A little better, eh?

I'm really just in this for the before-and-after pictures, you know :)

(Look out, couch (and random displaced faux flowers), I'm coming for you next!)

Since March (and, more accurately, in the last few weeks), we have:

- Removed kitchen wallpaper
- Removed stairwell/hallway wallpaper
- Replaced all outlets & switches in the house
- Hung, finished, and painted new drywall ceiling in the den
- Painted all of the trim in the house
- Painted 6 rooms (kitchen, living, dining, den, 2 bedrooms) and the stairwell/hallway
- Ripped out 6 rooms worth of carpeting
- Removed the built in desk in the den
- Removed window coverings

And, of course, had the new carpeting and hardwood floors installed (upstairs and downstairs, respectively).

I'm excited (ok, honestly, giddy!) about the progress to date.  But don't worry, we've left plenty of projects (besides just unpacking!):

I'll try to keep you updated with more pictures, but be forewarned about the sappiness that might come next week when we finally get to be ... HOME!  For good!

The Good-bye Tour: The Den

Back in May of 2011, I wrote a post titled "The Den, Done."  Just like with the living room, I now laugh at what I originally considered finished decor.  Of all the rooms in the house, even the "finished" version of the den I'm about to show you was the least finished in my mind - I never quite reached a state with this room where I was 100% happy with how it looked.  However, it's really Justin's room (albeit overtaken in the corner by Anna's toys), and he was happy with it, so that's what is important.  Incidentally, I could now write a post titled "The Den, Undone," as I'm sitting on the floor in the shadow of a pile of boxes, but we'll focus on the pre-moving decor...

Let's start at the very beginning:

Be sure to note both the neon orange paint, as well as the smoke-residue outlines of everything the previous owners had hung on the walls.

Although the decor and furnishing has been an ever-evolving project (perhaps in part because this room, while it's supposed to just be Justin's office, has needed to be too many things for too many people, including an entrance way and toy room), the den was the first room completed in terms of renovations.  It was our "master bedroom" (term used loosely for the messy mattress-on-floor situation we had going on; picture below) for 4 1/2 months from the time we got married until we finished the upstairs.

(Wall sconce = tie rack.  Classy.)

We went through many iterations of chair placement, toy storage, etc, etc, etc.

And finally, over time, it became this (which is much less embarrassing for people to see immediately upon entering the front door):

Transformation occurred by the following:

- Ripping out the carpet and refinishing the floors

- Painting the walls

- Replacing the sconces

- Adding trim to the windows

- Adding furnishing, window blinds, and art

(More before & after shots of details here)

The Den, Done

Yikes!  When I said yesterday that I was really far behind on updating, I hadn't even realized how far behind!

The last you saw the den, it looked like this:

As you probably recall, the den was the temporary master bedroom while the master bedroom looked like this:

And, of course, while the bed was in the den, the desk was in the kitchen:

A certain someone in our house is extremely happy to now have his official den:

While I've dreamed and schemed on every possible home renovation project, decoration project, etc., Justin's dream has been pretty stead-fast.  Aside from wanting a safe, comfortable home, the recurring theme has been a DEN.  His dream grew from seeing his late Pop-Pop's den, and hearing of its magnitude of importance in family life (all big decisions were approved or denied amidst a cloud of pipe smoke in Pop-Pop's den).  Although Justin isn't giving any daughters' hands in marriage (for many years, anyway) and isn't doing any pipe smoking, it's his space to focus on work.  The most special part of the den is that Pop-Pop's crucifix now hangs above Justin's desk.

Here's the rest of the den, as it looks today (and some before shots for comparison!)

The last pictures are the best representation (on my computer, anyway) of the actual before and after colors.

Although the den, like the living room, is in need of some additional decor, I've already added a few little touches.

Kudos to my mom for both the "joyful home" cross-stitch, and the monogram G.  I found the wooden G at a craft store, and she sprayed it for me using some textured spray paint leftover from painting the flower holders from our wedding.  A (faux) stone letter is surely manly enough decor for the infamous den!

And you thought I was slacking...

I know it's been quite a while since my last blog post. But rest assured, we haven't just been resting up here in Ithaca. In fact, there hasn't been much rest at all!

In between the daily life (you know, work, cooking, etc), and planning to host a major party for 250 people next weekend, we've managed to turn this:



Into this:




Sadly, at least on my computer screen, you can't tell the magnitude of the change from construction worker orange to rich, chocolate brown.


One thing you can see is the transformation of the wall sconces:


















After all of the manual labor we've done so far, it was fun to do a less intense home related project today...shopping! I have learned that one key to successful purchasing is to clearly define what I'm looking for prior to the shopping trip. (This is true in all cases except for the major purchase of this house itself, in which we met maybe 1 of our 5 key criteria - but couldn't be happier!) So, I embarked upon a search for a rug that was approximately 30" by 80", had a brown and green pattern, didn't look too much like an Oriental rug, was dark enough in color to handle shoe traffic.

Enter stage left:



(Excuse the less-than-great picture)

Aside from protecting our now-gorgeous floors, the new rug unifies the living room and den. I hope to create a little home entrance area.
For those of you who are not yet familiar with our house lay-out, the den is immediately to your right as you come in the front door. I grew up in a house with a foyer, so it's a bit of an adjustment to come in the front door and *bam* you're in the living room. Down the line, we'll have coat hooks, etc to make this a more useful entranceway.

