Done wallpapering!

Don't let the other DIY "you tubes" fool ya, wallpapering takes a VERY LONG TIME.   Now perhaps, I had a special case, because I had SO much prep work to do, but still, it you want it to come out decent, you gotta take your time.

It's all the details like around the corners, edges, and around the window sills.

I was ORIGINALLY going just 1/3 up, but the walls were in such bad condition, I did a plate rail hight vs. a chair rail height.

But, I'm done--at least in the living room.

I even had to wait for one more roll to arrive via UPS.  But fortunately, it came Friday...so I had to finish this weekend, so J can add the last bit of plate rail molding.

Here are some pix:

had to do 2 coats on ceiling

covered with some prep completed

in a holding pattern, waiting form more wallpaper to arrive





ALL DONE!!!!!

the color is called: FUN YELLOW, on the walls, the ceiling is 1/2 FUN yellow and 1/2 white ceiling paint. 

plate rail height, headboard, paintable wallpaper, needs paint!
I plan on painting the beadboard a shiny or at least semi-gloss white, as well as the molding.

I also did a bit in the bathroom.  

NOTICE the lovely pattern on the vinyl floor!!!

Improved with black tiles, and notice the AWESOME sliding farm door, the handle I bought for $2.50 from a used boat store, it's a big cleat!

Just HARD labor

NO sexy before and after pix today.  I am just documenting the HARD, manual labor that is part of a home reno.

Today I was up at 530 ish...  waiting for the sun to rise so I could shovel more gravel in our dirt driveway, esp. since it is supposed to POUR tomorrow.

While I was waiting for a bit of daylight, I started to prep. the walls in the living room for paint and wallpaper.
The walls are original, with so many holes and patches, and old bird poop, (I believe, previous owner had birds) with gouges and screws and nails in the most unlikely places...I could go on and on, but please believe me, the walls are gross and disgusting.

Last night I used this spakle that is brite pink, but dries white and filled in as many of the holes and cracks and gouges I could find.

So I had to sand the filled areas first. That was messy. I used electric sander and the dust billowed.   I had the small vacuum on just to suck some of the dust from the air.

I have been reading another blog about paintable wallpaper and the prep needed. So I started washing the walls with a heavy duty cleaner called TSP.
It's a powder and you dissolve 1/4 cup in 2 gallons water.
They recommend you start at the bottom and go up to avoid dirty streaks.  I HAD NO IDEA HOW dirty the walls were before I started washing them.  They were super gross. I had to change the water and TSP every arms reach.

I was using a quart container,  each time I'd fill it with TSP solution, scrub the section, then dump the disgusting water in bath sink and filled up my container with clean water. Then I had to go back and rinse the section I just cleaned. You can not leave the TSP residue on the walls.

You have to wear PPE:  I used safety goggles, a N-95 mask and long sleeves.

That was ONE wall, of 4.

So then I had to shovel gravel for about 45 minutes, trust me--that's a work out. I had it measured: 20 shovel fulls per cart, then dump and spread with metal rake.
Still not done, but I had to go meet a guy from Craig's list. He was selling a rain barrel and I needed one, actually two. But he only had one.  So I got it.   Saved about $55 by buying it used.

Also had to get stuff for wallpaper: size and wallpaper paste (glue)  ---not many places carry it, I finally found it at TAYLOR's DO IT center.   Sherwin Williams and Lowe's did not have it.

Size is a pretreatment that you put on the wall before wallpaper, or you will NEVER EVER be able to get the wallpaper off.  It's sorta like a primer.  It's actually kinda like a watery starch.
Also got a few plastic drop cloths.

I was also looking for carpet squares, or carpet tiles.  To cover the horrid vinyl pattern in the bathroom.
No luck.  I KNOW this bathroom will be demolished, but probably not for close to 2 yrs, so I want to fix it just a bit.  It is SO ugly.

I did grab a cute wooden Xmas ladder 75% off, and then spray painted it black to use as a towel rack in the bathroom.

