{Kitchen Remodel} Paint!

 

Front Door, Day 3

Is it really just Day 3?!?! Maybe I forgot and didn't count right... it feels like it's been forever! The door is basically done, it needs some cleaning up around the windows and the edges but I'm not taking it off again, especially now that it's 3 digit weather here in Mid-MO! But, I am working on the door frame now. The below picture shows how large the caulk (and some other stuff) was between the door and the house bricks. It had started to crack really bad and hasn't taken much to get off. Luckily there's not a lot of that poop brown paint color on the bricks. There's some, but it could be a lot worse.
I'm not done but I think I'll stop for the day. Heat, chemicals, and no breeze is not a good combo. So here are the pictures...

Oh, and if you want, you can see Day 1 here, Day 2 (part 1) here and Day 2 (part 2) here. And here it is before I started.

Ugh... this side pisses me off. They stripped the board to place the wiring for the doorbell underneath the metal frame for the screened door. The board is basically ruined!

Random screw hole (probably from screen door) and all the layers of paint.

Pretty wood underneath 3+ layers of paint.

You can kind of see a groove in the wood (same piece as where the door hinge used to be, running vertically). It's a pain to clean out but I think it's a nice detail.

Front Door Progress, Day 2 Part 2

It's getting closer!! I made a lot of progress on the door today but there is still a lot to go. However, it's back on its hinges and the hardware is back on so my house is safe again. And all in time for me to relax a bit before picking up Lily.

As with any home project, this one is going to most likely cause a snowball effect. The interior of the door now needs touched up (ok this needed it before but needs it more now), the door jam definitely needs help (no surprise), the threshold needs some TLC and what may be the biggest is that now I want to paint the front porch floor. It's currently a brick red that's in need of paint. It's always got dirt and pollen on it thanks to some neighboring trees. Instead of fighting the issue, I may go with the dirt color and paint the whole thing a gray/tan color. Griege? Maybe. We will see. After that though, I know we will want to paint the porch railing. And of course, there's our sidewalk that is crying out for help. Oh the joys of homeownership.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's back up to the door....

This is why you wear gloves! My hand isn't even in the right glove and yet it's still stuck in that position.

GROSS! This is what I scraped off after I had most of the paint gone.

The grossness is worth it in the end because of this:

Full shot of the door. This is how I've left it.

There's a little bit of a story to the next photo. I just forgot to take a photo of it (although you can kind of see it from the full door shots). My dad told me that there was extra wood nailed to what's shown below. I'm assuming that it was for their screen door that they had here previous to us. Whatever the reason though it's gone. Now there's an even space around the whole door - see it? Yeah, it's tough. 

Isn't the beadboard ceiling nice? I've given thought to painting it a color. Maybe blue like my dining room?

Front Door Progress, Day 2 Part 1

Part 1....

If only someone was here to take photos of me while I tried to carry out a solid wood door. Ha!! For awhile, I was afraid I couldn't do it but I was so determined that I just had too. My determination met its match with a brand new bottle of stripper though, and the stripper won. But not the door!! Luckily I had another bottle that had already been open in our basement!

The door came off the hinges incredibly easy which was extremely helpful seeing as one side of the hinges is painted over and one is underneath some weather stripping.

I also took the hardware off. That was easy - just a few screws. Getting it back on should hopefully be just as easy. I have to get it all put back together before I can leave the house to pick up Lily!!

Anyway... Here is the door. It's almost done with the stripper. I'm letting it dry a little until I can tackle the paint some more. Most of it is done though!!!

Window detailed

More window detail. These little areas are tough to get!

More windows.

The hole is from the door knob hardware and the raised circle is from where I let the empty container of stripper sit (upside down) to drain out.

Underneath of the weather stripping piece on the bottom of the door.

Getting there!

All the paint is gone (well, for the most part, there's still some grossness in the window area)

And here's the door frame that I am also working on. Along with removing as much paint as possible (this part will all be repainted, not stained like the door), I am removing the caulk that helped sealed the area between the door frame and the brick walls of the house. 

The door frame and layers of paint.

Door frame - removing the old, cracked caulk that was attached to the door frame and bricks.

Door Progress, Day 1

I posted earlier that I was starting on the front door. Today saw a lot of progress!!! I'll let the pictures (and some captions) tell you the story. I hope to continue working on it tomorrow and Thursday. We have to go to Doug's grandmother's funeral Wednesday and will be visiting family that day.



That red is hard to get off!

I still have a ways to go....

Isn't that wood pretty???

The mail slot will be stained along with the rest of the door to help hide it and then we'll buy/make a sign to cover it up.

Part of the paint came off so easily!!

The red is gone! Well, most of it... if you look closely there's still a little.

More pretty wood grain!

The windows. On the bottom row, third from left, is set is slightly deeper than the rest. I had never noticed it until I was scraping the paint off. These windows are hard but are getting there!

