Tuesday, May 14, 2013

In Progress...


Thank you all so, so much for your congratulations and sweet comments on my last post.  Moving time is getting close and our last day of work is tomorrow and our house.....ooooooooh boy is it scary right now.  Because Neill's first day as a farmer is officially the 20th (next Monday), we'd hoped we'd be able to move into the upstairs at least, and improvise on cooking our meals until the kitchen was all fixed up.  But, it seems that with home renovations, everything takes longer than you originally anticipated.

So here's the current view of the kitchen...

And the living room...


And the downstairs bathroom (which looks about the same as the other bathrooms, but there was mold in the vanity in this one)...

And everything has a thick layer of dust from grinding off the floor tiles, and there are tack-boards with rusty nails everywhere, and, overall, things are just gross. Sometimes, I walk in and think, "WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!?!"  But it's too late now...

BUT, progress is being made!  My mom and I spent the good part of two weekends ago peeling wallpaper and there is now NO TRACE OF ANY OF IT, which makes me very happy.  I meant to take more photos, but was covered in wallpaper paste and bits of paper for most of the process and didn't want any of that yuck on my phone, so I'm left with this lone reminder...


I don't want to be mean, but.....really?  Shell wreaths with pink bows and butterflies?!?!?!?!?! When was this ever not completely dorky?!  (My apologies if you happen to have this exact wallpaper scheme in your house right now.  I'm just bitter that it took me an entire day to take it down.)

The downstairs bathroom was similar - dots above, stripes below, and a runner/border thingy with sailboats (yes, sailboats).  And one of the bedrooms had a border at the top of leaping dolphins and whales (I guess the previous owners REALLY loved the ocean...), which they had GLUED onto the wall. The hours spent scraping that #$@* off the wall were about as enjoyable as childbirth.

Another little project my mom and I have going on is re-texturing the walls.  Well, un-texturing.  Currently, all of the walls in the joint (aside from those previously covered in oh-so-lovely 80's wallpaper) look like this...


And, with some joint compound, we're slowly making them look like this...
(Note: This still needs to be sanded.)

Of course, we thought we'd have the whole upstairs done by now, and we've done...

Most, but not all, of one of the smaller bedrooms.

So, it's slow going, and I really hope my parents are ok with us crashing with them for the foreseeable future....because our house is not safe for children.

Joint compound and putty knives have also replaced yarn and needles for the most part, but I am working on a very, very easy shawl that I'm kind of in love with.  It's worked all in the round, so I don't have to do anything but knit, which is about what I can take right now.

So that's what's up right now.  Some knitting content to come in the next few days...

11 comments:

Thea said...

soon, soon. In the meantime, takeout! I know it will be gorgeous.

Nikki said...

Look at it this way, much like that sleeve that will never end, your house will be done and SO worth all the effort!

Aline said...

I sympathize. Hang in there, it will be wonderful. I hope the weather is nice. :)

peaknits said...

This is going to be fantastic! Keep up the hard work!

Julie said...

oh wow, so much work! I take it the previous owners had not decorate since 1981. Yikes. But it's going to be worth it!

Unknown said...

Don't you just love that triple wallpaper look!? Three papers in one room, they just don't decorate like they used to!

Teresa said...

Holy home renos batman! You're doing great. I admire the determination involved in the wallpaper-removal and wall de-texturizing. Well done!

Kkjinde said...

I was just thinking, I live in Germany, and lots of walls here look like the old textured ones already in that house, and people like it. But I guess it doesn't match your style scheme. (Just trying to lessen your work load.). Good job! Cheering for you!

Hilary said...

Thank you for all the support, you guys! :)

Kkjinde, many people like the textured walls here, too. (And, actually, many people think I'm crazy for doing this!) I actually don't think there's anything wrong with the texture, it's just that I love the look of smooth walls - like really old plaster walls. We'll see how much I can do before going crazy!

Bonnie said...

When I have giant projects like this, I try very, very hard to look at what I've done and NOT what is left to do. Think of all that wallpaper you removed! Think of all that texturing that's gone! WOO HOO!!

Very Shannon said...

What a project but what a fab end project you're going to have! So excited for you and your family! I know you're going to make it look fabulous when it's all finished! Can't wait to see it! Wish I could pop over and help you out with a bottle of wine :P