Ta da!

Although we ran into some warpage with the closet door that needs to be addressed before we can call the bedroom completely redone, it has reached our benchmark level of "good enough". Ameranth will sleep in there tonight.

 

Let's take a little journey through the wayback machine to last summer to maximize our enjoyment of the final result. 

                                              We like it.

10th day of spring, tra la

Look, we have brave little crocus buds:

 

Sadly, they will be under 12 inches of snow tomorrow if the weather forecast is accurate. 

We have been trying to get the painting done in the bedroom so Ameranth can move in before she moves out for her trip. We sanded the floor lightly, just to remove dirt, vacuumed and rinsed it off. Then it got two coats of paint, which turned out to be a shade very close to that in the other two rooms in the house that had old floor paint. We finally decided on the color for the drawers and nightstand and did those  last night. They need a second coat, then we need to do all the touchups where little spatters and drips have landed. 

 

The true color is darker, like the frame in the background. The nightstand is from a bedroom set that was J's aunt's in the 60's and was a horrible aged French Empire yellow. Much better now.

Last big thing to be painted was an old brass bed. It was rusted in places and worn in others. So we used Rustoleum spray paint to give it new life, and I think the gray hammered metal will go nicely with the other colors in the room.

It's killing me that I only bought 2 cans and will have to get another to add a second coat to this. And if J doesn't get into work tomorrow, I'll have to wait until Saturday to finish the paint. Then 48 hours before we can put it together.

I shake my fist at you, possible April snowstorm!  And yes, I bite my thumb at you as well.

Ready to paint- finally!

With our deadline of the 28th fast approaching, we've picked up speed in the bedroom makeover. Today we prime the entire room. It even looks possible that we can get the final color on the walls in time too. We felt like we would never make it while we were sanding.

As Ameranth said "Damn those old people and their hundred year lead paint!" That was one thick layer of paint that clung tenaciously to the wood, and if it hadn't been chipped, I would have happily left it in place and covered it up. Even after using a gel stripper (and yes we ventilated well, ie. opened the window) and sanding (yes, we used masks) we didn't get every last bit off. But it feels smooth and is good enough for us.

 

There will be molding along the top to cover those gaps. In the next picture, a closet will be built to the right of the drawers, and shelves put back into the space on the left, the one the looks like a doorway. We've never figured that out because if it were a door, it would open onto the 3rd step of the staircase.

Obviously, the closet portion will be done after Shoeshine's visit next weekend. But this room will be clean and able to be slept in, which is all I ask for now.

I joked on Facebook yesterday about J running out to pick up some stripper. Later, speaking to Ms. M, I told her "I'm going upstairs to strip now" as I handed the phone to her father. She told him that was high on the list of "things you never want to hear your mother say".

Yet another project started

It's so easy to start a job,
Seems so easy, seems so easy,
Yeah, so doggone easy.

Finishing it now, that's the  hard part! Since Ameranth is here for awhile, we figured it was a good time to redo her bedroom and make use of the extra pair of hands. And by redo, I mean tear down the old plaster and sheetrock and paint the walls. Her room is the only one that still has the original plaster and layers of wallpapers.

Those layers of paper were the only thing holding up the sagging plaster in places on that slanted ceiling. J emptied the trash cans as we filled them- I think it was a total of 10 cans worth? The floor was linoleum that Ameranth and I wanted to pull up, but J didn't think we should since we didn't know what was under there. The little room next door had wide painted floorboards, and we lifted a corner after J went downstairs. Yes! Pine boards.

We ripped up the lino, tossed it out the window- that was fun- and found 20 inch wide virgin planks which apparently had a carpet originally since there was a painted border.

This past weekend we started sheetrocking. Ameranth told us she didn't want to work with us if we were going to argue all the time. J told her it was a discussion and we always start out that way. Once we agree on a direction, it's fine.

When we moved in, this room had an odd little 'closet' just 10 inches deep, on the wall which backs up to the staircase. We added shelves and made it a bookcase. Ameranth wanted us to tear out the rest of that wall and make it all bookcases. As tempting as that was, I didn't want to lose the wall space, since the room is not that large. None of our bedrooms have closets, so we use armoires. Gotta love old houses.  I decided that we would tear out the wall, but build it out to incorporate a closet and built in drawers. I appeased Ameranth with the prospect of a bookcase on the end.

We can't figure out why it was there, unless clothing was hung on hooks- it does have hinges, so had a door at one point. 

There are nails, old-fashioned square cut nails, sticking out of the back of the studs. Plus, a length of twine tied to a lower one and looped up around an upper nail. Why?

I'm interested in what that yellow paper is too.