EPA De-crudification Continues

Though I had two college students (one of whom was my son) armed with TSP, microfiber cloths and rinse water, the walls in the master bathroom of FD home project still were a dirty, and the ceiling was horrible.  More TSP, rinse and repeat a few more times to includes some steaming in between finally erase most of the nicotine stains.  Nevertheless, there were still three areas where there was double-sided tape that was holding fast.  I used some paint stripper which managed to loosen it enough to scrape away, but it was not a clean scrape.

I have  big roll of fiberglass wall repair fabric sourced from the local salvage store. It is easy to cut and apply for non-professionals such as myself.  This fabric plus the metal/mesh patch kits are a life saver. I'm hurriedly getting ready for painters who will come on Monday.  Since some of the holes are large or the areas wide, I need to make a couple or three passes to get it in ship-shape.  Yes, they can do this stuff, but I'd much rather them prime and paint.  Unfortunately, the last time the house was painted, there were some super-sloppy repairs made.  So sloppy that we've had to cut away large sections of wall.  That requires re-insertion of drywall sheets and taping.  I'll let my contractor take care of that.

My son was not much interested in helping me clean the ceilings in the great room.   Note that I'm paying him.  He just is not interested and has squirreled away some money,  thus not motivated to do this work.  I'll get the crew on Monday to wash the ceilings so they can be primed and painting.

My contractor removed the wobbly deck.  Here are some pics.  I marvelled at their efficiency and elegance. Here's a pic after they removed the rails. Essential tools:  chainsaw, tunes and sawzall. Now you see it; now you don't!.

There needs to be some painting of the exterior of the windows, currently brown.  The white replacement windows are quite "stark" and my transition color will soften this look considerably. The basement area is wonderful.  It has a 'great room', a huge laundry room and two other room that would make nice bedrooms.  There is also a full bath with a shower.   This house will have alot of appeal to a larger family as there can be 5 bedrooms.  With the downstairs, there is also a super secondary communal space, complete with a thimble, woodstove and brick firebox.  With the addition of a wood stove upstairs, this home could be very, very energy efficient.

 My contractor very neatly stacked the waste and placed it carefully into this 30 yard dumpster.  This is the second 'filling'.  We'll keep this until the job's end.  We'll just have trash from the job, rather than all-out debris!  We did reclaim the shower door to make a hot house.

Here is the neighbor on the left (right if facing home).  This home is so beautiful, and the people are just delightful, as are the neighbors on the other side. This neighborhood is spectacular in every sense.

 Here is the house across the street, nestled in the landscaping.  I've not met these folks.  The folks before moved away because of all of the wild-assing that was going on in the home that I'm rehabbing.

I have finished sourcing everything for the house with my finalizing the tile for the bathroom floor downstairs, the tile for the two foyers.  I found $.99/sqf (from $6) porcelain tile that I will use for the foyer upstairs and downstairs.

With the arrival of the painters, we will now go from 0-60 on the interior pretty quickly.  Though I'm doing so much LESS work than on the SR project, sourcing and coordinating (combined with LEARNING) is still taking up lots of time.

On another foraging front:

Though I did find and purchased a beautiful cherry drop leaf table (rectangular when opened up) in Bedford, touring a Richmond antiques area, I made a find.  I'm still in table/chair mode as not only do you need to sit, you need to serve!  I found 4 oak chairs with cane cum upholstered (ugh!) seats. I plan to make new seats that will cover the previous caning holes AND to accept new upholstery.  I found these on a Monday when the store that I had planned to go to came up closed on a Monday.  I'll take Queen Anne oak chairs in a similar finish to my Stickley cherry table.   I do not care to have matching furniture, but rather prefer to have interesting pieces that stand on their own.

While doing a recon through the antique place that was closed on the Monday of my initial visit, I saw a lovely cherry drop leaf table with turned legs.  Looked at the tag:  far too much.  I went to the back room.  There was a Queen Anne style,  beaten up, solid cherry gate-leg table.  I expected it to be at least $100.  It was $30 with 20% off.  So for $25.20 (including tax). I have acquired something that I can easily refinish (or not), and use for seating or food staging. When not in use, it will be a functional sofa or library table.  Outside of the finish issues (dings, scratches), there is a small sliver taken out of one of the edges of the leaf drops.  I call those character markings.  While I plan to refinish, to be serviceable and beautiful, it needs not a thing.

Now to fix dinner and rest from the day's activities.....




Fun!



