Walls, cement and shrubbery. . .

Progress is slow-ish, but moving forward and much of this is due to the help of some great friends, big and small, young and old. . .

Here is some new stuff and some of the folks who have been helping:

WALLPAPER IS DONE!! What a big relief. Thanks to Judy Polsgrove (my sister-in-law's mom) and her amazing ability to remove wallpaper, there is none left at Riverside Drive. (My mom helped too early on; she'd want you to know. Thanks mom.) Judy had never used a steamer before, but I think she might be a fan now. She caught on quickly. In fact, she was much faster at it when I was NOT helping her than when I helped. Not sure if that says more about me or about the steamer. . .

PAINTING has begun in the attic. My friend Avonne (from church) has come over twice (and might come again this Thursday) to help with painting. Somehow or another the help I have is always better at everything than I am. We are getting close to turning the pink attic into the much nicer, more neutral tones of sand and bamboo. . . (pictures when it's done!)

BUSHES BE GONE! Thanks to the Johnson family--Hugh, Laura, Kyle and Eric--who came over with tools, truck and chains to remove the ugly bushes in front of my house. They wrapped the chain around the bushes, attached it to the truck, and pulled it out. It was cool!! and fast. They were done in record time (and even took all the bushes away!) here's a before and after. . .



CEMENT POSTS--never did I expect that Micah (who is 12) and Michaela (who is 10) and I would be able to remove four 40-50 pound cement blocks from the backyard, but we did it! It really would never have happened without Micah and Michaela--we worked hard, gave lots of high fives, and got really, really dirty, but we got them out. Literally, we had to pretty much get IN the hole to heave them out, but we did it. They were pretty cheap labor too--a few bucks and some donuts did it. Thanks Micah and Michaela!

Anybody have a flashlight?

Oops! Turns out that my great new walk in closet doesn't have a light. Or a plug. Or any electricity at all. Turns out we forgot that little detail. It does have a window so at least I've got that. . . .
Lots of little things get in the way of progress.

Weird stuff and an HGTV commentary. . .

Everyone says that you'll find stuff that you never expected during a home renovation. Most of these will cost, I think, more money. . . like this. .

Some ridiculous previous owners of the house put fiber board on the wall. Then contact paper with ugly roses. Then they painted over that. Then they wallpapered over that. Oh, and all the corners aren't actually connected (they have big gaps) and now have to be fixed. Here's some nice work (hard to tell but those are the painted over roses in the corner there):



Other times, though, maybe you find stuff that can put a little cash in your pocket. For example, this lovely display of dishes that were on the top of the molding of all the rooms downstairs. if you can't tell, they are scenes of Philadelphia. We have the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, a bicentenial picture and a few others. Any takers? I'll give you a good deal.



Oh, and by the way! I was watching a little HGTV tonight (while packing the apartment which is quickly becoming full of boxes) and I noticed, for the first time, how CLEAN everything is in the homes that are being renovated. There's not a speck of drywall dust, there are no tiny little wallpaper pieces all over the floor, there's no mud splotched anywhere, and there are no soda or water bottles strewn around the house from the contractor crew. Just so you know--totally and completely unrealistic and untrue! It's a mess. I struggle to find a clean spot in the house to put my bag down when I walk in the door. I keep moving things around to try to keep them from the layers of flying around but to no avail. . . just so you know.

Progress. . .

We're making progress! I'm learning a lot in this whole project. . . first of all, sometimes you walk in the house after an 8 hour day and you know there were lots of people working, but you can't figure out what they did all day! Did you know that drywall takes three days and four steps--tape, paste, dry, sand. Then again--tape, paste, dry, sand. . . three times. So, it pretty much looks the same for three days in a row. Now that I understand this process, I feel much better about what's going on. Here's a look at my new master bedroom closet:

Also, my crappy wallpaper removal of the early days (which Don the contractor told me was actually not that bad and just how it goes sometimes) has been fixed by the contracting team. Check it out.

Before. . . and after. . .

AND! kitchen cabinets are being painted. You can almost imagine what it might look like sometime soon:

The Wallpaper Steamer. . . a marvelous and magical tool. . .

Thanks be to God for the inventor of the wallpaper steamer. I am not kidding. I was at the house tonight (washing cabinets so they can be refinished tomorrow) and decided to try out the steamer I bought the other night. Just a little spot on the wall. . . And alas! I had such great success I kept going!

This corner (see below) was finished in record time. I mean record time. From set up (turning on the steamer)--to stripping off the paper--to clean up (putting it back in the box)--it took me (are you ready??) 30 MINUTES!! Just for a little perspective, a previous corner just like this one took about 90 minutes, sans the steamer. Check out the photo below with the really big pieces of wallpaper that all came off at the same time! I felt very successful. And, it took down both the top and bottom layer together (if you have ever removed wallpaper before, you know what a big deal this is).

