part 37 of 365

Things that keep Melissa alive

Part 37: Projects

Ok, the post that I was starting to think might never come to fruition.  Just in case you thought I was all talk and no action, here is my before and after post!  Grab a comfy pillow, because this is one of those long posts that everyone loves.

You can tell from these first 2 pictures that not much of my time these last 2 months has been spent on the projects on the outside of the house.

Before:

Basically, I removed the carriages from the shutters and painted them gray. My mom chopped the plants in front. Hopefully it's the change in seasons and not the gray shutters that makes the after almost look worse.  Next spring, I'd like to do something different with the railings and screen door, and paint the front steps something other than red.

After:

Living Room
Sadly, I forgot to take before pictures of the inside of the house before I (and 12 friendly helpers) stripped all the wallpaper throughout the house in one glorious night!  But, here is a before pic from after that exploit.

Before:

There was lots of strange wood paneling with an under layer of original wallpaper on the top half that wouldn't come off.  So, I had to texture over all of that before I could paint.  The carpet really wasn't in horrible shape upstairs - it seemed very clean, even if it was old.  But, with original wood floors underneath, how could I leave it?  Also, the carpet was maroon, baby blue, baby pink, and dark blue upstairs, so I ask again: How could I leave it?

After:

My bedroom
This room had wood paneling that the previous owner had taken care to oil every year.  With that knowledge in my back pocket, I knew I needed to do some Kilz-ing if I wanted to avoid the inevitable 4-7 coats of paint it would need.

Before:

Me, high on Kilz:

After:

Kitchen
The kitchen had some amazing faux brick paneling on the walls that got stripped during my stripping party.  It also had some dark blue berber that you can imagine I had a hard time parting with.

Before:

You can see the brick paneling left lots of fun glue and potholes to deal with so I got to do some extra texturing in the kitchen.

Don't worry, I figured out just after this picture that a knife twice this big helped the texturing go slightly faster.

After:

Painting black and white checks on blue berber carpet is surprisingly time consuming.

That's all the interesting parts.  I finally put my work pants in the wash this morning and so bid farewell to the last little bits of old house dust.  I guess it's time to dust off my exercise shorts and gym pass!