Done and Done!

Primering, done.

Painting, done.

Kitchen cabinets, installed.

Kitchen lighting, done.

Window treatments, done.

Keith spraying on some PVA!

Zaia sanding down the linen cabinets.

Ed Mello giving a helping hand.

Added Pics

I've added a couple of new pictures to the following posts:
"PVA," "Super Women and Men of Ceiling Scraping," and "Demolition."

Be sure to check them out!

Décor

I want the house to be done because I'm dying to decorate!

My mother and I have been buying cute decorative items here and there, but because I don't have anywhere to store them and because I'm on a budget, we have to pace ourselves.

My decorative style is a little bit modern, a little bit traditional, and a little bit shabby-chic.  I'm obsessed with taking vintage items and using them in modern ways.  My biggest purchase so far has been a vintage door straight from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania!  It's amazing and I'm going to use it as my headboard!  Because of this purchase, I am completely obsessed with old doors.  I want to put them all over my house!

The next décor project I need to tackle is lighting.  I need ceiling fans and outdoor lighting.  I'm not looking forward to it.  Last week, my mother and I went to Lowe's ready and willing to buy ceiling fans.  I was dead set on buying white ones until I saw the beautiful oil-rubbed bronze ones and the black and silver ones.  For $10-$20 more per fan I could get something that looks better than a plain white fan.  We were there for 45 minutes staring up and discussing where I could put what.  So, we decided that I needed to reevaluate the situation.  We have three or four white fans hanging out in the garage of the house that we pulled out of the rooms before retexturing.  If I can clean those up and make them presentable, I can use them in the bedrooms and sun room.  Then, instead of buying three fans, I can buy two new, upgraded fans to go in the living room and family room and a pretty chandelier to go in the dining room!  It's a fantastic idea! 

I haven't even attempted to look for outdoor lighting...

My "new" headboard!

Let There Be Light

Out with the old, florescent lighting and in with the new recessed lighting! 

What we had before the brilliant recessed lighting was an old, crooked, fluorescent lamp fixture in the middle of the kitchen ceiling and two, burnt, eyeball lights above the seating area of the bar-top counter.  Why was the lamp fixture crooked?  Well, from what I understand, an air vent was added in the ceiling after the previous owners moved in and because the air vent was placed right next to the fixture they had to shift the end of the fixture over to make room for it, you know, instead of just shifting the entire fixture over about an inch or two.  There is nothing to say about the eyeball lights...that whole situation is just weird.

Six, six-inch, recessed lights have been installed in the middle of the kitchen ceiling and two more, smaller, recessed lights have been added above where the kitchen sink will be.  Also, we will have three pendant lights, which I am totally in love with, hanging directly over the bar-top counter.

In the end, we are going to have a beautifully lit kitchen!

One Step Closer

The entire house has been textured!  After tomorrow it will be ready for primer.  You know what that means...PVA!  But, I don't hate it as much as I did last week.  Wanna know why?  It's going to be sprayed on and I'm not the one who has to do it (sorry Keith)!  The kitchen cabinets are scheduled to be delivered in a few days, so everything will need to be painted before they can be installed.  This will be our project for this week.

It's all coming along beautifully.  We are one step closer to the end!

PVA

P-V-A.  The first time I heard those three letters put together to make a "word" was this past Sunday.  "What's PVA?" you ask.  Well, now I'm an expert in PVA and can tell you exactly what it is.  It's primer.  Yup, primer.  It's purpose...to prime the walls, that have been newly textured, for new paint.  And it's a pain in the neck to put on the walls.  And no, it's not enough to buy a paint that already has primer in it.  I promise.

New texture that was sprayed on the walls acts as a sponge.  If it's not sealed it will absorb all of your paint and you will end up wasting the paint and spending a whole lot of money.  So that's where the PVA comes in.  It needs to be rolled on and let dry for 24 hours before you paint.  However, the texture does the same thing to it as it does to paint...it absorbs all of it up and if you're not quick with the paint roller it looks uneven, patchy, and completely ugly.  Yes, I know it's just primer, but I'm completely OCD and can't handle it looking that way.  And that is exactly how the first wall I painted looked, which completely frustrated me.  In the midst of my frustration, in walks the stud, Keith, to show me how it's done.  Apparently, I was being stingy with the stuff.  You need to soak up the roller with the PVA.  Huh, imagine that.  Needless to say, after two hours I completed one bedroom's walls, ceiling, and closet.  My mom came in behind me and took care of all of the corners and around the door frames and windows.  Mark worked on another bedroom and Debbie worked on the dining room, but because we ran out of PVA they were only able to finish half of each room.  So, tomorrow we have to buy more PVA to complete the two incomplete rooms.

