Living Room & Dining Room: Trim Renewal

The former state of the beautiful mahogany trim in the living room and dining room is probably responsible for two of my white hairs. I knew that sanding the trim would take away its patina, yet I didn't know how we could address the paint splatters and water damage without some sanding. And the holes! What do we do about all of those holes? Over the years, many different window coverings were utilized and most of them were mounted directly into the trim.

We decided that our best course of action was to talk to the experts. We took a short piece of trim from behind the front door to a local shop that specializes in stains and paint. The associate instructed us to clean the paint splatters using Krud Kutter and a light abrasive such as a scrub sponge or tooth brush. If the paint didn't respond to the cleaner, we could dab a rang into lacquer thinner and hold it on the offending spot for 10 or 15 seconds and then wipe it away. If not successful with the lacquer thinner, we could lightly sand the spot with 220 grit sand paper being careful to sand just the surface. Then, once perfectly clean and dry, apply several coats of linseed oil. That's it! Although I say, "that's it!", it was really no easy task. We worked on that trim for hours and days and wore the skin off our poor little fingers.

Before (bottom) and after (top).

The cleaning brightened the wood to a shining honey-tone. Black gunk had gathered in the groove of the trim profile, likely from fireplace and cigarette smoke from over the years. Nick diligently worked with various tiny tools to clean the grooves.

Sill: before.	Sill: after.

The sills were an exception to the rule. They HAD to be sanded to level out the warping from the water damage. The sanding helped to reduce the black stains from the water damage. However, in spots where sanding wasn't enough, we very gently applied a bleaching agent that we purchased from the wood stain experts. The result was quite pleasing! The sills may have come out slightly lighter than the other trim, but really not noticeably so.

Oh, and the holes? I patched them with a soft wood filler. You'll only notice them if you look very closely.

Do you see holes?

Living Room & Dining Room: Texturing...OR Cracking Up About Walls

Goodness, friends! Apologies for the delay in posting. In real-time, Christmas preparation and travel kept us occupied for the last two weeks. I hope you were also sufficiently busy and didn't notice my absence.

Continuing on...with the ceilings renewed, the walls were next on the list. Adding texture in the bedrooms and hallway was relatively easy since they were previously smooth. For the living room and dining room, we were challenged to attempt to match the existing heavy texture in places where the plaster required repair. Either side of the fireplace had cracked badly. We ended up scraping off a large amount of loose plaster on the right side (bottom circle on left photo--that's just the start of the scraping). I primed the area and applied the first course of drywall mud and then Nick took over and made it look nice.

Hard to see, but these are cracked areas.	Repaired!

In our earlier texturing, we used a crow's feet brush to create the desired look. Our plaster guy tipped us off that the texture in the living room was created by squishing two drywall hawks together with mud in between and then pulling them apart and applying the hawk to the wall and knocking it down with a trowel. After some practice, Nick came up with a technique that was as close as we could come. As I recall, we didn't knock down at all. Instead, once the patched area dried, Nick gently wiped it with a damp sponge.

Textured, no knock-down.	Lightly sponged.

I can still tell where the repairs are, but it doesn't plague me. It's certainly much better than having cracks or living without sufficient electrical outlets. And, to stand back and take in the entire room, a person probably wouldn't focus on these areas.

Living Room and Dining Room: Look Up!

You'll remember that Nick did the ceiling skim coating in both bedrooms. He did a fine job, but it was difficult and we anticipated that the cove ceilings in the living room and dining room would be particularly hard, especially given the severity of cracking in the plaster. We got a few price estimates and ended up selecting a guy who had strong Yelp reviews and also happened to be the low bidder (bonus!). As you may well know by now, I'm the "unskilled labor" half of this marriage, so it was on my list to dig out the plaster cracks and prime the ceiling. This prep work would save us a fair amount of money. I covered up my hair to protect from the falling plaster sand and took a selfie for documentation purposes. I think I look a bit like a man in this photo. It reminds me of my brother, which is weird.

Clinton? Is that you?

The guy we hired to do the repair prided himself on having done all the plaster work in a very famous local musician's house (ahem...Eddie Vedder). He brought a photo album of his work, explaining that Mr. Vedder didn't want to have any corners in his house...none. So every possible 90 degree angle was altered into a sweeping curve. It was really neat!

What happened here?

