Jersey House

Bead Simple

2008-03-27T15:26:00.002-05:00

Bead Simple
Originally uploaded by susanstars

Yes, yes, I know I owe an update on the kitchen! It's only been, oh, seven months since I last updated? I'd love to say it's because we've been SOOO busy working on the house, except, yeah, not so much.

But! in the interim, I have a shamless somewhat-self-promotion-though-not-really post--

Bead Simple, the GORGEOUS new book from Susan Beal of West Coast Crafty is out from Taunton Press (a favorite of many a diy-er and house blogger, I know). She's created a ton of beautiful designs for all kinds of fabulous beaded jewlery--seriously, this book is nice and thick and gorgeous--and I'm one of the guest designers for a

Susan designed 150 projects, and let me tell you, her instructions are some of the clearest and easiest to follow of any crafty book I've encountered (and I've encountered a bunch). It also helps that she's got impeccable taste in jewlery!

There's a flickr group already, and Kayte over at This Love Forever has a giveaway of the book going on right now.

2007-09-05T09:31:00.000-05:00

wow, we totally suck.

You'd think summer = more free time for house stuff and house blogging stuff, right? Yeah, not really.

We did finally get the beadboard and most of the trim up in the kitchen, and I did manage to paint 90% of it, as well as slap one coat on the walls before hosting my friend's bridal shower, but really, that's about as far as we got.

And I STILL! can't find the damn cable to the camera to download the photos. STILL! I suspect Henry the kitty has stolen it and squirreled it away with some of his precious treasures. Like the carcass of the fuzzy catnip mouse I found on the bed the other day looking all the world like a hairball.

Meanwhile, I really need to focus on getting things done. I have this problem where when a project is nearly done I get distracted and decide to oh, I don't know, make a quilt out of fabulous Amy Butler fabric, or embroider curtains for the kitchen.

(but they're so cute! see?

and I'm half way done outlining the birdies with red and then I'll band it with aqua....uh oh. See where this is heading?)

2007-07-16T09:11:00.000-05:00

remember the last post, wherein we measured for beadboard?

Well, we bought the beadboard, which was a bit of an adventure in itself. And I primed the whole damn kitchen (ugh), and then Jonathan installed the beadboard, again, an adventure in itself, which I will leave to him, as we actually have! pictures! for once! (that I still haven't unloaded off the camera. it'd help if I could actually find the cord).

And this past week, I've put two coats of paint (Benjamin Moore Simply White--matches Ikea Lindingo cab color almost exactly) on the beadboard. And then realized that the plywood beadboard paneling really ought to have been sanded smooth before this.

Yeah. I'm smart. S-M-R-T.

After much cursing and kicking and scaring the poor wee kitties who had really better start learning that paint does not equal delicious cream. Better late than never, I grabbed this:

It's sad, because the mouse has recently been replaced as my one true love by the heat gun (with which I stripped the window casing paint), but I do love this thing. Even if after an hour of sanding (with the shop vac hose right there) my hands were all TWIIIIIIIING!-y for pretty much the rest of the day. But I got the rest of the dust with the tack cloth, and now the damn panels are smooth and ready to paint. Again.

Next up?
More kitchen! pictures! of stripping (paint)! and other things! Like cap molding! and essentially making our own 1/4 inch quarter round the hardest way possible because we're too lazy to go to the faraway lumber yard! And homegrown tomatoes! including the vine that's taller than me!

adventures in skimcoating...

2007-06-26T13:03:00.000-05:00

well, I've finally gotten off my ass and gotten to work on the kitchen (yes, the unfinished kitchen that has been unfinished for almost a year now, as we have done exactly zip on it since Thanksgiving)!

Where had we left off? Why, what a good question! We--meaning I--had stripped off about 1/3 of the wallpaper on the remaining two kitchen walls not covered with cabinets. and that was it.

First, I stripped off the remainder of the icky wallpaper, which took surprisingly little time, but still enough time and effort to remind me that WE ARE NEVER PUTTING WALLPAPER BACK UP IN THIS HOUSE. Seriously people. the freaking handstenciling was way more entertaining, and does not require stripping and scrapers and all that crap that I really really want to be done with right now.

(the house disagrees with me. I still have the spare bedroom, the powder room, and the faux green marble monstrosity on the third floor. I am not even thinking about the painted over wallpaper in the bathroom. I think it may be easier to gut that puppy to the studs. I am not kidding.)

And once the wallpaper was down, I broke up any loose plaster, secured it with plaster washers and screws and a shit-ton of fiberglass tape over the cracks, holes, gouges, etc. That took another two hours or so.

And then the skimcoating. I went through 1/3 of a 5 gal bucket of joint compound, and ran out to get another 5 gal bucket. Which I also ran through, relatively quickly, I might add. So JBB ran out for yet another 5 gal bucket. I finished up the first and primary coat, and then enlisted JBB's help to run a damp sponge over the wall to help smooth it.

(See, my uncle Bob pointed out last thanksgiving that damp sponge over drywall mud = much much less sanding. And I hate sanding. Hate hate hate. So, thanks uncle bob!)

The next am, I hit any low spots with a second coat, and again with the sponge. And voila, smooth(ish) walls with no cracks! Now I just need to prime pretty heavily to help give the joint compound a little more hardness.

We also measured for beadboard. And finally decided that yes, we will be putting about a 4 foot wainscot of beadboard (painted white) around the kitchen. Not only will this help keep the room visually unified and allow us to pick a nice bright color for the top without feeling like we're living in the circus, but it'll help protect our nice smooth walls from getting the crap dinged out of them by the insane cats and the doorhandles.

Course we gotta install it first.

hey, know what's fun?

2007-06-04T19:25:00.000-05:00

coming home from work on a rainy day to find a 15 foot branch from the magnolia tree hanging across the sidewalk--still attached to the tree mind you.

so forty minutes later, there I am next to a big ass pile of 3 foot chunks of tree and leaves, wielding the 20 foot tree pruner and japanese pull saw, chatting with my neighbor about which one cuts better (he was duly impressed at my insanity).

I wish I'd had the forethought to take a picture beforehand, as the pile is not nearly as impressive as the dangling branch, but really, considering I was out there in my silk shirt and fancy jeans that wasn't going to happen. I did stop and change into my converse though.

getting ready

2007-05-20T20:36:00.000-05:00

ok kids.

this weekend i pruned the hell out of one of the lilac bushes, and partially pruned the hell out of the other one. there's still a ton more to cut away, but pruning is like crack, it's so addictive.

and in other news, it's almost Memorial Day! which means it's almost time for me to have 1/2 day summer Fridays!

which naturally means it's time for me to ...
a) finish the kitchen, which entails...
i) striping the rest of the wallpaper
ii) repairing and skimcoating the walls
iii) picking a damn paint color already
iv) putting up the luan, and then tin ceiling backsplash
b) window fixing!
i) first kitchen window, taking it apart, stripping it (heat gun! whoo!) and reglazing
ii) bathroom window
iii) our bedroom windows
c) cutting all the crap out of the yard and if we have time
d) powder room demo and redo

We'll see how much of that I actually get to, considering the first summer friday will be a boozy margarita lunch.

organizing thoughts

2007-05-07T13:21:00.000-05:00

You know, the comment on my previous post about my office/craft room got me thinking about practicality, and how that word means different things to different people.

Poor John, I hope he doesn't think that I don't appreciate his well thought out and thoughtful ideas! I do, I promise! It's jsut that you inadvertantly hit on something that has been a bit of a thorn in my side for a while now...

Specifically, the reccomendation to ignore Blueprint for a while in favor of researching craft storage in craft magazines. This statement tells me right off that John and I aren't really on the same page when it comes to craft magazines. Or maybe he hasn't seen Blueprint?

Why are there so few places that take both how something looks and how it functions into consideration? I think this is why I responded so strongly to Blueprint layouts, Martha Stewart's own personal brand of anal crazy, and to Adorn's gorgeous and practical layouts.
With the exeption of Adorn, and possibly Craft magzine, craft magazines do not fit with my own sense of aesthetics, not to mention the extreme amount of ugly chaff you have to sort through to find the one bit of wheat-potential. I've already tried and rejected the "go to Michaels and by a cheap piece of ugly molded plastic that won't quite fit for the space and probably won't fit your supplies anyway" approach.

Too many places go for plastic everything, with no thought to design. I'd like to work in a room with some sense of elegance, not a room covered in clear and white plastic crap. Or worse, brightly colored plastic crap. Organization TV shows also never seem to take into consideration how people function in a specific space. Dump stuff into a shitload of ugly rubbermaid containers and cover the whole shebang with a curtain. Well, curtains are wickedly impractial coverings-they get dirty and dusty and look sloppy. And for me, hiding everything in a plastic bin is far from useful. There's no good way of accessing your supplies, short of knocking a towering stack over.

