Monthly Archives: June 2009
Taking out the carpet
We decided early on that we wanted to remove the old carpet in the front of the house. We both have allergies and really wanted to get it up and out of the house as soon as possible.
Nate took the initiative to actually take up the carpet when I was at work. Unfortunately, he found that the carpet padding had completely broken down into a fine orange powder. Yuck. So once the carpet was out, the floor had to be scrubbed and vacuumed for days to get rid of the powder.
Looking back, it would have been smart to close off the rest of the house before removing the carpet, but this is a learning process.
On to the fun part. Look at our cool concrete floors! Notice that the front room was stamped with a large tile pattern.
And the dining area was left smooth.
Maybe the original owners wanted the distinction between the two areas?
Maybe the dining area was carpeted?
We will probably never know.
For the time being, we are leaving the floors as is. The concrete is great for the summer. Easy to clean and with it already being “weathered” it doesn’t matter if it gets scuffed.
Have you seen me before?
Meet our wood burning stove.
I really like it. It has nice clean lines and may be an original feature of the house.
Unfortunately, its a fire hazard. The chimney is located a little too close to the power lines on the roof.
The plan is to remove it. Question is do we relocate, sell or give it away?
I spent a couple hours researching Jøtul stoves and the Jøtul NR 150 model online, but found nothing helpful.
So, I emailed the manufacturer to see if they could tell me more about the stove. I received a very nice reply from the National Sales Manager.
“In my 15 years with Jøtul North America I have come across a ton of older Jøtul models. NR 150 isn’t one of them.”
He went on to tell me that he would look through the company’s archives to see if he could find the model.
So for the time being, our little guy is without an identity. Hopefully the mystery will be solved soon. I really want to make an educated decision about his future.
Stay tuned.
Rediscovering the concrete floor
I wanted to show off our beautiful stained concrete floors – or at least our first real look at them.
Nate began to strip off the carpet padding last night. I am so thrilled! The floors seem to be in good shape.
Cleaning & Painting the Kitchen
If there is one room in the house that needed a deep cleaning its certainly the kitchen.
My painting skills are beginner to intermediate at best, but one thing I do know is how important it is to clean and prep before painting.
I spent a big chunk of my Saturday doing just that.
I pulled out two cupfuls of nails, screws and hooks. I cleaned all the surfaced with TSP. Then I taped up the molding and windows – I don’t trust myself to paint along edges with a brush (called “cutting in”) correctly.
Finally, I got to priming the cabinets and walls. I finished priming half the cabinets, drawers and walls and decided to called it a night. I was completely covered with paint and grime and desperately needed a shower.
Sunday during our trip to the home improvement store, Nate and I decided on Behr Frost as our base color for the kitchen. It’s a basic blue based neutral. We want to keep the interior as light and cool as possible.
The plan is to paint the whole kitchen this color and then if its too much white I will go back with a different wall color.
The rest of the day I continued to paint. My parents stopped by to help out.
I learned a valuable tip from my mom. She suggested that I should invest in tapered brushes for cutting in the molding and also brushes and rollers with thinner handles. We both have small hands and the thinner handles be easier for me to work with. I plan on taking her advice as my hands are killing me!
I hope to finish painting tonight. I still have half the kitchen to paint with the semigloss. Fingers crossed I get it all done!!
Our First Shopping Trip
Sunday morning started with a trip to IKEA and Home Depot with Nate.
We picked up two desks at IKEA. One for each office. Unfortunately Nate’s desk, a large corner unit, would not fit in the car so we had to tie to the top of my little green civic.
We tied it as tight as possible and I kept my hand on the ropes as we drove off to Home Depot for new paint roller covers.
I had started painting with a 3/8 inch nap roller cover and it was taking forever to cover the walls with primer! Luckily, the Home Depot guy suggested I use a 1/2 inch nap roller cover which will hold more paint and make it easier to cover the texture and groves in concrete block walls.
Note to self, make sure to ask questions of the experts BEFORE I purchase supplies next time!
We were a little worried to get on the freeway with our desk tied to the roof, but we took it slow with our hazards on and safely made it home. I think we will be borrowing a bigger car next time we head to IKEA.
A full weekend
Let the home projects begin!
Nate finished teaching classes on Friday and is now ready to started working on the house.
I will go into detail a little later on exactly how we spent our weekend, but here’s a sneak peak.
Let’s Start with the Kitchen
After much deliberation, I decided to tackle the cleaning and painting the kitchen as my first home project. Cleaning and painting the cabinets and walls will allow me to move all my dishes and pantry items directly from the old kitchen to the new one.
The kitchen is a lovely shade of dusty pink. The shade covers the walls and cabinets, inside and out. The floor is the original 1952 linoleum. The ceiling is the same planked wood that is throughout the original house. The ceiling also has a skylight.
The kitchen layout is a little funky and will be a major project sometime in the future, but for now just painting everything a neutral white will suffice.
Here’s a little drawing (not to scale) of the current layout.
Other design elements of note in the kitchen:
There are mustard yellow curtains above the stove. Yes, above the stove. I have decided to call them “fire starters” because (pardon the gross-out factor) they are covered with years and years of oil and grime. I am amazed the previous owner did not start a grease fire. Seriously. They are absolutely disgusting. I was so excited to get rid of them.
The full wall of cabinets has a fold out table attached. You use the bottom cabinets as the “legs” of the table. Its cute, but its going to go.
The passage way to the dining area has a build in lattice partition. Also charming, but will be taken out.
