Peas In A Pod

Home Renovations Update--Kitchen Progress

Hello Everyone,

Well, are you ready for a lot of kitchen photos that are just going to make you tired?  This kitchen is exhausting us, but it's gotta be done!

Here's a reminder of how we started:

Does this kitchen scream 1908's, or what?!  Love that harvest gold look!  Oh, yes, and don't forget the geese!  (below)  There is something we like about this light fixture (above).  It's sort of cute in a retro way.  Reminds me of something from my Grandma's house.

And that satellite dish...whoa.  I hope we'll have time soon to get rid of it!  I do love the sliding doors.  It is so peaceful sitting out on that deck in the evenings having a beer and relaxing after our hard work!

Sorry this one's blurry.  It's the only shot I have from this angle.  I do like the large eating area and the counter you can sit at.

Okay....First step, strip this God-awful wallpaper.  I asked Papa Pea to take down the chair rail first.  Check out the difference in color of the wallpaper under the chair rail!

Wow.  It's not faded...it's darkened with smoke.

I started stripping it off, and look at how the smoke penetrated the paper and got on the wall:

So, I stripped all of this, and I asked Papa Pea to pull up the linoleum.  Here it is:

The black stuff here on the floor is the glue that was holding the linoleum down.

Fortunately for us, the glue stopped partway into the eating area.  The rest of the linoleum was not even glued down!  Of course, the glue just stank, however.  In the eating area, we noticed the floor was marked in a grid about every 1 foot.  If you look closely, you can see there are nails about every foot or less.  We realized someone had prepared this floor for tiling at one point but most have decided not to tile it after all.  Papa Pea said this overlayment would need to come off.  See below for more on that...

So, Papa Pea primed the walls and ceiling.  We decided we would do these walls and ceiling twice, just like the master bedroom, because it appeared a LOT of smoking went on in here, too.  Then, Papa Pea got to work pulling up that overlayment.  You can see it more here, where the floor is marked off in a grid and nails everywhere...

The overlayment came up in small pieces, as you can see here.  Then, he had to go back over and take out all the nails, one by one.  It took about 8 hours for him to get all this up.  It was under the glued down area, too.  But look how nice the floor was under that.  Nice.  Papa Pea also took off the baseboard heater after the floor was up.

We decided we'd prime the floor here, too, because the smoke was pretty bad.  I think we'll do this throughout the house.  I thought the cabinets were in pretty good shape, but as I tried to clean them, I learned differently.  The more grime I cleaned off them, the worse the finish looked.  So, we decided we're going to paint the cabinets, too.  (Eventually, we are going to tear out this entire kitchen and put in a new kitchen.  So, we're just doing a temporary fix here for a couple of years until we get new cabinets, countertops, floors, appliances, etc.)  Sooooo...off came the cabinet doors and out came the shelves:

After a light sanding and a good washing, we got to spend the day priming the cabinets, too.  Here's how it looked by the end of yesterday:

We forgot to prime the window trim.  Oops.  It looks like a can of Kilz threw up in here.

Whew!  That. Was.  So.  Much.  Work.  I.  Was.  Soooooo. Tired.

That's a bright kitchen!  The walls and ceiling have all been primed twice.  We will do another coat of primer on the cabinets, then paint them.  Hopefully it will only take one coat of paint.  Cross your fingers for us!  We'll go with the same white we're doing the trim with.  Then, these walls will get a coat of a real buttery yellow.  I'm going to do red accents in the kitchen (my microwave is red, maybe a red wall clock, red decorations...).  I think it will be cute.

I'll worry about the cupboard doors later.  We can keep stuff in the open shelves for a while as we paint those doors.

We debated on leaving the floor plywood and just painting it to live with for a few years.  Another blogger I know did this with smashing success in her sewing room.  (Check out Shelly's sewing room at Prairie Moon Quilts.  She sent me a link to her painted floor, and I was duly impressed!  I apologize that I cannot find the link she sent me at this moment.  If you want to see it, I'm sure if you visited her blog and asked her, she'd show it to you.  She painted it and put something like 4 coats of urethane on it, and it really looked good!)  Then, we thought maybe we'd put some new linoleum down until we can afford the hard wood we want.  When we went to price linoleum, we found that Pergo was actually cheaper.  So, we are thinking we will lay down some Pergo for a couple of years.  We won't glue it down so we can pull it up easily and possibly reuse it in my sewing room later.  Don't know.  It will cost about $500 to do it...not chump change, but it would give a nicely finished floor for not too much money.  I'd feel good about Sweet Pea walking on that in bare feet for a couple of years...

You barely smell smoke in this room or in the house anymore.  You can still smell it by the outlets and switches.  Papa Pea is going to change all those out.  He likes doing that.

Tomorrow, I'll show you some of the mechanical additions we're doing...inside and out!

Still tired and achy!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

Home Renovations Update--Living Room Progress

Hello Friends,

More updates on the home progress!

Here we are in the living room today.  As a reminder, here is how we started:

Will you just look at the filth on the walls?!  And the curtains just grossed me out. Not to mention the carpet!

