Hallway is Done!

So I took on the task of re-painting the downstairs hallways/staircase/upstairs hallway.  I finished a few days ago and I'm pretty happy with the results.  I painted the ceiling too - I hate painting textured paint.  But what can you do?

View from the kids' room.  Next project - work on the floors.

The pictures are up!

I still have to paint some mouldings and the doors - but that shall come later.

James' backsplash project turned into a "new countertops & backsplash" project.  We bought really pretty glass mosaic tiles for the backsplash and will be picking out beige marble tiles for the countertops.  This better "complete" the kitchen...only took us 3 years, 1 month to do.  We're on day 5 now with no kitchen sink and I've been in really good spirits about it.  We went 6 days with no kitchen sink on our first "kitchen re-do" 2 1/2 years ago and I went nuts.  I must have better hormones flowing through my body now than I did back then.  I don't want James to rush - if this is "it" - then I want him to take his time to make sure everything is good.  Hopefully we'll have some completed pictures of this soon! 

We're Back At It!

Winter sucks.  It's cold, it's snowy and it's not even almost over.  I'm also in that stircrazy mode.  I like change.  I like to move.  We've been here for over 3 years now and I need some excitement!  So I finally got off my lazy butt and decided to do something about it:  Paint the hallway/stairway/upstairs hallway. 

We painted this about 2 1/2 years ago.  Unfortunately, the color I picked out then, which seemed nice on the card, came out "old lady pink".  This time around, we went with some "oat gold" color.  Tan/Beige if you will.  This is so far (my battery died when I took this so it didn't come out too good). 

So far, much better than "old lady pink". 

James took on a project too - but I will wait until he's all done to post the pictures...I like leaving people in suspense.  

Front Hallway - Tiling Has Begun!

James tiled the floor yesterday.  We now just have to wait 24 hours and then he can put the grout down.  We just continued the kitchen tiles into the hallway.  We bought a bunch of them what, like 2 years ago when we tiled the kitchen.  We finally put them to use.

I also painted the kitchen green a few days ago.  Here I am in my homemaker apparel to show it off.  I need to organize the kitchen some before I "show it off" more.  Plus, it doesn't help that there is the front hallway radiator just sitting in the middle of the kitchen.  I really like it though.  We used the same green as we did in the dining room and it is definitely more of what we had in mind as far as a "finished" kitchen than that awful blue.  The blue wasn't a bad color by itself - it was just bad in our kitchen.  I even painted our backdoor green!  I think it looks great.  Since it's raining today and Ben's camp got cancelled, maybe I can actually organize this place.  I am probably jinxing myself.

Tile That Floor James!

While we were away in CT for the weekend, James got bored.  He ripped up the flooring in our front hallway.  We came home to this:

It brought back flashbacks from living in our un-done kitchen back in 2008.  Since this, James laid down some plywood, cement board and has all the tiles cut to put down.  We're just waiting for this weekend when he should have enough time off in a row to actually lay the tiles.  We're just continuing the tiles we put down in our kitchen 2 years ago.

Home Improvements are always more fun with a 2 year-old helping you!

Painting & Electrical

It's been a productive weekend so far!  I finally finished up painting the downstairs hallway and stairway.  That's good.  James says it looks old lady-ish but I like it!  

Oooh!  It's so pretty I can hardly contain myself!  The mouldings shall come another day!

This is James slaving away in the basement.  He's stapling wires along beams in the hopes of having a new electrical service one of these days!  

Painting Away!

All I've been doing is priming ceilings, painting ceilings, priming walls, painting walls, thinking of painting mouldings.  It will never stop.  

Here's the hallway and staircase so far.  It's still the first coat and I have decided that since I need to buy another gallon anyways, I'm going to buy the satin finish and use that as my second coat.  Duh.

Here is our bathroom!  James told me to pick out a yellow.  I went to Lowe's with Ben and Tom.  It is not easy to pick out a color with two toddlers running around.  Plus, staring at the 109 different shades of yellow made me slightly delusional.  So I went to some "Inspiration" display where they had the "trendier" colors.  There is was - Sunbeam!  It was our bathroom color to be (mostly due to the fact that I was very ready to get out of the store).  So now, whenever you use our downstairs bathroom, it will be like rays of sun are shining down at you.  

Again, this is still the first coat and I wasn't ready yet to do the detail near the ceiling.  Maybe tonight once both boys are sleeping.

Starting The Front Hallway!

It was a successful day in our minds yesterday!  First, James finished up the prep work in the downstairs bathroom so I can call the plasterer guy today and have him come over to put walls up in there!  Woohoo!  I started priming and painting the downstairs entryway and stairs.  

My lovely ceiling paint job!  It's my fouth ceiling I've painted so I should be good at it by now!

I primed in the morning and started painting after dinner.  I did around some mouldings and around the staircase.  I want to do the second coat very soon so we can get the radiator hooked back up. This top picture makes it look very beigey but it's not.  

I'm in sort of a dilemma.  Now I've bought about 12 gallons of paint since we've moved here.  Probably about 20 in my life.  I use a Satin finish to paint walls.  I know this.  So for whatever reason, I asked Dan the paint guy to give me Tagsdale Linen in Flat.  Why?  I don't know.  I didn't even realize I bought Flat until James pointed it out after I started painting.  So I'm not sure if I should just stick with the Flat or maybe buy a Satin to use as my second coat?  We're using this color throughout the entire downstairs entryway, stair case and the upstairs hallways - so we'll def. need a second gallon.  I'll have to think about it.

