More Progress!

This week I have been busy getting my door trims nailed in place and trimmed out. I caulked all of my seams, wood-puttied my nail holes, and primed all of my new wood.

Can't wait to see the woodwork with a finish coat of paint! These walls are going to need hit with paint again too!

This is the same style that the rest of the woodwork looks like throughout the house. That door might need repainted too when this is all said and done!

Today I installed some baseboards. These are just 1"x 8"'s with an additional detailed decorative piece that sits on top—still need to install that.

Need to hit this wall with another coat of finish paint too!

I love the new look! I think Hubs likes it too. Can't wait to see it when it's done!

It's Coming Together!

Whew! It's taken me a while, but I finally have paint on the walls!

I tried a number of sample colors, but couldn't find one that I loved! One was too cheery, another was too taupe… they all had their issues, so finally I decided to mix my own color with the various samples that I had. I finally settled on the green color shown here—I call it "Amazing Grace"*.

*On a side note, Big Goonie was with me at the paint store when they mixed my final color. We agreed that it was a brilliant color and she asked, "Do you think they'll add your color to their collection?" The paint man silently chuckled, and I smiled and replied, "If they did, it would surely be their most popular seller!"

My beautiful ceiling! THANKS, Dad!! 

The green wall looks a little yellow with those fluorescent lights on, but I think you'd agree in person it is quite lovely.

Today I started on the wood trim that will outline the doors and border the floor. I want to restore the woodwork to how it appears in the rest of the house. I can't wait to caulk it and paint it!

Fitting is going well so far!

This area will be next! Hoping to replace this door next spring!

There's my bog ol' dog checking on my progress!

Here's my other door waiting for a little more wood. The weekend just wasn't long enough! Alas, my project is coming together nicely and I couldn't be more pleased!

I want to get this area finished up before I move on—I want to slowly move my way around the room.

GREEN LIGHT!

I mentioned in a previous post that my kitchen renovation project had stalled due to the reservations of "a fellow unnamed resident of the house". Well the kitchen renovation gods must have heard my prayers because I received the green light to move ahead with my project!

Hubs was leaving town for a few days and my dad was coming over to help me with my kitchen! Our plan was to attack the drop down ceiling from the stairway landing above and to tackle the wall I had started to strip of paneling a year ago. It was my goal to have the drop down ceiling drywalled over by the end of the weekend.

About ten years ago I attempted a plumbing project in the kitchen which ended up—long story short—causing the toilet to explode and water to come down to the kitchen through the ceiling from the bathroom above (hence the reason why I am banned from plumbing project to this day). The water entered the kitchen through the drop down ceiling/stairway landing shown here. Naturally Hubs and I were concerned about mold being behind the paneling, and there was no telling what condition the plaster that surely encased it would be in!

The drop down ceiling is a landing for the stairway above

While I waited for my dad to arrive, I began to rip down paneling from the wall I started last year. Imagine my surprise when I found a void in the wall! What on earth is this? It only spans between the studs and was trimmed out with wood moulding at one time.

What the...??!?

What used to be here?

Dad arrived shortly thereafter and we started to work on the ceiling. The plaster was in better condition than I expected, and there was no black mold—Hooray! Despite our findings, we decided that we'd knock down the plaster on the drop down ceiling rather than patch it and put up some drywall instead. We were concerned about the plaster eventually failing.

Well, well… looks as if someone else has also had an issue with flooding from upstairs in the history of this house… Meanwhile, here's Dad busting up plaster. What a mess! I love this!! PROGRESS!!!

And... VOILA!! We've got DRYWALL installed!!!

And DRYWALL MUD!!

I can't begin to tell you how excited I was that this was happening!

The Paneled Abyss

When we bought our house in 2003, I was with the understanding that one day, the ugly dark paneled kitchen would someday be renovated. Unfortunately there was always some reason it never happened—expensive repairs on something else, etc. 

Nine years later, I decided I had looked at the old dark paneling in my kitchen long enough. It was time to come down. The biggest question I had was, "What was the paneling hiding?"

Our house was built in 1925, and since there are plaster walls throughout the rest of the house, I knew there would be plaster behind the paneling. What kind of condition would it be in? I started with the wall above the door leading to the dining room...

Not too bad of condition so far… why would someone have installed this wretched paneling and ripped out the thick beautiful woodwork that used to be here? You can see where the old woodwork extended to.

Ugh… more paneling...

Now the walls are starting to look a little rougher. The one right next to the refrigerator is an old brick chimney that's been plastered over.

An exciting Craigslist find! Someone was giving away drywall scraps! This could be perfect for a ceiling repair I am going to have to make!

I've started to do some plaster patching. Lots of unevenness and busted up plaster to repair!

Unfortunately, I didn't get very far with this project. Someone else who lives in the house (a relative of mine who shall remain nameless and doesn't deal with construction chaos well) found the condition the walls were in to be especially alarming and put a stop to my progress.

This is the state my kitchen would remain in for the next year...

Now I Crown Thee, and Thee, and Thee, and...

It's school play season again, and I have been tasked with making FIVE crowns and FOUR headpieces for some of the cast. You may recall that last year I created an extravagant crown out of paper. This year my crowns will be made of lace!

Here are three cuts of Venise lace that I will be using to make some of my crowns with. So beautiful!!

After spray painting with metallic and glitter paints, this is how my strips of lace look.

I can't wait to see how the stage lights will make them twinkle!

Next I adhered some corded bias tape to the edge of a piece plexiglass, then the lace, and formed it into a circle. I also sewed some loops to the bias tape so the crowns could be affixed to actors' heads with barrettes or bobby pins. Some crowns were adorned with rhinestones.

And, …VOILA!! Here are some of my beautiful crowns!

Fairy godmother

Queen of the South

King of the South

Queen of the North

I also needed to make some headpieces for some fairies. The fairies wore fancy party dresses decked out in sequins—I thought they resembled short prom dresses. Anyways, I wanted the fairies to have headpieces that had a similar look and feel to them. I aimed to create a 1920s-flapper type of vibe with them. Here's what I came up with:

The girl that wore this had on a greenish teal colored dress similar to the teal color in the peacock feather.

The girl that wore this had on a bright royal blue dress the same color as the bright blue feathers in this headpiece.

This headpiece was worn by an evil fairy. Its darker tones looked lovely with her black sequined dress.

The fairy that wore this had on a navy blue dress. The bendable butterfly added a nice whimsical touch.

In the end, the headpieces looked really nice in the play. I can't wait to see what they task me with next year!