Front Door Progress

I did it! I finally did it!

I started on the front door's makeover today! Last week I bought gel stripper and it is definitely the way to go! Look at all that ooey gooey goodness...

OK, so it's not all that pretty. The brownish paint (which is actually way more baby poop brownish yellow in person) is the main color on the door. The white is the base coat and that's all on top of a gorgeous wood door (the darker wood). That oval shape on the right is where the mail slot used to be but we sealed that sucker up last summer.

I was going to paint it. I even own the paint and it's been sitting under our armoire in the front room, basically right behind the door, for over a year now. But as my mom stood by me this morning and we watched the paint come right off, it showed a beautiful wood door. Soooo... I'm going to strip it and varnish it. It's too pretty to paint.

However, of course, there are some snags in this project. One, obviously, is the mail slot section. My mom came up with a great idea of buying a plaque, maybe with our last name on it, to hide it. I loved that idea and instantly thought of the vintage style metal ones that appear throughout Blog World.

Another snag is that the door bell wiring was hidden behind the metal frame from the old screen door. The screen door has never been there since we bought the house 5 years ago (almost!). That was a nice shocker this morning. So, we may get rid of the wired door bell anyway since I was going to have to buy a replacement since the original one was broken (I found that out while painting the hallway).

We do want to buy a screen door for this door to get some cross breeze when it's not 95 degrees outside, but Doug has a certain design in mind and we haven't been able to find it again. When we will, we'll snag that baby up as soon as possible. Or maybe we'll make it.

Issue #3 - the door frame is not the same wood. It's not liking the stripping process either. So it may be painted. Bringing me to the question of what color?

Issue #4 - we need to do something with the threshold. Again, we can paint it but what color? I have thought about painting it the same color as the door frame or the color of the porch floor, which I'd love to change from the chippy brick red color it's sporting currently. Decisions, decisions.

And that may be the only 4 issues I have with it... right now. I'm sure something will come up.

Anyway, break's over, back to stripping the paint off. I'm wearing gloves 'cause that stuff burns!

Mission Organization

Ahh, organization. What a wonderful concept and something I'd love for my whole house to be some day. It's on its way there... slowly but surely.

Our basement, where this picture was taken, has two sections. One is what I would LOVE to redo some day for a nice entertainment room - TV, sectional, round table with chairs (game table/poker, etc) and even a bar area with a fridge and microwave. It's definitely big enough for all of that. It even has a large closet that would hold all of our movies and games. Plus, there's a 3/4 bath so people wouldn't be running up and down the stairs. And by people, I'm imagining Lily at 13 with a bunch of crazy girl friends. 'Cause boys aren't allowed. ;)

Anyway, back to reality. The above mentioned half is used for storage right now and the other half is our laundry room and more storage. Since Doug's closet isn't finished yet, he uses it for all of his clothes. And the boy has a bunch! Dress clothes, fun/regular clothes, gym clothes, seasonal clothing. Wowzers! So, those shirts are his and a little back story as to why they are next to the paint.

Speaking of paint, which is the main reason for this post, this house seems to be making paint cans out of thin air. Seriously. I know, I know, not possible. It's actually to be blamed on the previous homeowner and the fact that she left all the colors behind. Sounds nice, and yes, it was, but I hated about 99% of the colors and have since covered most of them. Three rooms to go (kitchen, front bedroom, basement). The problem with leaving them and me not wanting any of them is that I don't know what to do with paint! My trash man won't take it except for maybe one day of the year when they do their Spring Cleaning and I'm sick of them around. So... I'm organizing it.

All of the paint that I have bought and used throughout the house is pictured above. The other paint from her is being boxed up and some day I will figure out where to put/take it all. Two cans were empty so those suckers got thrown away without my trash man knowing about it. The rest is a waiting game.

But while cleaning the entire basement this week, I found those three containers. I put spray paint in one (and need to bring the rest down there), paint supplies (stripper, rollers, etc) in another, and the third currently houses one single outlet cover that isn't being used. Not even sure where it came from but it'll be basically the odds and ends from the house - hardware, stuff like that until I know I don't need it and then it'll be donated and/or thrown away.

The biggest news (cross your fingers, it hasn't physically happened yet) is that I have a guy coming to pick up the giant avocado green freezer tonight. I told him it's big so hopefully he's bringing some guys. I am NOT helping! I cleaned everything around it, behind it, and in its way out of my house so that it'll be as easy as possible to get the sucker out! After that happens, this girly is getting built in shelving for the basement! Woo to the hoo!

