3.4 - Carpet Removal (Again)

Only one picture this time ;-)
Taken on 2/28,
Our bedroom has the best hardwood floors yet.

3.3 - Painted Master Bedroom

Taken on 2/28.

2.26 - My Favorite Colors

Since my very first box of markers in first grade (and subsequently my box of 24 colored pencils -- we don't use crayons much in Brazil, we color with colored pencils), I have loved these two colors, pink and aqua green. I don't wear them much, nor do I buy too many things with these colors, but I wanted a green bedroom -- not exactly pastel aqua -- and finding TWO gallon cans of our favorite paint brand for 5 bucks each settled it.

2.25 - Ceiling Primed Beige

Now the pink ceiling is gone. First step. (it was painted white the next day)
And I can't stand that ceiling fan, yikes!

2.24 - The Ugly Wall Paper

And my dad kept saying... "But why, oh why do you want to remove this, it's so pretty!"
Sorry dad... I don't think I agree. And thanks for doing such a great job! (that ugly piece of wood on top of the window was also removed) -- oh this is in the master bedroom.

2.17 - The Boys' Bedroom - After

Enough "before" photos already.

(taken on 2/13)

2.12 - Come Be My Guest!

The curtains are the only window treatments I kept from the previous owners. This used to be our bed and our former quilt (we have a "brighter" one now ;). And we'll be sleeping on mattresses on the floor until be buy our new bed.

Before (this room was bare, we only put mattresses on the floor for eventual guests):
Later (in the "previous" days) I'll post more renovation photos.

2.10 - Guest Bedroom Renovation In Progress

Edited to add missing photos and a P.S.

Note: These photos were taken over the course of several days, from 2/4 to 12.

General View/Floors

Before:During: Even though the pink goes well with the purple carpet, we knew that the really old carpet had beautiful hardwood floors underneath just waiting to be uncovered and cleaned up.

Detail of slightly damaged floor in the corner of the room (it'll need some work in the future, but we don't know how to deal with it):
After:

I've already posted a similar picture, but I just couldn't publish this post without the "after" picture :)

Painting the Closet

Before:This color would go well with the boy's bedroom, but not this one. Besides, you probably can't see it, even if you click on it, but the closet is full of scuff marks and in need of painting.

During:
I don't think that pink and blue were going that well together... :)

After:This was actually supposed to be the color of this bedroom, but we decided against it because the boy's bedroom is blue and ours will be aqua green, so we needed a warmer color for the guest bedroom. There was no pink paint left for the closet, though, and we decided to use the "greenish" paint we had since it matches the curtains perfectly as you can see in the above picture of the finished room.

Edited to add
P.S. I forgot to say that the closet couldn't be painted pink because the pink paint (which I bought for 5 bucks at the "reject" pile at Hom3 Depot) was not the brand that we usually buy and it was really a bad, thin paint. A whole gallon was almost not enough to cover the walls of this tiny bedroom while we usually have a lot paint left after painting bigger rooms with our preferred paint. So... we had to use the grayish green (also 5 bucks, but the "better" brand -- we cannot afford the fancier "chain paint store" paints yet).

2.5 - Palimpsest of Paint Colors I

One of the things that an older house (ours is 43 years old) has to offer -- apart from the potential existence of toxic/hazardous materials such as lead and asbestos -- is a glimpse into its past, the way it used to look like (a poorly kept "fixer-upper" like ours more so than others ;).

Ever since we started painting last September I've been having fun finding out the original colors of some of the rooms and since that's what I photographed tonight, I'll share some of those "color palimpsests" with you (this is the first in a series, I guess).

I thought that the guest room we're painting tonight had only been an ugly purple and later (badly) painted beige, but no. It seems that the original color was blue, then there was pink, which was covered in purple (baby girl transitioning to teenager?), and, finally, beige. See if you can spot the layers here (click to enlarge):Here you can see more of them. The pink is kind of hidden above the big purple patch under the baseboard heat and there seems to be another, lighter, blue over the pink, the darker blue can be seen behind the pipe in the bottom left of the photo:
And here are the blue and pink trying to hide:

Hues of Blue

OK, I totally agree with you Susan that the blue in the boy's bedroom is pastel and not a bold color at all... (and I also confess now that K and I are a bit cowardly where bold paint is concerned) but it is bolder and much darker than the previous blue we chose for their bedroom in the old house, check them side by side (click to enlarge):












So, I guess what I wrote about the new color being "something brighter and a bit bolder" is perfectly accurate, isn't it?

P.S. (I'll post more photos of the old bedroom in my regular blog someday, or maybe here).

1.29 - Hardwood Floors: Before and After

Remember I warned you this was going to be the "before and after" project 365+1 blog? Here's a good example of my sometimes obsessive photographic chronicling of stuff, in this case, the uncovering and cleaning of our hardwood floors. I won't repeat the dose with the other rooms, obviously since this is boring enough ;) (all photos actually taken on the 29th, but posted on 2/3).

Before, general and detailed view.

The floor was covered with the remains of the old crumbled "rubbery" carpet padding which actually turned to powder and stuck to the grooves in between the planks (besides dulling or altogether removing the floor finish -- we may need to refinish it although I do like the matte look of the almost unfinished floors). We removed the sticky green stuff with a wire brush and my husband pulled the wooden "prickly" sticks that were nailed to the sides as well as the staples throughout the room.

Sequence of work on the wall by the window:

I: Just uncovered
II: Holes filled with wood-filler
III: After sanding the wood filler
IV: End results
Not bad, huh?

1.28 - Hardwood Floors

So today I worked on this:Before and after photos of some of the more detailed work forthcoming "tomorrow," OK?

1.24 - Blue Paint

We're finally making progress on the house renovation front. This week's project was the boy's bedroom.

Before:During:After:How do you like that blue? We always tend to choose really light, pastel colors and I end up thinking that they're too light, so this time we went for something brighter and a bit bolder and I love it!

1.22 - Painting with Daddy

Some of the results:
K let them use ceiling paint and foam brushes to paint around the room while he painted the ceiling tonight. It made for a late bedtime... but was lots of fun!