Almost there

Right now Blogger seems to be having a photo uploading issue. I've been working on the post for the hallway reveal for about a week now, all it lacks is the pictures which are a main component to the post.

So I figured I'd give you a little light reading and a reasoning as to why on earth it has taken me nearly three weeks to paint the trim and five doors in a hallway that's only about 25-30 feet long.

First of all there was Christmas in there, that took up a lot of my spare time, between holiday stuff with other people, to finding time to Christmas shop when Leah wouldn't be around, and covertly wrapping presents. Shopping, because I despise shopping, took up a lot of time that I could have been using to paint on weekends. Of course the fact that I only really get to paint after 9pm most days  or else get hand prints in my wet paint also leads things to take a while.

Within all this there was also the fun of dealing with my dryer hose. While waiting for some paint to dry I decided 'Hey this would be a great time to clean under the dryer for some random reason. It was done quickly and I even patched a teeny tiny hole in my dryer vent hose. Then I went to put the hose back, I heard a crinkle and a smush, pulled the dryer back out and saw that I had put no less than 40 new holes in my dryer hose. It may have been a good thing I smashed the hose because now they only sell ones that look like they're made of tin foil whereas mine was some version of papery plastic. It was probably a fire hazard and like 95% of everything else recently was probably recalled 30 days after I bought it nearly 5 years ago. I set about replacing it then realized I threw away the old clamp with the old hose, it took me two days to remember to get one. Finally I got to put the hose on and rewash the clothes that had been in the washing machine the whole time.

Also within this time we had a new resident move into our house. It's small and brownish and looks a whole lot like this:

I am not happy about this.

We have a cat for a reason, and that reason is not to destroy christmas trees. I first found my foe when I was so innocently making a breakfast hot pocket a few weeks ago, it peeped it's little head out from under my microwave. I screamed and it dove behind our refrigerator. I tried to shove the cat back there but he wasn't too gung ho on that idea. I have not seen him catch the mouse yet, though he did leave us a dead bird on the front porch the other day. I though the mouse was gone after that but I was wrong. On Monday while getting ready to paint I heard a ticking noise. I couldn't figure it out. I knew it was coming from somewhere in the cabinet I keep my pots. I couldn't find anything...until I decided to open the drawer I keep things like spatulas in. I know you know where this is going.... I opened it up and there on top of the flat part of my biggest spatula was my foe. Again I screamed and slammed the drawer shut, he ran off. I've stocked up on traps and spent two days bleaching every surface in my kitchen and washing everything we cook and eat with 4 times before use.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to load my pictures and can post the final reveal of my hallway. I know you're super excited. Right?

The Choice

Apparently Mother Nature has forgotten that this is Tennessee and that we live at the bottom of a freaking hole in the middle of it.

So yes, it is snowing.


 The only reason there is any gap in that snow pictured is because of our over hang from our back door which extends to the black rod/post things and the circular one is where a bucket was. It's also very very windy, so windy I had to deadbolt the back door because it blew open. There's also a lovely snow drift against the back door that keeps building up and getting knocked in my house because of the wind.


Now I need something from you guys.

I am torn between two different colors for my trim, I went to get it and had it all decided the when I got to the store I wasn't quite sure so I got two of those little sample canisters they give you.

So here is a nifty poll. Which one do you like?

 Which trim color?

• 
  
  Top Color
• 
  
  Bottom Color

view results
Free vote poll

Any other opinions feel free to comment or facebook it.

I'm Lovin' It

So today I finished my priming on that one piece of the big wall where I had to spackle and at the end of the hall by the closet door. I did the entire area around that door with my paint brush, cause most of it is too small for even my little roller and the top part I didn't feel like getting primer all over my roller pad just to have to wash it off and wait for it to dry so I can paint my wall color.
 

Primer complete. Yippie!

 So off to paint my walls I went. Then I ran into a smidgen of a problem... I've had the can of paint for my walls since Jan of 2009, a long time I know. I had bought it  but then we ended up starting on the kitchen and yada yada yada it never got used. So I shook it and it was still liquid, which is a good sign. I go to open it. There was bending, there was prying, there was beating. Finally Randall got it off with the involvement of a screw driver, a hammer and some pliers.

It's hard to see but it's all sorts of bent up.

Happily my paint was in fabulous condition on the inside. But just to be sure I painted a test area to make sure it wasn't going to suddenly do anything crazy on me. The results are looking good and I am loving the color.



WHAT CHAIR RAIL!?!?!?!



 After I let that dry I painted above the kitchen door pictured above and over to where the primer ends above the closet. That's all I did for today, we took a trip to Mt. Juliet then had dinner with some friends.

