Slow Progress

So, it's gotten a bit tougher to write posts because our visible progress has seemed to get really slow.  We have painted 435 coats of paint on the paneling and it's still looking a little stripey... anyone with any advice?? We got our first coat of white on the built-ins today and it looks FABulous! Definitely needs at least one more coat, but the difference between the dark wood and hunter green and the white is huge! Here is a "remember the before...." photo of the den: 

Here are the fresh and beautiful built-ins! (The doors will be put back on, so it will be solid white)

The cute Chelsea-sized roller I used on the built-ins! So much faster/easier than a brush!

Here are the walls now.. see how there's a faint stripe after 2 coats over the OBP? Very interesting...

I also have to give a GINORMOUS shout-out to my mom for her help with the new cooktop.  The old one worked, but it only had 2 burners, was about 20 years old, and shook the whole kitchen when the downdraft fan was turned on.  Seen here...

We bought a new one that was the same brand and size and everything that... didn't fit.  

So close...

 So, mom helped us buy a jigsaw to cut the laminate out a little bit to make enough room for it to slide down.  This was definitely a 3 person job, as the cooktop weighs about 75 pounds. It is huge when you take the large fan underneath into account.  We finally got it in and it looks really pretty.  We are planning on upgrading our counter tops to probably black granite, which I think will only make it look even prettier. Here it is in the hole:

Hi Brent!

So what's the problem now? Well, it doesn't work... We got it all hooked up and everything and... nothing.  Not a light, nothing.  The Jenn Air people are going to come take a look at it soon, so keep your fingers crossed it will work! Wedding season is about to come into full swing, so we will be pretty busy these upcoming weekends.  We will update as much as we can!

Vacation is Over

So, we just went to the beach this weekend with Mom for Easter and it was really great to get away for a little bit.  No house work for a whole 3 days! Woohoo!

But, the vacay is over and, today being my day off from work, it was time to get back to business.  We were there for 10 hours today, but spent the entire morning waiting for a Groupon cleaning crew to show up that never came (surprise) so we lost a lot of working time.  No fret, they are scheduled to come back tomorrow morning! We finished priming the whole den, aside from the built-in cabinets and it looks so good! The fireplace wins the award for the biggest transformation. Here are some photos of the progress!

HUGE fatty roller-- I called it "the lamb leg"

Whoa! SUCH a difference!

Brent primed all of the window trim! (Keep ignoring the brass track lights...)

Door trim primed

I cannot wait to get paint on these walls! I think the color (you can see some swatches on the ground in the last photo- I don't know how to pick!) is going to really finish the room.  A simple color on the walls, and a little semi-gloss white on the brick and trim and this is going to be a warm and inviting room!

We are officially in full-swing with the den now.  Whoever thought wood paneling was a good idea was a total weirdo.  Do people still like this stuff? It feels SO GOOD to paint over it!! Every roll of OBP I do over the stuff I silently say "take that!" in my head.  Brent spent most of the day yesterday getting the seams and molding primed with a brush and I went back today to finish rolling the primer on.  We splurged and bought odorless oil-based primer for this project ($5 more than the original Kilz) and it was definitely worth it! Here are some photos!!

All the cracks are primed and all the nail holes filled in and sanded!

Done priming!

 We are going to go back and prime the trim and the big window in the room- we thought it might be nice to take this one step at a time! It already looks better!! Now, about that BRASS (again, who liked this...) fireplace surround! The insert itself is so super nice-- really heavy and very expensive to replace.  It has glass doors and screens, and I really would hate to have to buy a new, better-looking one.  So of course, I decided to try to fix it! I started by taking off the glass doors (with my head in the fireplace getting covered in soot) and lightly sanding the brass so it wasn't so shiny.  I went to Home Depot and got some cover paper and High Heat spray paint.

In matte black

I covered up the brick as best I could, but quickly realized I couldn't get the sides of the insert sprayed well enough with paper on.  We are going to prime and paint the fireplace white anyway, so I thought it would be ok to just spray the brick on the sides.  The hardest part of this project was putting paper in the fireplace hole.  I'm not sure if we'll ever actually use it, because I think I will be forever scared of spontaneous combustion!! Here it is after 3 coats:

 It's hard to see it well since I haven't removed the paper yet and it's all over the brick, but talk about an instant transformation! It looks brand new.  Little did I know there is apparently "spray paint dust" that comes along with spray painting inside.  I looked down at my feet and this is what they looked like...

...so I tried to clean up the best I could! Also, since I was inside, you can imagine that this is what I looked like all day:

Gotta love (hate) those spray paint fumes!

But this was my beautiful spring view for the day, which helped:

One last update.  I got the handles that I ordered from Target.com for the laundry room.. What do you think??

We are heading to the beach tomorrow night for a little R and R for the long weekend, which I think we will both appreciate! Can't wait to come back rested, ready to tackle the den some more! Have a happy Easter everyone!!

Prep-Work!

