Never Give Up

This felt right today. Whether it's family, friends, love, work, remodeling an old house...

P.S. Rand & I have started a new effort to "talk nicer" to each other... and it feels like a small miracle. Less sarcasm & teasing....but more laughing and smiles!

Best Plumber Ever

LEFT: Ian Iguana, the plumber (aka 1930's bathroom miracle worker)

RIGHT: Randa Panda, the jewelry salesman (aka bling slinger & amateur handyman)

My Very Own Bob The Builder

Dear Rand, 

this is payback for posting my blog on your facebook....

I love you :) 

Progress Report: 3.25.2011

March 25th, 2011

Guest Bedroom Floor
Rand stained the Guest Bedroom floor Wednesday and it looks amazing! The older wood was very absorbent so it was a little darker than he planned, but we both agreed we still like it (I feel like I got lucky b/c I wanted a darker stain from the beginning) A co-worker of his is going to come and help seal it with apoxy or polyurethane...? I'm not sure about the process/materials here. As you can tell, the floor is Rand's project, not mine!

Guest Bathroom
Rand and his friend Ian finished sheet rocking the guest bathroom Friday morning. Now it's on to tape and mud and sanding.... I can't wait to paint it! (more grey owl...my fav!)

Kitchen Cabinets
We got another cabinet to add to our growing collection (a small upper cabinet for over the fridge). We're about two cabinets away from a full kitchen! I'm trying to convince Rand to delay the kitchen project until he has all of the supplies ready and can knock it out in 48 hours.  The delayed bathroom project has worked out...but I know that he could not survive with his kitchen under construction for a month - he loves to cook & eat!  

P.S. Yesterday for dinner we had lemon herb porkchops (his request), 

asparagus, and steamed sweet potatos (my request).  

Total Cost: Less Than $10. 

Who said eating healthy isn't affordable and DELICIOUSSSS?? 

Plus, there were enough leftovers for both of us to pack lunch for work today!

Probably no more updates this weekend because we both work all weekend!

Shades of Gray

Honestly, I am terrible at choosing colors from those little paper samples they give you at the home improvement stores. I need to see the color in action in a real functioning room. 

From these swatches, I don't know that I would have chosen Grey Owl (#2). 

 1. Benjamin Moore Full Moon (2119-70), 2. Benjamin Moore Grey Owl (OC-52), 3. Benjamin Moore Misty Gray (2124 -60), 4. Farrow & Ball Light Gray (17), 5. Benjamin Moore Icicle (OC-56). 6. Benjamin Moore Moonshine

But these Grey Owl Rooms I found online made up my mind!

(Thank goodness for Google image search)

Sample Grey Owl Bedroom

 Sample Grey Owl with White Trim

 

 

Guests Welcome! (almost...)

Isn't it the best feeling to be able to see progress? Well it finally looks like one of our many projects has an end in sight. I can't WAIT to see something finished in this overwhelming construction zone that Rand calls home. 

The guest bedroom was the first room we started working on in the house because Rand planned to make it his bedroom while we finished the bathrooms and master bedroom. Needless to say, we weren't done in time for move in and he ended up making the office his makeshift, tiny bedroom.This worked out well because it allowed us to really get this room exactly how we wanted it.

The guest room was painted a terrible dark green, and walls were a heavy textured plaster that has sharp points and deep valleys. Overall, the room was very dark in spite of the great windows. 

BEFORE 

We had a lot of work to do in this room - but luckily it was mostly aesthetic (unlike other parts of the house!). 

SAND WALLS - First, we sanded down all of the walls with a belt sander. (My arms hurt just thinking about it - and my head hurts knowing that this step will have to be repeated in EVERY room in the house before we can paint) The walls are still textured (about half as much as before), but much smoother and no sharp points. 

STRIP TRIM- I brushed a paint stripper onto all of the wood trim and used a scraper to scrape off the old paint. I did some of the larger flat areas with the belt sander and then finished things up with a higher grit sanding block. (My finger nails suffered) Luckily, Rand's parents stopped by to help with some of the sanding. We stripped through a rainbow of paint trim colors: white, mint green, peach, bright blue, and more green. Wow!