Thanks to all of you who suggested I try this. . . Don the contractor, my mother (who I should listen to more often), Dan Myers (who would have thought), and whomever else I am forgetting. I owe you.

One little note on the steamer though. . . it can be a bit precarious. Ideally (says Don the contractor) this is done with two people; one to steam, the other to follow peeling the paper off. If you do it alone, you must have the steamer in one hand and the scraper in the other. And if the wall is tall, you need to be on a ladder with the steamer in one hand (which, just to remind you, has hot steam coming out of it) and the scraper in the other. And if you're me, you find a wobbly ladder from the scary basement of the house you just bought and figure, how bad can it hurt if I fall down (and get burned by the steam when it crashes down upon me). What makes is more tricky is that one of my quirks in wallpaper removal is to pull off the bigger pieces of paper with some enthusiasm (because it's kind of exciting when the big pieces come off), which can make you fall backwards and if you're on a wobbly ladder, that's just asking for trouble (those of you who know me at all can imagine this and if you're truthful, you're laughing; which is really just mean).

Pretty popular in the neighborhood. . .

So, there's a bathtub in my front yard. Not just a bathtub, but a cast-iron tub created in (we think) 1938. It took four big men to take it down the stairs and out of the house, and in the process did quite a job to my steps, smashing them up a bit (good thing the steps are going to be carpeted, I guess).



It's good that I have nice neighbors, cause I am not sure how long it's going to sit there! I hope not a long time. I've had a couple people suggest (and it seems some of them were serious) that I put the tub in my backyard, fill it with dirt and plant some flowers. I don't think so!!

Couple other things going on. . .

My new walk in closet is close to being framed in and drywalled (actually closer than this picture shows). The final size will be 11" x 5'6". woo-hoo!!



Several people have asked about the dreaded wallpapering and given some suggestions (thanks for that). It's still going on (want to help?) I bought a steamer this week and will try it out this weekend. Fabric softener was also suggested so I figure if I try all three (the steamer, the fabric softener and the gel stuff) at the same time, nothing's staying up! Actually, I won't do that. That could cause more issues than I already have. Like this. . .

This is what happens when you put the wallpaper directly on the drywall without primer or anything else (thanks to you previous owners). .. the drywall comes down with the wallpaper and it has to be done all over again. Crap. (sorry, maybe you shouldn't blog that word, but I'm still new to this).

I hate wallpaper.

I'm a paint person. Definitely. Through and through. Paint, not wallpaper. Today, I have more reason than ever to hate it. I think the wallpaper in my house, must have been up for 20 years. And wow, it did not want to come down. I admit, it may be that I have no idea how to do this. I got some tips from others and perhaps I got better as I went along. But I'd like to blame the house for some of it. . . This is my first attempt. . . oops. . .



I know! Not good, right? The paint came down with the wallpaper. I don't think that's supposed to happen. (Don's gonna kill me, maybe.) As I moved to another room, I got better.



A couple questions (for whomever might have some advice for me!)
It's taking FOREVER (literally worked for hours today and have a long, long way to go).
Does it always take this long?
Any tips on how to do this better?
Should I use a steamer thing?
What the heck do you do with all the sticky stuff left on the wall when the paper's off?

A pleasant surprise. . .

My contractor for my house is a nice man named Don Knapp. On Friday, I headed over to the house (to pay him the first of what will be many checks) and he had a surprise for me. In gutting the upstairs bathroom. . .

(check out those wood slats)

A window was discovered! Whoever renovated the bathroom (crazy people) covered up the window with ugly pink tile (they also covered up two electric outlets, which apparently could have burned the house down, but whatever. . . ). Here's another photo with window uncovered:



I am excited about this discovery, as it means I get to use those cool opaque glass blocks in place of the window. More light and it looks cool!

And so it begins. . .

With any renovation, it seems that the best place to start is with the "before pictures."

And, I'm putting them in a few different posts because I don't know how to put them all in one!

Front porch & back yard:

Upstairs. . . "before" photos.

Here are some photos of the top floor, including the attic (first photo), three bedrooms and the very small and currently ugly bathroom.

This is where the renovation will begin (and has began already!):

Downstairs. . . "before". . .

Here's what you'll currently see when you come into the house. . . foyer, living room, kitchen, very stylish paneled bathroom and laundry.

I might be crazy. . .

So, this is me, blogging about my newest adventure.

I bought a house. (Well, I will have by tomorrow noon.)

It's 101 years old this year. It needs a bit of a facelift and I have decided that I'm up for the challenge!

So, this blog will be a little recording of the adventures of renovation in my life as a 41-year old woman, who apparently needs a little more excitement.

Meet my house on Riverside Drive. More photos to come (after I obtain the keys).

My first post.

I don't know how to blog! But, thanks to my friend Dan Myers and his most excellent blogging wisdom, I am going to give it a go. . .