So when I finally got home, about 3 pm, I realized I still needed paint.   I took the color I liked from Sherwin Williams and the folks at Home Depot match it for about $15 less per gallon.
I had a 3-4 month old gallon of white I had purchased in the "oops pile" and I just had that tinted to the Sherwin Wms color.

I also needed ceiling paint.  Based on my research, I am painting the walls and ceiling the same color, Fun Yellow, but the ceiling gets 50% tint and 50% white.  Also ceiling is a flat finish, walls are eggshell finish.

I hope I have better luck with this ceiling, last ceiling I painted, I over reached and fell off the ladder and broke my arm in 4 places. It was actually the ball of the upper arm, that ball that fits in the shoulder socket.
That was unpleasant.  So far that has been my only broken bone. Bones heal in 6 to 8 weeks.

Oh, while I was at Home Depot, I had them shake the can of orange, or cantaloupe. I then painted the front door. THE inner front door.  Yes, we are replacing that too. But who knows when, and it was so gross, I couldn't stand it any longer.  Plus, now I can paint those accent pieces on the new garage.

Then I covered everything with my plastic drop cloths, and commenced to sanding, then wiping and vacuuming.   Then I had to mix a batch of TSP again.  Don the PPE and start scrubbing, dumping, cleaning with rinse water and repeat.

I'm done with the cleaning of the walls. I did not clean the ceiling.  I should clean the ceiling.   I'm too tired. I will address it tomorrow.  Now it's 9:15 pm.

I need some hand lotion, mine feel like those guys that just climbed some peak with bare hands.....odd thing is I have been wearing gloves for all my activities...but with it being cold and winter and wet---hand skin dries out pretty quickly.

OK that's it for the glamorous reno work today.  Maybe tomorrow I will have pix. My plan is to:

1. clean ceiling
2. paint ceiling
3. paint walls
4. start wallpaper, it will be a bead board pattern, but I was gonna do a chair rail height, but now I'm thinking a plate wall height.  It looks more beachy that way I think.

I will research it tonight.

Dead of winter!

I was reading a weather review of our zip code, it said the coldest day of the year, statistically from 1974 until 2012 is Jan 19th.   That's it, that's the coldest----but last week it was 18 degrees and the past few days it has been "wintery mix" at 33 to 32 degrees.

So it is a perfect time to do some YARD work.

We have a dirt driveway, not kind to cars and muddy when it rains.

So I ordered more gravel, this time 8 tons--which is about $350 including delivery.

have tools, ready for manual labor

8 tons of gravel

IMPROVED driveway!

Not completely finished with spreading, but enough for today.

Happy New Year

So much going on over the holidays, not much reno happened----other than the fence and garage.

J was happily surprised.  It has been tooooooo cold to do any further painting. Tonight, I hear the low will be 18 degrees.

Wow, and we do not have a fireplace in this tiny house--wish we did!  We have a chimney, so maybe one day I can hook up a wood burning stove. But that's a long way after we finish a bunch of other projects.

The day after thanksgiving, I took advantage of the 15% off at the rustic hardware store and bought the parts to make a sliding barn door for the bathroom. Here is the website:

http://rusticahardware.com/barn-door-hardware/


here is what our new bathroom door looks like:

CLOSED

OPEN

We bought the door at a architectural resale shop in Norfolk for $55, it is solid, heavy wood!  I just did some scrubbing and lite sanding and an all over with Murphy's Wood cleaner.  J did all the hard work of drilling and attaching the sliding apparatus. It has a U shapped metal piece at the bottom that keeps it in line and from flapping; the sliding mechanism is very smooth and quiet.
I have a large cleat I bought at a used boat store that we are going to add as the door "KNOB."

I LOVE IT!

It is like having a pocket door, but better.    And we gained a lot of space in the bathroom from the old door that would open into the bathroom space and block the corner.

We are going to EVENTUALLY rip out this entire bathroom and push it two feet to the left, but this will be one of the later projects, after the kitchen is finished.  We intend on reusing this same door though.


I was shopping for single wall ovens, did not buy one yet, but I have seen a few for around the $700 range.
This week, I will try to repurpose the porch as a dining space and workout area.  We will see how far along I get.