I do like the fireplace and mantle.

You can see the living room heads down the hall to the master bedroom (right), linen closet (middle), and Sweet Pea's bedroom (left).  You can also access the kitchen (near right) or entryway (near left).

We pulled up the carpet, took down the curtains, pulled up the tile on the hearth, and put Kilz primer on the ceilings and walls.  We then painted the ceiling white.  (I think the photo below may have been taken before priming and ceiling paint).

I wanted a nice warm light brown for the living room.  The carpet will be a really light taupe color, and our couch is a little darker taupe.  I wanted the walls to contrast.  So, I painted them "Cliff Rock."  I like the color.  I think it looks greener in this photos than it actually is.  I think it's a pretty, sort of tan color.  Again, we plan to paint the trim, windows, and baseboards white.  That will brighten things up.  We are thinking of leaving the mantle brown.  It is nice wood and in good shape.  What do you think?

I sure love these two big windows in the living room.  Lots of good light and great ventilation.  There are great windows in the bedrooms, too.  The breezes that flow through the house between those windows and this one are really great.

The baseboard heater here (above) will go away, too.  More touch up paint.

You can see the tile hearth is gone (above).  We are picking out some new tiles and Papa Pea will lay them on the hearth (after be builds a new one) before the carpet comes on the 9th of July.  You can see I picked out one sample tile...it's laying on the floor to the left of the fireplace.  But Papa Pea isn't wild about it.  I'm not wedded to it either, so we're still looking for the tile we'll use.  It won't take but an hour or so to lay it and maybe another hour to grout it.  The hearth will be small...about 5 feet by 16 or 20 inches.

Here's a view going down the hallway...This color is more true to what it really looks like:

The entryway will be painted a lighter taupe color that will coordinate with this tan.  But I thought this color was too dark for entryway.  I'll paint that wall coming up the stairs in that taupe.  I hope it will look okay to see that light color coming up the stairs.  I didn't want to take the dark color down the stairs, because where do you stop with it?

All the trim and doors in the hallway will be white, too.  We're thinking of leaving the trim in the entryway all the dark wood.  I really like the wood coming up the stairs...it's nice wood on the railing and on the baseboard (like the fireplace).  So we may leave it.  We'll see how it all looks with the white trim when we get it up.

We need a new light fixture in the hallway.  I can't stand the one that's there.

We need a second coat of paint with this color.  The paint covered nicely, but there are spots where the coverage wasn't good enough. I think a second coat will really add more richness to the color.  I am really excited to bet the carpet and furniture in this room.  I have a vision for it, and I hope it all comes together like I envision it.

Here's a funny story...as I was painting this room, I thought, "I can just hear Papa Pea and his brother when they see this room.  They are going to say, 'Why did you paint it baby sh*# brown?'"  Those guys think most browns look like baby sh*#.  When Papa Pea saw it, he said it looked nice.  I told him I was surprised he didn't say it looked like baby sh*#.  He laughed and said he didn't want to bring that up.  I'm not sure if he really thought it looked like that or he was just giving me crap (no pun intended).  I said I bet him $10 when Larry sees it, he'll say it looks like baby sh*#.  He said he wouldn't take that bet.  Ha ha!  I tell you...when we first got married, I used to wear a deoderant that had a baby powder scent.  Papa Pea used to tell me it smelled like baby sh*#.  I used to laugh so hard...I said, "It just smells like a clean baby's diaper, with baby powder in it!"  He said it smelled like baby sh*#.  Needless to say, I don't wear baby powder scent deoderant any more.  What is it with these guys and baby sh*#?!  Ha ha!

I am still TIRED!  Wait until tomorrow when you see what we've done with the kitchen.  It has been a lot of work.

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Sock Monkey and Washington DC Travel Inspiration

Hello Everyone,

I am in Washington DC right now at a conference.  Having fun....  I thought I would just share a few fun things about my adventures so far.

We arrived a day early to make sure we were here in time for our presentation and to have a little play time.  We are staying at the Gaylord National Hotel.  It appears to be relatively new.  It is beautiful and right on the harbor of the Potomac River.  However, it's not close to any of the memorials or sights you want to see, and it's not cheap to get over to the sights.  We are not on a Metro line, and there are no hotel shuttles.  So, you have to either take cab rides or buy a ticket on one of those tour buses that you can get on and off of all day.  Both are fairly expensive.  But this is where the conference was hosted and where we were expected to stay.  There is a nice convention facility attached to the hotel.

We spent some time walking around on Sunday.  Here are some of the things we saw:

This is the atrium of our hotel.  I love the decorations they've got up for the 4th.  Look at these full-sized houses in the atrium!  There is a shopping center, restaurants, etc down there.  These houses are actually shops.  Sort of cool.  You feel like you're outside when you're down there, but it's all air conditioned and climate controlled.  Nice...it is SO HOT here right now.

This is the shop window in the little white house.  It's a children's toy store.  Too cute!  They had so many neat things in here.  But I LOVE sock monkey (why...well it's a long story...maybe another time).  I really love this sock monkey clock and think it would be super cute in my sewing room!  But, it's $30.  I couldn't see spending that much.  I think I'll use this as inspiration for a clock I will make for myself.  Gotta think on that one for a while.  I have resisted temptation on this so far.  I hope I can hold out.

