Wallpaper Woes

I don't know that there are many tasks as awful as removing wallpaper.  Am I right?  Either the top layer comes off and the glue layer is left stuck on the wall or none of the paper wants to budge at all.  In the past I've used different tools that were supposed to make this chore easier: scorers, glue-releasing gel sprays, steamers, and so on.  None of them really work all that well in my experience.

So when we bought this house I was happy that there was only wallpaper in a few rooms.

But let's not underestimate the reality of the wallpaper issue in the house.  It was there.  And it had to come down.  And that was my job.

So shortly after we gutted the butler's pantry I decided to work on the walls of the family room.  They looked like this at the time:

It's hard to tell from this awful photo in poor light, but there was a layer of cream wallpaper on the top section of the walls, fake paneling on the bottom part, and chair rail where they met.

I started to pull down the wallpaper without any tools at my disposal.  Yep, just my bare hands.  And honestly, the top layer came off without too much trouble in some places, and didn't want to budge in others.  The glue layer wasn't coming off at all.  But I persevered and spent a few hours picking at little pieces of it until it was time to call it a night.

You can see how much I accomplished during this time.  Not a whole heck of a lot.

So the next day I got smart and went to Lowe's.  I found this wallpaper scraper tool thingy (that is it's official name), grabbed a spray bottle of water from our current house, and went back to the house armed and ready to fight the paper.

 Okay, it's really called a Piranha, and let me tell you, it's a great name for this little fella.  That little straight edge gets underneath the paper and glue and scrapes it right off the wall.  This tool saved me countless hours and fingernails.

I quickly found my rhythm.  Peel off the paper layer, spray the heck out of the glue layer with water, and then scrape it off with the Piranha.

Cory removed the chair rail and paneling to expose a lovely ridge all around the walls.

After several evenings of spraying and scraping, the family room is now free of wallpaper.  Hooray!

I then moved on to the room that I was dreading: the dining room.  Remember that Williamsburg mural paper that was decorating the walls?

I was terrified that this stuff was going to take for.ev.er. to take down.  All those little leaves and details would have to be peeled or scraped off and there was just so much of it.  So in order to delay the pain I did what any good mom would do.  I called the kids into the room, made sure they had pencils, and told them to draw our family - and whatever else they wanted - on the paper.

They happily obliged.  Even Tessa got in on the action.

Some of the artwork was funny:

That reads, "Hi babe."  A little colonial humor.

Other drawings made me question the mental health of my children.

And there may or may not have been some piles of animal droppings added to the fields of cattle.  And I, the mature mother of four that I am, may or may not have contributed to those drawings.

You've got to find ways to have fun during situations like home demo, you know?

So after we all entertained ourselves with wall art for a while I shooed the kids back down to the basement so I could tackle the wallpaper removal.  I grabbed my trusty tools, took a deep breath, and mentally prepared myself for the battle at hand.

Surprisingly, within a few minutes, yes, MINUTES, all of the wallpaper was gone!  The project I thought was going to take days was the easiest one in the whole house.

It turns out that the mural was placed on top of a linen-like wallpaper.  And that paper just peeled off in huge strips taking the glue layer with it.  

If only all wallpaper came down so easily!  Dixon even popped back into the room, grabbed a piece, and pulled it right off.

Notice he is holding the Piranha, which was totally not needed here at all.

I actually took great satisfaction in pulling off this paper.  It made an awesome ripping sound and reminded me of peeling off big pieces of sunburned skin from someone's back. (Yes, I enjoy peeling sunburns.)

Anyway, the dining room has said goodbye to the 1800s and is ready to move into the 21st century.

The last room that had wallpaper was the laundry room.

It had this lovely beach themed border around the top.  What?  Don't YOU feel like you're at the beach when you're doing laundry?

Yeah, me neither.

It wasn't easy getting this paper off the wall only because I could hardly reach it.  I stood on a stepstool, a toolbox, and even hauled my bum onto the counter top to get the paper over the cabinets.  It wasn't easy.  It definitely wasn't fun.  And I discovered that the blue paint peeled off the wall as well, which meant I had to pull all of that down, too.

As of right now, all but one corner of the beachy border is gone and there is still some paint that needs to come down.  But I got burned out and had to move on to something else.  

Remind me to never put wallpaper in this house.  Ever.

Unless it's a really cool geometric pattern that is trending on pinterest and will be out of style two years from now.  Cause that stuff is really awesome.

It's DEMO Time!