{Dining Room} Bye Bye Bi-fold

A couple years ago, my dad built us a custom made baby gate for our stairwell to the basement. We originally had a bi-fold door on there but after an attempt at keeping the dogs in the basement, Zoey found out that she could bust through them. She ended up breaking it and I wasn't upset at all. Those things are terribly ugly. But, once we had a crawling baby on our hands, we needed something. After an attempt at buying a pre-made one that ended up broken and messed up before we could do our own damage, we decided to do something more permanent. My dad had just finished making one for his stairwell due to the extra wide size of theirs. So, we decided to have the same thing. Here's what it looked like before I painted the walls and added some decoration (ps. this post shows the trim before I painted - with the wallpaper circles removed).

It's sad to say that we lived with the set up below for a long time. I don't know why but I guess we just weren't that bothered by it and we were into other projects at the time. But now that we're close to having a lot of people over, and how I'm trying to make the rest of the house look nice, it was time to deal with the situation. So I took it to one day. It was the same day I painted the hallway. I still am in love with the color.

As I was touching up the trim paint in other areas of the house, I knew I needed to deal with the horrible issue from the previous homeowner. You can see in the picture below with what I'm dealing with. The previous homeowner cut out circles from a patterned wallpaper and glued them (and then painted over them) on the trim in the dining room. I have since removed all of it, along with the border, but am left with rings of paint. I thought I had sanded down everything but this door frame is the last one to go. I should have sanded it down before the photograph but you can see just how much I've dealt with in this room (and house!). The photo below also shows the color of the dingy white trim vs the newly painted trim (if your monitors allow) and the fact that there were yellow spots in the trim from not being primed and so much more. Her (the previous homeowner's) painting skills were definitely lacking! She had creativity... I guess... but she had some issues when it came to paint. She would touch up items on with a different sheen of paint so you'll walk into a room and see a spot that sticks out. Flat on eggshell of vice versa. Just enough to be annoying!

Anywho... let's get to the pics. Here are the BEFORE shots... (or maybe in progress as Zoey took care of the actual true before shots with the door and all). Plus, if it was a true before shot the wallpaper would still be there and the walls would be dark red. Now I'm off to go find some of those photos...

What it looked like before the removal of the track.

You can see in the picture below where the hinges went for the door (that was removed for painting). There are there screw holes on top and three in the brown square towards the bottom. We had to remove the quarter round in order for the door to swing all the way open, allowing us and the dogs to get through without problems. Our laundry room is in the basment and it's nice to have the door open wide enough for baskets and us to fit through.

Part of the quarter round had to be removed when my dad installed his custom built baby gate for our stairs (to the basement).

Another shot of the whole set up.

Detailed view.

Here's what it looked like without the track. And yes, that's dark green paint underneath the white. Someone really liked green in the house before us. And there's a nail that's stuck. Either the head was broken off or it's somehow stuck in backwards (sharp side out). It's impossible to grab with a hammer and so it'll be a job for Doug to do when I get around to putting the second coat of white paint on. 

Underneath the door frame once the track was removed.

Stay tuned for the finished product. It needs another coat of paint, some sanding, and that nail to be removed. I've already reattached the door just for safety issues. I know Lily understands not to go to the basement without us but I'd hate for something to happen. I'm a worrier. 

{Hallway} Tall, Teal and Beautiful

Yesterday I showed you my inspiration for the house but I didn't tell you what I was going to do with it. It will be for the majority of the house but the main two rooms you see as soon as you walk in (living room and dining room) are already painted and I am NOT doing that again any time soon in there, I wanted to add a punch of color some where else.

Enter my hallway. It's not much of a hallway, but more of a small area where four rooms branch off from - the dining room, bathroom and two bedrooms (Lily's current room and what I continue to call Lily's future room).

I hadn't touched the hallway since we moved in other than to strip the paint off of the bathroom door frame when I painted the bathroom years ago. It took a lot longer than expected and still didn't give me the look I wanted, although beautiful wood. So it stayed there as is.

BEFORE

BEFORE - door to left is Lily's current room, opening on right is to dining room.

BEFORE - with our semi-nonfunctional door bell (as in it only works some times and isn't loud enough to hear through the house, but I found out why after taking it down).

Progress!

Coat #1. Door to the left is to Lily's future room, open door is to the bathroom (obviously).

First coat. See that horizontal line on the left? It's a bump out area that was added later to allow a vent to go upstairs. I'm thinking of putting a frame above and below it to distract the eye.

Second coat.

First coat done, shot into the bathroom and Lily's current room. You can see that I've started painting the trim to the bathroom as well. It's the same white that I've painted all the rest of the trim in the house I've repainted (living room, dining room, the upstairs).

Dark - it was late and it's a tough corner to capture.

It's not done yet - I still need to fix/buy a new doorbell, finish painting the trim to the bathroom, paint all three doors (that'll be a bigger job for later), and hang up some items. I also want to paint the light fixture too. But it's definitely a big change!!! We'll see what my family thinks about it this weekend when we have Lily's birthday party!

The color is Ocean Soul in Valspar at Lowe's. It's paint and primer in one and went on extremely well! And isn't that name great?!

Partying at...