OUR Memorial Weekend...!

So, this last winter, I got a Wild Hair. Yes, a Wild Hair. And the Wild Hair said that Adam and I should cancel our vacation to New England and instead do some home remodeling projects. (See? I told you it was wild.)

Adam's project was going to be installing a new sink that had a garbage disposal attached and to start determining what we could do to our kitchen cupboards to improve them and also to begin building a useful kitchen island.

Adam had off today (Memorial Day) and after about a week of determining what we needed for this project and describing things for me to buy at the store, we had the stuff and the tools to do the project. Adam did an EXCELLENT job and now we have a new kitchen sink. YAY!



And, this sucker is HUGE! Look at what I can fit in there... and nothing is propped in the sink... oh, no. It is flat on the bottom of the sink. How cool is THAT?



My project would be to "fix the hallway." See, when we moved into this house 4.5 years ago, we already knew we were going to remodel most of the 2nd floor, but we had no plans to remodel the hallway. However, the previous owners, having an idea that we would be doing work on the 2nd floor, decided to give us a head start and RIPPED A CHUNK OF WALLPAPER OFF IN THE HALLWAY. Argh. So, for the last 3 years or so, this wallpaper business has REALLY BUGGED ME.

For a few years, I have researched different ideas... painting over wallpaper, wallpapering over wallpaper, removing wallpaper (and then what?)... and the whole issue was that 1.) we knew it was plaster underneath but had no idea how badly in shape it was, but that 2.) the wallpaper was not in good shape either and was basically removing itself in various spots from the plaster.

So, after digging through a few books, I decided that the wallpaper needed to come down, and that Venetian Plaster had to go up. I started taking down the wallpaper on Saturday (I had done a small bit of it before then to see how it would go), and I was fortunate that for the wall in the staircase, it came off with relative ease and basically in one big chunk:

(looking up the stairs)



(looking down the stairs)



However, the remainder of the wallpaper proved to be quite Snitty.

Here is a picture of the Really Snitty Wall of Snitty Wallpaper:



Thankfully my dear friend Chrissy came to help me today, and after some serious steaming and scraping, the wallpaper is down.

(wallpaper DOWN)



After the wallpaper was removed, we went into action with the actual constructive work of the hallway project. Chrissy painted / primed the walls that didn't need much plaster repair, and I repaired plaster on the walls that needed some serious work.

Tonight I need to let the plaster dry, and tomorrow I plan to finish priming, paint the ceiling, and paint at least the base coat of paint. If I have my way, I will also do the first coat of Venetian plaster, and finish it up on Wednesday. If not, I will do both coats of Venetian plaster on Wednesday. All of this God willing, of course.

I will be back with more updates the the project as the week progresses...! I am on my very own tomorrow, so hopefully all will go well!

(Oh yes, I forgot to mention... I worked "full-time" last week so that I had a full week to work on the hallway project... yes, it is that involved. Thankfully my wonderful mother-in-law Marcia is being helpful in watching / taking care of our darling girl Julia. Julia's room is Hallway Remodel Central right now.)

later,

erin