The result of the work was absolutely stunning. With the cracks repaired, the room stopped screaming. It said, "Thank you, let's all take a nap now." Nick scrutinized the work with his sharp eye and improved the repair just above the picture rail. Our hired man had worked quickly and the final bill was even lower than the bid. He had completed a long week on another previous job and was anxious to give his body a rest. That meant some extra effort on our part, but since we had more time than money, the arrangement suited us well. After Nick's QA work, we primed the ceiling using the soupy, but fantastic, shellac primer.

Living Room & Dining Room: Before

Prior to moving into the house, we wisely employed a company to remove the "popcorn" texture from the cove ceilings in the living room and dining room. The removal process is relatively easy--you spray the texture with water and then it scrapes right off. Since we weren't certain what we were dealing with, we sent a sample of the texture to a lab that confirmed it contained asbestos. As such, we felt it prudent to hire professionals who could also dispose of the waste appropriately. As with many changes this house incurred over the years, we were left wondering, "Why...WHY would you put a texture on beautiful cove ceilings?" Once the job was done, our question was answered.

Cracked ceiling.

The ceiling was badly cracked! There was a grid of cracks running both east/west and north south. Texturing the ceiling was probably someone's easy solution to a much bigger problem. For us, the repair of the ceiling would have to wait its turn. Upgrading the electrical would come before the ceiling since it would likely cause some damage to the plaster. In the above photo, you'll see that we had recessed lighting installed. I was afraid that the recessed lights would detract from the authenticity of the renovation, but I actually love them. Lighting can transform a space and in dark fall and winter days, it warms the room.

Icky trim.	Water damaged window sill.

During prior paintings, the living room and dining room trim had not been protected and was splattered with specks of paint. Additionally, since the house had been vacant for a few years prior to our ownership, the windows on the south side of the house began to rot and warp, causing the sills to sustain water damage. How would we fix this? Mahogany changes color as it ages and it wouldn't be possible to just slap on some new wood and have it match. Some of the grooves in the wood were deep and I was concerned that it couldn't be saved.

To be continued...

Christmas Spirit

Several years ago, I pushed hard to landscape the front yard in the fall for the sole purpose of putting up Christmas lights. Nick complied with my request, though I'm certain he thought I was irrational. Other posts will cover the landscaping, this one is just about Christmas spirit.

Christmas - 2015

The first Christmas with lights included red lights in the dogwood tree and Japanese maple, green lights in the Italian cypresses flanking the house, and white lights along the roof line.

Christmas - 2016

In 2016, we decided to give the rapidly growing dogwood and maple trees trunks of white, using the red lights only in the branches. We also added white lights to the little weeping yellow cypress** under the front window. We bought a little Christmas tree from the Boy Scout Troop 100, which we put in our TV room (front bedroom). This was our first tree together (married 7 years at the time).

Christmas 2017

The 2017 house has added lights in the front windows and a Christmas tree in the living room.

Front Window	Christmas Tree

We hope the 2018 Christmas will include the perfect tree topper and tree skirt. It has not been easy to find just the right things! How many years until we have a Griswold house?

**Actual name of "weeping yellow cypress" may vary.

Front Bedroom: This is Home

A neglected house is a bit like a neglected animal--although you might have compassion, you don't just want to cuddle up to a dog with fleas and mange. Looking around the front bedroom, I wasn't at home, but gazing out the window with the morning sun streaming in, I imagined that I could feel at home here.

Among the first things done, the windows were replaced. I stripped and sanded the trim, and we dug out the cracks in the plaster for repair.

Things get worse before better.

We even replaced the window in the closet. It was a little removable fellow with a latch and a chain, but the clear single pane glass wasn't practical, and it wasn't necessary to be able to open this particular window. Although you can't quite tell from the photo (below right), we replaced it with a frosted glass window.

	Shoe storage!

Do recall the attic ladder project. Here's where we patched the old access hole:

The patch.	Leave no trace.

By now you know the routine: patching the plaster cracks, skim coating the ceiling, sanding, sanding, texturing, priming, painting. Crammed into a single sentence like that, it sounds like a breeze. Trust me, it took us many moons.

Cozy.

This is home.

Finishing the Hallway: Circle the Differences

As a transitional space, a hallway is uninteresting. But, as you've already seen, a lot of changes happened here. This area was so boring to me in its original state that I failed to take a true "before" photo!

SNORE!	Ooh la laa...is that a laundry chute??

I love the final product! The additions of the attic ladder, laundry chute, and picture rail give the eye  much more to take in. The picture rail turns the area into a tiny gallery, which can easily change on a whim. Like the back bedroom, we textured the walls using a knock-down method. The  musty smelling coat closet received a partial make-over and a coat of shellac-based primer that sealed in the stench and cleared the air. Yay! Interesting to note, we had to demolish a stud bay in the closet when the electrical was updated. My forward-thinking husband used the opportunity to add an electrical outlet and cable/phone jacks so that we could neatly store our wireless router hidden away. The outlet is at about 5 feet so that the router can sit on the shelf without wires strung down the wall.