PAINT WALLS - We originally struggled to choose a paint color.  I wanted grey and Rand wanted tan. I went to Home Depot and got a sample of "Grey Owl" and painted a square sample on the wall.  I got lucky and Rand liked it!!! Then here's the best part.... he liked it so much he got 5 gallons of it and we are going to use this same color throughout most of the house with a few brighter/bolder accent colors (which Rand insists on picking since I got my pick with Grey Owl). This paint choice has led to endless owl jokes from Rand. I think the gray paint gives this quaint old house a bright modern flair and Rand likes that it has a granite look over the (less) textured walls. All of the painting was done in one day with Rand rolling and me doing all of the edge work.

AFTER WALL PAINT - BEFORE TRIM & FLOORS

PAINT TRIM & CEILING - Semi-Gloss White paint and lots of painters tape. Stripping the old paint off made the trim look much sharper because a lot of the edges and corners looked like mushy play-doh from so many thick coats of paint. While doing the trim, I also popped off the outlet and light switch covers and gave them a fresh coat of white spray paint. All of the trim is done except for the baseboards because I didn't want them getting beat up while Rand was finishing the floors. 

FLOORS IN PROGRESS (A MESS) 

REFINISH ORIGINAL HARDWOOD FLOORS - This got pretty intense (kind of like the rainbow of colors of past wood trim paint). We pulled up blue carpet, rose/floral lineoleum, green/white patterned linoleum, and wood linoleum.  Rand wants to beat up whoever put down wood linoleum over hardwood floors. The worst part of the whole process was getting up the linoleum adhesive with adhesive stripper and huge scrapers. Rand rented a sander from Home Depot, so we were in a time crunch to get all of the adhesive up and the whole floor sanded twice (rough grit & then fine grit) in one night. I wish I had a picture of me standing on the sander whle he pushed it around the floor - it worked faster with my weight pushing down on it. Definitely a funny experience. 

The floor still needs to be stained and sealed with polyurethane but hopefully that will come this week so I can paint the baseboards, re-hang the (freshly washed) blinds and take final pictures. I just hope I can talk Rand into repeating this flooring process for the master bedroom - right now he's not committed to the idea AT ALL. Hopefully after he sees the finished product it'll feel worth it!

I promise to post pictures of the finished paint job & beautiful hardwood floors soon. I have to remember to take the pictures during the day (hopefully this weekend) so they aren't so dark and you can get a better look at the famous

"Grey Owl"

P.S. If you know Rand, text or call him and tell him that staining & sealing the floor sounds like a perfect way to spend his Wednesday day off!

COMING SOON:  
Bathroom Magic-How One Became Two

Flashback: Before Pictures

These are the pictures that were posted of the house when he bought it. 

You can see that the house definitely needs a little 

style help and a few modern updates. 

Warning: Long & Image-Heavy Post Ahead. 

2 Bedroom/1Bath Bungalow

1300 sq/ft

House Front

Front of the house is adorable, but this green porch carpet has to go.... my favorite thing about this house has to be all of the great windows and light!

Backyard 

Awesome backyard, but it needs some cleaning up. The house is on a 1/4 acre lot. I'm crossing my fingers for a back deck or nice concrete patio in the future. Come bbq with us!

Living Room

I love the huge windows in the living room. This room will be getting a new finish on the walls (more like less-finish...they're currently super textured and would cut your arm if you bumped into them!), fresh wall & trim paint, and eventually the floor will have to be leveled (it's like a fun house with the slanted floor) and get new carpet. 

Kitchen

 This kitchen could explain my lack of cooking posts for the blog... the floor plan and appliance placement is terrible. That stove completely blocks use of one of the (crooked and terrible) cabinets. (What were they thinking???) This room will be getting new cabinets, a new floor plan (with the stove and fridge both situated on the left wall), and eventually much larger (cross your fingers for 18") new tile. These walls also have the crazy texturing, so they will be sanded down and painted as well. As for the positive aspects of the room, I love the two big windows over the sink and how bright they make the room. 

