Gearing up.

Well we had quite the trip to Lowe's yesterday. We had a coupon and were debating whether it was worth heading over there before it expired. It turns out it was well worth the trip. We bought a much needed leaf blower, motion sensor flood lights for the backyard, paint for the dining room, office and hallway, a hose and two rakes, along with some other random bulbs, gardening gloves, etc. That coupon and a few gift certificates later we felt like we'd robbed the place.

We'd been back and forth over paint colors but agreed enough on those three rooms and finally nailed down the colors we liked best. I'm so picky it would take me months to decide between two colors that are almost exactly the same. Maybe it was wishful thinking buying paint for the dining room, which is still in a full on disaster state, and the hallway, which seems like a completely overwhelming task. But we prefer to think positively. Every time I come down stairs I can picture the freshly painted walls and shiny marble tiles. We've got the materials, all we need now is the time and patience!

Spring has sprung!

Or at least we've gotten a glimmer of what may be Spring lurking around the corner. It makes me think of all the projects we'll be able to do once it warms up a bit. Mostly, I'm dreaming of painting. I've got a few furniture projects lined up that I can't wait to get to. So far I have a dining room table and an armchair (more on this later) that need to be sanded, primed and painted. Both are far too gone to be properly refinished at this point. I found the table on Craig's list for $35 and the armchair on the side of the road so I don't feel bad slapping on a few coats of paint. I also have a buffet for the dining room that needs to be refinished. It's a pretty simple piece so I'm hoping my first refinishing project will be an easy one.

So much to do and so little time, it seems all I do lately is chase around this wiggly little puppy. I'm starting to think those puppy play pens aren't the worst idea after all. Either that or we have to find a way to put her to work!

Impulse buy.

Oh boy oh boy, what have we done! During a quick trip to Home Depot on Sunday for some light bulbs and a shop vac we spotted a deal on some marble tiles. We have quite a collection of hideous flooring so naturally we started brainstorming what we could do with it. We measured and decided that it would work well in the main hallway downstairs. Right now there is some cheap looking wood parquet, one of three different wooden flooring on the main level of the house.


So we ran back to the HD and after a forklift and several helpful hands we now have half a pallet of white and gray marble tile. Thank goodness for Dave because I would've hemmed and hawed for ages trying to decide how much I really liked it. This is going to be quite the project, especially having to pull up all that parquet, but I think it will look fabulous once we get it in place. I have no idea when that's going to be, but it's going to look beautiful.

Designer Bedding

Maybe might end up having fancier bedding than we do! This is the fabric I bought to make her a bed (or two if I back them with a solid panel). I'm holding off for now since she chews everything. I found this pale pink and chocolate brown print at Hobby Lobby. (Who knew that place had so much stuff?!) The chocolate actually matches one of our favorite sheets sets. Hmmm...I'm thinking of a direction to go in once we take down all that bedroom wallpaper.

Finally!

Here are a few long awaited pics of Maybe. She gets bigger and bolder by the day!



Her ears are making their way up, up, up! (This is her upside down, but you get the idea)

Settling in.

Little Miss Maybe seems to be settling in just fine. She goes from sleeping and snoring to hopping around like a little rabbit. So far the interactions with the cat have gone well. Or at least it seems so. Part of me, and all of Dave, thinks that he is scheming and plotting against this new little invasion. It's a good thing Maybe stays close to us.

I'll post pictures soon but she just doesn't hold still long enough! Perhaps a video would be better. I'll work on it.

Puppy proofing.

So much clean up to do! Even after filling three large bags with wallpaper there's more now to be cleaned up. The first layer in the half bath has come down completely. Now we're left with 3 small walls with another layer to take off. It already looks so much better, and bigger!

Progress in the dining room has been reduced to any scrap we can manage to pull off. We're close, so close, but right now it feels like a 2x2" piece is a huge victory. Someone actually suggested to Dave the we simply replace the drywall. Um, what? I don't believe I've ever heard of completely replacing the drywall as a wallpaper removal option. For me that would be an extreme last resort. I'm confident we can get the remaining paper off and plaster the tears successfully. Will it be easy? No. Has it been fun? Not so much. The tears are just layers in the paper, not holes or dents even. A skim coat or two and some sanding should do the trick. (Fingers crossed!)

We're getting ready for Maybe to come home this weekend. She has a crate and some toys, not I just need to pull out the old sewing machine so she can have her own little custom bed. The funny little doors in the kitchen that allow us to close it off completely are going to come in handy for keeping a close eye on the little bugger. I guess for now we'll leave them on, they might just need new handles in the meantime.

