Operation HtH: A Better Yellow

We finished priming the living room walls and yesterday I painted them in a new, better, oohh soo buttery yellow. It's Behr Frosted Lemon (330A-2). We taped off where chair rail will go so we won't have to repaint the bottom when we add wainscoting details this summer (hopefully?). I also took the liberty of being sloppy at the ceiling because the ceiling needs to be painted and we plan on installing crown moulding in this room as well.

We want this to be a lovely formal living room space to set the tone for the rest of the house - it is the first impression you get when you first walk into the house! I'll post more later about our plans for this room & the rest of the house, but for right now I'll say that we're going for a light and airy Cape Cod feel for the house (because it is a Cape Cod) and functionality with great traditional touches that bring out the details and craftsmanship of the Cape Cod style.

We'd like to complete this room first before we tackle other rooms, especially since it's the first room you see when you walk into the house... and it's the sight that we'll be greeted with when we come home every day. Here is the living room with fresh paint on the walls - you'll have to imagine the board and batten wainscoting below for now!

The pictures will pan around the room counter-clockwise from here.

We still need to paint the window trim white, and the base boards. We'll probably paint the baseboards when we  install the wainscoting.

I took my little helper (Rosie) over there this morning to wander around while I stripped wallpaper in the kitchen - that's what all of that mess is on the floor!

You can see the wall is partially stripped (Carlyle's work) in the kitchen.

Rosie Jackson

How to clean the shower in FIVE {5} MINUTES or less!

I hate cleaning the shower - possibly more than cleaning the toilet - but I've recently discovered a super easy and fast method that makes it a *joy* rather than a chore.

The good news - you shouldn't have to buy any new chemicals or cleaners, you already have what you need!

First, what are the two main purposes of cleaning the shower?
-Sanitizing / removing mildew/mold
-Removing soap scum / "the ring"

This method will accomplish both of those objectives.

Here's what you need:

-a fine-misting spray bottle (I use an 8-oz one from walmart - you can find them usually in the small sample/travel toiletry aisle)
-bleach (for sanitizing & mildew removal - if you don't have any mildew, then you can use your preferred cleaner)
-laundry soap (it can be cheap, just go for what smells good! I use arm & hammer clean burst - it kind of smells like oranges and is pretty cheap)
-a thin scrubby sponge that's not very thick (I use some that I think are O-celo - they are just the scrubby part, no sponge, so they rinse clean in a second and don't get soapy and full of germs)

The method:

Spray down the walls and tub with diluted bleach water to sanitize and remove any mildew. Leave it for five minutes (ok, not included in the time count, but you can be cleaning the sink or something else while you wait if you can stand the smell of the cleaner).

Using the scrubby sponge, pour on some laundry detergent (you can use liquid or powder) and rub in circular motions around the tub and the tiles until you don't feel the resistance from the soap scum (a couple of seconds). You'll feel the tub get a little more slippery as the soap scum gets dissolved. You won't have to scrub! Just let the laundry soap do the work - and rinse clean. Your shower will be shiny and sparkly and squeaky clean!

Wasn't that so easy? It works 10x faster than any bathroom cleaning solution I've ever used and requires minimal elbow grease. Best of all, you finish with the lovely smelling soap and your bathroom smells clean, not like chemicals! Happy cleaning!

Operation "House to Home" - stage 1

Sunday C & I went over to the house for the first time as home owners and primed the living room walls. We knew they'd need at least another coat, so today I painted a second coat over all of the living room walls, and a third over the two formerly red walls. That's right, it took three coats of primer to cover the red paint. I easily polished off the 2-gallon bucket of primer on that project, so we'll definitely be buying more to cover the other walls and the ceiling. 


After I finished painting, the air duct cleaner guy came, and then the carpet steamer guy. While they were working on that, I started ripping down wallpaper in the kitchen and discovered that the previous owners wallpapered over old wallpaper! So, it's almost double the work... *sigh*

Here are some photos to document the process, sorry they're so blurry! I'll do better next time.

1st coat of primer

1st coat of primer under the stairs

a blurry spot where some of the paint ran b/c it didn't stick to the semi-gloss

another yucky spot, same problem

just another shot of the kitchen - love the potential for that open shelf! Not sure if I'll put plates or cookbooks there yet....

the most photogenic room of the house - ha!

off the right side of the great room through those French doors is a covered brick patio

just another shot of the kitchen looking through to the living room

the downstairs bath - probably going to paint that oak, and definitely removing the wallpaper, although not any time soon

most of the brass in this house will soon become oil rubbed bronze... just wait :)

the small bedroom that will become my craft room

the view through the future craft room window into the backyard

view up the stairs - that door is the bathroom

after more primer (2nd coat)

first coat on the left, after second coat on the right

painted tile backsplash --- gonna go when we get new countertops! I'm pretty sure there's old wall paper under it, too.