And the whole house is going to have new texture, so you know what that means...

Beautifying and Texturing

Betty and Ted spent this past weekend working in the front and back yards.  They pulled out ugly bushes and flowers, trimmed the bushes we are keeping, and tidied up the flower beds.

While they were outside, Keith, Dennis, and Mark were inside prepping to texture the walls and ceilings of the three bedrooms and the dining room by taping up the windows, door frames, and door ways.  It was a huge job and a long process, but these guys are pros and it looks amazing!

Dennis and Keith mixing texture while Ted and Mark look on.

Mark, with Keith's help, textured walls.

Mark mixing up another batch of texture.

Super Women and Men of Ceiling Scraping

It's been nine days since we began working on the house.  We've accomplished quite a bit, but our biggest accomplishment has been the removal of the popcorn ceiling in all of the rooms.

My mother asked, "Why in the hell would they do this?!"  in reference to putting in a popcorn ceiling.  Apparently, this type of ceiling was popular in the seventies and eighties, but nowadays...not so much! 

On Tuesday the 12th, Debbie and I scraped off the popcorn ceiling in two of the bedrooms and the dining room.  It took six and a half hours to complete!  What was nice about this job was that the ceilings were flat, not slanted.  This was not the case for the last three rooms that needed to be worked on. 

On Thursday the 14th, Debbie and I spent three and a half hours scraping the master bedroom's ceiling, which was slanted.  Once we got to the highest point in the ceiling, we took turns using the tallest ladder we had.  One person would scrape while the other would hold on to the ladder.  By the time we were done with the master bedroom, my dad, Eric, Sophie, Keith, and Mark showed up.  We took a quick break and moved on to the family room.  With the help of Sophie, Eric, and Mark, the family room took about an hour to finish.  Eric and Mark, using some serious upper body strength, scraped the ceiling with long-handled scrapers.  The popcorn crap came off in large sheets!  It was fantastic!

The living room, aka the front room, was the one we saved for last.  Because the highest point of the room is 12'6", scaffolding was needed to reach the ceiling.  Yesterday, the 17th, scaffolding was brought in and the scraping went underway.  After three hours, about two-thirds of the ceiling was scraped and patched.  The rest will be scraped this week.

It was seriously satisfying getting this done!

Debbie and I after we finished scraping the master bedroom's ceiling.

Debbie using scaffolding to scrape the ceiling in the living room.  She's fearless!

Debbie, Atorina, and I patching up the ceiling after it's been scraped.

Demolition

With the help of five families we were able to demolish most of the interior of the house.  Ten men, who were ready, willing, and able, accomplished quite a bit in two days.  What did they accomplish? They...took out all of the kitchen cabinets, counter tops, and appliances; pulled up the carpet and linoleum in the entry way, hallway, family room, bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, and pantry; pulled out two showers; started to remove the "crap ceiling"; and took out a wall!

But the men weren't the only ones working!  The girls kicked some demolition butt, also!  Sophie and I removed the shelving in all of the closets, pulled up all of the carpet tack strips, removed wall paper, and scraped linoleum glue off of the concrete while looking fabulous the entire time! :)

Aunt Betty was our resident clean-up boss.  She made sure we weren't making a mess and cleaned up after us if we were!

Michelle was our photographer!  She took tons of great photos, which you can see below.  And, she even fed us!

I have to say, this was the most fun I've had remodeling a home!  More updates to come!

Erik, Mark, and Eric pulling out the cabinets.

Dennis, aka Bosley, removing the "crap ceiling."

Ed and Erik scraping up the linoleum glue.

Our lunch provided by Michelle Payne!

The Charlie's Angels of Demolition!

The camera shy, Zaia, did an awesome job on the two bathrooms.  I told him I would put a plaque with his name on it on both bathroom doors! :)

Atorina patching up holes.  She's a pro!

Buffy watching over her palace.

"A small key opens big doors" -Turkish Proverb

Today, we got our keys! The doors to our new life, in our new home, have been opened! Tomorrow, the work begins...at 10:00am with coffee and doughnuts!