Be prepared for lots of puppy pics!

Our new addition.

Here is a sneak peak at our new baby, Maybe. Yup, her name is Maybe. She comes home next Sunday, the 28th. I'm sure her total cuteness will be a regular feature here as she grows and explores her new home. We can't wait!

Back!

Ok all, I'm back at it. I've been quite run down the last two weeks but I'm feeling much better. My headaches have mostly subsided, and as Dave says, I've got my spunk back.

We worked yesterday for eight hours on wallpaper in the dining room and then later the half bath. I cleaned up three trash bags of wallpaper from the dining room. This paper is quite the challenge. The under layer does not come off when it is wet or even moist, but does come off a bit better when its been freshly misted and then allowed to dry. We've probably got about 75% of the under layer off. The state of the drywall is a total disaster. There will be lots of sanding and spackling in our future.

After exhausting his patience in the dining room, Dave went to work on the half bath to try to make some actual progress. The paper came off really well and we found nice, clean painted drywall underneath. The difference from the dining room was astounding. Too good to be true of course. After turning the corner to the side wall he discovered yet another layer of wallpaper. For whatever reason it's not on all four walls, but it did come off a lot easier than the under layer in the dining room has. Even with only two walls worked on, and bits of paper all over the floor, that bathroom still looks ten times better. I know there were some fans of that paper (sorry Mom!) but it was just not our cup of tea.

Out of commission.

Hello all. I'm sorry it's been been so long. I've been resting for the last week after having sinus and septoplasty surgery. It took a lot more out of me than I initially expected. I'd hoped to be up and moving around by the end of the week but it didn't work out that way. I had grand plans to set up my beautiful new digital photo frame, undo some major damage to Dave's Ipod, etc, but mostly I just slept.

At least I got to watch a lot of HGTV and read some design books and magazines while I was in bed. It got the creative juices flowing and I'm looking forward to getting back at things next weekend.

I've assessed the dining room and we're probably closer to having 50% of the drywall showing. I would love to get the rest off next weekend so we can start to patch and repair the tears in the drywall.

Making progress.

Although I haven't been in the dining room in 2 days to work on the wallpaper we're making progress elsewhere. We bought two new bedside tables yesterday that are tall enough for my mile high bed. They're very French, with round, mirrored trays at the top and bottom. I see lots of Windex in my future. We also found a set of lamps(JC Penney's, who knew?)which is great because many of our rooms are completely lacking in overhead lighting.

Today I've got to tackle the pile of boxes still stacked up in the living room. I've been avoiding it far too long. I'm hoping I can find some still missing treasures along the way.

As far as the wallpaper goes I'm thinking heat might do the trick on the older layer in the dining room. The top layer came off cleanly but the older layer does not respond the same way to the scoring and spraying. It comes off better when its dry so I'm thinking a little heat from the hairdryer might coax some of the thicker bits of paste into cracking. I'd like to avoid heavy chemicals if possible but that might be the next step if this doesn't work. Right now I'd say we've got about 20% of the bare wall showing. It's been a very slow process but I'm still optimistic about the final outcome.

Obsessed.

I can't stay away. I want to make it all go away and it's been such a slow moving process. As soon as I get home I want to get back to work. A 12x12 section of bare drywall feels like a huge victory. It takes all of my patience to take it off carefully. As you can see I've found a solution to making the time pass a little easier.

Drama Queen

Meet my cyclamen plant, a gift from my sister about 2 years ago. It has only recently come into its own. I call her my drama queen because she goes very quickly from this

to this.

And then back again. I guess I should have researched some care instructions so that I would know better how to keep her happy all the time. Ah well. She seems to have survived so far. Perhaps she's been trying to tell me something. Considering the toll the winter move took on the rest of my plants she's been quite the survivor. And quite a lovely one at that.

Oops!

What a mess this has turned into. It looks like were renovating an old civil war era home. Or maybe just that a civil war took place in our home. The first layer of wallpaper appears to have been put directly on the drywall with not even a coat of paint. At first we thought maybe it would be best not to try to take it off since it was so firmly attached and such a thin, delicate layer too. But that didn't work out so well. It came off easily in some places and in others it tore off the top layer of drywall. As you can see above we've got a mess of both layers of paper and a few layers of the drywall.

We're hoping that this room is the only one with the second layer. I've already poked around in the kitchen and bathroom enough to be pretty sure of that. So we started with the hardest room, at least we'll get it out of the way first. Lucky for me I have the best reno partner a girl could ask for working along side me.