As for tomorrow all my primer will be dry and I'm planing on having at the walls in the whole hallway, then venture to Lowe's and find the perfect trim color that I have in my head.

Primed To Go

So even though I'm still totally stuffed from yesterday I primed the hallway today. Woo!


Photo courtesy of Leah's fantastical photo skills


So I primed almost everything with the exception of a small area on the end of one wall where I'm still working on spackling a hole that's on the corner of the wall, and the very end of the hall. It's a weird area, I had to spackle some more because I didn't realize there were some screws in the wall above the door and I wanted to remove them and there was a TON of nail holes up there. So more spackle up there.



See the giant white spot above the door? Apparently there have been 40 different
smoke detectors up there or something.



Tomorrow I'm going to prime those places and it will officially be time for wall color!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been debating whether or not to tell the color before I paint. I've decided to do so. So you saw the blue before now it's going to be Silver Fox.

The computer really doesn't do it justice. What you can't tell is it's got a hint of blue in it, I'd call it a somewhat slate color. The trim color, I know what color I want but don't know the exact name yet because I haven't picked it yet. I'm gonna stop by Lowe's tomorrow and get lots of sample cards and pick the perfect one. :)

It Was a Spackling Good Time

If  you randomly have this bookmarked change your bookmark. It was pointed out to me that I wasn't paying attention and spelled Destruction wrong. I do actually know how to spell destruction, I just tend to type fast and who knows what my fingers were thinking and they don't spell check URLs or blog titles. So I fixed it and the URL is now http:/destructionofvirginia.blogspot.com.


Onward to the destruction!

I've got to say the suckiest thing about spackle is the dry time. It takes forever. Before I dove into spackling my walls I watched a few how to videos on Youtube. According to the guy in the Lowe's one it can take 24 hours (for whatever one he had) to dry. Mine on the other hand took 5 hours according to the bucket.

So I went about spackling. *funny note: Leah calls it sprinkling* Probably the longest process of this, other than drying, was finding a screwdriver to open the bucket. After finally finding a flat head screw driver and opening my bucket it was time to have at it. I noticed spackle has this weird consistency of one of those jello mousse puddings and jiggled funny every time I touched or moved it. Leah wanted to help but I imagine that spackle and carpet are not good friends so I told her she could wipe down the walls. She tried to trade with me, which would have her "sprinkling" and me wiping down the walls but when I declined she decided it was more interesting to watch Tinkerbell and play with Legos.

It took me a little bit of time to get used to it. That one poor section of my wall between the closet and the small kitchen door is always my test area because it's the smallest part. It was the first part to loose it's chair rail, the first to test sanding on and the first to test my spackling skills. After about two attempts I finally figured out how to flatten it out with out removing all of the spackle I'd just put on. I then proceeded on to the rest of the walls which went super easy. That is until I came to the end of the hallway. There are two corners with my linen closet in the middle and the doors to the master bedroom and Leah's room on either side. They are the stupidest smallest corners ever. When I removed the chair rail from them it wasn't even nailed in it was just wedged, that's how stupid and small they are. It took a little bit of thought because my spackle knife or whatever that's called is bigger than the section I was working with. So I washed off an old gift card and used that to apply then was able to use my spackle knife to spread and make it all nice like. Ingenuity strikes again!

Now fast forward through 5 hours of laundry washing and nap taking and I sanded. I've got to say the guy on the Lowe's how to video was on to something. He suggested a sanding sponge, he said regular sandpaper would make lots of dust and boy did it. But it accomplished the job and I now have nice smooth hole-less walls, well sorta. I now know how to fix a corner that got damaged so I need to fix that and I have to get a patch to cover this big ugly hole that used to have an old smoke detector or something hardwired there but it's long gone...so I have a hole with wires sticking out of it. So I need to get some of those little butt things for those and stuff them in the wall and patch it up. Which I'm hoping to get done in the next day or so so I can move on to PRIMER AND PAINT!! Woot. You know you're excited.

Oh and crazy! After I finished sanding and whatnot Randall watched the kids and I headed to the grocery store, I usually go grocery shopping on Monday mornings but we had to work today because we're off Thurs and Friday for Thanksgiving and we work 4 day weeks so this way we get Friday off. So I head off to the grocery store do my shopping, coming back in the dark because it's like 6 something and it gets dark at 4 now *boo* and I hit a freaking deer! I've been driving for 8 years and have never come close to hitting a deer. Luckily it had run far enough forward and I'd braked hared enough that I just hit it's butt and didn't do any damage to myself or my car. Hopefully the deer is OK too.