Design sites and magazines are even worse. The first suggestion is to throw away your stuff (apartmenttherapy.com commenters are horrible in this respect). Gee, thanks. That's already been done. It's not clutter; it's supplies, dude. Bet you don't have a pantry either

The second suggestion is usually quite pretty and wildly impractical, ignoring how crafting items need to be stored both for ease of use and for maintaining integrity of the item. The comment on the previous post suggested using a wine bottle display to store yarn, which is a gorgeous and creative idea. But alas, it's more appropriate for a window display than actual everyday use. (a large footprint for very little yarn; you'd need to store yarn as skiens, not as balls, knocking out all yarns that come in balls and any yarns that you've already balled up on the winder as "ready to go"; can't keep your dye lots together easily; yarn shouldn't be stored out in the open air like that as dyes are prone to fading with UV light, it exposes the fiber to potential moth and bug infestation, not to mention dust and the cats. )

but a non-fiber person wouldn't know all that. And again, poor John, I don't mean to slag him for trying to help. It's a great visual idea, and exceptionally creative reuse. It's just impractical for a fiber collection.

So now I need to go look at the reqirements of my supplies, then head off in search of the pieces that make the cut. I think the tall worktable will be the most problematic.

2007-05-04T09:32:00.000-05:00

I am attempting to ignore the unholy mess that is our backyard "landscaping" for a while. It's pretty bad. Like, painfully bad. Like rip it all out and let god sort 'em out bad.

Other than bulbs, which, frankly, I can always get more of, there are maybe two plants I would like to save in the backl--the climbing rose and the japanese maple--and two towards the front--the lilacs and the hydrangeas. And even those? ehhh...

So instead, I am obsessing about how to decorate and organize my office/craft room.

The room that no longer has teh devil wallpaper and the two-face style finish work in the double "doorway" that opens to JBB's office (we're closing it up, btw). Which, apparently, I don't have any finish pictures of. (How do I not have any pictures of this? I mean, I freaking skim coated that damn wall?? Ok, tonight, I take pictures.)
before:

Two-face! Devil Wallpaper! I hate you wallpaper!

during:

no wallpaper! smooth! but still baby poo brown!

after:
imagine that during picture with a very bright, clear granny smith green walls (LOVE) and white trim. And piles and boxes of crap in front of it.

Now, dear readers, those of you who know me in person know that I have a shit-ton of craft supplies in a wide range of activites--some of which came courtesy of the research and writing of my book
DIY GIRL: A Girl's Guide to Making Everything From Lipgloss to Lamps (go buy a copy today! Yeah, I have no shame!)

but really, I can't blame the book. too much of my crap just showed up on one of those days I could not resist the siren call of Michaels (we all know the launch of this will come to no good for me). Or worse, the fancy pants paper store. Or, fancy pants bead store. Or, the absolute worst, the super ultra giant huge Stitches knitting convention with their insane yarn marketplace. mmmm yarn.

So anyway, if you could see the crap that stacked up in this room (i know, pictures.) you could see why it is driving me batty and driving me to plan and obsess about the container store and martha stewart and ikea and pegboards and shit.

I want to incorporate the following things, and I'm not quite sure how to do cram them all in there yet:

-a largish tall craft/cutting table, tall enough to stand at, or sit at with a stool (maybe with the short end against a wall, jutting out like a penninsula?)

-an idea board/bulletin board

-wire grids or pegboards for tools-a sewing desk/table

-storage for yarn (both enclosed and for display)

-storage for fabric

-storage for random craft supplies

-my five foot long cherry desk (dad made it for me when i was in 8th(?) grade)

-bookcases and magazine storage

-storage for childrens/YA books I've worked on

-this awesome photo of a bunch of balls of yarn that I bought on the street in Dublin.

-a rug of some sort.

-curtains--I'm thinking about getting white sheers and stenciling them in black with (yet another) damask stencil--and maybe keeping the black less-than-opaque?

I blame Blueprint magazine and their pretty pretty spreads of gorgeous workrooms--they also have a fabulous blog that I am hooked on. them and my already anal tendencies for order and everything having a place. Not that I put things in their places, but still, I like those places to EXIST.

I am crazy. I know.

Did I mention I'm trying to distract myself from the garden? I am.

when last we left our intrepid bloggers...

2007-04-03T11:36:00.000-05:00

we'd been slacking hardcore on the posting. and sadly, not because we were sooooo busy with house stuff.

but this weekend, JBB went to town on the lawn and landscaping.

We had had the old mostly-dead cherry tree in the front yard taken down last fall, as the poor thing was on its last legs and an unholy mess. This tree and the magnolia tree (that's still there--with flower buds no less!) had been surrounded by a giant oval-kidney shape of crappy bark mulch that the previous owners had summarily mounded into 2 foot high mulch-hills.

JBB shoveled off the crappy mulch that was left, and reshaped the oval-kidney into a much smaller, much more visually appealing and appropriate circle around the magnolia, and aerated and reseeded the bare spot.

now, we have clay soil. which would have been bad enough, but we have clay soil, lots of shade, and plants that have not been tended in oh, at least 10 years. So the lawn is crap. The rest of the plantings, with a few exceptions, are crap.

Ok, maybe not a few. Making the list, it looks like we have more that might be worth saving than I thought: crocuses, lilies, and a few other bulbs that may be daffodils (yay!) or tulips (yay! yay!) that are popping up now. We have some lilacs (yay!) that I hope to god aren't dead because I love lilacs, something that looks to be an aggressive wisteria vine (like there's any other kind of wisteria vine...), a wild and rambly large rosebush that needs a lot of cutting back, but is beautiful in bloom, and a hydrangea bush on the side lawn.

The problem is that there's a lot of crap spacing out of those nice bits, and no real good sunny spot for a veg garden, even a small one. poop.

I think this year is going to be the year we wait and see what's what and what comes up where.

meanwhile...

baby kitty photos!
meet henry:

and while Milo wasn't too thrilled about Henry at first, they've been getting along quite well so far. no hissing or real fighting, and a whole lot of cat-tag and chasing.

kitty! porch! drinks!

2007-03-25T21:33:00.000-05:00

it's been an eventful weekend.

Kitty!
we picked up a new baby kitty on Saturday. He's two months old, freaking adorable, and mostly black with dark dark brown rings and faint markings. And obviously, we still don't have a name for him. I'm leaning towards Percy, though Seamus and Ogden are in the running. Guinness was another suggestion, but he doesn't feel very Guinness-y.

Porch!
I scrubbed the hell out of our porch this afternoon. it was a filthy filthy mess. We took down the screens last fall, and I rinsed the non-ground-in crud off then, but I really needed to scrub the whole thing down with a stiff brush. While I was at it, I also took the softer scrub brush on the pole to the crappy aluminum siding by the porch, and washed off the grime there.

It makes a huge difference now that it's clean, though the paint is chipping everywhere. I am starting to think that they never bothered to wash the porch before they slapped (and I do mean SLAPPED) the most recent coat of paint on there. There's also a few places where it looks like there are probably 15 or so coats of paint that is starting to crack and peel--especially on the southern side.

next I really need to scrape and sand everything down and prime and paint.

Drinks!
My brother and sis in law, me and JBB went to Pegu Club in manhattan this weekend. Seriously some of the best bartenders and the most quality cocktails. I do love that place, and consdiering that my brother charlie is a huge fan of Dale DeGroff, he was in heaven.

You have to love a place that gives you lemon juice, lime juice, simple syrup, and orange bitters in eyedropper bottles at the table for you to customize to your taste. And knows how to make a fabulous rob roy.

Post-drinks, we went to Katz's and got giant pastrami sandwiches. Mmmm pastrami!

our poor blog

2007-02-15T13:04:00.000-05:00

we have pushed the poor blog by the wayside. Probabaly because we haven't really done anything big on the house since the last big kitchen push. And also, we got a wii. Wiiiiii!

Meanwhile, I've been adding to the list of "what's next":
Kitchen:
-add last toekick to cabinets
-install hardware to cabs, so we can finally do away with the painters tape pulls
-finish stripping wallpaper and skim coat the walls
-decide beadboard in kitchen, yay or nay?
-install pressed tin backsplash

Hall way:
-repair cracked plaster in hall ceilings and stair ceiling
-prime and paint foyer, hall and upstairs hall ceiling
-prime and paint foyer, hall and upstairs hall walls
-scrape, sand, prime and paint cruddy windowsills in hall
-strip(?) doors

Powder room:
-lose icky vanity and fixtures
-strip wallpaper and repair the walls
-replace or lose drop ceiling
-new fixtures, vanity, and add a bookcase
-new floor
-new door

Oh, and we discovered that our porch turns into a skating rink the moment snow and/or rain appears in the sky. Lovely. The most recent layer of paint is also flaking off like a little bastard, which means that guess what we get to do come spring!? That's right, scrape, sand, reprime and repaint the damn thing. Ehh, it's for the best, as I think the previous owners painted it with high gloss exterior paint, and not, you know, porch paint.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-03T16:06:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a fabulous New Year and has recovered from appropiate festivities, as well as any inappropriate festivities!

We had a lovely little break, as both JBB and I didn't have to go in the office last week. And the heat is still working just fine to boot. Yay!

Giftmas was a very lovely giftmas with many cookbooks that we can now use in our lovely shiny half-finished-finished-enough kitchen, Apple loving us (nano, shuffle, and video ipod), and A DREMEL! I cannot begin to tell you how pleased I am to be able to drill things and polish things and all sorts of rotary tool things.

