Loving the Living Room

I'm really trying to get every room in the house photographed before the end of the month so I can have an updated album of how the house has changed since we bought it last February. I can't believe it's been a year already! The Castle is feeling more and more like home, and a pleasant one at that!

Here are some pics of the living room in its mostly finished state. But, before I show off all of our hard work, here's a reminder of where we started.

And now, the stunning afters :-)

Here's what we've accomplished in this room:

• Tore out icky brown carpeting
• Scraped glued on cork (!) panels off the walls
• Spackled, patched, sanded and primed walls
• Painted walls
• Tore out weird light thing in fireplace area
• Found gas logs in attic, placed in fireplace
• Tore out terrible header over mantel, documented here
• Installed new lights, wiring, primed and painted mantel area
• Replaced hardware on bookcase doors
• Installed moulding around window.
• Replaced all outlets in room
• Hung pictures, shades and curtains.

Still to do:

• Install moulding around other window
• Install moudling on mantel
• Hook up logs if possible
• Replace tiling in front of fireplace
• Refinish floor, install quarter round next to baseboards
• Make new grates for floor vents

All in all, I'd say we've made pretty good progress in this room, and we spend lots of time in it so we definitely love it!

Loving the Living Room

I'm really trying to get every room in the house photographed before the end of the month so I can have an updated album of how the house has changed since we bought it last February. I can't believe it's been a year already! The Castle is feeling more and more like home, and a pleasant one at that!

Here are some pics of the living room in its mostly finished state. But, before I show off all of our hard work, here's a reminder of where we started.

And now, the stunning afters :-)

Here's what we've accomplished in this room:

• Tore out icky brown carpeting


• Scraped glued on cork (!) panels off the walls


• Spackled, patched, sanded and primed walls


• Painted walls


• Tore out weird light thing in fireplace area


• Found gas logs in attic, placed in fireplace


• Tore out terrible header over mantel, documented here


• Installed new lights, wiring, primed and painted mantel area


• Replaced hardware on bookcase doors


• Installed moulding around window.


• Replaced all outlets in room


• Hung pictures, shades and curtains.

Still to do:

• Install moulding around other window


• Install moudling on mantel


• Hook up logs if possible


• Replace tiling in front of fireplace


• Refinish floor, install quarter round next to baseboards


• Make new grates for floor vents

All in all, I'd say we've made pretty good progress in this room, and we spend lots of time in it so we definitely love it!

It's Glamorous, and Romantic!

Warning, this will be a long post! However, the transformation from dreary and dark,
to romantic and beautiful, is well worth your time. I promise! 
Of the three available bedrooms in the house, we chose the one to the left of the stairs for the following reasons:

• It was closest to the bathroom :0)
• It had the least amount of work needed to be "liveable" right away
• It was the nicest.

And of course, every master bedroom must be the nicest in the house, right? Right.

The problems facing us in this "red room" were multiple. Red, red carpet, that was gross. Peach paint on the walls, and ceiling, 80's wallpaper, outdated light fixtures, fugly miniblinds, and UGLY closet doors. Seriously, the closet doors reminded me of something from a seedy motel from the 60s. I swore "Those closet doors will be the first thing to go!" Hmm. I definitely should not considering a career as a prophetess. I also shouldn't swear. So we embarked on our mission to de-uglify the room. 

1. We ripped out the red, red carpet, finding hardwoods in good shape underneath. They'll need to be refinished, but they're not bad. 

2. Jon and Steph helped us remove the 80's wallpaper, only to expose ORANGE paint beneath. We have since decided that the previous owners were on crack. Had to be. :o)

So, we exposed all of the orange wall, and then slapped on a coat of $6 white paint on the ceiling, and $6 antique white on the walls. We learned two things from this first project: 1) $6 paint is crap. Seriously, save your money, and buy good paint from the blue store or the orange store.  2)Antique white just looks like dirty white. Not exactly mood inspiring for a bedroom. 

However, we had more important matters to attend to in the house, so we moved in the bed, put up some new lights, and called it a day. (Note: I did not say, ripped out closet doors) This is how the bedroom looked last March: (1)
Then, one afternoon in early summer I decided I had had enough of a room with no ambience, and promptly accomplished 2a and 2b: we bought a real, grownup bed, rearranged the furniture, and hung curtains from our old apartment. (The blinds were still up though) This made the room liveable until January 2009, which is when we finally pretti-fied the room. 

