Renovation ADD

We are scattered all over the place right now! Hard to give you a concise post instead of the blah blah ramble but since we really have so much going on all over the place I don't know how to do that. So here's just a brief update:

Studio is painted, wall cabinets hung. Can't do any more until the demo is done on the master bath because we are going to steal space from the Studio's huge closet for the shower in the master bath. It has now become my wood staining/finishing spot since it is the most dust-free room on the main floor.

Master bedroom is painted, all the crown molding is installed but still needs to be caulked and a finish coat of white semi-gloss over that. Looks really good! It is now a storage space until we're ready to do the flooring.

The flooring has been purchased and we got it for a steal. Had to travel to two different stores to get enough since it was a closeout for $2/sf, but it is a very pretty engineered hardwood in Vintage Hickory. I was looking at flooring that would be darker, more gray, but this has the main criteria (NO yellow or orange) and the price couldn't be beat.

Demolition on the master bath has begun! Yippee! This deserves it's own post however the quick version is the tub is outta there. Oh how I love the sound of smashing ceramic tiles...

The staircase woodwork has been purchased and as you can tell from the top picture, I'm in the process of staining and finishing it now.

We have a good start on the board and batten wall treatment going up the stairs. The kids even got in the action to help paint the wall.

The thing about child labor though...

Sometimes they color outside the lines.

Isn't it starting to shape up nice?

The rest of the hallway downstairs is painted.

The basement has been painted with a waterproofing paint. We haven't had any problems in recent years, but right after the house was built there were a couple times that water came into the basement. We are certain it is from the road runoff at the top of the hill behind the house, and it isn't likely to happen again since Scott created a dam to divert the flow from the culvert. He has hauled all our leaves and grass clippings into the woods to create a berm which has been really effective. Can't be too cautious, though, since we are going to finish off the basement to be our main tv area and entertaining space. It is just a dull boring gray color, no pics there.

We've drawn up the kitchen and are still stumped on a way to make it better. We do need to have a plan before we get too involved on the basement remodel, though, so we can plan for moving water lines, gas, power, etc. The time to do that is before we install a ceiling in the basement.

We're also playing around with layouts for the basement itself. We need to pack a lot into the space. Even though it is a big area, there are lots of odd things in the way here or there and it makes it hard to fit in a tv area, game area, wet bar, bathroom, possible bedroom and utility room. What I do know is that I want it to have a music theme, kind of a refined rock sensibility. So I'm looking at some non-traditional ideas for finishing the space.

All these projects make our focus pretty scattered. We need to finish the wood stair parts to complete the staircase but we need the flooring up to finish the stair parts. To pull up the old flooring we need to gut the kitchen and there is no place to store everything there until the utility room in the basement has been framed and drywalled. Do you see how this can make for a lot of mental fatigue? Half the time it feels like we are following a rabbit trail only to have to back track and follow another.

I'd hoped to be moved in by spring break, but I don't know... that might be asking a lot for a couple middle-aged weekend warriors who are still trying to balance family life with school-aged kids. Can we do it? Stay tuned to find out!

DIY How to Remove Wallpaper Border

How do you feel about wallpaper? Seems like a polarizing question- people love it or hate it. I'm not terribly fond of it, however I have used it, especially decorative borders to easily add a design element to a room. My dislike of wallpaper originated in the first house my husband and I owned. When we bought it, we didn't realize that the garish Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtle-Green paint in the previous owners' son's bedroom wasn't just painted walls. It was actually painted wallpaper. Since we were new to the whole renovation thing, we were adamant that we were going to do it "right." Which meant stripping the wallpaper down to the plaster and painting.

Well.

That was a noble idea, but we soon realized that there were more layers of wallpaper than the one that was covered by the very bold green. Five layers in one bedroom. Six layers in the other. In both rooms the paint covered the ceilings. Oye. What started as a simple paint job turned into two weeks using a hot, heavy steamer during one of the hottest summers on record in a non-air-conditioned house. Picture steaming hot water dripping down your arms and face as you hold a steamer over your head for HOURS, hundred degree heat, scraping one foot sections off at a time. Decades-old wallpaper landing in your hair, old glue sticking to your face. After stripping off all that wallpaper I vowed to myself NEVER AGAIN. I would never use wallpaper. NEVER.

It is easy to understand, then, why I loathe wallpaper. Except sometimes it really does add just the right touch. The spare bedroom that is going to be my studio's new home was previously used as a little grandmother's sewing room. When we built the house I found a vintagey sewing border and thought it was perfect. With a new purpose, it is time to remove the border. Fortunately I know the walls are sound underneath and this border isn't hiding any of the things wallpaper is often used to mask. If you've never removed wallpaper, stripping it can be easy or difficult, depending on the adhesive that was used to apply it. Most readily available modern wallpapers are vinyl coated so the first thing you want to do is try to peel off that top layer.

This can actually be sort of fun. Kind of reminds me of peeling off skin after a sunburn, trying to see how long of a piece you can pull off at once. Pull with a slow, steady tug to maximize the length and minimize your efforts.