And while we had a few days sans travel or plans during the week, we did very little on the house. Actually, I should revise that. I did very little on the house.

JBB managed a whirlwind of small but important things. For example, right before we had a few folks over for New Years Eve of drinking and Karaoke Revolution (yeah K-Rev new years!), he straightened up the whole house while I cooked, and we hung the living room drapes, for which our neighbors are very glad I'm sure. And the next day he had a flurry of activity in which half of the toe kicks in the kitchen were installed, the headboard on our bed was attached, laundry was done, the old dresser in the guest room was moved to the third floor so we can actually use our elliptical machine, and oh yes, I watched Law and Order.

By the way, did you know that Costco has prosecco, my favorite fake champagne/sparkling wine, for $6 a bottle? And it's GOOD too!

chilly

2006-12-20T21:27:00.000-05:00

we accidentally let the heating oil run out. and because we're genuises, didn't figure it out until the vents had been blowing cold air for like a day. hey, it was freakishly warm here! and yeah, we're idiots.

so, oops.

luckily, before jbb had called the oil folks to come fill it on thursday already, so we just had them move it up to today. holy crap is this stuff expensive! the bill makes me want to go lie down for a while.

but the furnace guy just left, after changing the filter thing and doing his magic, so now i am cranking the heat to a decent temp, and standing over the nice warm vents until my feet defrost. according to the thermostat it was 50 deg in the house. Ehh. still warmer than my parents house (my mom likes to see how long she can go before turning on the heat each year. good times, yeah.)

did I ever tell you about the devil wallpaper?

2006-12-12T10:23:00.000-05:00

of course I did. Because the wallpaper in my office was sent straight from hell to torment me, mom, and anyone who ever came near it. Not just ugly, but apparently bonded straight to the plaster.

The devil wallpaper, she is off. How you may ask? Well chickens, it's all thanks to this handy dandy little wonder with it's own carrying case:

The black and decker mouse. Fitted with 60-grit paint stripping hook and loop pads.

Yeah, I sanded off the wallpaper of the damned. And it worked! Messy as hell, but I expect no less of a fight from the wallpaper of the damned.

And then JBB and I tackled the double-wall. Some ninnys before us installed a layer of wallboard over the plaster on one of the walls. They'd removed the picture molding at the top of the wall, but didn't bother doing anything about the baseboards, or the window molding. Idjits. One of the corners was loose, so after removing the picture molding again, we just ripped the sucker off the wall, ganked out the drywall nails. What we find? Wait for it...

Painted over wallpaper.

Because the gods of wallpaper haven't already made it explicitly clear that I am not in their good graces, I guess? Sheesh. Interestingly, it was actually painted a decent color, which confirms that it was not the previous owners doing (catty, but accurate). At least this stuff was so old it pretty much flaked off. Flaked off with a lot of scraping and some soaking with an unhealthy concentration of DIF.

At least the plaster underneath was in quite good shape. I ask you, who covers up painted over wallpaper with drywall? How is that easier? You've already painted over it, jeeze people. Think ahead!

Did I mention I did this all in one night? Because I'm nuts? And by the way, there is REALLY bad TV on at 2:30 am on a Friday.

Then, there came the washing of walls. And the repairing of cracked/gouged plaster (I got a little scraper happy. It was 3 am, cut me some slack). I finally went to bed when I ran out of joint compound. Luckily the next morning, my mom came over and primed the ceiling and picture rail trim while I skimcoated the sanded-down devil wallpaper and the entire formerly-covered-over-wall.

gorgeous! and smooth! finally!

Of course, I didn't bother to sand the room until 2 weeks later, when the thanksgiving deadline started to loom. My hair was white from dust, and thank god for the shopvac. But I hit the woodwork while I was at it, so all in all, the room, she was prepped.

I primed pretty much every surface in the office, painted the ceiling (I HATE painting ceilings). By the time the parents came over to help I'd moved on to the white trim just in time for Mom to finish it up--she's awesome with the cutting in--and I could go for the acid green wall paint.

All that was left was scrubbing the crap out of the floor, and taking this:

and moving it all back into the office. Finally the spare room was spare (and ready to act as guest room, once we got the mattress delivered).

Granted, we still have to put the last piece of trim up on the formerly wallpapered/drywalled wall, and I have to organize all my craft crap and yarn stash, oh, and finish painting the windows and doors. But hey, it's almost done!

let's travel back in time a few weeks, shall we?

2006-12-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

because I am lazy and it takes me weeks to upload pictures, I never was able to fully explain the kitcheny chaos that was the weeks before Thanksgiving.

First off, JBB had a bizness trip the week before thanksgiving. a week-long bizness trip. To europe. the week before thanksgiving. yeah. fun times.

So the weekend before he left, he and Dad hung the boxes on the wall and screwed the suckers together. the ikea cabinets hang on a rail, not unlike a french cleat, but a little niftier.

course JBB and dad had to hang the rail twice because the first time it felt too low. alas.

and there was much discussion. and sweating.

et voila:

then they had to bolt the suckers together:

and of course they still had to do the lower cabinets, and thanks to our wildly uneven floor, parts of which had multiple layers of flooring, this was no easy task. I believe JBB is trying to level the back legs on the sink cabinet:

we had had to have the plumbers back in to move the rough in, because it was off by about an inch or so. and then rather than cut a new piece of drywall, I suggested we just flip the patch over and cut one extra hole. Worked pretty well, if I do say so myself:

I left it to dad and JBB to mark and cut the actual holes in the cabinet for the plumbing though. dad did a nice job, and rather than sign his work, he did this:

did it work?

thank god, yes.

apparently the corner cabinet was also a bitch to get in. but i wasn't there for the making of that

just saw the end result.

note ikea's handy dandy poster instructions:

But then JBB took off, and left me and Dad to do the countertops, cut the sink hole, install the sink, and the doors/drawers.

there was naturally some minor panic, since the electricians were coming to do the undercounter lights and the finish work like the next day. which they did, and oooooh:

shiny!

gfci!

lights! and fan! and did I mention recessed lights? (the fan shade was cracked, we need a new one, but still with the pretty pretty)

But more importantly, the plumbers were coming to connect the sink and faucet that friday--then revised to thursday. so counters HAD to be done by then. oy.

So we got cracking. The ikea birch butcherblock is pretty nice, and damn heavy. luckily, JBB had drawn the outline of the sink where the cutout should be before he left. it's pretty big, since we got the drainboard attached sink from elkay, so there was some debate as to whether we cut out the WHOLE hole, or just the sink part. After some checking of interwebs and sinkage, turns out I was right--whole hole. Dad did the actual cutting in several sections with his jigsaw to keep the big piece from dropping and splitting.

the leftover cutout

ta dah!

once that was done, it was all about getting the suckers into place. I sealed the cut edges in the hole with spar varnish, and then screwed the counter to the boxes and to the cover panel that is screwed to the wall to the left of the dishwasher to support the counter edge. then, dropped the sink in, using a shitload of clear silicone caulk.
.
looks pretty good, no?

Dad took the two pieces of countertop for the other side of the run back with him to attach them invisibly in a right angle, and brought them back the next day for installation. I got to do that part, mainly because I can haul myself inside that corner cabinet without busting my spine. sadly, we did not get any pictures of the beautiful join dad did.

What did we learn? Ikea instructions are good, but sometimes leave things out. Dad and JBB work very well together. Dad and I work well too, but with a whole lot more cursing and a lot of "stop being so damn whiny and just do it right" and "quit being a baby!" on both our parts. Poor mom. She avoids it as best she can, usually by volunteering to finish painting the trim elsewhere in the house.

next up?
hanging the doors, where we learn that I can understand ikea instructions quite well, and no one wants to believe me when I explain how they even give instructions on how to take things apart when you screw up. and dad has an excellent vocabulary of curses and likes to direct them at inanimate swedish objects.

so did everyone have a nice Thanksgiving?

2006-11-29T11:59:00.000-05:00

We sure did! All 21 of us! (Or was it 22? Hard to say since little Matthew was hardly in one place for very long. Which is understandable, considering the number of ladies he had to charm... Wait, I can always list everyone who was there... ehh, I'll just show the pictures and you can count for yourselves)

and as a warning to all family out there, THIS is what happens when you leave a camera unattended near uncle bob for too long:

the saga of the dishwasher, resolved

2006-11-22T10:03:00.000-05:00

So my new best friend Frank, in the appliance department of Lowes, solved the dishwasher problem. And it's being delivered today between 11 and 3! Yay Lowes! Suck it, Sears!

Though it was funny to call to cancel the order at Sears and have the nice lady ask me why I needed to cancel this order. I was like, oh honey, scroll down on the computer and take a good hard look at the notes section, which I am sure details my tirade, crying jag, and subsequent phone calls. Then she was all "oh, my, oh, oh, I'm sorry. Ok, oh, I'm--ok, I'll just cancel thi--I'm sorry!" Yeah.