*I'll add pics later. I forgot my camera at work and my cell is being stupid and won't let me send them*

The time has come

Time for Spackle!

In the Middle of November

I've been sanding like a mad woman, and I am Finally. Ready. To. Spackle!

But it's going to have to wait till this weekend. Tomorrow I'm taking the day off, from my destruction at least, because it is...dun dun dun dun!

 Mine and Randall's 4th anniversary!!



Not the greatest picture of a picture but it's my favorite :)



It doesn't seem like it's been 4 years but they say time flies when you're having fun!

So this weekend given a space of time when we are going to be at my nieces birthday party on Saturday I'm hoping to be spackling my little heart out on Saturday & Sunday. Monday I won't get to do anything except at night since we're going to be working so that we don't have to on Friday.

Then it's time for Turkey! I'm so ready for Thanksgiving and some of my parent's yummy fried turkey. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

Soon after Thanksgiving I've got to figure out the Christmas tree situation...but I'll explain that story later.



Saturday

Even though today is Saturday and sensibly I had all day to work on my walls, I didn't.

It was a sad day.
Today my family lost our beloved cat Max, he was almost 17 and lived a long happy life. Technically, he was my cat. I got him when a friend's cat had kittens, he was the only one who survived in that litter...the rest had unfortunately climbed into an engine one day and yeah it was just bad... Max on the other hand was smart, he hid under the grill on the porch. So my mom let me bring him home and then he proceeded to hide behind our washer for like a week before warming up to us. When I moved out and got married 4 years ago he stayed at my parents house (even though my mom claims I could have taken him but they and my brother never would have let me, they would have wanted him back in a day). We actually got the cat we have because Leah thought it was a little Max.

So goodbye old friend. You were one of a kind. ♥

So I went to Mt. Juliet and hung out and went shopping and such today to feel better. Eventually I did come home and work on the walls. Lots of sanding, most of it is done now. I had to stop because I was close to the area by the kid's rooms and apparently even though they can sleep through a thunderstorm that's right on top of the house the scratching sound bothered them. Before bedtime I did get some help though.

Some super fun child labor courtesy of Leah and my nephew.

The two biggest walls  in the hallway are done now along with two other smaller areas. I've just got one 3ish foot section and the two weird little corners at the end of the hall and then the chair rail sanding is done. Before I Spackle I want to go through and sand down all the paint drips and junk I find. I need to get a taller stool or a small ladder because I noticed a lot of drips above the door to the kitchen (with the red) that you can see but even on my step stool I'm not tall enough to reach them. Although as I look at the walls where I'm sitting now it could actually be some of that awful popcorn stuff because it's close to the ceiling and someone apparently had no aim when coating the ceiling. Yet another reason why popcorn ceilings are a horrible idea.

Oh and see the great lighting I've got going up there in that picture? My lovely multi armed lamp, because candelabra bulbs are the stupidest thing ever invented. I got some bulbs for my ceiling light but they're too small so I've got to go back and get different ones. I've never had to purchase bulbs for that light before, the same bulbs had been in there since before we moved in and that was 3.5 years ago. So at least they last a long time. Either way I've decided when I get to the time when I'm switching out light fixtures that is the first one to go. It's kinda disproportionate for that hallway anyway, it's really tiny and doesn't light the whole hall.

Strippin' Down the Walls

Another late start tonight and a somewhat short work time.

Got home got the kids fed and the baby to bed. I started to strip the wallpaper. It had been suggested to me to score the wallpaper then spray with a combination of warm water and fabric softener. Being me I'm usually not prepared for anything, also because I'm persistent and stubborn I've got a bit of ingenuity to get things done. My unpreparedness this time came from the fact that I don't own a wallpaper scorer. So my infinite wisdom decided since I'm spackling it anyway I'm just going to pop an array of small nail holes in it. Astoundingly it actually worked, most likely because I think this wallpaper and the limited amount of glue left holding it to my wall is as old, if not older, than I am.

Now here is the rub on this situation, as well as my nail holes worked my issue came with the fabric softener/water concoction. I had some fabric softener laying around, it's been on my shelf for over a year because I have notoriously sensitive skin, especially to things with fragrance which I had accidentally bought. I had to discontinue it's use after I ended up with a rash covering most of my back. So I figured since I wasn't washing my clothes in it I should be good, and I was...for a while. After a few hours, I'm guessing the delay has something to do with it being diluted...I dunno, I now have an assortment of hives, a few on my forehead and cheeks, a couple on my arms and one on my right leg. Spray residue I guess. Either way I'll make it.

The fabric softener/water concoction worked fabulously. It took maybe 10 minutes to actually peel off all of the wallpaper after letting the mix sit for 15 minutes. Super quick and easy. It was actually kinda fun.

