Stairs

I am painting the Banister and post tonight. I saw in a magazine someone had painted their banister and post grey and I thought it would look really pretty with the wall color and brick so I am copying them. I have not decided what color to paint the steps but I will most likely strip them of the brown paint and refinish the wood to match the floors.

I was investigating the wallpaper under the wood panelling last night and I uncovered 6 different papers. I am charging my camera at the moment but I will post a pic of them later. Can you imagine wall papering over and over?

I think I am going to buy a power saw tomorrow so I can build the half wall we are going to put in the entry way. We still need to tear down the wall, which we started doing yesterday but stopped because we were not in the mood to remove more plaster. It is so messy, gets everywhere and I hate that I have to continually dust for days after. I guess we will do that this weekend, I cannot wait until it is down, it will make the room look so big, YAY!!!

PS: PAINTING BANISTERS IS NO FUN. ESPECIALLY GETTING BETWEEN EACH BALUSTER, SO NOT COOL:(

I have, so far, primed the railing, balusters and newel post(who knew there were so many names for the diff parts?) and I have painted the newel post the grey. I think it is going to look great with the brick and paint color, I might even paint the steps the same color. I experimented with the newel post and painted one side all grey and one side left some white. What are your thoughts on this? I think I prefer the all grey side, and by the way is it grey, gray or either??? So annoying to have two spellings of a word.

As I have mentioned, the people before us wallpapered at least 5 different times, and yesterday I took a box cutter and revealed all 5 of them. Here they are in all their GLORY:

Quilts and such

I am on the hunt for our new bedding and so far I have found only one thing that I love and want. But Lee told me tonight that I am not getting it because we could buy two more beds for the price of one quilt and shams...BOOO! Anyway, I thought I would share with you my new love that I will pine over and never have:( If you want to admire it some more and see other pics you can visit it at www.anthropologie.com, it is called Waterloo.

I found another quilt that I like too but it is not as pretty I wish I had never found Waterloo:( I really like the blue one on top but our Duvet cover is light blue and I would hate if they clashed so I would go for the black and white one instead. Most likely I will continue the search.

I also need to continue my fabric search for the wing back chairs. I know there is the perfect fabric out there for me but I cannot find it. I found some fabrics that I like on other chairs but I could not find the fabric they used. Basically I am having a tough time all around. Here are the fabrics I like but cannot find:

We found wood and made a headboard!

We did it!! We pulled up the carpet and look what we found. Can you believe it, the people who lived here before us had the audacity to paint the wood floors a red/brown color and they did not paint the entire floor? The best I can figure out is that they had a rug on the floor and were too lazy to move it so they painted around it. Yes, that is correct, I have two squares on my floor of untreated and unpainted wood. So I guess I can add sanding the floors to the ever growing list of things to do. I wish I had a goblin or gnome under the stairs that would take care of this list of mine and any time I had a new project I would let him out of his hole:) Oh, and the floors are not that dirty, I had some dust on my camera lens.

The last of the blue nasty

So Katherine and Jacob came to town and while the boys were off fishing Katherine and I pulled up the above carpet and upholstered our headboard. I had made the frame before they came with some of the old wood panelling and studs(yeah for recycling). So when Katherine arrived we were able to put the foam, batting, fabric and tuft with the buttons I covered. PS:covering buttons HURTS, my fingers are still sore. I am really happy with the results though I think I could make a better one now that I know all the steps and can correct my mistakes. But my fingers need a rest and there is no way I am doing that again! While my dad was here he got me some much needed tools and one of the things we picked out was a really cool hand saw. I told him if I was going to saw then I needed to do it with something pretty, isn't she a beut?

Please ignore the wood panelling behind the headboard. It really takes away from the beauty of the headboard:( I will take another picture once we have painted.

Dust, dust go away!

This is killing me. Every time I clean a surface and come back in an hour there is another layer of dust on it. I feel like I am in Ground Hogs day. I know once we pull up the NASTY blue carpet it will help a ton, I am hoping to do that this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, Lee's brother, Jacob and his wife, Katherine are coming to visit!!! I am really excited to see them, I enjoy hanging out with them and I am secretly hoping they will help with the removal of said carpet:) Katherine is a very crafty person so I am also hoping she will help me make my upholstered head board. I have all the supplies but I have to use a hand saw and I am a bit scared of it. I know I shouldn't be, but I have not used one in a very long time and it looks like it will bite me.