In other news, JBB is back from his week long biz trip! And he's busy cleaning the house! I however, am at work. Ehh, better than cleaning.

And I think I need to go see Happy Feet, despite my Robin Williams Moritorium, just to see the wee fuzzy penguin rap "The Message." AWESOME.

Or maybe I'll just go to the site and play the beginning of the trailer over and over.
http://www2.warnerbros.com/happyfeet/

sears can suck it

2006-11-21T10:44:00.000-05:00

seriously. they can really just suck it.

we were supposed to have our shiny new dishwasher delivered this morning (between 9:45 and 11:45). I get a call at 7 am from Sears telling me that oh, right. Delivery? Not so much. Oooopsy! I mean, maybe we'll call you in a few days to reschedule delivery, not that we can give you a timeline of any sort.

Way to give me two hours notice TWO DAYS before Thanksgiving, ya jackasses.

So after several phone calls to customer service and being asked, very politely, to please stop saying "So you're telling me you're screwing me over two days before Thanksgiving?" at every turn, and learning that supervisors don't arrive until 7 am central time, and apparently dishwashers just don't arrive at all, Sears can suck it.

(poor call center guy, I apparently really offended him by telling him that he was screwing me over. I however, am like what? This is the 7 pm show my friend, this is for the kiddies. I normally work blue with you people.)

So I called my dad and let him know that he didn't need to show up to wait for the non-existent delivery. He was all excited to write a nasty letter to the chairman. And I called JBB to let him know about the non-existent delivery. He had better luck with the customer service folks--apparently the supervisors are now on duty--but still nada.

And I am back to: Sears can suck it.

It's all about expectations. It's no big deal to do the dishes by hand, but I'd just been expecting to have it in and done. If I'd have known they couldn't pull their heads out of their asses last week, I would have either sucked up my expectations, or just gotten it from some other store. But finding out TWO hours before it was supposed to arrive?

Sears can suck it.

Kitchen!

2006-11-20T11:52:00.000-05:00

(I just noticed I use a lot of exclamation points in my post titles. I need to work on that. But this one deserves it!)

We have kitchen! A functioning kitchen with doors (save two) and food in it and everything! It's kind of amazing to me. I was beginning to think that this day would never come, but lo and behold, here it is.

Just in time too, as we are back up to 21 for Thanksgiving.

On Thursday, the plumbers came and proved themselves to indeed by my new best friends by hooking up the sink. Yes, they came a day early. And now, running water, whoo! And also, they are the freaking cutest guys ever, because they took all the dirty dishes that had been in the "bitchen" (bathroom + kitchen), and moved them to the sink. And they took the dish rack from the bitchen, and moved it to the kitchen. Awww!

Friday I hit the shelves and finished assembly of the drawers. Thank god IKEA assumes you're going to screw things up and give you a way to de-attach things after they've been attached. Cause I put the drawer faces on upside down twice.

Saturday, Mom and Dad came by to move the old fridge to it's place in the basement to hold the Thanksgiving feastage. Turns out the sucker's on wheels, which makes it a lot easier to move. Nice work old fridge!

Then dad and I got cranking on putting on the doors while mom attacked the little wee bit of unpainted trim in the living room that was going to drive her insane until it was done. That's why I love my mom--she's just as nuts as I am.

Once we figured out the hinges, it was pretty straightforward. And dad only busted one set before he figured out that you need to tap the suckers into the holes BEFORE attacking it with the drill. And so after they took off, I loaded the food and kitchen crap into the drawers and shelves etc.

Granted, it's still an unholy mess and there's no shade on the ceiling fan (it cracked and we have yet to get a replacement), there are a few holes in the walls still that need to be patched, there are blue tape pulls instead of the pretty shiny lee valley pulls, two missing fronts, and a ton of boxes and crap and trash sitting around, but... we have kitchen!

Now I just gotta go cook...

more progress!

2006-11-15T15:03:00.000-05:00

ok, I lied. We're not 19 for Thanksgiving anymore. It looks like it'll be about 12-14, which is a little easier since it means one turkey, not two. whoo!

But it's still a weeeeee bit stressful, considering that we don't have the kitchen done yet. we're close though!

We have juice! The 'lectricans came and 'lectrified stuff, and added in 4 canister lights without doing any damage to the ceiling or the walls. I am amazed. then they returned yesterday and installed the lights--I can see things! Clearly! Well-lit things! We have can lights, and a ceiling fan (with a cracked globe that needs replacing, but still works), and undercabinet lights! Just like a real kitchen!

And my favorite part: The kitchen has WALLS. Walls, people! Walls with drywall! Last week, they guys came and did the drywall, so when the weekend came around we were all ready to have cabinets attached. But the day they were there, when I came home from work after the guys had been there, I just about fell to my knees and cried. Not only was the wall drywalled, the ceiling patched, but THEY FIXED THE PLASTER! Part of the wall was cracked and crumbling, and the night before I'd patched and done a light skim coat over about 40% of the crappy wall, expecting to finish up the really crappy 60% the next night. But no! the guys did it for me. Oh sweet heaven.

So then it was time for the ikea cabinets. JBB and my dad (aka Mr. Tom) installed them this past weekend. It only took two trys for each run.

I should clarify, lest I give the impression JBB and Mr. Tom did anything wrong, which they did not. First, JBB had most of the cabinets assembled. The uppers are hung on a pretty ingenious rail system, that while like a french cleat, isn't one. So JBB and Mr. Tom leveled the rail, screwed it in, and hung (but not screwed in) two of the wall uppers on Sat. evening. They were at standard height, but Mr. Tom thought they might be too low. Keep in mind Mr. Tom is something like 6'1", and I am 5'5". I have heard this "too low" arguement before, and not always agreed. knowing this, they waited until I returned from my friend's 30th birthday party (whoo karaoke!) to consult me. Yeah, too low. They had to re-do.

The next day, they were leveling the lowers, and had them all leveled to be 36" high, sans countertops (which are the ikea butcherblock and 1 1/2" thick). Yet again, I had issues. Yeah, too high guys. So uncomfortable. So they had to re-do.

But then they were in and bolted together and to the wall! Like a real kitchen!

Monday night, Mr. Tom came by again, and they cut the pieces for the countertop, in the dining room. There was only minor panic when we couldn't find the instructions or the template for the sink cutout (which is huge--you cut out underneath the integrated drainboard too). Interwebs to the rescue there. So JBB got that laid out, and then had to go pack for his week long biz trip.

Leaving me and Mr. Tom to actually make the sink cutout last night--it works! it fits! I'm still a little shocked! And screw the support "cover panel" to the wall by the dishwasher. Dad took the corner pieces of the countertop back to his shop to attach them. Yay for biscuit joins and clamps!

Tonight? Counter gets attached. Sink gets attached. Because Friday the plumber comes to hook that sucker up, and I can once again do the damn dishes in a real sink! Maybe I can even put doors up, dare I even think it....

And, as if wonders will never cease, we finally chose pulls. And when I say "we" I mean me. Both JBB and I are happy with satin nickel/brushed nickel bin pulls and knobs, but I was having the damndest time making a decision. I had lists and lists and lists. Do you even know how many folks out there sell satin nickel/brushed nickel bin pulls and knobs (with a slight line/reveal, please)? Jeeze. In the end it came down to Restoration Hardware (surprisingly reasonable in price), and Lee Valley (views A and G). Of course we went with the Lee Valley--and also got these label pulls for two of the wee drawers on the 9-inch wide cabinet.

bad blogger, no biscuit!

2006-11-14T11:26:00.000-05:00

Guess what chickens?

Despite the complete and utter lack of postings, and a weekend trip to Vegas (craftsteak is officially the best restaurant ever; don't believe me? Ask my brother how his kobe filet was!), we have made PROGRESS! I have bathroom, kitchen and my office updates. And why the flurry of activity you ask?

Well, we're hosting Thanksgiving. For 19 people. Because we're crazy (hadn't everyone figured that out already?). So we kind of need things like a kitchen with a sink, and room for folks to sleep over.

But first, the bathroom!

This has been done for a while, but I am a slacker.

Here, may I present the skimcoated wall without tile:

And the newly tiled wall!

Yeah, the non-matching tiles are a little sketch. It's also a little uneven, because the backing was uneven. But, it's tiled! And, even though I tiled the sucker like 3 weeks ago, I have yet to grout. I am a bad diy-er. What did I just say about slacking?

And right before Halloween, JBB put up the shower riser. I never knew how much I loved showers until this sucker went in. Love.

We also added a soap dish onto the riser.

It's super cutie. There's a surprising amount of room in there-I think it even tops our last bathroom's traditional tiled wall shower curtain thingamabob for size. And no more puddling of the shower curtain on the floor! I feel like singing along to George Michael's Freedom right here. (Yeah, that dates me. I know).

I need to upload the actual pictures of the actual bathroom, so you all can see the new shower curtains we bought for the occasion! That and the fact that the cat had poked holes in the old ratty ones from Target. Not that the new curtains aren't from Target. Because Target rules.

Speaking of Target, I have to get myself over there and get a folding table for Thanksgiving. Oy.

electricity, eeeeelectricity!

