Floors are done! Yippee!

We put the final (3rd) coat on the floors Tuesday night. Thanks to our neighbors across the fence, Aaron and Amy, for lending us their professional grade satin Minwax Dura Seal, which they swear by, we'll have a nice durable finish. And we highly recommend Charles Theriault out of Enfield for doing the floors, phone: 632-5844.

What's left, besides the kitchen counter debacle: paint livingroom and entry trim, bedroom 2 baseboard, and then re-floor the kitchen ourselves, besides the carpet for BR1. Michael was able to get the kitchen cabinet to fit correctly and is working on the living room cabinet which looks fantastic from the start of it!

More to come...

Before & After, Master Bedroom

Before, looking out of room into kitchen


During, looking into room FROM kitchen, vacuuming the floors before sanding


After, same perspective as above, floors sanded, walls painted

I think you can see the transformation.

Two things I now despise: LaValley's and dial-up

Okay, so we're having a bad day.

The floors will need a 3rd coat as Ray and I didn't know what we were doing with the first coat and put it on too thin and not with natural bristle brushes. Oh well. Live and learn.

So that we can deal with ourselves. We're relying on dial-up internet service at the moment. I hope to get some photos on here soon, but the negative-warp speeds of a 56k modem just doesn't cut it.

So that we can deal with. For now.

But the latest, after my dad was able to successfully get most of the trim and baseboards up, is the kitchen counter. Apparently the nit-wit from LaValley's who came out and measured for carpet also measured the countertop. Apparently he didn't measure it correctly and our mitered corner is off by 1 inch. Ugh. So back to the drawing board. Not sure what happened, but I **thought** since LaValley's SELLS countertops that they could measure for them correctly. They're the same outfit that messed up on getting our carpet quick enough to install before we move in. (See Stake in the Road) Unless the Formica manufacturer can come up with a way to cut these to fit properly, we're "stuck" with them. Ugh. My dad measured and he said we're right on square, maybe off 1/8", no where near the 1 inch how it was cut. Ugh. We didn't order the countertop from LaValley's, but from the Cabinet En-counter and have no recourse on incorrect measurements. I can't WAIT for Home Depot.

Unfortunately, we ordered our carpet from LaValley's too. Lord knows if the right color, carpet and amount will arrive, whether too much was ordered, and if the installer will do it right. Double ugh.

Floors are 1/3 of the way done

Our living room (birch) and master bedroom (pine) floors were sanded last night, and they look incredible. Right down to the raw wood. No more stain, or nicks, nothing. Apparently Charlie (the floor guy) ran into some issues with wax on the bedroom floor and its going to take him longer than expected. So we won't be able to "use" them most likely until Sunday.

Right out of "Home Improvement"

Remember the show Home Improvement? We have neighbors on the other side of the gray fence that are fantastic at home renovations. Amy and Aaron bought a 1800's farmhouse and fixed it up in about 3 months late last summer. And it is beautiful. And they have every (power)tool you can imagine along with the knowledge of how to use them properly. While Aaron was visiting us, upon noticing our obvious sheetrock seams in the living room, offered to mud them, and did so in about 5 minutes. Something that Ray and I debated about doing, as we don't have the ability to mud that well or that quickly :)

Laura "no decorative painting" Braunstein and her husband Andy stopped over to check out the place. After the 5 cent tour, we chatted about the Lebanon Homeowner's Coop that they're starting up, which will be quite cool. It will be a great resource for getting assistance on projects, learning a new skill, or sharing resources (anyone need a 3/4 full 5 gallon pail of joint compound or a gallon of "metro mauve" paint?)

This weekend was quite productive, even if we ran into "trim" issues. After touching up ceilings, walls, crown mouldings and trim we ended the day removing the living room carpet and pulling out staples and nails from the beautiful birch (?) wood floors. Beer was needed at this point as energy wasn't plentiful. Needless to say I slept very well last night, no worries about the house, the floors.... and Ray was quite tuckered too.

Speaking of floors, I think we're going to nix the laminate floors and go with the Armstrong Vinyl Tiles. Everyone I know says we should do this. Plus after seeing our neighbor's bathroom which looked quite fancy, the tiles have changed quite a bit since I remember and it was quite attractive. And Alyssa and Colin used them in their kitchen and they looked great too. And so did Tom and Karen!

Stake in the road...

Not a fork, a stake. Thanks to LaValley's our schedule is now a bit behind. Apparently their flooring department doesn't understand the word 'schedule'. It took them 2 weeks to come out, measure and get back to us with an estimate, and that's only after Ray put the fire to 'em! I wish I could have heard the phone converstation. Hmm. And, after telling the repeatedly that we need the flooring installed the early part of the last week of April, they didn't think it important enough to reserver one of their installers. So we're looking at other options. Needless to say BR1 and the kitchen won't be done before we move in. And the kitchen counter I ended up ordering from the Cabinet En-Counter - customer service is great, and for the same off-square cut, they quoted us $100 less than LaValley's.. another Hmm.
Everyone has said "you'll grow to hate LaValley's". We now know why.

Our living room is taking shape. While my mom was cleaning the window on the outside, my dad attempted to fit the trim on the inside, which we found on some windows and entryways needs to be recut because of what covers the walls now, versus what covered the walls perviously. It's a width issue... So back to Hancock heads the trim!

Our master bedroom is almost done. Just a few touchups on the paint, and the floor guy will be sanding this coming week. A coat of tung oil, and then we apply the last two coats, all for $1.25/sf, very good. And the guy was responsive and knows what he's doing. Just don't light a match, break a bulb, or create a spark. Here I am vacuuming after ripping up the old, stinky carpet. Next is to pull up the staples and nails, and prep for sanding.