Nothing ever happens quickly when it comes to building / remodeling a home.  Cory and I HOPED we would be under construction by now, but the reality is that we are just getting ready to start.  We closed on our house on November 22 and nearly four months later we still haven't built a single thing.

Why is it taking so long?  Bank processes.  Ugh. Who would have known it was so darn difficult to cut through all the red tape?  We had to wait until the house was appraised again.  This time, we needed to have it appraised as though all the work was done.  Long story short, this process took for.ev.er.

Anyway, after the appraisal was complete we started tearing the house apart.  Cory and I are doing all the demolition ourselves in order to save money.  We knew it would be a big, difficult, and time-consuming job and we were so right.  We've spent every free evening and weekend we've had for the past couple of months knocking down walls, removing wallpaper, tearing out floors, and so on.

The first area we tackled was the butler's pantry.  If you recall, this is the area that connects the smaller family room to the larger family room.  

Day One of Demo: Cheers to destroying our house!

I didn't really hammer those cabinets, but I did get some frustration out knocking down shelves and other junk.

Our kids got in on the action when they got tired of playing in the basement.  Sasha was good at taking off the cabinet doors and hardware.  As the doors and drawers were removed we found some random bags and even some birthday gift bags and tissue paper hiding behind them in the cracks.  I'm sure lots and lots of birthdays have been celebrated in this house!

Cory had the pleasure of doing the hard work, including knocking down beams.  But I think the most labor-intensive part of this project was removing the small closet beside the cabinetry.  The house was built in 1959 and all the walls are plaster.  Plaster is heavy, dirty, and super hard to remove.  It took a few days and lots of grunting and sweating before Cory got that area clear.

Here is a view of the now clear butler's pantry area from the family room.  (Sorry about the iPhone quality photos.) The fridge was moved to the side and is blocking part of the wall but you can get an idea of how much space we gained by removing all the old cabinets and the closet.

And here is the space from opposite end of the hallway.  The dining room is on the other side of the now exposed wall.  Cory would love to open up the wall for a more open layout, but I think it is staying as is for now.  My imagination is running wild with decorating options, though!

 Removing the butler's pantry was like a gateway demo drug for us.  Once we saw how the space opened up and felt how good it was to get rid of old crap we wanted to do more.  And more we did!  But that's for another post on another day.

Decisions, Decisions

Choosing a house to transform into our dream home was extremely difficult.  We knew it would be hard so that wasn't a surprise. What did throw us for a loop was how difficult it would be to come up with a design and a builder that we love . . . and can afford.

We started with a contractor who has an in-house designer.  We worked for months with them and were very happy.  They came up with design we liked but didn't love.  So we changed things.  And changed things some more.  Eventually we settled on a design we were very excited about.

Then we had the meeting that we were dreading: the builder's bid to do the work.  Cory and I left that meeting shaking our heads in disbelief.  The final number was FAR more than we anticipated and we felt defeated.  Did we make a huge mistake?  Were we going to have to make major sacrifices and only do some of the work now and the rest years down the road?

During our months of tweaking plans Cory had been in communications with the son of one of his clients who has his hands in the construction business in several ways.  He had been giving us advice and telling us some things to look for (and look out for) during the entire process.  When Cory told him what our contractor's bid was he nearly fell over in shock.  He agreed that the number was high.

At one point he asked us a question that really got us thinking: Had we ever thought about being our own General Contrator?  He told us that GCs typically earn 20% or more of the construction cost for their work coordinating subs.  Wow.  Cory and I did some research, thought about if and how we would be able to take on such a big job, and ultimately decided we would be in over our heads.

So I went a different route.  I called several other contractors to get more bids.  Only ONE contractor returned my call.  I guess business is better than I thought in the construction world!  Anyway, we met with the second contractor and gave him a tour of the house.  We showed him the blueprints so he knew exactly what we wanted.  A week or so later we met with him again.

Honestly, we were expecting a decent bid.  I had told him up-front that we weren't happy with our first bid and that we needed to see a good number.  Well, the number we saw was anything but.  It was actually HIGHER than the first one!  But I will say that he was very willing to make adjustments and tweak things to bring his number down. By the time we left we had cut his number down by quite a bit.

So now we had two bids, neither of them great.  We still felt stuck.

And then Cory talked again with his construction friend.  Lo and behold, this guy offered to take on the job himself.  He was confident that he could do the work - ALL the work - for much less than the other two guys proposed.  The catch?   He is young and we would be one of his first "clients" for a project this big.  Do we take a chance on someone who can do what we want a decent price but may not have many years of experience or do we stick with a contractor who has experience but comes with a hefty price tag?