2006-10-27T10:36:00.000-05:00

sung, of course, in the style of Schoolhouse Rock.

Is it wrong that having four (4)! electricians call me back and schedule appointments has made my week?

Granted, I called 12 total (including the one we'd spoken with and got an estimate for earlier who then decided not to return phone calls for 2 weeks), but hey, 4 actually called back!

Who knows, maybe we will actually be able to get a dishwasher circuit and some outlets in the kitchen!

what i did this weekend

2006-10-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

yeah, I'm crazy.

over 300 stencils. done!

first one! this was way before I figured out to use painters tape on the corners so I didn't have to keep respraying the sucker with spray adhesive. Eventually, I got in the groove and used a dry roller to smooth the stencil, and a straight edge to wedge it into corners.

second one...of many.

finishing the first wall.

the little foam stencil brushes were perfect, though the edges of the stencils cut them up pretty nicely. I went through 4 total.

a triptych, entitled, "Why Jen Hates Corners, Especially Corners With Molding"

et voila!

complete with cabinet bolted to the wall!

i need to upload pictures

2006-10-13T18:57:00.000-05:00

I really do need to upload pictures so you all can see how shiny and pretty the bathroom is now!

I skimcoated the top half of the wall, sanded it smooth, and primed it. and I JUST finished tiling the bottom half patch. it took a lot longer than expected, mainly because the tile cutter we'd bought was missing the cutter part, and so I sat there and nipped the freaking tiles by hand. also, the backing was uneven, so the tiles are uneven, but ehh, it's not like they match the other tiles anyway!

sadly, though, the crap-ass-caulked-in-packed-with-hair-dye-drain is still not fixed.

oooh shiny...

2006-10-09T15:22:00.000-05:00

this is now on our tub.

jbb installed it last night, and only got shot in the face with water twice. the first time I was able not to laugh out loud. the second time, not so much. come on! how many times do you see a tom and jerry cartoon in real life?

while he was installing, I was taping and mudding up the drywall and cement board he'd put up earlier to cover up the gaping hole in the bathroom wall where the pipe was (see previous post).

I'm not really sure what the previous owners did in terms of, well anything, but in this case plumbing. the bathroom sink drain pipe? held into the pipe in the wall with caulk. Oh, and stopped up with gobs and gobs of black hair dye. the instant jbb touched it, it popped off the wall and STUNK to high heaven--you know that hair dye smell? ugh. yet another thing for the plumber to fix when he comes this week.

but at least I was able to get a skim coat of joint compound on the top of the drywall hole today. I have to say it looks pretty good for my first stab at skim coating! I am heartened. Maybe this means I'll actually be able to eliminate the devil wallpaper that refuses to come off of my office walls...

a hole in the wall

2006-10-06T11:25:00.000-05:00

literally.

The plastic-y shimmer is due to the shower curtain cut, taped and tacked around the hole to prevent water from pouring down into the walls, through the floor and into the kitchen. Classy, no? It's been like this for over a week now!

But look at that shiny new PVC that ACTUALLY FITS IN THE DAMN WALL! oooh, like magic I tell you.

(just a reminder of what it was before...)

Oh yeah. Loads better. Plus now we get to learn how to tile!

And by we, I mean me.

10 things I learned this weekend

2006-10-02T09:13:00.000-05:00

1.) the shake shack has delicious burgers. and cheese fries. and booze.

2.) when they say "creme brulee" frozen custard, they mean it. there were bits of brulee'd sugar. mmm sugar

3.) not only is there an outback on 23rd street, but it's surprisingly busy on a friday night. who knew?

4.) the wallpaper in the spare room comes down amazingly easy. this is very very good, as there are three different wallpapers in this room.

5.) drywall is heavy, yo. and that's why jbb hangs it.

6.) taping and mudding drywall is fun! and that's why I get to do it. I like the self stick fiberglass tape.

7.) our spare room looks considerably less sketch without the giant hole in the wall where the big ass pipe used to be.

8.) while yard work is quite satisfying, it makes me very very tired.

9.) the bushes along the side of our driveway are the devil.

10.) candy corn season is upon us, finally!

the stencil post

2006-09-28T20:43:00.000-05:00

Ok. So the stencils came, and gorgeous.

I did a few sample boards that I'd painted with the background color, and again, gorgeous. Though it did take us (and my us I mean ME) a while to figure out the layout issues with the registration marks.

What can I say, I'm easily confused. JBB pointed out that the registration marks made for evenly spaced medallions. Aligning the little top/bottom bits on the side of the stencil with a top/bottom bit on a previously done completed motif makes for an allover pattern--which is what we want.

So the samples of metallic paints. We're torn. O all knowing blogosphere, what do you think? Left or right? (and please ignore the bit on the right where I did part of the motif over an already done motif)

I think I am leaning toward the left color-wise, but depth wise, the right is much better. maybe mix a bit into each?

Hallway photos

2006-09-25T21:01:00.000-05:00

Here are photos of the downstairs & upstairs hallways, which are approaching typically-messy-room status instead of we-live-in-a-storage-facility box-ladenness.

Downstairs hallway sans desk. FWIW that cabinet/bookshelf is vintage IKEA if you can believe it. The first IKEA in the US opened outside of Philadelphia in the early/mid-80's, and my parents went to town on the place. We have two of these cabinets -- the other one we hung some stemware rails on and converted into our bar.

Here is the upstairs hall. No major changes but I did swap out the light fixture, and we put down a nice rug my parents gave me way back in college. I promise we do own furniture of our own, it's not all hand-me-downs. Unfortunately one of the things I am responsible is that weird chest thing in the hallway, which is IKEA, four drawers, and needs to go away sometime soon.

progress, of a sort...

2006-09-25T15:03:00.000-05:00

so this weekend we made some progress on the hall.

the hall you say? what was wrong with the hall? Why, nothing was wrong with the hall, I say.

We'd just never gotten our acts together to get my 5 foot cherry desk out of the damn entry way. That is no longer the case. Saturday, after the nice cable man came to hook up the cable in our bedroom (thank GOD--I am just too lazy to get up and go downstairs to indulge in my crappy am tv tendencies), JBB and moved the desk up to the room that will be my office when the devil wallpaper has perished.

It took about two seconds to realize that yeah, we'd have to take the top off to get the sucker up the stairs. First off, it's 5 feet long. Second off, it's solid cherry, so it's really heavy. Luckily, my dad made it for me years ago, and is ingenious when it comes to nifty little tricks, and so the top comes off. It's held on by little L-shaped pieces of cherry that are screwed into the top, and fit into routed slots on the braces so the wood has room to expand and contract. And, thank god, they slots and L-pieces are both numbered. Otherwise we'd have been royally screwed.

So now we are back to our lovely entryway system with a bookcase with cabinet on the bottom, recycling bin, trash bin, and shredder. SO much better.

And as our own little reward, we finally got the stencil I'd ordered for the dining room in the mail! But that is another post, hopefully with pictures.

How do you know if a contractor is ripping you off?

2006-09-19T13:41:00.000-05:00

We are now deep into the land of contractors, and I am lost without a map -- how do I know if I am getting ripped off? We are getting about 25 new or replaced outlets/switches/fixtures, and I have an electrician estimate that comes out around $95 per. How do I know if that is a fair deal or a total ripoff? Any thoughts?

More generally, here is where we are in contractorland:

Chimney people come on Thursday to close up the gratuitous hole in the kitchen, clean the flues, and seal up the firebox so we don't set the house on fire. The good news: we don't have to replace the sagging brick hearth. Quoth the chimney guy: "I've seen worse."
Plumbers kick off next Tuesday by replacing our entire stack from 3rd floor to basement. Right now it's 4" iron which sticks out the wall in ridiculous ways; we are having it replaced with 3" PVC that should stay in the wall where it belongs. From there he will move to kitchen and the other stuff in the house.
Tree guy gave us a first estimate. We are going to:
- Prune back the front lawn magnolia so it doesn't swamp the house;
- Cut down the front lawn cherry tree, which is a) ugly and b) in its declining years; and
- Raise the gigantic back yard maple by around 20' by cutting off the large low-hanging branches. This will make a huge difference, since as-is today, the lawn is barely visible from the house because of those branches. Our neighbor hates this tree -- apparently it doesn't get leaves until May, and doesn't drop them until December.
Electrician will hopefully be lined up once I figure out the fair-price problem, listed above.
Carpenter to set up the fake wall -- still need one, hopefully will make some calls in the next couple days and get that going. I am kind of counting on the fact that building one stud wall should be trivially easy work for a decent carpenter.

I think I'm broken

2006-09-17T20:26:00.000-05:00

first there was the toe.

then there was the migrane this week.

and now I am all stuffed up.