Home Depot openings...

Check out the recent Home Depot store openings. Claremont and West Lebanon NH are coming soon, but not soon enough.

Physical exhaustion and "decorative painting"...

Today I am physically exhuasted. I guess you could say it's better than being mentally exhausted. "But we're on a schedule, and I'll be healthy and strong after all this physical labor" is what I keep telling myself. Yeah, right.

After getting our living room walls to a near perfect finish yesterday afternoon with the last coat of paint, Ray and I thought we'd attempt our southwestern effect, a.k.a. 'decorative painting' (something I learned has been banned from the Braunstein-Ager household ;) ). Perhaps it was too late in the evening to be painting and we were too giddy.
After doing the adobe-effect glaze on one of the walls last night, I went over to the house to look at the walls this morning. I did find that (because of the yellow color) it looked like the same effect if a 2 year old had smeared his egg breakfast on them. Bummer. Back to the drawing board. I think we'll need to rethink our approach on the living room. We used Benjamin Moore Cream Yellow with a glaze of Sunlight Yellow. I think we'll try something different on another wall... or change colors all together.

But the master bedroom with the Wal-Mart Dutch Boy Antique Lace looks great. Perfect coverage on the second coat. It will go well with the refinished pine floors.

seed-starting and dreaming...

I've been starting seeds in the last couple of weeks in hopes of having pretty garden spaces come summer. I know the previous owner did quite a bit himself, but of course I'd like some of my all-time favorites too. So I started with tomatoes of differnet sorts and sizes, heirloom seeds taken from last year's plants mostly. Maine tomato berries, yellow pear, and some big tomato variety. Flowers of morning glories, lupine, cosmos, verbena bonariensis, mexican sunflower, among others.

By far the best tool for seed starting I've found are Pete and Gerry's egg cartons. Remeber using egg cartons to start seeds in kindergarten? Well here's the newest method. Not only are these trays made of a plastic that is recyclable after you do your planting, their versatility is perfect for seed germination.

All you'll need are the cartons, seed starter soil, seeds and a mister spray bottle.
Take the egg cartons and detach the perforrated egg tray. Poke 3 holes with a straight pin in each egg "socket." Flip it over, put the flat top as the bottom of the tray, lay the removed pin-punched egg carton in that, press the corners down so it fits in place, and voila!, instant terrarium for germinating seeds! The lid flips on and off for easy access and misting. I recommend putting 1/4 inch of water in the bottom tray when first starting seeds.

Too many numbers...

we changed our address thru the city of Lebanon by contacting the city engineer. this has gone fairly smoothly except for the insurance company being a bit confused. surprise, surprise.
Hence we had to change our house numbers. I looked on E-bay (some good ones there), googled for house numbers, just wanted something a little funky and a little different. So, since one of my Dad's hobbies is metal sculpture, I asked him if he could make something up for me.
And he did and they came out perfect.
what i did find was a handy way to remove stuck-on numbers with a hair dryer and a scraper. wipe it down with goo gone and voila... an address change.

Cecilia says "enough"

Cecilia thinks we're working too long and too hard on the house. "Maybe if I sleep on the painter's pants they won't be able to use them and.." Unfortunately for her, we just sold her favorite sleeping spot - the futon. We'll make it up to her.

a couple of crook-necks

No, I'm not referring to squash. Werner (Ellen's Dad) and I felt like a couple of crook-necks after painting all day today. Staring up at the ceiling for hours was a bit tiring on our necks.

The place is really starting to shape up! The priming is almost complete. Werner delivered the beautifully primed and sanded trim this morning.

Talked to Charles Therriault today, and he is going to sand our living room and master bedroom floors for $500. We are going to apply the final 2 polyurethane coats ourselves in order to save $300. Much better than the $1900 quote we were given by a well known local company.

I think the worst is behind us. Just need to apply some caulking to the ceiling trim in the livingroom and entryway, and then it's paint, paint, paint.

primer, spackle, primer, drip

okay, so we're not Professionals.
but we're playing them when it comes to home remodeling. we're filling in cracks, divits, and holes in our shotty mudding job. I think we found a technique for filling divits after priming (which shows ALL your (walls) imperfections) - use Lightweight Spackle then sand the entire wall to create the same texture. We'll see how it works.

we were able to get two of the three bedrooms with wallpaper still on the walls (we attempted to take it off in one of the bedrooms and created more of a mess than we thought removing wallpaper should create, mostly in the name of divits and chunks coming off). so we spackled Seams where needed and primed the walls. In fact, I might have even spackled the seams if I knew they were going to look as good as they do. we've put two primer coats on the wallpaper, and all looks quite good.

we're having two floors refinished - figure it's easier to do it now than later - one quote came back at over $1900 for two rooms covering about 338 sf total. One's pine the other maple. So another person is coming by this week to check it out. $1.25/sf and we put the last two coats on. Not bad! he was recommended by the carpenter, Michael Lawrence, who is building our living room bookcase enclosure. we'll see how it goes. we will need to put a 1/4 round moulding in possibly both rooms as the baseboards were installed along side of the floorboards, instead of on them.. doh!

I've been trying to figure out what to do with the dishwasher/cabinet situation in the kitchen. i could put in a simple corner cabinet, but am having troubles figuring out the size it is and the size cabinet i need to order! it may be better, and look well matched, if Michael builds one.

You'll notice Michael comes into this picture quite a bit - he's a friend of bloggin' Sue T in Tanzania (blog at left) - and is the carpenter we both wish we could be. we just found out from him this weekend that the bottom part of the cabinet is built, and he's working on the top. can't wait to see it.

it is all coming together at a good pace (knock on wood)!