The Hallway Is Plastered - Onto the Bathroom!

Ou Irish Plasterer friend came and did our hallway the other day.  I am happy but now I have to get to priming and a painting.  Blah.

Now we are onto the Half Bath downstairs.  Irishman plasterer gave us a quote to do the work that we couldn't refuse!  So we're doing some prep work so he can hang the drywall and plaster.  

James removed all the floor.  Well I removed some of the stray tiles (that was fun!).  But he cut out the original hardwoods and some linoleum from the 40s.  We have to lay plywood and cement board for the tile we'll lay down.

I removed the last of the plaster on the walls!  Messy, but worth it!  Now we just have to run one wire (pretty easy), lay the new plywood, and add one more stud so Mr. Irishman can come back and get our bathroom looking good!

Plastering Away!

I'm stuck upstairs with the kids this morning because our Irish friend is over plastering away our front hallway.  I'm so excited to have this done so I can prime and paint away!  

He gave us a great quote on hanging drywall and plastering the downstairs bathroom so we think we're going to go ahead and have him do that too.  We just have some prep work to do before he can do that.  Hopefully we can pump that out in the next couple weekends to be able to have him help us finish the downstairs bathroom!

Electrical and NO MORE WALLPAPER!

James had Sunday off from work so he got busy running more electrical wires.  It takes a good couple hours to run just a couple wires but it's getting there.  He also stapled a bunch of wires in the basement that he's been meaning to do.

James busy with his work.

A couple days ago, I finally finished taking down all the wallpaper!  I successfully did the living room, dining room, kitchen and front hallway all by myself!  It only took me almost a year, but I did it!

Since James is working so much overtime, we think we're going to hire our Irish plasterer guy to fix up the front hallway.  Apparently that single door there into the living room was actually once a big doorway.  I think it would look better opened up again but we're not going to do that.  Too much work.  I told James that I could plaster up the hallway but I don't think he has faith in my plastering abilities.  I don't blame him.  I don't have faith in my non-existent plastering abilities either.  Oh, and I added pictures of random holes in the walls and ceilings that need fixing too.  

A Refridgerator in Our Kitchen!

After months of having our refrigerator in our front hallway, we finally moved it to it's permanent home!  Unfortunately, there is an extension cord for it right now (we'll get our electrical upgraded someday!).  But it's much better!  I almost forgot how nice it was to have a refrigerator in the kitchen!  ha ha!

James does such great work!

Unfortunately, I have have a new nemesis!  Removing the wallpaper from the front hallway!  Once this is over, there will be no more wallpaper in this home of ours and I will be happy.  I have most of it removed as I type this, but this was a very challenging spot.  This wallpaper does not want to come off!!

Back To Electrical

We got back to electrical...or I should say James did. I cooked and cleaned and tended to the children.

Here's James wiring up the outdoor light.

We have a hallway light again! Too bad it doesn't work yet.

Back to Work!

The fun and excitement of Ben's birthday has ended...well at least when it comes to our free time. Ben is busy playing with all his new toys.

Today, we cut out our front closet to make it the entrance to the basement. This way, we'll be able to board up the current door to the basement so we can (cross the fingers) have room to put the 11 cabinets we ordered!!

Home Inspection Day!

Today we had our home inspection. It was a marvelous event. I showed up late because I didn't want to be bothered with the basement stuff and outside stuff. I did go to get a better feel for this place we just purchased and take some pictures - pictures of what it really looks like and not just the fancy schmancy ones they put up to sell the place!

Here is Ben at the foot of the stairs. The carpet here is a pinkish color. It is such a fluffy, fun carpet.

This is the front room or living room. Pretty standard.

This is James in the kitchen from the front entry way. We love the wood paneling look and wall paper. The kitchen is my favorite room. We think it was remodeled in 1983.

James and Mr. Inspector noting some plumbing discrepancies. Look at all the chemicals they have!

The "dining room" which they use as a living room. This is a pretty big room. I want to use it as a living room too but the husband does not agree with me.

The back entry way and pantry of sorts. Look at all the stuff they have! It's like they are packing away for the blizzard or something. I love it.

Front bedroom. Not the biggest bedroom but we'll probably use this as our bedroom. I think it's current use is a knitting room. There are a lot of sewing things in there. And a very bright overhead florescent light. We'll have to change that.

Ben being like his mother - nosy. This is the master bedroom but will probably be the boys' room.

Another view of the big bedroom.

The third bedroom. This will look huge once all the stuff is out!

Another view of bedroom #3.

And yet another view!! And I thought my mother had lots of stuff!

Upstairs bathroom that was redone recently. It's nice. I like it.

Me being stupid in the new house.

Walk way to new attic...and more stuff.

Another view of the attic...and more stuff.

Ben is still being nosy.

James and Miss Real Estate Agent looking at the AC - which is staying! WooHoo!!!!

I love wall paper!!

Downstairs bathroom - circa 1983.

For some reason, I love this bathroom.