I am really excited to get that hung though because we bought this bed!!! The buying of the bed was mandatory because we could not get our box spring up the very tight hole called a stairwell...annoying. So this is our new bed, minus the headboard. The fabric I chose, thanks to Lindley, is a good neutral linen and I might jazz it up with some fun buttons that are covered in tiny red/orange and off-white stripes. Next purchase will be bedding but that can wait. Not sure what I want and I really want to get something I love because I am sick of buying stuff that I just like.

Arthur feels neglected

I was feeling bad that Arthur has not been mentioned on my blog. He is one of the family after all and he has done so much to help us around the house:) So this is for you, Arthur! The video was taken in St. Francesville, LA, we were at an old plantation and thought it would be fun to let him run around.

OMG, I have jello arms!!

Lee had the day off!!! So, I can barely type tonight cause we pulled down half the plaster to expose the brick. Just wanted to show you the pics. I will write more tomorrow. Not sure who in the world thought this was a good idea:) We have a layer of dust on everything as you will see. Our friend Esther came over to help and we were covered in plaster dust but she was a trooper and we had a good time. Also, if you ever need motivation to get a job done, call Esther, she is good!!!!

Micah, those big enough for you?

Ceiling and fabric

We were walking down the street the other night and I saw this ceiling in someone's house. I LOVE it and would love to have it. Not sure if that is possible, but I hope so.

Also I have to recover the wing back chairs that my mom gave me. I love them because their shape is awesome, they are not the standard wing backs, the tops flair a bit more than normal. But I also love them because they remind me of our family home and playing in my parents room. Anyway, I found these fabrics and wanted some opinions. Which one do you like the best?

More options to come...

Ew, is that hair?

We took down the wood panelling under the stairs so we could move the thermostat upstairs. Apparently the two vents blowing on the thermostat was causing it to shut on and off, on and off and never cooling the upstairs. While we were removing the plaster we kept finding chunks of hair in the plaster. We concluded they must have mixed horse hair with the plaster to thicken it and make it go further. Anyway, here are some pics of the removal and hair. I thought it was really gross but Dad thought it was neat, go figure!

Discovery of hair

Chunk of hair

Plaster removed Dry wall in process

Demolition anyone?

This is the best so far. We finally started working on removing the plaster from the brick. I have realized this is going to be the HARDEST job. So far we have only removed a 2' x 6' portion of the wall and that took about an hour. The hardest part was creating a bubble around our work area so all the dust would be contained. I almost feel like it is not worth the trouble but we are determined (at least Lee is). I think once it is down and the dust is no longer an issue I will really love it but living with the mess will be a problem.

Lee might kill me for this pic but I love it!!!

Awning Removal.

Lee tied the old clothes line to the awning so we could lower it down once he removed the bolts. Once he removed the bolts we lowered it down to Jay waiting below.

The first awning! See ya!

My dad.

"Who's ready for Demo???"

My dad is in town and we have done a lot of work. We removed three awnings, moved the thermostat, painted Lee's office, and the best part...started removing the plaster to expose the brick wall. So I have been terribly annoying while Lee and my dad were working hard and took some pics.

See ya wood panelling!

I have been at the beach in South Carolina with my in-laws for the past week and put the remodeling on halt. I thought Lee might work on something while I was gone but he enjoyed being a bachelor instead. He said it would not have been fun to work on it with out me:) I seriously doubt that. My dad flew in today to help us tackle some of the looming projects. We have already torn down the panelling on two walls and pulled down the faux ceiling over the stairs!!! We go to hone depot tomorrow for research and supplies, I am so excited. Hopefully in the next couple of days we can tear down the wall in the entry way and build a half-wall cubby thing. I will post pics when that is done so you understand the cubby-thing(easier than describing it).

So far I have painted our living room walls and trim. I only painted the wall behind the sofa, the window wall and the wall leading into the kitchen. I am going to the beach this week and when we get back we are going to take off the wood panelling opposite the sofa, remove the plaster, and expose the brick. In order to expose the brick we have to get some kind of acid that reacts to the plaster. Should be fun and Lee is extremely excited to have a "hammer party!" Hopefully we can find some local volunteers to have said party, beer will be included. That always motivates people, especially poor Interns:)

I am a blogger

I have decided to become a blogger to keep my family informed on our Row Home progress. I hope you enjoy!