Laundry Room

The laundry room is part of an addition to the original house and the back wall is covered in windows. This room needs a new back exterior door, some additional cabinetry/storage space, fresh paint, and will get the same new tile as the kitchen. This room also has a very narrow staircase down to the basement storage area. 

 

Guest Room

The guest room is located off of the living room at the front of the house. Sorry this picture is so dark, it does not do justice to the TERRIBLE green paint on the textured green walls. The walls have a terrible plaster mud swirl texture with extreme peaks and valleys that would be dangerous to bump into. This room also has a makeshift built in closet that looked a little "ghetto" for lack of a better description that will be ripped out. This room is currently carpeted, but the plan is to rip that out and finish the original hard wood floor - wish us luck. With hardwood, and fresh paint for the trim & walls, this room will be a brighter happier space!

 Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is located in the middle of the house and has an addition off of it (same addition as the laundry room) that will be an office space. It currently has a closet, entrance to the bathroom, and entrance to the office. The closet will be demolished to make room for that master bath (I'll explain later).  A new/larger closet (YAY!) will be built into the mystery wall (not pictured - Rand likes to imagine it was part of the underground railroad...hmmm) that has about 8-10 sq/ft of unused space closed into the wall between the master bedroom and the kitchen. Strange right? No wasted space in this little house for us please... This room needs some sheet rock work from removing/inserting new doors for bathrooms & closets, re-finishing on the wall texture, fresh wall & trim paint, and eventually new carpet. 

Office

This room is located at the back of the house and completely surrounded with windows on the exterior walls. It has a closet and some great shelf space. This is currently Rand's tiny make-shift bedroom while the rest of the house is a CONSTRUCTION ZONE!  He likes to joke that he feels like he's camping.... it fits his queen size bed with about a foot of space on each side. This room will eventually be painted...not sure whether we'll paint over the wood paneling (we kind of like the lined texture with paint - imagine beadboard) or remove it. 

Bathroom

This was the one bathroom in the house and even though it was pretty big, it felt small because of the cluttered layout and huge tub (a really cool claw-foot 1930's vintage cast iron tub is hidden under that framing). Sadly, these beautiful plaster mint green walls, wood paneling and chair rail will be the first to go. This bathroom is being completely demolished to create a small guest bath and a nice size private master bath with a big corner shower. The journey from ugly bathroom to two beautiful bathrooms is project #1 and progress will be posted soon.

Please join us on our journey from 

Out-Dated 2BR/1BA 

to 

Fabulous & Fresh 2BR/2BA 

....crazy me working on someone else's house, but maybe I'll live there one day ;) 

For now, I'm just making the commute to Sandy a few times a week to help with remodeling when I have time away from work. Pray that I don't get a speeding ticket & that gas prices will stop going up and things should be just fine!

So if we seem like we've disappeared or aren't as much fun anymore or you notice that I have paint in my hair...it's because we've traded laser tag and double dates for sanding walls and painting trim. 

Oh the fun we'll have...

Less Cooking & More Remodeling

Rand bought this adorable 1930's house on 8000 S in Sandy in February 2011 - just in time for his 29th birthday...talk about giving himself a great present right? We'll see if he still agrees now that we've been spending so much time working on it. 

It needs a lot of work to update it and make it a little more stylish but I love it. I want to document the remodeling that we do so that we can see the progress and keep track of how far we've come. It's a lot of work but it's a labor of love.

This house is in Sandy, about 40 miles from where I live in Layton. So it's been an adjustment living further apart and commuting down to help him work on the house, but it's a lot of fun too. I'm starting to get used to the drive.... i guess... lol!

 

Thank goodness for great friends and family to help. Lots of helps from his parents, brothers, and friend Ian (our favorite plumber) has helped this house come a long way in the short 2 months that he's had it.