Disney Princess Steps, Behold the Power of Paint!

The Power of Paint shall be with you!   I had an old gallon of Disney paint from my house in Minneapolis and have transformed the Icky red painted steps and green walls of the central hallway.

You don't realize how bad it was, until you see it painted. 

No doubt I'll have to paint these every year to keep them looking fresh. 

Face lifts and Other Stories

2014 Was all about the room facelifts as we continued our futile search for a contractor.

The kitchen and breakfast room received a good scrubbing and paint job as I hold out hope I can have a new kitchen sometime this decade.  My Kingdom for a Contractor!!!  Now, don't get all uppity on me, this kitchen is not original, it was added in the 1930's into a back porch and the original buffet was moved into what had been the kitchen.   I'll keep the buffet as I have the original stained glass windows.  

Our great find was an oak floor under the breakfast room vinyl flooring.   I'm still amazed at the great condition that is in having been hidden for decades under layers of ugly.   Unfortunately that meant, we could tile, so right now we have an extremely cheap peel n stick floor. 

Here you can see a bit of the oak floor under all that nasty!

This is John he gave up...

It's amazing what a bit of paint can do for a room.   That and a new counter and tin backsplash.

A "NEW" 1914 bathroom

Way back in January on a freezing cold Sunday, our middle child was showering for church in the second floor bathroom, when suddenly it began to rain on the first floor breakfast room.   After some careful research that involved cutting a giant hole in my breakfast room ceiling, we discovered that the pipes had been leaking for some time and that a wise repair man had stuck a metal coffee can under said leak and towels had been stuffed under the toilet.   Now I'm not sure what decade this occurred in, but I am going to guess the 1980's.   Finally the can gave way or the pipes just finally gave out completely.  Faced with rotting and broken pipes everywhere we decided it was time to gut the 1950's and restore 1914.

About a year ago, I had picked up a claw foot tub that has just been taking up space in our storage garage.  Once the weather stopped gifting us with snow storms, the tub was pulled out, cleaned and the exterior spray painted black.

Before...bask in the watermelon rind 1950's bathroom. 

Custom Vanity Circa 1950's

Bathroom door circa 1950's

Look a Bathroom Window to an interior room!!! ? 

I am not even sure why my great grandparents decided to put in a window to an interior sun room, but I am sure glad grandad covered it up in the 1950's.

Subway Tile from Home Depot...Loving the Dark Gray

Subway tile = cheap and period appropriate for a 1914 home.  I cannot say enough how much I love the subway tile.  We used a dark gray mortar and grout from Home Depot to get the effect we wanted.   My only issue was the spacers, trying to get "T" spacers in South Dakota is darn near impossible, I ended up cutting one side off of every single spacer.    We also ran into an issue with a week long warm up that ended up shifting the house and creating a huge gap between the subway tile and the floor.  DH nearly had a conniption!

3/4 inch Merola Hex Tile with Dark Gray Grout 

Adventures in Merola Hex Tile. Installing the Hex Tile was an exercise in frustration.  While the tile from Home Depot is period appropriate and affordable, it is not the greatest quality for spacing.  Try as we might, we could not get this product to align.   End results are still "ok", not stellar.  I will opt for a higher quality tile next time.   We did not use a wet saw to trim down the edges, just quarter round to match the subway tile which created a nice finished look.

My lucky find! Door Molding, found during City Wide Clean up

Done! Color is "Ancient Stone" from the Valspar Paint collection.  This is a favorite of the "Rehab Addict" Nicole Curtis.

On Sale Toilet from Menards (cheap) with a fancy handle from Lowes, and grandma's mason jars.  All this is missing are more of my insulators. 

Home Depot vanity with blue milk glass knobs, from D. Lawless Hardware

Restored!

http://www.dlawlesshardware.com/   Blue Milk Glass Cabinet Knobs

http://www.kohls.com/ Sonoma Life + Style towels in Light Aqua and shower curtain

Basket: TJ Maxx

Bathroom accessories: Glenshire by Moen. 

Valspar Paint:  Ancient Stone, 347-2

Lowes: Universal Chrome Toilet Handle: Item 247903

Bathroom number 4, the long forgotten realm

What happens when you leave me alone for a weekend?  Paint Paint and more paint.   In preparation for the 2nd floor bathroom, I decided it was necessary to update the 3rd floor bathroom as I now need to use that daily while we update the main bathroom.

It must have been a "thing" in BHG in the 70's to make a bathroom look tiled, by adding peel and stick paper.  Nasty.

Peeled off the peel and stick, caulked, removed the doors and the medicine cabinet and painted the entire thing this last weekend.

Forgot the entire "before", but you get the idea.  Yellow and nasty, was probably white at one time. 

Wow that's a lot of ancient razors!

I call this color "Random Blue Paints I Mixed Together." Everything with the exception of the lights is from the 1950's and 60's.  

Designing a Teenage Boy's Room

Nothing seems to be more incompatible than a teenage boy's science fiction taste and Eastlake furniture. However, after multiple discussions and compromises I think we came up with a solution that works for both parents and a sci-fi aficionado.

The eldest teenager picked the yellow room, which sported an unworkable closet and truly terrible stripped curtains.  The room was emptied, the cracks repaired and after multiple arguments the room was painted "English Country" blue.

The desk was a freebie from a yard pick up day and was given several coats of "Woodlawn White," along with the radiator cover.  Now...Star Wars and Dr. Who may all live together in harmony with the Eastlake set.  Check back later for the window seat pictures, as the curtains are being hemmed.

A hot mess of teenage boy things!

Before...what a mess. 

Almost there!

The desk area...now what to do about that dreadful chair?!

The Blueberry Arts Festival in Ely, MN was where I found the handcrafted display shelf. 

The Family History Library

After a few additional coats of paint on our plywood plank floor and the completed transformation of the yellow room to a blue room, we were able to stage the library.  Great grandma's kitchen table had been covered in tin and used as a workbench in the basement for decades.  It has been recalled into service as our "new" library desk.  

The antique books have been returned.  The radiator cover is a great place to display copies of favorite family photos. 

The family history picture collection is now safety housed in the Library.  Above the bookshelves is the original Apartment sign painted by granddad that hung above the main entrance. 

Gr grandma's kitchen table has been paired with an IKEA shelf and Windsor chair for a functional workspace. 

The Sunroom

The Sunroom

Before...Hello 1990's!

The Sunroom had originally been used as a sleeping porch for the Howard boys.  After the apartment conversion it was then used as a dining room and the window between the second floor bathroom and the porch closed off (yes you read that right).  In the 1950’s a red and black linoleum was glued onto the floor, baseboard radiators installed and grandfather stripped the original green stained yellow pine woodwork and changed it to the lighter pine finish we see throughout the second floor.  Eventually we would like to change this back to a green stain.    The 1990’s brought further changes with a green shag carpet that was GLUED to the floor  and the radiators painted with oil based red paint.

For the restoration, we primed and painted the room and then sanded down the floors.  A colonial maple stain and multiple top coats were added.  The original light fixture sent by an aunt from “out east” has been maintained.

The Design-Sunroom

Colors: Benjamin Moore: Woodlawn Blue HC-147 and Valspar Woodlawn White 94-8C from the National Trust Collection.

Flooring: Restoration of the original maple floors.  

I don't know who in their right mind glued down that carpet...Fail!

In the words of the amazing Nicole Curtis..."Why in the hell would you cover that up?!"




Don't tell...the curtains are from Walmart. Egads!!!