I finally figured out that the fridge should go where those cabinets are on the left - it's way too cramped where it is now. It'll really open up the space, and be more functional. This change also won't happen until it's time for new countertops.

see how it sticks out into that narrow hallway? that's why we're going to move it. When you open the right door, there is about 6 inches of clearance between it and those cabinets you see across from it.

after 3rd coat on the red - much better! the room is so much brighter now!

3rd coat on the red here too

blue bedroom - downstairs - guest bedroom. Planning to knock down that wood on the walls and reuse it for shelving later. 

master bedroom - bed will go on the right

the little [sitting/reading] nook in the master next to the closet

Carlyle's closet - ha! and the master entry to the bathroom on the right, hall in the center

master shower.... with a sliding glass door and transom at about 5 feet... what were they thinking....

not fond of those lights above the sink, and they aren't really necessary.... might try to find some sconces in the future

looking down the stairs

the OLD wallpaper underneath the newer paper. I totally remember this pattern - weren't there dishes to match?? So late 80's / early 90s! 

here's the matching border that went around the soffit

wallpaper ripped off

more progress ripping off the newer paper

if you take a beagle to a house when you're painting....
they're gonna get some paint on 'em.
Luckily, Daisy got more paint on her than I think I did on myself - yay for a neat paint job!
She just brushed up against a wall I think. 

Sorry to jump all around the place, I didn't feel like rearranging all of the pictures.

Here are the plans for the living room:
-paint the trim white
-install white chair rail
-paint between the chair rail and the baseboards white
-paint above the chair rail the color we've purchased - "frosted lemon" - a very very pale yellow
-install picture frame moulding or some other wainscoting detail below chair rail
-rip off the carpet from the stairs, strip, and paint & stain

Hopefully we can install chair rail this summer so things won't look silly when I paint yellow up top and leave the bottom primed white.

That's all for now - probably won't do too much more to the place until the weekend.

First comes Love, then comes Marriage...

then comes a Mortgage! (Sorry parents - we only have grand-dogs for you for now)

We bought a house!

It's a charming little Cape Cod - 4 BR/2BA with a lovely great room with a fireplace and a rec room and lots of patio space. I haven't taken many photos yet on the inside of the rooms that were shown on the MLS listing, so I'll just post what I have for now. We're so excited about making it our own and finally having a backyard for the girls (Rosie & Daisy) and plenty of space for friends and family to come visit.

Here's the tour...

When you first walk in, you see the stairs and the living room. Notice the terrible paint scheme (that has now been covered in primer - a few more coats of paint to go before it's completely history).

Yes, the walls couldn't be a closer match to ketchup and mustard. What. Were. They. Thinking.?

Obviously, that was the first room that we wanted to paint (for our sanity), so we just unloaded all of our supplies at the door.

Here's another shot of the room:

Here's the bay window in the front of the house (the red walls face each other, and the yellow walls face each other). Notice the previous owners tried painting the trim with the red a little, so that's gonna have to go, too.

Just to the left of the previous is the wall you see when you walk in the front door. Through that opening is the kitchen and great room.

Of to the left again is the hallway. There's a closet under the stairs, one bedroom next to the stairs, another bedroom straight ahead that you can see, and a full bath and the kitchen around the corner.

Here's the view of the great room and the kitchen from the living room. Isn't it beautiful?!

The rest of the photos are from the listing because I haven't taken photos of it all yet.

Here's the great room - it's actually an addition to the original house, but we intend to call it the "great room" because it's the greatest feature of the house.

Here's the view from the fireplace area looking toward the kitchen and living room.

Here's the {ugly} wallpaper-covered kitchen. 

Downstairs bedroom - I'm planning on making this a guest bedroom & my craft room since it gets a lot of light.

Downstairs bedroom #2 - The main guest bedroom.

The downstairs full bathroom - ceramic tile on the floor and in the shower, so not much to change in here except wallpaper removal and painting the trim and changing fixtures. 

Master Bedroom (upstairs) - and yeah, that blue carpet is gonna go really soon - at least there are no ugly colors to pain over!

The upstairs smaller bedroom - we'll be making this our office.

Master bathroom - shower, double vanity. I want to completely re-do this whole room. The baby blue trim and vinyl flooring have got to go!

Here's the super cool shed in the [fenced] backyard.

the eat-in park of the kitchen, and the door to the rec room & laundry room

another view of the kitchen and the hallway to the bathroom and bedrooms

This is the rec room - this bay window faces the front of the house.  Check out all of that lovely {read: ugly} wallpaper that I get to take down. *sigh*

They didn't even apply it straight - notice the different heights on either side of the door. 

The laundry room - washer and dryer hook-ups on the right, and cabinets above. The color scheme will basically be reversed. Instead of white walls and blue trim, I'll paint the trim white and the walls a very pale blue.  

C & I sanded, patched, and primed the front ketchup & mustard walls this weekend, and it has really brightened up the room! We'll post each room as we make the changes - it's hard work but it's fun and nice to have our own place. :)