Sometimes you'll have wallpaper which refuses to give up the top layer. In that case you'll have to score the surface with a tool called a tiger tail. It is just a plastic disc with what looks like toothy gears underneath that you swirl over the wallpaper to help the hot water and chemical release penetrate to the paper underneath.

Since I was able to peel off almost all the vinyl, I was left with just the glued paper backing. Using a sponge and warm water, I like to get the paper wet before using any chemicals. It doesn't need to be so saturated that it drips down the walls, but you do want to make sure the surface is completely damp because it will make the chemical stripper work better and faster.

Next, spray the paper with a chemical stripper. I personally like this DIF spray. This bottle has lasted me through at least 5 stripping projects and 9 years. I consider it a bargain! It goes a long way when you remove the vinyl and wet the paper first, and it is still just as fast and effective as it was when new.

Gosh, now that I'm boasting on it, I hope it is still available. The gel spray is nice because it doesn't drip down the walls. It stays where you spray it and makes the whole process much less messy than steamers or liquids.

I work in small sections, maybe 4' or 5' at a time with border, smaller if I'm doing larger pieces of wallpaper. Let the DIF set for about 10 minutes and then see if it is ready with a plastic scraper.

You can see my scraper has seen some use over the 20 odd years I've had it! I use kind of an arcing motion to scrape the paper off the walls. It should come up easily, if it doesn't, you may need to use a wet sponge to re-wet the area and spray a little more DIF. When it is going well, the paper will come off in nice sheets just like the vinyl, although you will have to use the scraper underneath almost the entire surface.

Once all the paper is off, use fresh warm water and a clean sponge to remove the remaining glue residue. If there are any nail holes, be sure to spackle and sand, then you'll be ready to primer and apply a fresh coat of paint.

Removing the wallpaper border in this room took approximately half an hour. As I said, with the right technique and tools, and newer wallpaper, this process doesn't have to be brutal. If your wallpaper is a century old, though, as it was in my first house- well, I wish you a little luck and a lot of patience. On the bright side, two weeks of steaming could land you some nice triceps!

New Studio

I'm sure I've mentioned this, but H2 is a four bedroom home. Our family of four will only need three of those bedrooms, which leaves the smallest bedroom as a bonus room. What to do with it?

The obvious options are guest room or home office. It was previously used as a sewing room, so any sort of crafting space would work as well. Since I work from home making jewelry and other assorted projects, I've decided this will be the perfect spot for my new studio.

Currently, it is storing all the things that used to be in my studio, a space about 6 times larger than this room.

Bedroom #4 circle tour... ignore the mess! The window looks out onto the covered porch and front yard. Moving to the right, there is a wall about 6' long. On a slight angle, the next wall comes in. Then the door to the hall, followed by a large closet with bifold doors.

My previous studio was in the downstairs of our walkout ranch, all the way back. It had a cement floor that had been painted to look like slate tiles which was very convenient for a studio, especially when I was making stained glass. But as my projects changed and our family grew, it turned into a large storage room and was kind of cold what with being downstairs and having a cement floor. I want something just as functional and easy to clean, but also more of a show room where I can bring clients and also a cozy place to work. I want to have my computer handy and incorporate a shipping station so I can package items without leaving my space to fetch boxes or tape.

I can't get too carried away yet as we will most likely be stealing some space from this room for the master bathroom. We plan to revert to the original house plans and use about half of this room's closet for the master bathroom's shower. Flooring won't be installed until we do the entire lower level. However this is the one room that pets really weren't allowed which is why it was the first place we used for storage. What I can do is paint, install wall cabinets, and start organizing my studio so that I don't have to continue turning away business. Not to mention freeing up the floor space by finding a home for all of my supplies.

Currently we have three rooms going simultaneously, so the progress happens in fits and starts. After making a plan for this room, the only thing I've done is remove the wallpaper border. The next step is to remove the baseboards and primer, then paint. Finally, I'll refinish the cabinets that are going in this room and mount the wall cabinets. They will be going on that 6' wall. This should leave me with enough room to use a large table in the center of the room as a layout area. I plan to find a cushy chair on casters that can serve as seating at the table or rotated 180 degrees, work at the counter space on the cabinet wall.

Originally, I had a plan to paint the walls a dusty grayish mauve color, then put both a chocolate and a white glaze on maple cabinets. Curtains and art would be shades of white, cream, and beige. Think Ballard Designs. I have two off-white media cabinets which I planned to put in here, repurposed for storing supplies and finished jewelry. Then I saw a couple 2012 trend ideas that I really liked. One had plum colored walls and the other a rich emerald. Both used distressed black furniture/cabinets and chandeliers, very gothic looking. I have to say, both rooms grabbed my attention and I thought, "I want to go there!" Which makes me wonder if it is time to tap into the dark side, create a space that feels more like a creative cocoon than floating on a cloud. This is my space and the only things that are set in stone are the window and white trim. After that, anything goes. What do you like better? Leave a comment and give me your vote- gothic or ethereal.