Seriously. I am broken yo.

i sat around sick for much of the weekend, save for some kitchen floor mopping and hall and stair rug vacuuming. Yay for clean! Jbb installed a new hall light upstairs. I sat on the stairs to the third floor keeping him company, sniffling, and peeling the white paint off the door in large 6" sheets. See, I'm a picker by nature, and I can even begin to describe how immensely satisfying to peel off the sheets of paint like sunburned skin. (and I'm pretty sure this is a coat that was done within the last 5 years or so, so no lead paint worries)

Apparently, before they painted the doors white (without, mind you, sanding or priming the previous coats), they'd painted the doors metallic silver. oooh, shiny.

the pics of the bathroom

2006-09-11T21:41:00.000-05:00

because really, it does defy logic. It is the amazing, wonderous who-the-hell-would-frame-a-clawfoot-tub-with-a-wood-enclosure bathroom!

It looks a million times better here, scraped, primed, and painted in oil paint, than it did before all peeling and crappy and NO CAULK. Dude. Who doesn't caulk a bathtub?

Here's another, this one starring Milo in Motion:

And while we're at it, here's a shot of the pipe coming part of the way out of the wall. Also, not really caulked. But hey, painted!

Hey, look! Milo likes the caulk and paint job!

the return of pictures!

2006-09-11T21:19:00.000-05:00

jbb uploaded the pics that were on the camera last night, and so now, I can bring you pictures! In color! Whoo!

First off, the living room, featuring everyone's favorite Benjamin Moore color, Shenendoah Taupe!

The color is pretty accurate here. The photo also features the brandy new spraypainted silver Cape thrift store lamp, the black also-from-the-Cape lamp (anyone want to guess what the base is made of? Mom, don't spoil it for anyone else), Milo the orange kitty and JBB eating dinner. I didn't do the picture rail, because we'll be adding crown molding shortly (I hope).

Now, who wants to see what our kitchen looks like at the moment?

Hey look! it's a mess, but there are no more packed boxes! whoo!

And finally, the two-tone, soon to be three toned dining room. These pics didn't turn out great, and the color isn't really representative of what it looks like in real life, sadly.

This was the before:

And soon we'll be adding the stencil to the top half.

Sadly, no pictures of the fully furnished bedroom, featuring everyone's favorite Ikea product Pax, quite yet. (though Jenny Wren, they're coming up next)

color!

2006-09-10T18:39:00.000-05:00

the dining room, she is painted! Kinda.

Mom came over yesterday and put the second coat on the top half (Benjamin Moore, Cameo White) because I cannot climb the ladder because oh yeah, I fell down the stairs and busted my toe real good. I am a klutz, I know.

While she was second coating, I cut in and rolled the first (of several) coats of BenjMoore's Raisin Torte. Oooh pretty dark red... that needs three coats to cover. Ehh, could have been four. About halfway through, mom lapped me and took over the cutting in, while I finished rolling. Then we left the sicky JBB to his own devices and hightailed it up to my brother and sister-in-law's house to see their super cutie new kitten Fig. Oh the cuteness. The cuteness! It kills!

So the second and third coats of raisin torte didn't get done until today, but damn they look good now.

And now, because I really didn't need what was left of my sanity, we're going to stencil the top half. And when I say "we", I mean me and if I can sucker my mom (we're both crazy anal in very similar ways). See, with the contrast between the cream and the red, the top half needs something a little darker or textury. Yeah. I caved. I ordered it.

I think I'll do it in a bronzy-goldy color, so it's tonal but still with some contrast and not too overthetop. I'm also now debating painting the fireplace bricks black, and I've already ordered swatches of fabric for drapes. You'd think as a seamstress's daughter, I'd be used to the price of fabric per yard. You'd be wrong. This stuff is pricey, even discounted!

At some point, the room will be as Dramatic as a 16 year old Sondheim-obsessed teenage girl. Love it!

additional pictures of walls! with! color! forthcoming, as we have yet to find the cable for the digital camera. It's in a box. Somewhere. I think.

I will be your beast of burden

2006-09-06T22:50:00.000-05:00

Things I have carried since Tuesday afternoon (with minor poetic license and some gaps):

Ten bookboxes out of the corner to make room for a rug in the living room
Ten bookboxes (same) back into the corner once the rug was down
Nine broken-down dish crate boxes into the basement
Eight armloads of flattened and rolled-up packing paper into the basement
Seven swans a-swimming (er, one cat a-biting)
Six boxes of old papers and magazines from one corner of the basement to another
Five suitcases from the basement to the 3rd floor
Four book boxes from the 1st & 2nd to the 3rd floor
Three loads of laundry from the 2nd floor to the basement and back
Two tall IKEA Billy bookcases from 1st to 2nd floor (one corner, one narrow -- corner units is HEAVY)
Two more bags of trash into our slowly-filling (unattached) garage
One microwave that I used to reheat leftover Chinese food.

the return of the vacationers

2006-09-06T15:25:00.000-05:00

Well, we’re back from the mini vacation on the Cape.

I painted the damn tub surround on Thursday night (oil paint really isn’t that stinky, or else I am seriously brain damaged from the fumes), and then drove to Eastham that night.

The weekend consisted of much sleeping and lazing about, not so much swimming as it was chilly and drizzly, and many many hands of Onze. But there was much rejoicing at the fact that the cape house, though old and beat up, had a kitchen! And there were no boxes to unpack!

We visited my aunt and uncle who have a house in wellfleet that they rent out most of the summer— wellfleetrental.net Yes, I am totally pimping them out. But the house was gorgeous and very comfy and outfitted with Fran’s artwork

Plus I picked up a great heavy lamp at a thrift store and painted the crappy faux brass a much prettier faux matte silver.

And once we returned to jersey, JBB found the microwave!! We have a semi-kitchen! Or at least the ability to heat items in non-metal containers! Whoo!

rub a dub dub

2006-08-31T08:49:00.000-05:00

I caulked the tub! Not just caulked the tub, but scraped out the barely there remnants of the old grout, sanded and scraped the tub surround, and caulked. all in preparation for painting the tub surround.

Painting the tub surround, you say? Wha you say? The hell you say?

Why yes, that would be the same reaction I got from Mr. Nice Paint Guy at the Paint Store when we asked for a paint that would give us about 2 more years on this.

Our tub is a claw foot tub, that has been surrounded by a wood platform and box framed out in beadboard (the low walls of the surround, not the flat platform). The walls are tiled about 2-3 feet above the top of the tub, and then there's painted over wallpaper. Oh, and this surround is painted, after a fashion. With flat paint. Lovely, yes?

Yeah, I think so too.

Anyway, there had been a leak from the bathroom into the ceiling of the dining room below. And my new best friend Steve the Plumber said that it looked to be from water getting into and under the surround. Now, you'd think that if you built a platform to surround a claw foot tub you might say, caulk, the joint where the surround meets the tub. But you'd be wrong my friend! Very very wrong. Of course you'd only caulk where the surround meets the tile, because duh!

And so while I was all set to follow Jamaila's fabulous caulk removal tutorial, there was in fact no need for caulk removal goop, as there was nothing but crud in the joint. This came out easy enough with a few good scrapes. While I was at it, I scraped down the loose and peeling paint on the surround, and sanded the bugger down. Of course I hit bare wood, and so primer was called for.

And so there I was, at 1:30 am, sitting inside the tub caulking the crap out of this join. I have to say it's a very nice bead.

Tonight is painting time with the oil enamel paint Mr. Nice Paint Guy at the Paint Store suggested.

transitions

2006-08-29T11:34:00.000-05:00

I hate moving.

But so far Jonathan and I are transitioning well. Or as well as you can when there are boxes literally to the ceiling.

Milo the cat however, was not transitioning well.

Yesterday he peed on the damn bed. under the covers, and stayed there for a while. Now, him staying under the covers of the bed for the last two days is fine. But dude. Don't pee there!

we stripped the bed, washed the sheets and quilt and mattress pads and soaked the mattress with faux nature's miracle.

Milo meanwhile hid under the bed, smelling like cat pee. Poor kid. I am annoyed at him, but also, poor kid. He must have been way scared to pee in the bed and stay there.

Then about an hour later, he was fine. He still smelled like cat pee, but he started nosing around, and clomping down stairs and being a brave 'splorer. I think he thinks the boxes to the ceiling are like his own personal jungle gym.

Scenes from a move

2006-08-28T09:29:00.000-05:00

We have moved. Some highlights:

Our box spring, wardrobe, and 2nd couch would not fit up the stairs. Wardrobe and couch are in basement. Box spring also would not fit in basement, so it spent the night on the porch (and we spent the night on our matress on the floor). Jen is a genius so she called 1-800-MATTRESS at midnight on Saturday and they had a new 2-piece box spring installed at 8am Sunday morning (!!!) -- big props to the 1-800-MATTRESS people. [For the logic geeks in the crowd, Devil stairs : JBB :: devil wallpaper : Jen]
The movers grossly underestimated the job -- they brought 4 people and a 15,000 square foot truck planning on 9 hours of moving, and ended up taking 12 hours and having to go back to the apartment for a small 2nd load, as well as leaving 2 mini-vans worth of stuff behind in the apt because they were overtired. Oh, and they tried to change their rate from the estimate. Discussions will be had.
I took up the terrible rug in Jen's office while they were moving stuff in, by cutting it into pieces. We have the best utility knife in the world, super-sharp.
Washing machines are heavy. On the bright side ours is now in position to be hooked up by the plumber. But they are very, very heavy.
Jen did some serious work getting the bedroom and bathroom together on Sunday, while I tried to stay functional and out of semi-catatonia after all of the move-related craziness on Saturday.
After huddling on the 3rd floor all day Saturday, the cat has not come out from under the bedcovers since Sunday AM, with the possible exception of a short expedition last night.
Final steps tonight to getting out of the apartment are getting the food from the refrigerator and my fishtank (30 gallons, 4 goldfish, 1 pleco, and 2 snails).

so very tired

2006-08-25T09:19:00.000-05:00

so I ignored the devil wallpaper last night. Every time I looked at it I just wanted to either cry, or throw something at it. Lovely how I am projecting my moving stress at the very walls of the house, huh?