Just look at all these sock monkeys.  So colorful and fun!

I didn't take any photos of it, but there is a whole store here devoted to Peeps--you know, those little sugar-coated marshmallow chicks you get at Easter time.  I love those things!  I have never seen such a store.  It is really fun.  Forgot to take photos there.  If I'm by it again, I will.

Went to the memorials Sunday night.  Lincoln Memorial is my favorite, so that was our first stop.  I just love that memorial, and I love looking at the Washington Monument from there.  Was very excited that I got to go up into the Washington Monument for the first time in my life (despite about 10 trips to DC).  It has always been closed when I am here.  It was night (getting dusky), and the views were spectacular.  Here's the view of the Lincoln Memorial from up there:

While up top, saw this quote by George Washington.  I really like it.  You know that patriotic quilt I want to make?  Well, I have some inspiration from this quote that I'll utilize on that quilt.  I will share more about that later, when I make the quilt.  I think this quote has a lot of meaning for today's world.  I feel like our world is in complete disarray right now.  It's very disappointing.  I try to have hope....

The view of the Lincoln Memorial from our seat on the bench when we came down from the Washington Monument.  I find the memorials and DC in general to make me more contemplative about things.  Do you?

How about this grate at the WWII memorial?  I really love it!  Some quilt inspiration can be found here, for sure!

 And how about this wild sculpture of Poseidon on the beach by the harbor?  Sort of unexpected!  He has legs and feet coming out lower, but it didn't all fit in this photo.

For some reason, this made me think of batiks and a cool quilt you could make with a sea theme.   Hmmm...a Poseidon quilt.  I've got some ideas brewing on this, too.

Well, needless to say, we are having a good time.  I just found out my niece (who lives in California), is here right now, too.  Her school group is having a tour of DC.  So, I'm going to catch her for lunch on Tuesday.  Fun.

I love Americana, red-white-and-blue anything, and honoring our patriots.  It's nice to be here just before the 4th.  Wish I could be here on the 4th, too.  But I'm actually anxious to get home and get some more work finished on our house, too!  Yes, I actually feel like painting today!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Home Renovations Update-Master Bedroom Progress

Hello Friends,

Here are some more updates on the home remodel.

We have finished painting our master bedroom.

Just a reminder how the room started.  This doorway is straight across the hall from Sweet Pea's doorway.  Nice.

This wallpaper really gags me.

The closet doors have never been finished.  I stripped the wall paper and Papa Pea tore up the carpet:

Papa Pea primed the walls and ceiling.  Look at this ceiling as the primer was going on.  Gross!

We think the previous owner did a lot of smoking in this bedroom.  The ceiling in here is the worst in the whole house (in terms of discoloration).

Notice how the walls are so weird, too?  I really couldn't figure out why the wallpaper did such weird things to the walls upstairs when I took it off.  I have figured out (thanks to the heating contractor we hired) that all the ceilings and walls in this house are actually plaster over plasterboard.  They are really nice and smooth walls.  I like them a lot.  After we have done all our priming and painting, they are turning out so very nice.

Look here at the difference, where Papa Pea forgot to prime around the light fixture.

What a difference, huh?!  We did two coats of Kilz primer on the ceiling and walls and then painted the ceiling with white ceiling paint.  Looks GREAT now.

We did two coats with the Kilz because the smell and discoloration was so bad.  We think that really did the trick nicely.

Then, I painted the walls with a color called "Straw Basket."  I really like it.

Again, one coat of good quality Behr paint did the job!

I find this to be a very restful color.  It will go great with the quilt I am making for our bed.  It has golds, greens, deep purples, etc.  I think it will look nice with this wall color.  It is sort of a dark quilt, so I wanted the walls to be a little lighter and cheerier.

 

Sorry for the splotches on the photo.  My lens is clearly dirty.  I kept trying to clean it but wasn't successful.  I need to work on that.

We are removing this baseboard heater (touch up paint will be needed!), and we'll paint all this trim and closet doors and windows white, just as we will do everywhere else.

Sweet Pea helped paint the closet again:

She's a pretty good helper, considering she's only five and one-half years old!

Papa Pea laughed and told me this color wasn't too far away from the tobacco color on walls and ceilings, which we just covered up!  Ha ha!  This is a much prettier color, I think, but the thought crossed my mind a little too!

I am pleased with how the room is turning out.  More tomorrow!  I am so tired!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Free "Tool Bracelet" Tutorial Posted

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick note.  I posted a link to a tutorial for a "tool bracelet" you can make under my Free Tutorials link on the right sidebar.  It was written by Kimberly Walus of Bitty Bits and Pieces.  It looks like fun to make and has many applications.  Thanks to Kimberly for the great tutorial!  (This photo is from Kimberly's blog.  It is not my photo.)

If you want to go directly to her tutorial from here, click here:  My Tool Bracelet Tutorial

Until next time,

Mama Pea