The following pictures show you the graphic before and afters, in which we tried to maintain roughly the same angles as the first shots, so you get a good idea of the improvements. 

Before:

AfterBefore:
After:
Before:
After:

Before:

Closeup of 80's wallpaper: :o)
After:

Much improved, no? As I mentioned, we replaced those half moon sconces with these pretty little guys, and they're on a dimmer, so they're oh-so-romantic.

Here's a few more shots for your viewing pleasure:



So to sum up, this is what we accomplished in this room in the first year:

• Painted walls and ceiling
• Painted walls and ceiling, again. Better this time. 
• Replaced half moon sconces with pretty sconces.
• Replaced metal mini blinds with drapes and a roman shade.
• Bought a real! bed
• Ripped out icky carpet.
• Put in new switchplates and outlet covers
• Replaced dimmer switch.

Still to do in this room:

•  Replace the three outlets
  
• Paint heater vent
• Refinish floors
• Redo closet wall  (we were gonna do that first, remember? hee hee)
• Install baseboards
• Buy new dressers

It's Glamorous, and Romantic!

Warning, this will be a long post! However, the transformation from dreary and dark,
to romantic and beautiful, is well worth your time. I promise!
Of the three available bedrooms in the house, we chose the one to the left of the stairs for the following reasons:

• It was closest to the bathroom :0)


• It had the least amount of work needed to be "liveable" right away


• It was the nicest.

And of course, every master bedroom must be the nicest in the house, right? Right.

The problems facing us in this "red room" were multiple. Red, red carpet, that was gross. Peach paint on the walls, and ceiling, 80's wallpaper, outdated light fixtures, fugly miniblinds, and UGLY closet doors. Seriously, the closet doors reminded me of something from a seedy motel from the 60s. I swore "Those closet doors will be the first thing to go!" Hmm. I definitely should not considering a career as a prophetess. I also shouldn't swear. So we embarked on our mission to de-uglify the room.

1. We ripped out the red, red carpet, finding hardwoods in good shape underneath. They'll need to be refinished, but they're not bad.

2. Jon and Steph helped us remove the 80's wallpaper, only to expose ORANGE paint beneath. We have since decided that the previous owners were on crack. Had to be. :o)

So, we exposed all of the orange wall, and then slapped on a coat of $6 white paint on the ceiling, and $6 antique white on the walls. We learned two things from this first project: 1) $6 paint is crap. Seriously, save your money, and buy good paint from the blue store or the orange store.  2)Antique white just looks like dirty white. Not exactly mood inspiring for a bedroom.

However, we had more important matters to attend to in the house, so we moved in the bed, put up some new lights, and called it a day. (Note: I did not say, ripped out closet doors) This is how the bedroom looked last March: (1)
Then, one afternoon in early summer I decided I had had enough of a room with no ambience, and promptly accomplished 2a and 2b: we bought a real, grownup bed, rearranged the furniture, and hung curtains from our old apartment. (The blinds were still up though) This made the room liveable until January 2009, which is when we finally pretti-fied the room.

The following pictures show you the graphic before and afters, in which we tried to maintain roughly the same angles as the first shots, so you get a good idea of the improvements.

Before: 

AfterBefore:
After:
Before:
After:

Before: 

Closeup of 80's wallpaper: :o)
After:

Much improved, no? As I mentioned, we replaced those half moon sconces with these pretty little guys, and they're on a dimmer, so they're oh-so-romantic. 

Here's a few more shots for your viewing pleasure:



So to sum up, this is what we accomplished in this room in the first year:

• Painted walls and ceiling


• Painted walls and ceiling, again. Better this time.


• Replaced half moon sconces with pretty sconces.


• Replaced metal mini blinds with drapes and a roman shade.


• Bought a real! bed


• Ripped out icky carpet.


• Put in new switchplates and outlet covers


• Replaced dimmer switch.

Still to do in this room:

• Replace the three outlets


• Paint heater vent


• Refinish floors


• Redo closet wall  (we were gonna do that first, remember? hee hee)


• Install baseboards


• Buy new dressers