock it down & rebuild something in the same footprint that has drawers that slide better, adjustable shelves, & a much better paint job.

Spring Project Goals

This Spring we want to:

• take off the snow plow and put the mowing deck on the tractor
• replace the basement windows & turn the old coal chute into a window
• replace the broken living room window
• strip the paint off the front door, stain it, and put on the new door knocker
• completely rework the front porch (this is the Big Project for my 9 days of Spring Break)
• spray paint (with ORB [oil rubbed bronze] spray paint) the front railings
• spray paint the mailbox to match the railings, fix the mailbox post
• plant everywhere! Let there be garden beds all around the house! Let there be a living privacy fence!
• put grass seed all around the well head & the north side of the garage where ComEd messed it all up
• powerwash the house
• wash the windows
• regravel the driveway (this might not happen but I really want it to)

Then we'll move in, get married, and get going on our Dreaming & Scheming projects!

Winter Project Goals

This Winter I want to finish up as many inside projects as we can before Spring comes and we have to get planting. Here's the list:

• take off the mowing deck and put the snow plow on the tractor
• change the lock on the back door
• finish up the bathroom (I have a whole separate list & post for that coming Friday)
• fix & paint the ceilings in the bathroom, dining room, living room, craft room & bedroom #1 
• paint the walls in the bathroom, dining room, living room, craft room, & bedroom #1
• probably paint the floor trim & door trim in all the rooms (but not the window trim or the doors themselves)
• strip the paint off the doors to the bathroom & bedrooms #1 & #2 and then stain them (they are painted white on the bathroom & bedroom sides)
• put new handles on the doors when we rehang them
• finish updating the electrical supply to all the outlets and the ceiling lights

That should hold us through March!  We'll revisit this post when Spring comes and see how we did.

The house from the South

Weekend Update #8

This Weekend We:

• emptied & set new mouse traps 
• rehung the bathroom light & switchplate
• washed the linen cabinet & drawers to get ready for painting
• painted 2 coats inside the cabinet & 1 coat on the outside
• realized the cabinet drawer fronts need to be power sanded before I can paint them (the imprint from the old handle is more stubborn than I originally thought)
• painted test swatches on the dining room, living room, craft room & Bedroom #1 walls
• vacuumed some of the attic
• emptied out the Shop Vac twice (dear god, THE HORROR)
• built a sawhorse
• fixed 3 gutter elbows
• winterized the gas in the tractor
• walked the perimeter of our property for the first time
• put a new outlet in Bedroom #1 that actually tightly holds plugs in it (before they would fall out at the slightest touch)

The vacuumed & unvacuumed attic floor. Dramatic difference, much?:

 A lot of our gutter elbows are crushed for some reason, like this:

The fixed ones now look like this & now drain normally:

Our house from the back end of our property:

This was a very crisply satisfying project:

 I wasn't a fan of any of the choices for the living room. They were either too bright (even though the two on the left are lighter colors there is a blinding brightness to them) or too dark. So back to the drawing board for this room. From left to right the colors are Surf n' Turf, Copper Patina, & Nimbus Gray:

I do like Nimbus Gray in the craft room, however. It looks much lighter in there. Probably because of all the windows and the south light. Top Left is Surf n' Turf, Top Right is Copper Patina, & the bottom is Nimbus Gray:

I love the Deep Ocean (darker blue) in the Dining Room for the back of the future built-ins, but I am undecided about the Ocean Breeze (lighter blue). I can't decide if it is too bright and too much of a baby boy's room blue or not:

The top ones have primer underneath and the bottom ones do not

I forgot to take a picture of the Bedroom #1 walls once it dried and before it got dark. But, I do love how it looks! Here, you can see the colors on the paint sticks. Bright & Early is for the bedroom walls & Kensington Blue is for accents in the room:

I did a whole post on Paint Colors already, click here to see it.

Later this week I will post my Winter Project Goals and my Spring Project Goals so check back!