We agonized over this decision for weeks as we discussed the pros and cons of each option.  Ultimately we chose to go with Cory's guy.  We trust him, he showed more enthusiasm for the project than the other two contractors, and he offered us the opportunity to do almost everything we want right away.  We couldn't pass that up.

Since making that decision we have changed our design again . . . and yet again.  The more we delve into the project the more ways we find to shave the budget by moving things around and doing things a bit differently.  But last week we FINALLY nailed down our design for the last time.  We are ready to roll!

This whole process of finalizing our design plan and choosing our contractor has taken us months.  Literally.  We began the process in September and didn't come up with our final plan until the end of February.  It has been frustrating and nerve-wracking for sure.

We are now anxious to get word from our bank that our construction loan is approved so the builders can get in there and make magic happen.

And I know we are about to be bombarded with about a thousand more decisions to make . . .

The Upstairs BEFORE

Warning: This post is going to be long and photo heavy.  You have been warned.  :)

Today I'm going to take you on a tour of the upstairs of our new home as it was when we purchased it.  I will try to explain some of the changes we are going to make, but it may just end up being very confusing.  We shall see.

So let's start with the hallway to get our bearings.

The foyer stairs lead to this point: the upstairs hallway.  All of the current bedrooms are accessed from this hallway.  Before we check them out, take note of the big square thing on the ceiling.  That is a house fan.  When it gets hot upstairs, you can open a bunch of windows, turn on this fan, and it will suck air from outside in and act like a big fan.  We tried it out and it actually works!  I could feel the temp fall almost immediately.  But it's really loud and I really doubt we will ever use it.  And the way we plan to reconfigure this space will render it almost useless, so it will be gone.

Next, check out the message center.  I'm not sure why it's upstairs instead of perhaps in the kitchen, but I do know that the message light has been blinking for months.  Previous owners, someone is trying to get in touch with you!

Okay, let's move on to the bedrooms.  We'll start with the one directly behind where I stood to take the hallway photo.  It is currently the "master" suite and will become Dixon's bedroom.

The room itself has two windows that let in a lot of light and overlook the stream.  But do you recall how I said there were lots of "interesting" features in this house?  Well, get ready for perhaps the MOST interesting one of all. . . .

Why yes, that IS a toilet!  And yes, it is in a little closet all by itself IN THE BEDROOM.

No one could explain why the toilet was placed here instead of in the bathroom.  So.  Odd.  Even more strange is the fact that you couldn't even close that door if you wanted privacy.  There isn't enough space once you sit down to do your business.  And let's not even discuss the floor stains . . . *blech*

That toilet will be gone.

Now for the actual master bathroom.

This space requires numerous photos so bear with me.  This is the view of the room from the bedroom.  It is at the end of the house and is a big space.  Two vanities flank a tub that is right in front of a window.

Don't YOU want to bathe in front of a window like that?

The closets - and I use that term very loosely - are on the sides of the room and feature built-in drawers and custom (heh) hanging rods.

Check out this sliding closet bar.  Pull it out to access your clothes then push it back into the tiny corner.  Nifty.  Clever.  A real space saver.

The other closet has more hanging space utilizing the previous owner's favorite closet supply: pipes.

And now for the Green Monster.  Brace yourself, because it's about to get ugly.

Honestly, this photo doesn't even begin to capture all the breathtaking O.M.G. that is the shower.  It literally looks like a tiled time capsule.  I'm not sure which decade brought it to life, but it needs to die.  Now.  I can't even bring myself to step inside of it with my clothes on, let alone ask my child to get inside of it naked.  *shiver*

It's time to leave this dated mess.  Back out to the hallway we go.

This is the second full bathroom that is directly at the top of the stairs.  It serves as the kids' bathroom.  A view of the second vanity:

A bit outdated but not terrible, this room will remain mostly intact.  We'll do a few small things to freshen it up but that is about it for now.

On to the bedrooms.  There are four additional bedrooms upstairs which sounds great.  But let's take a look at them, shall we?

The "red room" is closest to the bathroom and will become Tessa's room.  I had to stand outside of the room to take this picture.  It is THAT small.  I haven't measured it yet, but I'm going to guess that it is about 9x10.  It is just big enough to put a bed and maybe a small nightstand and that's about it.

Remember how the floors in the living room had wood around the perimeter and that's it?  The same money saving trick was used in these bedrooms as well.

