Welcome to the Mr. Poe-Birthday-Edition of Foto Friday! Sadly, we're celebrating with more housework. This was our sixth week of work; although, it feels like we've been dealing with these projects for much longer (I guess that's what happens when you only have free time on the weekends). Here's what we've accomplished this week:
Living and Sun Rooms: continued laying hardwood (only the to-be-ripped rows left!)
Stairwell: one coat of paint (except in places I can't reach)
Upstairs Hallway: second coat of paint
Master Bathroom: continued to remove wallpaper and paint
S End Table and Wood Shelf: one and two coats of paint, respectively
Upstairs Carpet: areas measured; new carpet and pad purchased
If you're frustrated that I don't have any "finished" pictures to show you yet, just know that I am too! To add to the frustration, I'm also interrupting our three part painting series to talk about...
Removing Wallpaper
I hate wallpaper. I honestly cannot understand how anyone who has ever painstakingly removed it can put it up again, but there are several folks near and dear to me who have. I mean look at this:
Ugh...hours of work, and it's still there. Here are some techniques we've found useful in our wallpapering endeavors...
Water is your friend - spray the paper, spray it again, and then spray it some more. Water helps the glue release from the wall easier, even though it's not the 'cure-all.'
A straight edge is essential - the first week I removed any paper, I was scratching at it with my fingernails to get a good "pulling edge" up; this wore my nails down to the skin. (Ouch!) Make sure you have a straight edge to help you get the paper up: a used gift card, a spackling trowel, a spatula, anything.
Two is sometimes faster than one - when I first started removing wallpaper, I thought I was failing if I couldn't remove the decorative layer and the sticky layer of the paper at the same time. But the longer I worked at it, I found that it took much less time to rip off the layers however they would come off (sometimes together, sometimes not) than it did to finagle the paper to try and get everything off at once.
Patience is a virtue - last week I shared with you that I've been praying for practice with patience...wallpaper-pulling definitely fits the bill. It will take you much longer to de-wallpaper a room than you would have ever thought possible. But "slow and steady wins the race" (and leaves you with fewer gashes in the dry wall)...sing along with a good comfort hymns if you get too worked up.
It's another Foto Friday here on the blog! Here's our remodeling progress from this week:
Living Room: fireplace grate painted black
Kitchen: hung curtains, tested painting the kitchen hardware
Dining Room: hung curtains, painted fan
Stairwell: removed all the super-high wall paper
Spackled: all upstairs closets and bedrooms
Painted: all light fixtures in office, baby room, guest room, and hallway
We still haven't totally finished a room (sadly), so I thought it might be more beneficial to you readers out there if I shared some more do-it-yourself tips. Today's topic: the oft necessary pre-painting task of Spackling.
Upon close investigation of most of the rooms in our place, we found all kinds of holes in all kinds of places where things have been previously hung. We didn't want to keep them, so Mr. Poe sent me about with trowel and Spackle in hand.
Step 1: Carefully inspect the wall for holes:
Step 1.5: If the hole has a fuzzy-looking portion of drywall sticking out, lightly tap the drywall into the hole with the trowel handle (you may enlarge the hole slightly, but this will make for a smoother finished surface). If the hole happens to have a plastic screw anchor in it, firmly but gently pull out the anchor with a pair of needle-nosed pliers.
Step 2: Apply the Spackle over the hole using a trowel. Be sure to start with a small mound of the compound on the tool and 'push' it into the hole (as opposed to smearing it or spreading it):
Step 3: Run the smooth side of the trowel across the wall over the hole and surrounding areas 1-2 times in order to smooth it:
Step 4: Let the Spackle dry for the recommended period of time before sanding the area with a light grit sandpaper (320ish) and then wiping the entire wall down with a cleaning solution:
Happy Spackling!
As promised last Foto Friday, here's our house progress after the second week:
Kitchen** - walls finished, bead board finished, outlet covers put back, fan painted*, curtains received, curtain rods painted
Sunroom - fan painted*
Living Room** - fan painted*
Entry - walls finished, outlet covers put back on
Dining Room** - walls finished, outlet covers put back on, curtains received, curtain rods painted
1/2 Bath - walls finished, hardware painted, light fixture painted
We still have the floor and a few small things to do downstairs (**in these rooms), so I won't show you any finished pictures of these areas until the remodeling is complete...but the 1/2 bath is finished for now with it's tan walls and new grey hardware (though in the years to come we hope to tile and revamp the vanity):
*As Mama Poe can attest, when our house was built, brass was the thing to have...everywhere. It is literally on every light fixture, door knob, etc. in our house, and I strongly dislike it. After successfully defeating the brass in the 1/2 bath with a trusty can of spray paint, I decided to wage war on our ceiling fans:
While perhaps not the ideal solution, this idea was definitely an inexpensive fix until we can afford something a little more modern. I love that the all-white fan against the white ceiling is much less obtrusive than the shiny brass.
Do It Yourself Tips:
-First clean and dust the fan parts, and sand shiny surfaces with a fine grit sand paper (320ish).
-If possible, remove the fan from the ceiling and disassemble before painting; however, painting the fixture while it's intact is do-able.
-Have mineral spirits or paint thinner on hand for cleanup.
-Apply paint in several thin coats to avoid drips.