For the short-term, we have this weekend to turn the den into a temporary master bedroom. This involves purchasing a bed (I vetoed Justin's half-joking "let's share my twin bed" suggestion), hanging blinds/curtains, and finishing the last remaining renovation tasks (painting the baseboards and installing the quarter rounds where the floor meets the walls).

We're pretty proud of our first room and the checks on the to-do list that got us here!



Hopefully next time I can provide a more step-by-step view of our progress! I suspect that once I have my own working computer (and don't have to mooch off Justin's when he's not doing homework), I can increase my blog presence. In fact, I have dreams of a daily lunch-break post (don't get too attached to the idea yet!) The next few weeks may be a little slow though - the wedding's right around the corner!


(That's all that's left of Justin's 365-day countdown chain I made him last year for our negative one year anniversary). Single digit countdown starts tomorrow!

Decorating the den

Today, we celebrated our negative one monthiversary (thanks, Maura, for the term!) by hanging woodwork in the den! The floors need just one more coat of polyurethane, but Sherwin Williams is out of the high-gloss stuff we need, so we're working on other things until they're able to deliver more from other local stores.

Here's the before, with the ugly remains of decades worth of different curtain holders:



And here's the after (not quite done because I snapped the picture before I filled the nail holes):



And check out those gorgeous floors in the "in progress" picture:



Based on the delays we've had, it's unlikely that the upstairs will be finished for our honeymoon return. That's ok, though - the den will make a nice temporary bedroom. Looking forward to being a resident of the house! The final countdown is on ~ one month to Mr. & Mrs.! :)

Is there a chemical engineer in the house?

Growing up, I always found it very helpful to have a medical professional around. When someone fainted in church, my dad was right there. When my uncle accidentally hooked another uncle (instead of a fish), again it was dad to the rescue. There's a certain security in knowing that there's someone there that can take care of things (or several people...given that I'm the only non-medical "black sheep" of the family). Between a surgeon dad, a nurse mom, an EMT / doctor in training brother, and a hospital volunteer / nurse in training sister, they really cover all the bases.

I've decided that chemical engineers are handy to have around, too. After the late-night sanding adventure (Justin saved money by using a 4 hour rental that spanned Home Depot's closing-opening hours, as opposed to the full 24 hour rental), we - ironically - found stains under the old stain. Confused?? What I mean to say is that after removing the old, intentional wood stain, we discovered some unintentional wood stains that couldn't be sanded. While I would have simply chalked it up to being an old floor and moved on with the new stain/coating, my chemical engineer realized there was something that could be done!

Enter "wood bleach" or oxalic acid. Check out it's success in the test areas (the screwdriver is pointing to the place where it was applied):



After applying this over all of the stained areas, we'll have an even colored surface to stain, so the finished product will look even more beautiful!

That chemical engineer is good to have around - I think I'll marry him :) That reminds me - today, we got an early wedding card & check in the mail addressed to both of us with one last name!  Seeing that for the first time was pretty exciting!

Here's another in-progress picture of the floor sanding. This is the living room, which has decidedly fewer spots than the den. You'll also notice our amazing shop vac (that thing is a life saver, especially with the dust we've been kicking up lately!) as well as our new kitchen chairs (thanks again, Craigslist!)




In closing, I'd like to give a brief advertisement for another great chemical. Scuffed wood furniture looks new almost instantly with a few rubs of Old English scratch cover. This stuff just fuels my Craigslist fire. Man, it's awesome! The results are pretty addicting, and I've been polishing our kitchen cabinets, the new desk, the new table and chairs, and basically any slightly worn wood surface I can get my hands on. (Yes, I'll admit, I even tried a tiny spot of the awful wood paneling in the kitchen, just because the bottle suggested it. Looks nicer, but still not enough to convince me not to paint over it). I'm not sure if the results of this amazing product would show in pictures...but try it! It works!

Life in a kitchen

Do you ever feel like you live in your kitchen? I'm pretty sure my mom does, especially when all of us are home - including my brother, Colin, whose huge appetite reminds you a little bit of a vacuum cleaner (yet whose figure reminds you of a pipe cleaner!)

Anyway....for those days when you feel like you just can't get out of the kitchen, think of poor Justin:



(That's his bed in the corner where the kitchen table should be). At least on the bright side, he doesn't have to go far for a midnight snack. However, the arrangement is obviously less than ideal. Things got a little better in terms of feeling less displaced when we purchased this steal-of-a-desk. (When the woman told us the asking price, I seriously thought she forgot a zero. Who sells huge mahogany desks in excellent condition for $60, then throws in a free lamp!? Craigslist is my new best friend)



What I wish you could see in this picture is that it is actually a home improvement action shot. Justin is working on the list of fuses to post near the electrical box - aptly titled "It's Electric."

Now that Justin has a manly desk, we're trying to finish his manly room. He's always wanted a den, and the front room in the house fits the bill perfectly - or at least it will, once the work is done. I've gotta run now, I think it's my turn to "drive:"



(That's right - sanding underway! Woo woo!)