Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Evolution of a Room Make-Over

We've begun the final "untouched" room in the downstairs of the house. Shortly after we moved here, we paid someone to remove the wallpaper from the 7 areas of the house that sported multiple layers, multiple patterns, and ghastly outdated looks. We found 3 layers in the hall and foyer, two layers in the living room and so on. It was the best $1100 we ever spent on a home project. However, for the past 4 years, we've lived with bare, scuffed up, dingy drywall in the dining room. Nicely accented by a hideous colonial blue chair rail and 80's era traverse rods with dusty graying sheers. It was lovely, I tell ya. Just the kind of inviting atmosphere to host a fancy party or family dinner. Yeah. Right.

Two weeks ago, that all changed. And for the last two weeks, The Boss has been slowly chipping away at what has become a very tedious prep project. Seriously, with all the knicks and dings and tears in the top layer of the dry wall, he's spent most of his time spackling, sanding, spackling, and sanding again. Last night, he got the first coat of primer up. I say first coat because now that it's up and dry he can see the imperfections better. And is gearing up to fix those imperfections. Which means more spackling and sanding and smoothing. Which in turn means a second coat of primer.

He's nothing if not thorough when tackling his home projects. Usually, he HAS to work alone. This time, I got to rip down the chair rail. The boys got to remove wallpaper border behind the chair rail. They got to help sand a bit. And then he put up the tarps and banished us from his space.



The house smells like paint. And spackle. The plastic and tarps make the rest of the house a bit dark. But progress is being made. And I'm eyeing up the color we chose and gearing up to decorate. Mentally cataloging the boxes of decor from previous projects and former homes. Checking out the sale racks at local stores. Flipping through my home decorating magazines. And staying out of The Boss's territory. For now!

His staging area. AKA my gorgeous farm-style dining room table.
Hope that sheet of plastic has super powers -
cuz it doesn't look very heavy or durable to me!

6 comments:

Salzwedel Family said...

You go Boss! I can't wait to see it finished.

Unknown said...

Can't wait to see the final project. When he is done there tell him to come on over and help Pat paint our house.

Cathy said...

Can't wait to see how it turns out. I love seeing what other people do to their homes. I keep hoping it will motivate me to do something. ;-)

Beverly said...

I can't wait to see the finished project!! What fun!

Julie said...

How fun! I can't wait to see the finished product.

Aus said...

Way to go boss! Any he's like me - just give me the concept and then stay out of my space - I'll call you to help me move something! Oh - and don't go with the 'Merlot' - it's 'classy' but too dark! ;)

hugs - aus and co.