Vintage lighting - so much life to go!	Switches and stitches.

With the addition of beautiful vintage era lighting and push-button switches, the hallway is complete! If you are REALLY observant, you've noticed that all the doors received new brass hinges to replace the old steel hinges that had been painted. The black and white photos on the wall are some of my favorite images from both my mom and dad's family albums. The embroidery piece traces back to my great grandmother, though its creator is somewhat questionable. Read about that on my mom's blog here.

Standing in the bathroom entrance (for reference).

Chute! There's Laundry on the Floor

Have you ever lived in a small house with small rooms and small closets? Where did you keep your dirty laundry? Perhaps it was the most logical place...the bedroom floor. We have been frustrated by the difficulty of keeping order with respect to laundry. The washer and dryer are in the basement and there isn't much  space for a hamper upstairs. During the time that we used the basement bathroom things were a little better because we kept the hamper in the bathroom where we most often changed clothes. But, we knew that someday we'd have a proper bathroom upstairs and would need a laundry solution. Occasionally, you'd find Nick or me standing alone in the basement staring at the ceiling dreaming of where we might be able to install a laundry chute. We equally concluded that there was just one place that would work, and that was in the hallway. So, before any further work, it only made sense to build the chute since it would involve some destruction to the wall.

Nick carefully pried the baseboard off the wall and marked where the chute would go, giving consideration to where he calculated the studs to be.

Remove baseboard, cut starting hole.	Nick saws.

The jig saw works well for cutting nice straight lines with minimal collateral damage to the wall. We found the perfect sized cabinet door at a construction salvage shop. It has a similar profile to our existing doors and no major dings. With some sanding and painting, it'll be perfect!

Not too bad!	Salvaged cabinet door.

Next, we got some sheet metal and a tool that helps bend it to make perfect corners. The tool is basically two steel rectangles welded together with a gap between them. You slip the metal into the gap and bend. I called my brother, a sheet metal expert, and inquired about the best tool for cutting the metal. The sheet metal scissors are $20 or $30, so we wanted to get it right.

Nick's sheet metal construction.	My, what nice seams you have!

Nick figured out exactly how to build the chute so that there would be no visible seams where the sheet metal pieces are joined and no sharp edges that might catch on our clothing. His ability to construct things so perfectly is amazing to me!

Perfect fit.	Voila!

The chute was then placed in its new home and the baseboard put back in place. The final photo represents a couple of imperfections not worth pointing out, but that will be corrected in time. We haven't actually used the chute yet because it isn't connected to anything in the basement. Although it's pretty narrow, we ensured that we'd still be able to pass our garments through. I love how it came out! It is at home in our hallway.

Attic Ladder: The Last Step (Ha!)

Installation instructions for attic ladders say that it can be done by one person, which seems incredible to me. But truly, Nick was able to do the next part all by himself. He installed some wood boards across the open span so that the ladder could rest level with the ceiling while he positioned it to his liking. Then, he shimmed the gap and screwed the ladder into the framing. Once complete, I came along and plastered the edges that had gotten mangled in the process and filled in the small gap between the ladder unit and the framing.

Bracing for installation.	Secured. Plaster touch-up.

The plaster touch-up wasn't really necessary since we put trim around the ladder to match the doorways, but we feel better having done it anyway. The door is made of melamine, which I'm not a fan of, but there wasn't any other choice. The reason why I don't like it is that unlike wood, if it gets dinged or marred, it's very difficult to patch and repair. It had a corner that was slightly squished, but I was successful in making a decent repair. It also painted up to satisfaction, so it works! 

Melamine door - pre-paint.	Post paint w/trim. Happiness!

I think it looks really sharp with its white trim and matching door. You'll notice several things in the final photo that I haven't talked about yet. Worth mentioning is the neat little exposed bulb light fixture that replaced the larger glass shade fixture at left. We put in another matching light around the corner in the hallway, which makes it a happier, less ominous place. 

Attic Access OR Bats in our Belfry

You might already think that we have bats in our belfry, as they say, but I promise that WE don't think we're crazy. Our plans to have the old knob and tube wiring replaced dictated the order of operation for other things. For instance, dropping the ceiling in the basement would be required in order to string the new wiring for outlets. So, before we installed the new garage door I demolished the garage. Also, we had black mold in a part of the basement due to a leaky water supply shutoff valve, so I purchased an air purifier, a mold remediation solution, and suited up to carefully remove the drywall and secure it in thick plastic bags for disposal. Having addressed the mold in the wall, it only made sense to also pull down the ceiling for the needed access for the electrical job.

