Saturday, April 12, 2014

PAINTING PAINTING PAINTING

“Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things.”

---Pablo Picasso


While my painting wasn't of a picture it was painting that opened a door and is served as a stepping stone to other things.  Paint brings renewed life to things, color trends change, color schemes change but when you come right down to it color has meaning to each of us for different reasons.

As we started the paint color selection process, we tried to keep in mind colors that spoke to us for lack of a better word. In life I personally like to wear a bold splash of color, I was even quite surprised at myself when I had pink highlights put in my hair one time and another they were purple, but that is another story.  In the house, Bill and I tend towards earth tones with a little bold here and there.

Here are a few before, in process and after pictures of the house:


Guest Bedroom before
My nephew learning to paint!


Guest Bedroom After a new coat of paint

Guest Bedroom with new flooring
 


Guest Bath
Guest Bathroom...rather interesting I think

Guest Living room in process



Guest Living Room in process

Guest Living Room in process

Our Room in process

Our Room in process



Our room with the floors being scrubbed
Our room with new paint

Office in process



Office almost finished with paint


Office finished with paint



Stairs unfinished

Stairs with a coat of white wash

 Looks like I need to take some more photos of the other rooms but this is a start.  It's been lots of work and lots of paint but the house is starting to have a few touches to make it our home.

























Tuesday, March 11, 2014

How Much Wood Would A Woodchuck Chuck If a Woodchuck Could Chuck Wood?

Before my Mom purchased the house, I didn't have a clue what "shiplap" was.  Now I do!!! 

The true definition:

Shiplap is a type of wooden board used commonly in the construction of barns, sheds, outbuildings and inexpensive or seasonal homes. It is either rough-sawn 1" or milled 3/4" pine or similarly inexpensive wood between 3" and 10" wide with a 3/8" - 1/2" rabbet on opposite sides of each end.[1] The rabbet allows the boards to overlap in this area. The profile of each board partially overlaps that of the board next to it creating a channel that gives shadow line effects, provides excellent weather protection and allows for dimensional movement.

The living room, dining room and the soon to become family room have "shiplap" on the walls.  That is a lot of wood, and it is dark wood and it hasn't been refinished in 20 years (at least).  There are cracks between each board and each board is approximately 1 x 8.  Let me say that cleaning the walls and all of the cracks was a task and  a half. 

This is what the walls looked like after they were scrubbed down.


After the walls were cleaned, well neither of us thought they were very attractive and we discussed just putting sheetrock over them to cover how bad they actually looked. There was a lot of discussion before we settled on trying to bring the old dingy wood back to life.

This process required several trips to the paint store to try and figure out what would be the best stain to put on the boards.  What turned out to be a perfect match was  Red Mahogany stain.

I'm not sure what was actually worse, the initial cleaning of the wood and the cracks or staining the wood and the cracks. 

I believe that we made a good choice on the color and the wood looks revitalized now.  We finished off the process with a clear satin finish to give it some shine.  While it's a bit dark, I'm hoping that as we go along the process of the remodel that accessories will help brighten things up.

 

 
This was a large project that we have now checked off the list.

Wood walls revitalized!!!

On to the next project!!!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Let The Face Lift Begin

We have embarked on a journey to bring new a new sparkle to my Mom's old home, and in the process turn it into our home.  The house was built in 1900 and has wonderful old cedar siding on it.  It had been many years since it was painted and last fall that was first on the list of to do's. 

I think we had four bids for the painting and ended up with the person that we liked best (we thought) although not the cheapest as cheap isn't always the way to go.  We discussed stains and paints and decided that in keeping with the character of the cedar we would have the house stained as it had been in the past.  After several discussions we decided to just go with a deeper richer color in the same tones as it had been 20 years ago. 

I personally was quite excited to drive up to see how it looked only to pull in the driveway to see it was almost the same color.  It was our mistake to not have put up a fuss at the time, but we let it go since it did look freshly painted even if it wasn't the color we had expected.  On a positive note, it could have been way worse. 

I found out later after going to the paint store where the stain had been purchased that our painter had taken an old vent from the house and had the paint store do an exact match.  Interesting that anyone would try to match 20 years of sun fade....but our paint guy was quite successful.  This should be considered forewarning of our future luck with hiring contractors rather than doing it ourselves.


The house was painted in the Fall but I thought the snow added additional charm.  This will be our new home in the future.






Monday, March 3, 2014

It's been a very long time...

I've recently had the urge to rekindle our blog as there are many projects going on in our lives that I thought worthy of blogging about. As I resurrected the Two In Motion blog I discovered the last time I wrote, it was about the heartbreaking loss of Lacey. It has been four years this month since Lacey crossed the Rainbow Bridge and I still think of her often.

I stopped blogging on a sad note and much has happened over the years. Lacey's daughter Kayla had puppies, we made a whirlwind trip to Spain, Italy, France and Finland, and the most emotional and heartbreaking was the passing of my Mom.

Many people have told me with nonchalance, "well you knew it was coming so it shouldn't be that hard". Yes I knew my Mom was old and yes I knew that her health wasn't what it once was.  I don't understand how anyone can make such a heartless comment. 

Saturday, November 9, 2014, I had been planning to go and visit my Mom.  I had picked out a knitting project that was simple enough that I could knit and visit with my Mom and had been planning to spend the afternoon with her.    It was 8:00 am and I was outside saying good bye to Bill as he was heading off for the day, his phone rang and it was my Mom's caregiver, calling to tell us that my Mom had passed away unexpectedly.


It has been almost four months and there are days when I want to pick up the phone and call and tell my Mom some little thing that I thought would bring a smile to her face and then realization hits that oooohhhhhh, I can't call her anymore.

I miss my Mom more than words can say, she is responsible for helping me grow into the person I am.  One of the gifts from my Mom was her strength and determination, a gift I shall always treasure.  She will always be with me.

In the last year, Bill and I decided that we would purchase my Mom's home and make it ours. It is a journey that will take us a while to complete and I am planning on documenting the transition.