Instead, while JBB bolted the pax to the walls in an extremely genius manner, I stripped the wallpaper from above the mantel in the dining room, which used to look like this:

Now THAT paper came off like wallpaper should!

I also primed the whole room, save the baseboards. That took until about 2 am.

I am tired.

devil wallpaper

2006-08-24T09:07:00.000-05:00

You see this wallpaper on the right?

Yes, it's ugly. But more than that, it's the DEVIL.

Why you ask? Well because I was up til 1 am last night trying to strip the freaking thing off the damn wall. It. WON'T. COME. OFF.

Yeah sure, I got the top layer of faux fabric crap off. But the paper? Oh the paper just laughed at me. Guffawed at the properly diluted DIF. Chortled at the completely and 100% UN-diluted DIF. Giggled at the wee little steamer.

I swear to god, I think they put it up with epoxy or something. Thank goodness it's just chair rail level.

As I was scraping my little heart out, muttering curse after curse at the possessed wallpaper, Jonathan (who was assembling Pax closets for me!) came by and suggested co ering it up with wainscoting. At the time, I was like "NO! This wallpaper will bend to my will!" Now, it sounds like a good idea. Or a belt sander.

Jonathan's worst case suggestion: rip down all the plaster and replaster. HA! Because this crap is totally out to get me and that may be what it comes to.

moving day!

2006-08-23T09:19:00.000-05:00

it's coming. . . .

it's Saturday.

and have we packed anything? Uh, not really. Will we? Maybe a few things. But that, my dear friends, is why we hire movers! Blessed blessed movers.

Best. Money. Spent. EVER.

After the last move, I have been told that I am a "bad mover" and been informed that, in fact, my presence inhibits progress. JBB has made it clear that the waves of panic that shear off me during moves is not productive and will most likely make his head explode. As such, I won't be present.

And so I will be moving my clothes and other girly accoutrements over the night before, and then day of, I will move the cat and his accoutrements over, locking him in the third floor, and getting the hell out of dodge so JBB can deal with the movers in peace and not have to talk me off of the ledge every five minutes.

Dude. Fine by me. I still think I got the best part of that deal.

Mom and I will go get door handles for the wardrobe and light switchplates and the like. And she can deal with the waves of panic shearing off me--she's got years of experience with that.

(Don't you love the irony that we're like "what? I'm not about to PAY someone to demo this for me." and "Contractors? BAH! Who needs em!"--but we hire folks to pack us up and move us 2 blocks? I do. )

everything including the kitchen sink

2006-08-22T00:11:00.000-05:00

I know, wittiest blog post title EVER!

ehh. I need opinions.

We're going to get the cheapie wood counters from ikea for the new kitchen, and oil the hell out of them. but I also need a drainboard, and would rather have a drainboard integrated sink.

and because I am picky, I want a deep sink. (I blame Mom, who spoiled me with the 12" plus deep stainless sink we had growing up). My minimum depth is 10".

So far we've come up with this integrated dishdrainer deep sink from Elkay. It's oh so pretty, but problem is, that thing is more than cabinets. It's a thousand bucks. who spends that on a sink?

If I could just suck it up and get a double sink, I could get an ikea one for cheap. but I don't like double sinks. God, I am picky.

So if one were in the market for a single basin, deep sink with integrated dish drainer, where the hell could one find it for less than a thousand bucks?

um, I'm in love.

2006-08-21T23:39:00.000-05:00

sadly, I am not referring to jonathan (though I am also in love with him), but I think he'll forgive me.

Cause . . . hello gorgeous!

traditional damask stencil from mystencils.com

provencal damask stencil from my stencils.com

florence damask stencil from mystencils.com

elizabethian damask stencil from my stencils.com

I'm thinking above the plate rail for the dining room? Maybe a cream on grey-cream, over solid red? Thoughts?

(keep in mind, I am doing this all in denial of the lack of a kitchen, and also because oooooh pretty....)

Quakers!

2006-08-20T21:18:00.000-05:00

Some of you may know that my family is Quaker, aka Society of Friends.

And we totally bought a Quaker house!

When Jonathan and his dad were demoing the kitchen cabinets, they found an envelope that had slipped down the cracks. In the envelope was an invite to the 1951 annual meeting of the Society of Friends at the meeting house on 4th Street in Philly, as well as a notice about buying books about the Society of Friends.

How awesome is that?

floors

2006-08-20T20:49:00.000-05:00

Sunday, Jonathan and his dad went to town on the kitchen, while his mom shopvaced up the crap on the living room and dining room floors so I could wash them.

Which I did. With a scrub brush. On my hands and knees. And 6 changes of water.

Y'all, they were FILTHY. Like turn the water black filthy. And I thought they hadn't been that bad beforehand, but now they look gorgeous.

It didn't help matters that the previous owners, or the previous previous owners, had decided to put drippy paint cans down on the floor with nothing underneath them and so I had to scrape all the goddamn paint drips and rings and dribbles up with a putty knife and some goo-gone (which works quite well by the way).

The one saving grace was that the cable is in and working and by god HGTV knows me so damn well I can seriously watch their cotton candy fluff for 6 hours at a time. Especially while washing floors.

I also hit the window sills and the outside part of the window sills (which, as far as I can tell, had never been wiped let alone scrubbed).

Ahh clean.

iiiikea!

2006-08-20T20:14:00.000-05:00

I am posty mc posts a lot today. But it's because we got a lot done this weekend.

After Friday's adventure with carpet (ewwww) and near-completion of the master bedroom, we were left only to fix the lack of closets.

And that was a job for Ikea. Actually, Ikea and my parents, Mr. Tom and Miz Karen and their momvom, which will actually hold a flat packed Pax wardrobe box. Or five.

So Saturday am, I primed and started finish painting the baseboards in the living room, while the locksmith came and fixed our door and lock. Now all doors lock AND latch! It's a wonder of modern living, I tell you this.

We met mom and dad at Ikea (only 20 minutes late because of the locksmith and stupid parkway traffic that sucks). Luckily, if you are waiting for someone, Ikea's a pretty good place to do it, because you can say, plan their new kitchen wilst eating cinnamon buns on comfy and cheap sofas. It's kinda the perfect place.

so we wandered through the showroom, scoped the tv stands (leksvik corner thank you very much), the kitchen cabinets (lindingo, in white, some upper cabs with glass), ogled the comfy black and white flowery chair (lunna, but not in the boring grey shown here), my new dresser (leksvik 6 drawer), and then spent some time planning out the Pax Wardrobe System.

Oh, I love Pax. Why? Becuase I will have a freaking closet now.

Mom and I figured out what I needed--one wide tall with a fixed high shelf, two clothes rods, and two sliding shelves; on narrow tall with a fixed high shelf, a long clothes rod, and sliding shelves. The question was, do we go for the white birkland doors or the antique doors? but they're big. and that's a whole lot of antique, so we went with the white.

We went to the nice man with our list of things--including order numbers--and ordered the componets for pick up. One slight issue is that we mistakenly ordered fixed shelves in birch instead of white, which we didn't realize until we were about to pack the car, and thus had to go return the bad shelves, and switch them out for white ones.

Only other stumbling block? They were out of the awesome knappa pendant light, which will be going in my office. ehh, I'll order it online.

Once we got back, the boys unloaded the godawfully heavy boxes while mom and I polished off the rest of the baseboard and went to town on the master bedroom floor with the Murphy's Oil Soap scrub brushes, and Mom's amazing foam mop As Seen on TV. Shiny shiny clean floors!

Jonathans parents were coming up from MD for a short visit and they drove by just as we were finishing up dinner on the porch. And they brought porch lights and electric chainsaws and all sorts of nifty stuff (including a lovely spanish rose wine--yum!) They then got the grand tour for the very first time. They were quite impressed by the kitchen demo (that I'm sure Jonathan will be posting about shortly) and the shiny shiny master bedroom.

Because did I mention the master is DONE?

Next up? Shades for the master and the bathroom, otherwise the neighbors will get a little show.

hey, guess what?

2006-08-20T20:07:00.000-05:00

The master bedroom is done! (mostly)

lookit those shiny clean floors!

Friday afternoon, after a lovely showing of Talledega Nights with a few friends (Will Ferell is awesome and John C. Reilly is freaking hilarious), I came home to the house and rolled up the carpet and nasty nasty nasty purple carpet pad that had disintegrated into dirty shreds, except for the parts that stuck to the floor. Ewwww.

