Stepping Up

One more look back: the stairs. When we bought the house, we thought that we'd just pull off the stained grey carpet and paint the stairs. Boy, were we wrong!

First we had to remove the "peel and stick" tiles, which ripped off the finish on the stairs, leaving a lumpy mess. Pulling up the dirty carpet seemed vile, until I spent about 45 hours stripping the layers of paint with a heat gun, and then with lovely scented paint stripper. How much of the paint was leaded, I wonder? And then painting with oil based paint. I did the second coat on Christmas day, before going to my sister's house for dinner. But it is funny how I had forgotten all the work, until I looked at these pictures.

Looking back a bit more

So the front hall was a success, but the dining room with the hand painted Klimt mural - what can you do with that? Four coats of Fresh Start primer, followed by two coats of Manchester Tan. The result: a dining room that doesn't give your guests indigestion. Another success story.

The kitchen: before and after, which has been well documented in this blog.

It's always good to take a look back now and then

It is easy to get down on yourself, thinking that you haven't done enough to your house. But take a look back at some old photos and you'll see the impressive transformation. Take for example, the front hall, which is now part of the living room.

Mint green paint, knotty pine wainscotting, and DARK. We tried to lighten it up with paint, but that wasn't enough. So we tore down the wall, drywalled the stucco ceiling, some fresh paint, and voila... a room that you can live in!

Now I don't feel so bad that I haven't finished painting the kitchen yet!

The pink did not stop on the main floor. It continued up the stairs and into the hallway, bathroom & "master" bedroom. We removed the "rushing rivers" mural on the closet doors, pulled down the pink pinstripe curtains & burgundy mini blinds, and then gave it a couple of coats of paint. The old futon looks pretty shabby in this photo. It is a work in progress-the room is not done yet.