The closet in this room is also very small with just a little hanging rod and some shelves tucked into a space on the side.

Beside the "red room" is the "blue room".

It is nearly identical to the previous bedroom but has a slightly larger closet space.  This will be Clara's bedroom.

Now if we go back to the top of the stairs and focus on the right hand side of the hallway we will see two additional bedrooms.  The first one is the "green room".

The green is actually a bright lime green.  There are two dormers in this room, one on either side of the central closet space.  It is an architecturally charming space but obviously a challenging room to place furniture.

Here is another quirky feature of the house:

This is a BIG pull-out storage space that slides into the "dead" area under the roof.  I'm not sure what was ever stored here, but I will say it's an awesome place to stick your little brother and "put him away" for a little while.  Heh-heh-heh.  There is another one of these sliding doors in the next bedroom.

We'll call this room the "Williamsburg room".  The built-in headboard and canopy really are pretty, but so not our style.  I would feel like I was sleeping in a Colonial inn, and that is definitely not the vibe I'm going for in this home.

Another view:

Now for the confusing part.  The green room and the Williamsburg room are going to become an open study for the kids.  We are going to remove the back hallway wall to make Tessa and Clara's bedrooms a bit roomier, and the front hallway wall will become the divider between their rooms and the study.

Confused?

We will have an opening at the top of the stairs to access the front of the house where the study will be.  The doors to Tessa and Clara's rooms will be in that space.  I know it's hard to visualize, but trust me: It is going to be fantastic!

So you've seen Dixon, Tessa, and Clara's bedroom spaces and we are now out of bedrooms since the front two are going to be a study.  Where will Sasha sleep?

You likely didn't take notice of the doors in the Williamsburg room.  Well, one of them is a closet door.  The other one,

leads to this:

This is the space over the garage.  It is totally unfinished, as you can see.  As soon as I saw it I knew it needed to be finished and used as bedroom space.  I mean, look at how big it is!  WHY was it never finished?  We found out that it doesn't have the support beneath it required for a finished space and can only be used for light storage as is, but we will add support beams in the garage to take care of that problem.

Now you have to use your imagination again.  The roof line and wall on the right side of this photo are going to be moved to create more headroom and overall square footage.  This will allow us create a small storage room at the top left of the photo, a walk-in closet at the top right, a higher wall on the right to place Sasha's bed, AND will allow us to add a must-have element in the house.

Look closely at the little spot between the door and the Williamsburg bedroom.  Do you see what that is?  Let me show you.

Oh yeah, baby, those are back stairs.  They lead down to the kitchen.

I was DETERMINED to keep these stairs.  They are so incredibly charming and I LOVE the idea of having a second set of stairs in my kitchen.  I fought for these stairs when our designer wanted to remove them and use the space for kitchen "stuff".  But ultimately I had to let them go.  They are very steep and narrow.  Most adults have to lean down to avoid hitting their heads along the turn and I can imagine the kids (and me) falling on them all the time.  They clearly don't meet code and there isn't enough space to rebuild them to code.  SO  . . . by changing the roof line of Sasha's room we will be able to add a new staircase in an even better spot.

I have zero photos of what I'm about to describe because it doesn't yet exist.  There is currently a sun room downstairs beside the family room.  That sun room is going to become a mudroom and a laundry room.  We will then build a master suite addition off of that space.

Sun room above, gone.  Addition goes in to the right.

This is great because I really need my master on the ground floor.  My knees are already arthritic and I don't want to worry about stairs as I get older.  BUT, doing this addition means I'll be far away from my kids at night.  Adding the second staircase that goes to the mudroom will give me quick and easy access to the upstairs and much needed peace of mind at night.

One other change to the upstairs that I didn't mention.  The oh-so-swanky bathroom beside Dixon's bedroom is going to be split in half.  One side will remain a bathroom with the tub (converted to a tub / shower combo), a sink, and a toilet in the closet space.  The other side will be opened up and become a part of Dixon's bedroom.  There will be a closet at the end and the rest will be used for playing, reading, or whatever he decides to do there.

We will also build a wall through Dixon's bedroom so the bathroom can be accessed by Tessa.  The second laundry will go along the front wall of the current bedroom.

I know, I know, it's REALLY hard to picture what I'm describing.  I promise to update with photos as we make progress.

There's lots of work to be done, folks!  And with that, I'm off to take Clara to guitar lessons and then head over to the house to do more demo.  It never ends . . .