With my visit to my sister's home weekend before last and an evening with the Women for Wine Sense crew, I came home last evening saying to my husband, "That was really fun."  I'm sorry to say that I don't do much "fun" stuff and having two such events in close calendar proximity is a rarity!  The observation of my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Mandlowitz (sp?), was partly true:  a bright child, but too quiet and serious.  I'm no longer quiet (and my bulb seems to grow dimmer with age), but I've never shaken the serious portion.  I truly have to schedule "fun" time, because there are many things that I'm just interested in that bore most folks to tears.

Having had a couple of back to back 'fun' things, I'm remembering the advice of two different people in my life who know me well who advised:  You must schedule fun.  I succeeded in scheduling 'fun' because I put it on my 2008 list of resolutions. Boy am I dull!

My new house rehab is in full swing, and I'm having some minor angst that I might be over-improving this house.  I do know this:  the bathrooms are going to be so much nicer than the ones that I have in my home!  I have opted for quality choices (sourced smartly), but....hand wringing, angst.....I've the "what if?" banging around in my head.  Maybe I should have painted the basement floor....

My real estate agent is a wonderful young woman who graciously takes my calls and listens considerately to my worries.  I must remind myself that the house that I'm selling is NOT the house that I bought by a long shot.  Further, the house that I will be selling will be, relative to other inventory, almost like a new house (save the exterior).  I did source the appliances.  Yes, they were from Sears outlet, but they are quite nice, and no one could have a possible quibble. I also bought a new GE drop in range.  I purchased "bisque" appliances in keeping with the softer tones, more 'natural' tones of the cabinets.

I've been very inspired by the crafts(wo)men era where natural elements took precedence.  I'm a bit of a hypocrite as I'm painting all of the dark wood!  Nevertheless, by painting the dark trim, I'm neutralizing and softening the lines of the room by not creating "outlines".  With that, I'm able to let the cabinets, in their knotty-pine glory, the porcelain tile and wood flooring reflect earthy, natural elements.  Oh, plus, I bought some kick-ass knobs to replace the white knobs.


They are super-cool-neato, and look terrific. (Amerock BP4484RBZ Ambrosia Knob, Euro Stone, Square, Rustic Bronze)
 
Why don't I have these in MY kitchen?  Now let me tell you about a little trick that I learned about de-crudi-fying kitchen cabinets...but naturally it requires a small diversion....

In the kitchen, there is no greater enemy to your cabinet rehab efforts than grease AND contact paper. There is a weapon.  You must wield it with impunity:  Steam on demand.  Mike is my favorite go-to expert.  He is a knowledgeable craftsmen, and he is patient enough to listen to me prattle on about this and that. He is in perpetual motion, so for him to take 5 minutes out of his day to listen to me and better yet, to help me is a great gift.

I was using a clothes steamer to remove the contact paper.  It works great for removable shelves, but not so much for horizontal surfaces.  Think!  Think!  Think!  Oh yes....what if there is a wall paper steamer.  Call to Mike.  Yes...he has a wallpaper steamer.  Actually, it is a Wagner, Steam on Demand, model 915.  You can look at it here on Amazon. 

On my SR project (code, don't overthink it), I thought that nothing could be nastier than the backsplash that I thought was faux painting, but was really grease buildup.  On the FD (code again!)  project, the backsplash was pristine, but the cabinets had both moldy food and grease.  That would be cogently labeled the obverse of SR.  In addition, there was an entire section of cabinet that had some food hazard, that I cannot even begin to guess about.  At the SR project, while I was heating water on the singular, working burner on the cook top, I noticed that the steam caused some grease dripping.

Perhaps my bulb is not so dim. I elected to try the steamer on the cabinets.  My serially applied, toxic cocktail of TSP and  Mr. Clean Industrial (purple) and steam (I did have the since to where a respirator).  Where one or the other did not work, the serial application worked wonderfully.  I'm not sure how many years of grease, mold and other unidentified putrifications were dispatched to the Netherworld, but the cabinets look great. 

Grease is the great enemy of painting cabinets (though I'm not painting, and I'm hoping that I'll stick to that resolve).  And if you have a raised panel application, coupled with an indeterminate time period of putrification, contaminations, and general abomination then you can never get a 'clean' surface, without some high-powered INVASION.  Yes, steam on demand is your friend.

That's my long-winded tip.  If you are going to do house rehab, get yourself a high powered steamer.  It will clean 'stuff' that needs to be cleaned that you cannot clean well otherwise (trim, toilets, cabinets, appliances, walls, ceilings and et-cet-er-ra!)

I received my  Danze plumbing accoutrements....oh, they are beautiful.  I'm think (v hope) that my nice rehab will blow away prospects who will value having not just a move in ready home, but rather, I MUST move in to this house buyer.  Make no mistake, I think that the market is still tough and that it will remain so for a while.  That notwithstanding....I want this home to be irresistibly appealing to the major buyer in this current market:  the first time homebuyer with an eye to future.