After about an hour shopvac-ing that crap up, I was able to paint the baseboards and do one coat on the door frames. Then Jonathan got home and he hauled off the gross carpet and pad. Yay! That crud is gone!

On Saturday, post-ikea trip, mom and I scrubbed the shit out of the floor, and now it's all shiny and nice and shiny and it's done and YAY!!!

One room done!

<>

dear lord what is wrong with me?

2006-08-18T11:15:00.000-05:00

I am now thinking of wallpaper for the top half of the dining room.

Now, anyone who has knows me knows my aversion to wallpaper. It's a pain in the ass to hang, and it's more of a pain in the ass to take off the damn walls. And it's everywhere in this house.

So just how is it, you may ask, that I am even considering turning to the dark side?

Because of this post at decor8, and these pretty pretty papers from
farrow and ball:

(they are st. antoine and silvergate)

and look! bees!

How much you wanna bet right now JBB and my mom are falling out of their chairs in shock?

Maybe I'll just stencil or stamp instead...

JBB vs The Bolt

2006-08-17T23:59:00.000-05:00

When we first visited the house, we knew the kitchen was ugly and kind of beat up, but we (well, I) thought we could salvage it for a few years by fixing up the doors and repainting it. Once we closed and started looking in detail, though, we realized things were actually pretty messed up. My father-in-law, who knows a lot about woodwork, was instrumental in convincing me that everything was actually doomed and needed to be replaced. So after some grim thought about the need to redo the kitchen, I surrendered and we started planning the cheap kitchen redo.

Which brings me to challenge #1 -- demolishing the upper kitchen cabinets.

This is a good task for me, because when I was a theater geek in high school I started by helping to take apart all the flats (the giant paintable pieces of scenery) so I know a thing or two about busting stuff up. Plus breaking things = stress relief.

I learned a few things during the process, including:

The old extractor fan was venting into a hole in the chimney. Not into a flue, mind you, but into a hole that looks like it has just been whacked through the bricks.

The ceiling isn't the ceiling -- it's actually pieces of wallboard that are covering the original plaster and lath ceiling. Probably for the best because the plaster up there is crumbling like crazy and is covered in a brownish paint that I am neurotically convinced is lead paint that is going to kill everyone in the house starting with the cat.

The Bolt.

Dear Lord, The Bolt.

Basically the old cabinets were probably built in place, by someone who mostly had no idea what they were doing. A hodge-podge of nails, screws, etc. For example, the shelves were two pieces of narrower wood held together by heavy shelf paper and some 1x1-ish braces. Despite this craziness, it seems like the intention was more elaborate at first, because the leftmost part of the cabinets was much sturdier, including the use of these giant 4" bolts with heavy-duty anchors in the wall to hold stuff up. Not so bad overall, if weird. Except for The Bolt. The Bolt was one of four holding the cabinets to the ceiling. Three came out fine, but The Bolt was somehow running through the old metal lath and up into some unholy nether region, and the bolt-head was a flat-head screw that was totally, totally stripped, so neither electric drill nor manual screwdriver could turn the MF more than maybe a half turn at a time. So basically half the cabinet was hanging from the ceiling by nothing but this one unholy bolt, that absolutely refused to move, or pull out, or anything. I don't have a reciprocating saw, so I ended up resorting to manually sawing away the wood around the bolt so I could pry everything out around it. This involved a hand saw that I had to keep whacking into the ceiling getting showered with plaster and paint dust (because as I said, the ceiling is crumbling like crazy). And because this is the ceiling, everything was over my head so my arms got more & more tired, not to mention keeping my balance because I am doing all this while standing on the base cabinet b/c Jen had the ladder upstairs painting the second coat of the bedroom. So I was standing there giving myself a plaster-dust shower and trying different ways to get around The Bolt for like 45 minutes, at the end of which I was pretty much incapable of saying anything that wasn't a savage, Kevin-Smith-at-his-most-profane type curse. Nonetheless the forces of good prevailed and all the top cabinets are finally down. Stay tuned for pictures of The Bolt and the de-cabineted kitchen.

oh yeah, before and after

2006-08-16T11:28:00.000-05:00

so I wrote a superlongwinded post about painting the living room, but did not have any pretty
pretty pictures. oooh shiny pretty candy pictures... luckily I have them for the master bedroom!
(clicky clicky on the thumbnails)

Before:

Note the two wallpapers, and chair rail, held on only by the wee-ist nails and a wing and a prayer.

cause, yeah, I ripped it off with my hands the night before in a fit of "let's if I can tear shit out of the wall!"

During:

Luckily the wallpaper pulled right up. (note the ugly fixture.)

however, the walls were not in the greatest shape.

but they were worlds better after a ton of plaster patching, sanding, and a coat of primer.

After:

oooh, pretty!

so very pretty!

It still needs one more coat of wall color, the baseboard needs scraping and painting, and the carpet/dropcloth will go away. We need to take apart the windows to fix them a bit, and will paint more then.

paint is awesome

2006-08-16T10:42:00.000-05:00

it's amazing what a difference a coat of paint (or two, or three...) makes for the look of a room.

now the living room was probably the best looking room of the house, decor wise. There was no wallpaper (hallelujah!), and while there was a decorative paint finish on the walls, it was comparatively subtle and neutral.

I had yesterday off and instead of sleeping or relaxing, I decided to paint the living room.

We'd decided on a color--Benjamin Moore Shenandoah Taupe--but had yet to get the paint. So I trucked off to the nice friendly paint store and picked up a gallon. I also got a quart each of Knoxville Grey and Gray Cashmere as possibles for the dining room.

Then I painted the ceiling. It took forever and I'm pretty sure it's a form of torture. I know it's what is causing the pain in my back today. How my mom does it so quickly and nicely, I'll never know. She had already primed it and cut in around the light fixture, because she rules.

Now it looks worlds better. Previously, it was a crappy dingy dirty yellow. Clean white ceiling! YAY!

Next, the trim, save the baseboards, in white semi gloss. I have to say, I'm pretty good at painting trim and cutting in. I think this may be a function more of the brushes than of me. I love my new sash brushes. Yes. I am a dork.

The trim took longer than I thought though, because there are two windows and two wide door openings. I even did the actual windows and not just the casings. And no paint on the glass either! The windows and the door openings are missing a few pieces of the smaller thinner trim that frames out the flat piece of wood on either side of the casings, so it was a little difficult to cut in. We need to find the right profile and replace that, maybe when we replace the missing baseboard caps in the dining room.

Then wall color! It took forever to cut in, again, because of the missing moldings. But I saved some time by not really bothering to cut in at the top. We currently have a narrow piece of picture molding up there, that we're planning to replace with a proper crown molding plus picture rail. The current proportions are just too small--it needs a more substantial piece. Meanwhile it made it a hell of a lot easier to just roll straight to the molding. By the time I was done with one coat, the first wall was dry enough to get a second one on. And while Benjamin Moore paint covers exceptionally well, the color definitely needed the second coat.

Round this time, JBB showed up post work. We both agreed, the color looks fabulous. I am in love with the walls. I would totally marry the walls.

I need to upload pictures, and you too, would totally marry the walls. They are HOT.

HOWEVER. Now I am thinking the planned Knoxville Grey/Cashmere Gray combo for the dining room will not work. The two rooms open to each other, and in the dining room there's a high picture rail about 4 1/2 feet up around the entire room. This will be semi-gloss white, which will be white along with all the other trim (at some point we will investigate to see if there really are pocket doors between the rooms, but first things first).

So what colors should we look at? Maybe red on bottom, cream on top? Chocolate brown, sage green top? We have black/very dark brown-black dining room table and china cabinet. I'd grabbed a red paint chip to look at Rhubarb for the offices, but Smoldering Red looks pretty good.... Suggestions?

next up:
second coat on master bedroom
baseboards in master bedroom
stripping more wallpaper in every other damn room
more demo of the kitchen

My "This Old House" theory of the week

2006-08-10T22:02:00.000-05:00

We have been watching an inordinate amount of This Old House Classics since we bought the house (thank you, Comcast DVR). My theory is that everybody on the show hated Steve, the previous host from most of the 90's, and the set was full of tension and recriminations. If you watch closely, everything he says is negative -- it is either a passive-aggressive criticism or a forecast of impending doom. For example adding the molding to an external window -- he says "you have to trim the clapboards without destroying them." Not "Hey Tommy, how do you get the molding to fit?" or "Wow, Norm, that's a tricky operation." He has to throw the "destroyed" in there just to make us nervous.

The other thing I noticed is that they'll sometimes show segments with Bob Vila, but they never mention him by name or really acknowledge his presence. I'm kind of surprised they didn't do the Stalin thing and airbrush him out.

[We will eventually get up some pertinent posts about the actual house, so prepare yourself for amusing/cautionary anecdotes about discovering what lurks behind our demolished kitchen cabinets, figuring out our inscrutable phone line configuration, or Jen's ace painting job of our bedroom.]

hey yo jersey!

2006-08-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

so me and the mister bought a house in north jersey built in 1899. and now we have to keep it from falling down around our ears.

fun! and yay house!