The Middle Bedroom

 

Grandma loved her cards and newspaper clippings! I filled two whole storage containers with those items and photos alone...holy cow.

 

 

As I update this post, you'll see the progress of the middle bedroom  that I'll be turning into the guest room.

 

Gotta get some before  pictures...we're talking baby blue walls and forest green commercial carpeting. Yum.
 



 

Before.

Starting to take out the carpet.

 

This is the dirt that was under just one section of carpet. Nasty.

 

 

This room became the 'catch-all' for a while -- thus progress was halted for about 4 months!

 

 

I don't think there were enough knick- knacks ;)

 

 

 After! -- I will get a few more pictures in here. As you can see, a guest room someone would actually want to be a guest in. (SW7021) Simple White wall color and Extra White trim and ceilings.

 

 

 

 

The Pink Bathroom

This was one of my least favorite parts of the house. I never liked the pink bathroom. Maybe, I am weird, but I like my bathrooms to be relaxing. Spa-Like, if you will. I don't think it's quite the place for trendy things. So this is a journey out of the 60s...Pink walls, floral wall paper, pink tile, all that fun stuff.  

 

Here we are, Pinky Pink. This room has less paint to be stripped but there is some wallpaper border to be taken care of.

 

Now...What to do about this pink shower? I purchased Rustoleum Tub and Tile Restoration kit to basically paint this shower, I'll let ya'll know more about the process and how it goes when I get to it.

 

Here are some before pictures!  

 

 

 

 



 

Side Wall- Before

 

Diamonds are a girls best friend? I beg to differ! This scraper here is awesome. Also, pry bars, yes.

 

Sticky Wallpaper Mess

 



Patching holes in cabinets and walls 

 

 

Sanded vanity ready for priming.

 

 

 Scraped Window and a new family of friends!

 



 

NO MORE PINK!

 

Wall Color - SW Backdrop (7025)

 

This is a little better, don't you think?

 

 

I painted the shower! Almost finished with this bathroom.

 

Gross!

 

Everywhere I have lived, I have replaced the showerheads. Still need to caulk along the edge of the tile... but hey...minor details.

New vinyl baseboard. One day I will replace them with wooden baseboards. One day.

 

I could not resist the slight homage to the face that the bathroom used to be pink.

 

Now...Finally! Here is a before for a little perspective.

 

 

 

 

After!

 

The Kitchen

In an effort to get moved in to this house sooner rather than later I called in the big guns... i.e. a contractor to come take care of the kitchen. Sanding, painting, and priming cabinets is not something I want to spend months doing.

 

Here is what the kitchen looked like before...

Cabinets are getting painted and new hardware.

There will be new countertops, sink, and faucet.

The kitchen will no longer be yellow.

 

Should be done in the next couple of weeks!

EDIT: The cabinets are painted!

Now before any of you wood purists out there start to freak out that I painted over wood, these were not in good shape and much better off painted. Also, in restoring a house I chose to go with a look that would have been common in the 1940s when the house was built.

Countertops will be a dark mahogany color, porcelain sink, and bronze faucet.

I'm loving this backsplash choice!



EDIT: Here it is in all of its glory! A finished kitchen. There is still a little finishing that I have to do on the backsplash but you get the idea!

 

 

Eric would be an excellent "Price is Right" showgirl.


You know you're an adult when you buy a $300 kitchen sink with no regrets!

The Master Bedroom

The first project I am taking on is removing carpet, cleaning up the hardwood, and painting the room that I will be using as my bedroom.

 

 

Home Depot seems to be the love of my life right now. A good 2-3 trips/week seem to be about normal.  :/

 

Here is the bedroom 'before', no work done, only furniture removed.

 

Looks promising. Also, I'm now an expert at removing carpet tack strips.

 

Carpet gone! ... Although cleaning and waxing has proven to be quite a process.

 

Carpet in the hallway.

 

Gone!

 

Soon you'll be seeing the results of the painting process... This is about how dressed up I get on Friday nights now. Cute, right?!

 

Don't take chances on your lungs when working with sanders and other various chemicals! Safety first, kids!

EDIT:

Fresh White Ceiling!

 



 

 

Window is primed and baseboards are sanded, patched and sanded again. Finally ready for priming !

 

Fresh White on window and trim...16 individual panes are a pain!

After primer and two coats of Sherwin Williams ProClassic , the trim is finished, doors and closets are painted and finally working on the wall color - Gray!
Sherwin Williams 'Alpaca'

Painting is finished, took about 1.5 coats...would have only taken one if I had done a better job the first time around and not missed so many spots. Floor is waxed, I chose not to refinish them at this point, just clean them up...I don't mind the character. For places with extra "character", there are always area rugs.

Cleaned up these antique pieces that G and G had in another room. I decided they were too pretty to be 'spare' furniture. Cleaned them up with some Murphy's oil spray followed by a couple of coats of furniture oil.





Annnndddd.... Here we are! A complete bedroom. Still needs some sparkly accessories, curtains, and the outlet covers of course, but I am pleased with how it is turning out!

I officially dub this my 'Queen's Chamber'!




The Cleanout

First things first...65 years means a lot of stuff. My mom and I tackled the kitchen first...anyone who knows me knows that a clean functioning kitchen is my number one requirement in a living space. Bathrooms are second on the list...we'll get to that later.

 

 

 

 

 There was a lot of stuff in this kitchen. 28 cabinets, a full size pantry, and 8 drawers full of stuff. This is about half of the glassware we found while cleaning out.

 

 

Just so that you can see it... here is this glorious

 pink shower courtesy of the 60s.

Not a fan.

 

 Cleaning out a closet... and lo and behold- you can see some of the original hardwood and then the carpet that we're dealing with in the majority of the house.

 

 

My Gramps has drawers full of old photos. Here is a gem from Sarah and my younger days.

 

 

You can also see that Gramps was a smart man and married this beautiful lady.

 

 

 The number of tchotchkes collected over the years was astounding...every shelf

in the house was packed to the brim with stuff.

 

 

Grams had many collections of things... like over 70 collectible spoons.

 

 

This clock is going back into the house somewhere. Not sure where yet, but I love it.

 

 

My small collection of knick knacks to keep. Can you tell I'm going for 'neutral chic'?

 

 

You can't beat the ugly out of this carpet.

 

 

Found my new party sweater.

 

 

The giraffe is staying... some lady tried to take him on our 'giveaway' day. I was not having that!

He needs a bit of a facelift, though. And a name...Maybe 'Rico'?

 

 

"Mirror Mirror on the wall...." You best believe this beauty is staying.

 

 

Could I pull this off?

 

 

What about this?

I could definitely pull this off.

 

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this abbreviated viewing of some of the things found in this house. Stay tuned for more to come! Next up will be kitchen improvements and main bedroom improvements!