When we finally got the keys to the house there were a few things that had to get done before we moved our furniture in. We had to pull out the old carpets in the bedrooms that looked liked they had been there since before I was born. The front two bedrooms are part of the original house so, as it turned out the original hardwood floors were underneath. All we had to do was pull up the carpet, cross our fingers, and hope that they weren't covered up because of there condition.
Lucky for us they were in pretty decent condition. No major flaws, they just needed to be cleaned and eventually we will have them refinished. Now I just want to add that pulling up carpet is way harder than they make it look on HGTV. I assumed you pull it up and haul it out and there you go, but no, you need to pull up the tack strips and all the staples that they used to hold the padding down. Maybe this is a good time to say thank you Dad!
The carpet in the back bedroom which will someday be our master bedroom was part of an add on that was done to our house in the 80's, which meant that there was no hardwood floor underneath. Zach and I actually found some laminate flooring from Ikea that we love, so we bought that to install. It is still sitting in the bedroom in its boxes, more on that later.
I also need to thank my Mom who cleaned our whole house top to bottom. What a rough job, but she managed to make our kitchen actually look like a place that you could prepare food.
Doesn't she look happy!
My only other project that I insisted get done before the move was to paint the living room. We figured that we had so many projects to get done on the house that if we had just one room finished, or close to finished, that we could mostly live in that room and pretend that the rest of the house was not a mess.
Our house was built in 1944 but for some reason it seems to lack a lot of the character that homes of that time had. My best guess is that it has something to do with being built during the war. So I decided that I wanted to add some character to the living room in the form of a chair rail, and eventually crown molding.
Our old apartment was dark, with dark wood floors and brown paint, and we had to keep the blinds drawn all the time because we were on the ground floor. So when I saw what a beautiful bright space our new living room was I defiantly wanted to keep it that way. It took a couple tries to get the bottom color right, but I am very happy the way the painted living room turned out.
Lucky for us they were in pretty decent condition. No major flaws, they just needed to be cleaned and eventually we will have them refinished. Now I just want to add that pulling up carpet is way harder than they make it look on HGTV. I assumed you pull it up and haul it out and there you go, but no, you need to pull up the tack strips and all the staples that they used to hold the padding down. Maybe this is a good time to say thank you Dad!
The carpet in the back bedroom which will someday be our master bedroom was part of an add on that was done to our house in the 80's, which meant that there was no hardwood floor underneath. Zach and I actually found some laminate flooring from Ikea that we love, so we bought that to install. It is still sitting in the bedroom in its boxes, more on that later.
I also need to thank my Mom who cleaned our whole house top to bottom. What a rough job, but she managed to make our kitchen actually look like a place that you could prepare food.
Doesn't she look happy!
My only other project that I insisted get done before the move was to paint the living room. We figured that we had so many projects to get done on the house that if we had just one room finished, or close to finished, that we could mostly live in that room and pretend that the rest of the house was not a mess.
Our house was built in 1944 but for some reason it seems to lack a lot of the character that homes of that time had. My best guess is that it has something to do with being built during the war. So I decided that I wanted to add some character to the living room in the form of a chair rail, and eventually crown molding.
Our old apartment was dark, with dark wood floors and brown paint, and we had to keep the blinds drawn all the time because we were on the ground floor. So when I saw what a beautiful bright space our new living room was I defiantly wanted to keep it that way. It took a couple tries to get the bottom color right, but I am very happy the way the painted living room turned out.
After doing the top half in dove grey.
Finished product, minus the chair rails.
Our temporary seating while I agonized over the bottom color.
I have been scouring antique stores and Craigslist for the rest of the furniture to complete the living room. When I have it done I will post the pics. Until then its on to the next project!
This is so nice! i love following it. you are such a talented writer and the pictures are GREAT! more more more. AND i love the way you explaing the process, not like seen on tv!.
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