Bye Bye Wallpaper!

So on to the sanding! I highly underestimated sanding. I only got one small area sanded before I was stopped by husband coming down with some sort of stomach bug. The one small area I got done is about a foot and a half wide, it did have a bit more damage than any of the other places cause I kinda stabbed the wall with a screwdriver a few times trying to remove the chair rail. So yay for Spackle! Still that small area took me over an hour to sand, given I did sand a few extra spots because the previous owners didn't care if they made drips or painted junk to the wall.  

Back to my underestimation. I'm pretty sure whatever muscles in my arms I used during sanding are going to hate me tomorrow, so i feel the need to maybe invest in what I believe is a palm sander, make this go a little quicker or it will take me a freaking week to just sand, though I can work all day on the weekends so maybe I'll be done before Monday. Whether or not I get something mechanical to help me sand I need to get one of those little masks to keep me from breathing the dust. Along with notoriously sensitive skin I have wretched allergies, including dust....I'm kinda allergic to everything.... I've been sneezing for a few hours now, while I was sanding and now long after I'm done.

One thing I don't know if will survive if I continue to sand by hand is my poor precious nails. Along with the fact that I may have sanded off part of my finger prints... buuuuuut that wall is smooth as a baby's booty. :)

Smooooooooooooooooooth

The List

Ok, so last night I didn't get a crash course in wallpaper removal or sanding. Heck, I didn't even get home till 8 something because the crazy traffic from the accident on 40 at Mt. Juliet. Then I got home and had to do a not so quick clean  up of our guest/play room for my brother in law who arrived at 4am this morning. 




After that and getting the kids to bed I didn't really feel like removing wallpaper. Plus I forgot to get light bulbs for my hall light so I would have had to do it in very minimally lit circumstances.


Instead I made this spiffy list!

It's all the things that as of right now I'm planning on accomplishing in the near future with lots more to add as I come up with them. This is in no particular order right now.

1. Remove the chair rail and all that entails , paint walls and trim in living room and hallway.
2. Remove living room closet bi-fold doors. Fix track and doors. Rehang.
3. Finish painting the kitchen walls and cabinets....that were started 2 years ago and are the whole reason for this.
4. Do something about the ugly louvered bi-fold doors to my laundry room closet. Paint or replace. Not sure yet.
5. New shelving with clothes hanging area in laundry closet
6. Rebuild the cabinet above the fridge in the kitchen the people before me knocked out.
7. Replace ugly kitchen linoleum floor with something nice.
8. Paint walls and trim in master bedroom.
9. Remove and replace stupid miniature sink and vanity in master bathroom.
10. Finish painting trim and vanity in main bathroom.
11. Remove aqua blue shower stall in master bathroom replace with new stall or some nice tile.
12. Replace old broke vent fan in main bathroom ceiling, new vanity light too!.
13. Replace ceiling light in living room with ceiling fan
14. Replace ceiling light in kid's rooms with ceiling fans.
15. Replace the ugly mismatched ceiling lights in kitchen with new matching flush mount lights. Maybe even some can lights!
16. Replace avocado green tub/shower, toilet & sink in main bath.
17. New tile floor in main bath.
18. Replace horrible green carpet in guest/play room.
19. Remove and replace all the horrible venetian blinds through out the house.
20. Remove the dreaded popcorn ceilings.
21. Hardwood floors!

And that's just inside... after the inside is done I'm set on moving to the outside but we'll work on that list later.

So that is my current list. Some of it won't happen till I have buku bucks to spend on my house, like the hardwood floors, but I can dream!

So tonight we're on for my crash course in wallpaper removal and sanding. Isn't it just exciting?!?!

The beginning

My hard working husband means well and starts lots of home improvement projects, he just never finishes them because he's always working. So I am now going to take over and complete, while learning how to do, all the projects I come up with on nights, weekends and my days off from my regular full time job and school. All while having a 3 year old and a 4 month old under foot.

This should be fun.

The first of these projects involves me removing an awful, nonsensical chair rail in my living room and hallway, lots of bondo Spackle (as my husband informed me bondo is for cars), and then painting the walls and trim.

Last night I started my escapades in home improvement. Upon removing the first pieces of chair rail I learned a few things.

1. The walls had been painted about 4 times since this chair rail was installed.
2. The previous owners of my home had wallpaper.
3. My living room was at one time Mauve/Pink. Ick. :\

This means I now get to learn how to remove wallpaper and sand and bondo Spackle a wall to make it unnoticeable. Super fun.





So tonight I start my crash course in wallpaper removal and sanding.

Heck yeah.