Squirrel!

Remember how I was working on the kitchen?  Yeah.. well I was helping someone move and she had a nice looooong, organized closet.  I have this:

That closet on the right is the one with pipes retrofitted into it.  Moisture = not good for clothes!!

This is what I eventually want to do

I want to flip the tiny bedroom closet into the bathroom for a pantry.  Then, i want to close in the old doorway and frame and build an 8' closet in that corner of the room.  I think that corner is pretty much unusable anyway, and the bedroom needs a modern closet if you ask me.

For now, since I'm not framing any new walls at least until I finish the kitchen, I went to Home Depot and bought closet organizing hardware and build a temporary closet area in the corner of my bedroom.

I was worried that the walls wouldn't support the weight of all my clothes, so I was extra thorough in mounting it.  I used screws and anchors in the studs, then put toggle bolts in the holes that didn't have studs behind them.  I think it's pretty secure.  Unfortunately, I got shelves that were a little bit too long.  So I'm going to return one of the shelves and the corresponding rod, replace it with shorter ones and use the rounded rod to make that corner usable.  Add some fancy hangers and my extensive wardrobe, and I have a closet!

Back on again!

Today I started working on the house again, and it feels gooood.

I picked out some paint samples at Lowes and put them on the walls and got started removing more painted over wall paper.  Using my handy-dandy thrift store purchased steamer, it came off like a candy wrapper, no problem, right?!

Wrong.

The wallpaper was applied directly on top of the drywall paper.  So off it came.  I've done a little research and learned that I will probably have to put a "skim coat" of drywall compound over it to give it a new surface.  That is, if i don't want to put a thin layer of drywall over what's there (and I don't.)  Luckily, my research didn't stop there.  I then learned that if I don't want bubbles, I'd better SEAL the paper first before applying any compound.  

Meanwhile...

My hero was re-caulking my tub.  Whoever re-did the bathroom last removed some of the walls, put drywall on top of others, and installed a tub/shower surround over PEG BOARD.  Seriously.  I have pegboard walls.  And, of course, painted over wallpaper.  

The surround had a border of caulk strip between it and the tub and it was pulling away, leaving an adhesive exposed to collect dirt and other nastiness.  Gross!  He peeled it off, cleaned up the messy caulk underneath, and put down a nice, clean bead of caulk like a pro.  

This is still a temporary solution, as I have every intention of taking it all down and putting up a proper tile surround.

P.S. Do not EVER do a Google Image Search for "rubber caulk strip" without turning safe search ON!!!

House of Blues

I've been convinced not to paint my entire house the same shade of blue, but that didn't stop me from painting two rooms different shades of blue!

It's hard to tell here, but this color is actually Valspar "Novella Blue"

In several of the pictures, it came out looking very aqua-like

The view from the primed dining room..

See what I mean about aqua??  The dining room color is pretty accurate, though.  It's Valspar Blue Mist:

And I don't know if you've noticed yet.. but that couch should look very, very familiar.

Yup, it's THAT couch.  I bought it.  And not even off of Craigslist!  The table is from Craigslist though, formerly of Ikea.

Oh my goodness..

Have I really not posted ANYTHING but craigslist couch updates?  Shame on me.

Here's a quick little update before I make another long "what should I do" post.

I finished the floors and they look great.  I ended up using 4 coats of polyurethane instead of the 3 I planned (and the 5 that maybe I should have done) and I used two different kinds of polyurethane.  On the first two coats, I used Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane with a gloss finish.  I didn't sand between these coats and I started to feel bad about it so I sanded after the second coat and switched to Minwax Super-Fast Drying Polyurethane for Floors, because supposedly, you don't have to sand between coats if you don't let it dry for too long.  Well, I came back after the 3rd coat and hated it.  there were thin spots everywhere.  I did the last coat with the original Polyurethane and was happy again.

Some pictures from the process..

Down to the wood!

Choosing the stain..

stain, no gloss

A moth landed in the wet polyurethane!

I felt the need to add a reminder of what the floors USED to look like..

SOFA STRIKES AGAIN!!

I'm obsessed with this couch.  It popped up today.. but for $449!  bwahahaha.

http://richmond.craigslist.org/fud/1867920195.html

Again!!

This couch is for sale on Craigslist again.. I'm determined to find out, WHY?!

I've been convinced by my Sweetie not to paint three adjoining rooms the same shade of blue.  I think he's right, but I'm still stuck on blue.  So, I went back to the gray blue for the living room, a silver blue for the dining room (which I intend to make very feminine/romantic) and turquoise for the kitchen.  

I spent the evening packing and have a truck reserved for Sunday.  I'm nervous.  deep breath..

Why is everyone selling the same couch?

I'm on a mad hunt for a living room sofa ever since I had to give mine up to move into a corner apartment it didn't fit into...  So I'm on craigslist every five minutes looking them up.  And this is what I KEEP finding!

For $175

$150

$200

$170

$700 (as part of a set.. but still, seriously?)

And, for $275, the original ad that made me WANT the couch.  

Here's the best part..

yup.  That's the same couch.  At Big Lots right now, for $330.

picture post. too tired to word.

This is my house. I live in Crayola land

What I'm doing in Sketchup

I've been talking to people about Sketchup, and I feel like the general consensus is that it can do some cool stuff, especially considering what's available for free.. but that it's not easy to use.

I find it completely un-intuitive, but little by little I've become addicted to it, and I'm using it to create a scale model of my house as it is right now.  I'm finding it incredibly helpful just because when I'm not working on the house and I get an idea, I get to try it in sketchup without drawing it on the back of a receipt:)

Anyway, because I've been jabbering about it and couldn't show people tonight, here is where  I am right now:

I just realized that (at least on my screen) the quality is really poor, I used "grab" to take the picture, I'll upload a better one later.

Floors floors floors

The floors are stained!  Tomorrow I poly. For now, some before/during pictures, since it's not after yet :)

This is what they look like today: 

This is what they looked like the day I closed:

There were gray/black "paths" from the kitchen to the hall/bathroom area 

All the radiators int he house had pipes that exploded where they connected to the wall.  A mixture of oil and water blew out of them and sat on the floors over the winter.  Or at least that's what my realtor told me.