In Progress...

Well, we're still in the midst of fixing up our new house, but we're entering the final stages - we are officially starting the sanding process tomorrow! Now, it's a pretty involved process in and of itself, but we're finally there! The wallpaper's been removed, panels have been taken out, other panels have been compounded over and sanded to make flat walls, walls have been primed and then painted, and much, much ugly, horrible, stained, and stinky carpet has been torn up, with the corresponding staples removed. Just to mention a few things.

So, yes, it's been a busy couple of weeks, and most of the credit has to go to Josh. He's been working on the house every day, and even though I go over every night, he's done probably 70% of the work. Even though we're both a bit stressed about getting things done and moving in within the next 8.5 days, I think we'll be glad to just have it done. We'll still have things to fix and attend to come January, but then it'll be a little less stressful and a bit more fun. Instead of making tons of decisions really quickly and rushing to just to make the deadline, we'll be able to relax and enjoy the process a bit more.

For instance, I totally plan on having a BUNCH of fun looking for new knobs for the house. It's a bit random, but there's a particular lack of doorknobs on the main doors in our house, and a particular abundance of small knobs on closets (of which we have quite a number) that have a layers of decade-old paint on them. We managed to save a couple knobs, including a couple funky ones that are definitely from the 60s, but I plan on having quite a fun time searching for some new knobs and handles. Sure, we'll look at Home Depot and Lowe's when we're there (trust me, we've made quite a few trips lately), but I also plan to hit up Anthropologie and check out their AWESOME collection. I'm not even kidding. It's ridiculous and I've enjoyed drooling over it for a couple years now, without real reason to ever buy any. Now, I have a reason - lots of closets and cabinets that need a makeover. Because remember, this is a bold house, so bold knobs are totally in order. Take a look for yourself, and let me know if you have any favorites that jump out. Here are a few fun ones:

Anywho, enough of that - for now. On to the sanding. We're renting the sanding machine all day tomorrow, and will have great fun going over the floors, I'm sure. Back-breaking labor is always the best. You actually have to go over the floor with multiple grains of sand - at least 3 different grains. And do the edges. And the stairs. With different machines. Yeah, it'll be an adventure. Then, once we finish sanding (we're being really optimistic and hoping to perhaps finish by Sunday night), we'll have to put a couple layers of polyurethane on it, and each coat takes about 12-24 hours to dry. So, it'll take a few days, but our hope is that we can start moving everything in by sometime on Wednesday... then do the big furniture next Saturday... and then clean up our rental house by Sunday. It can be done, right?! Well.... let's hope so!

Here are a couple more pictures of the process. It's from before all the paint (and trust me, it's a totally different house now), but you can still see some of what we've been spending hours working on... oh, and did I mention that there's also this random thing where some rooms don't have any lights? As in, they don't even have a light switch? We've had to bring in the small freestanding lamps we have and try to make do. So, you know what to blame for the horribly poor quality of these... also that they're all taken once it's completely dark outside...


This is the lovely gold wallpaper we found on the living room/stairwell/hallway wall after we tore out the paneling. We primed over it. At that point, I don't think we could've endured tearing it all off:

Speaking of paneling, here's some in the hallway that we filled with compound and sanded over to make smooth walls into of unattractive panels. All the darker spots are the lines filled with compound. Yes, it took a while. Also, it's hard to tell here, but the banister/railing? Painted a lovely shade of deep, deep purple that's been fading and turning dark pink underneath. Oh, YOU HAVE NO IDEA how fantastic this house is!

Here's one of our special bedrooms... well, I guess we're turning it into our study. This is the room without any light switch at all, and it's completed by the awful panels (compounded over), purple carpet, purple trim, and yes, folks, a purple ceiling:

At last! It was an exciting day when we got to start priming. And hey, check out that awesome place where the purple carpet meets the maroon carpet meets the mahogany doors. I KNOW. Aren't you so jealous?!

Well, that completes this installation of my lunch break update. With the craziness that next week will bring, sanding and moving in and working jobs and, oh wait, CHRISTMAS (TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY!), I'm not sure I'll get any before/after updates in until during the break. But we'll see. Perhaps you'll get a glimpse of some orange or red or green goodness. But I'm still not telling which rooms have which. You'll just have to wait and see.