So it's been a little while since I posted, mainly because we are getting a few new projects started and the prep-work is what takes the longest (and is the least fun!). We have started to tackle the super ugly fake wood paneling in the den.  What a project this is going to be! We have to paint all the trim and doors, built-ins and the windows along with the walls, so it will be a while before I can post a before and after photo of this room, but I know it is going to be a HUGE difference. Here are some in-progress pics!

Post sanding all the trim-- this is why you wipe down the walls! (both these towels were white)

Putting wood filler in all the holes.

Even just this little bit of white makes me excited!

The drywall guys have finished their work on all the walls we removed the wallpaper from.  They patched and sanded all of that in two afternoons, where it would have taken us a week, all for under $200.  Definitely feels like money well spent.. We'll see how the walls look when they're painted tho- hopefully not too lumpy!

The laundry room still isn't done (I special ordered some cabinet handles from Target and they still haven't shipped!) but I'm just so excited about the difference, I want to show some before and almost-after photos. 

Before. It really is hard to see how nasty this room was!

Our $5 reject paint from Lowe's!

New paint on all the built-ins

Beautiful new washer and dryer! (we went ahead and bought these cause I got them for a GREAT deal!)

Be sure to come back for complete after pictures-- I am so excited about this room (maybe because it's small and I feel like I can actually complete it!).

Mommy Daughter Day

This weekend I learned something I never thought I would learn-- How to knit! It was a two hour intro class that could have/should have been all day! Who knew knitting was so dang hard.  It was such a fun experience and I really enjoyed getting to spend some fun time with Mom (one of the things I love about living in NC again).  Here is what we accomplished in two hours.. kind of pitiful looking but we were so proud! I'm going to be looking for a frame very soon for my creation! ;)

We got a Gigi's cupcake afterwards which was delicious (!!) then headed to Ikea since I hadn't experienced it before (I know, I think I'm the only person in America who has never been to Ikea).  It was ca-razy! I can't wait to go back when I have some more time to look around.  Definitely a place to get to know well with a new house. 
Another highlight of my weekend- The Hunger Games.  I don't know if you have read these books, but you must if you haven't.  I am not a reader at all but I read all three of them in about a month.  I have never loved a book so much in my life, and the movie did not dissappoint!

Busy Day

Today was a very busy day!  We went to the house this morning with the intention of cleaning out the dryer vent, in preparation for the washer/dryer delivery on Wednesday.  We knew the vent was really dirty, but we had no idea it was going to be this dirty! We stuck the end of the brush into the vent and it went about 3 inches before it got stuck.. so much for that easy idea.  Like almost all of our other projects, it was time for plan B.  We went down in the crawl space and realized the vent was about 15' long and went all the way from the laundry room floor, thru the crawl space, to the outside, in one long continuous line.  The new plan was to remove the whole line, clean it, then put it back in place.  Well, after trying once to put the brush through with the duct straight, we quickly realized this thing was never going to be clean.. ever.  It was SO FULL of dryer lint, it was HARD.  I mean, come on people! Take care of your house! We are so lucky we didn't just move in, hook up our dryer, and BAM- house fire!  As you may have guessed, we had to go to Home Depot and buy an all new vent line and just start over.  Here are some pictures of the ridiculousness. 

Peeping down from the laundry room

G-R-O-S-S

This is literally a third of it.  Whole pencils came out of this thing!

On a positive note, the kitchen floors are done!! These floors looked awful when we bought the house.  They look really good now, and it's amazing to look back at the before pictures! This was also an adventure, as we experienced a moderate flood in the kitchen, but all is well now :)  See for yourself!

Before

Before

Progress!

So much better! :)

Looks like a brand new floor!

That's all for today, but that is not all we did today! Stay tuned for before and after pictures of our laundry room! Teaser: we got $5 reject paint from Lowe's and completely transformed it!

It's Potty Time

Ok.. now this was a project that I knew would be easy.. I knew I could go over to the house on my day off and get this pesky project done on my own- no problem.  Well, just like any project, it ended up being way harder than I thought.  Things tend to be a tad bit more complicated when you're dealing with a house that's almost 50 years old.  All I wanted to accomplish was putting on a new toilet seat today.  The existing one was a little rough around the edges (literally- it poked you when you sat down) and was really corroded on the metal hinges.  When I got on the floor to look underneath, things got weird.  The plastic parts that keep the seat bolts in place were a little more like wax and a lot less like plastic.  They were also recessed into the toilet-- very hard to access! I got my hard core pliers and began to turn.. the whole thing kind of melted into a ball of plastic.  I managed to somehow get the right one off, but the left was NOT going to come.  So, I hopped in the car and it was off to Home Depot where I bought a cute little hacksaw to hopefully cut off the plastic part.  When I got home, it of course wouldn't fit into the recessed part enough for me to reach it.  At this point, I had admitted defeat and was going to call it a day, but then I just got mad- Really? A toilet seat?! So I got down to business and just starting sawing away on the metal hinge.  Lo and behold-- I got through and it was off! Wooohooo! Installation was easy peasy and I am SO GLAD this project is done! And it looks so much better too- a lot cheaper than a new toilet!

Yeah, what's up? Sawed right through

 

Old, dingy seat..

Voila! So pretty!