Paint Update with Bonus Features

Here is the "before" photo of the front bedroom. Walls and ceiling are both dark green.

Here it is after the ceiling was painted white. Notice the boring light that my electrician thinks is perfectly good.

Here it is getting a coat of primer. The walls will eventually be white. I figured it would be light, bright and a better backdrop for the turquoise light fixture and the rest of the colorful things I plan to put into the room. This will be my sewing/craft room.

Remember this?

 Then this?

Look at it now. Ooh. Aah.

Here is a photo looking the other direction. Notice something?

 

Here's a clue.

That's right! There is a dishwasher and a sink! No faucet...or drains...or garbage disposal yet, but there may be by the time I get there today.

Someday I will replace the cabinets with pretty white shaker ones, but right now the budget doesn't allow for it. I think these cabinets date to the 1950s. They are pretty beat up and don't hang straight on their hinges, but with some sanding and a couple coats of white paint they will be livable for awhile. I removed that fugly tile from the counter tops. I still need to remove it from the backsplash.

The kitchen walls will be painted a light green from Benjamin Moore's historical colors collection. I think it will look nice with the white cabinets, green light fixtures, and eventually with the terrazzo counter tops I plan to install. The color of  the terrazzo is called fresh lime and it's from Daltile.

So pretty together. Me likey.

I've chosen a light dove grey for the hall bath with the claw foot tub. It looks kind of blue in this picture, but there are no blue undertones in the actual color.

Tonight I will try to finish the front bedroom so I can empty out my storage space before the end of the month so I don't have to pay for November rent. After that comes the master closet so I can move my clothes from the pile on the bedroom floor, then I'll start the bedroom walls.

There's a light...over at the Frankenstein place.

Well, not exactly the Frankenstein place, but I thought it was appropriate given the season. More accurately, there's a light...in my dining room...and my kitchen...and the bedroom... Woot!

Cherry red and orange plastic beaded vintage chandelier.

When I bought the place there was no electrical box in the ceiling of the living room or the middle bedroom. When the electrician went into the attic, he discovered there actually were electrical boxes, but that they'd been covered up. Why would someone remove the overhead light from a room? Makes no sense to me. Anyhow they are back and I now have lights in both rooms. The one above is in the living room. Here's what it looks like during the day. The colors are amazing and will go great with the fabric on the settee that will go into the living room once I finish it.

 

Alas, no progress has been made since this photo was taken.

Here is the light in the middle bedroom, another ebay find. The ceiling plate was originally brass but it was so oxidized that I decided to paint it with metallic paint.

1960s vintage light. So cheerful!

If you remember, the period fixture in the dining room was among the items stolen during the break in. I replaced it with this. I still need to hang all the swags and crystal drops to it, but you get the basic idea. The yellow square in the background is the color the room will be painted.

I bought this from ebay, but Home Depot now carries a similar model.

In the kitchen, I hung period fixtures removed from an old factory. They have bakelite turn paddle sockets. So cool. They are really dusty, so you can't see the color that well, but they are darkish green.

Green enamel with antique brass ceiling plate.

 Still to be hung is this piece from the 1950s. It will replace the brown boring light in the front bedroom.

Bright turquoise and white ribbed plastic light from the 1950s.

I love all my lights! They are colorful and tacky and you just can't be sad when looking at them. Most of the vintage ones arrived without all the necessary pieces needed to hang them, but the electrician did a great job finding the appropriate hardware and even a perfectly matching ceiling plate for the living room chandelier. When I told him I wanted to remove a perfectly good working light and hang the fixture above in the front bedroom, he got that "you crazy, lady" look in his eye. Oh well. Next up...paint update.

More Progress: The Floors

The floors are done! Here's a close up of just how bad they were.

That yellowish stuff that has worn away is shellac. Yes, the floors were finished with shellac. It stopped being used in the 20s and 30s, so there is a chance that these floors have never been refinished, although there are definite signs of patching throughout the years. In some places new yellow pine was used. In others, bondo was used to fill holes. Bondo. Yes, the stuff that used to be used to fill dents on automobiles. Unfortunately, bondo doesn't take stain very well.

Yellow pine patch. The fridge will go here so it won't be seen.

Bondo patch. I'm sure a nice area rug would look perfect here--tie the room together.

When I bought the house, the back addition was stained a dark brown color that was at odds with the caramel-molasses color of the antique red pine. I asked the restorers to try to match the color. The wood was yellow pine so it couldn't be matched exactly, but it's a LOT closer. Here is the transition from the old to the new part of the house.

Transition from the antique red pine (original house) to yellow pine (addition)

Here's a photo from the listing. It's kind of hard to see, but you can kind of make out how dark the stain was. The floors were scratched all to hell. A neighbor says the wood was antique and reclaimed from an old church and re-milled. He says the previous owner paid a ton for it. It may be true, but if so it was antique yellow pine, not red like the rest of the floors. You'd think that if she-of-questionable-taste was going to shell out money for antique pine, she would have gotten something that matched. Oh well.

Here are the rest of the before and after photos.

Living room before.

Living room after.

Living into dining before.

Living into dining after.

Bedroom 1 before.

Bedroom 1 after sanding.

Bedroom 1 after.

Master after sanding. This is the yellow pine that was stained really dark.

Master after.

You can still see nail holes and places where filler was added between the cracks. The kitchen was in pretty bad shape and the wood had turned almost blackish. The floors there look a little darker than the rest of the house. But overall, in the words of A of (Is it a house yet?), I Ann and Nancy Wilson them. The imperfections give them character. I am a big fan of character.