Similarly, we needed to consider attic access for wiring the ceiling lights. The only access to our HUGE attic was a small-ish access hole in the ceiling of the closet in the front bedroom. If one were to actually use the closet, she wouldn't be able to get up through the hole. Wouldn't it be GREAT to be able to access the attic for potential storage down the road? With some careful measuring and research to find the smallest attic ladder available, we determined that we could close up the hole in the closet in favor of an attic ladder in the hallway. There was no point in refurbishing the bedroom and closet until we patched up the attic access, and if we were going to patch up the hole, we might as well install the new access ladder.

Before: Do you see where it will go?	Before: Clearing the space in the attic.

As you can see in the photo, I had already started stripping the trim in anticipation of working in the hallway. I worked on this for a couple hours a night, with the goal of finishing one door frame a week. THERE ARE SIX DOORS IN THE HALLWAY!!! Sorry for the outburst...I just needed to emphasize how ridiculous that is.

Make hole, demo plaster.	Nice hole!

Nick figured out the precise measurements and marked the hole. He used a jig saw to cut through the lathe and plaster and a hammer and crow bar to knock down the plaster. Demolishing plaster overhead is the worst--it falls right into your face. Blech!

New framing.	Framing in action.

We knew that at some point we'd want to lay down a floor in the attic to make the space usable. However, Nick determined that we would not be able to get full 8' x 4' sheets of plywood into the attic once the ladder was installed due to the angle of the ladder and the limited space in the hallway. So, before the ladder went in, we bought a bunch of plywood and SHOVED it up the hole. This was SO much harder than you can imagine. One of us had to serve a as Receiver in the attic and the other had to be the Hoister on the ground. The Hoister had to lift up the plywood high enough for the receiver to take over. As I recall, I was the Hoister; a position earned after failing as the Receiver, which required more strength. 

Taa daa! Future floor. 

To be continued...

Welcome!

The garage door constituted a lot of eyeball real estate in that replacing it made a big difference in the overall appearance of the house. The exterior of the house had the power to control exactly how I felt about myself. Without a nice yard and entry, I was without pride. Next up: the front door. The light that shone through the splits in that old door, shot directly into my soul and showcased my embarrassment.

Old threshold and trim. Yuck!	This is not inviting.

We researched Tudor entries and stained glass windows and fell in love with a reproduction door sold in the UK. We didn't want our door painted and weren't going to have it shipped over the ocean, which meant that we needed to get creative.

Inspiration.

When it comes to doors in Seattle, there's really only one major player in town and they are THE WORST. I won't name them here, but you can  do an Internet search for doors in Seattle and piece it together. Let me tell you, the staff is rude, they give poor advice, and are wholly unreliable. Nevertheless, we determined that with precise instruction, it would be fine. We took in a sample of our mahogany trim that we hoped to match along with a photo of our inspiration and detailed drawings of the proper arch of the window and molding profile for the drip cap and dentil shelf. We  ordered a mahogany door along with the molding pieces. When the door was ready, we discovered that the mahogany was an entirely different, much darker varietal that would never match our trim even with the right mixture of stain. Additionally, the drip cap and dentil shelf had the wrong profile. So much for detailed instructions overpowering ineptitude. A bit of nastiness later, and the door store agreed to re-do our door in fir so that we'd be able to stain it to our liking. At this juncture, they admitted that they could not create the drip cap and dentil shelf we wanted. I guess they thought we wouldn't notice before...think again, Frank.

Nick contacted several lumber milling companies and selected one that could do the drip cap and dentil shelf. Next, we visited a reputable stained glass company and began work on our design. With creative direction from Nick and the expertise of the designer at the store, we landed on a design that everyone was happy with.

Nick stained the door.	New hardware.

Nick and his trusty assistant (ahem!) installed the door. Upon ripping up the old door frame, we discovered that the only thing really holding it in place was the brick molding. Nick created proper blocking for the frame to anchor into and I primed and painted the new door frame and molding. Although the old door handle was actually pretty neat, it wasn't quite right for our new door, so we ordered a new brass handle that met our liking and Nick used a chemical treatment to give it a patina. My self esteem increases one point every day that I go in and out of this door! It took us months to get this just right and Nick worked hard on the design, staining and installation. What a guy!

Fini.