Progress continues with the camper. This week we took the first step in replacing the floor that we had to take out due to severe rotting :(

While Peter was doing that, I got busy removing the cabinets, priming, and painting. I used the oil-based Zinsser primer, which I brushed on initially. After doing several of the cabinet pieces, I ended up buying the spray paint version which went on a million times faster.  I am interested and hopeful with how it will hold up on those lovely laminate cabinets!

(My station all set up as I primed)

I found a really nice shade of white/off white, which is White Dove by Benjamin Moore. This is the shade I am using on the cabinets, although I don't have pictures yet of them all finished with that shade. 

Finally, I laid out all of the hardware and primed and spray painted it with a nice oil-rubbed bronze.

Above is what the rusty/off colored brass handles looked like before spraying! 

Dining room transformation

The dining room renovation is nearly complete. It is not yet decorated, but that part may take awhile. The dining room took forever to get finished because not only was there water damage in the ceiling that needed fixing, but there was also a set back where we had to take down the ceiling to change the pipes to be up to code. 

BEFORE:

These two pictures are from when we first got the house; untouched color and everything.

DURING RENO:

It became clear that the ceiling would need major work. It was wavy, cracks, uneven--just bad. My dad took on the project himself (I helped here and there where I could). We also traded out the old knob and tube electric for modern electricity ;)

After we got the ceiling drywall up for the second time, it was time to mud the drywall and paint. With the holidays, this project took longer than expected (common theme?) and so this was the view to the dining room for awhile.

The place was sealed off and paper on the floor. I think the dining room had paper on the floor for... 5 months? It was a long and never ending project

AFTER:

Over the past two weeks, we finished painting the room and hung the chandelier. The room looks great. I spent some time cleaning the floors too.

Decorating has not really started yet in this room and I think it will be awhile, but it's nice to have somewhere to sit and eat!

Progress in the bathroom

Brief update! Who knew being a lawyer and renovating a house would make me so busy ;)? We got the bathroom tiled this week! Looks great, although we don't have a counter top for the vanity and the toilet isn't installed. When the project is done, I will post better pics with details. For now, here is a little photo grid with the transformation. 

Happy holidays!

Camp Ave & the technicolored dream house

The exterior of the house is sad, in a chipping-paint, leaning-sideways-porch kind of way. Of course, there are a lot of grand plans that we have for the exterior, but they have not been the priority. However, we have been thinking about paint colors. We have been hoping for a mud color--something darker than the current color, but not too dark. Possibly with a hint of green.

So obviously, we had to try out a bunch of colors...on the front of the house. 

We tested several colors. On the left side, from top to bottom, is 1) Benjamin Moore Victorian Garden at half strength; 2) B.M. Senora Gray at double strength; 3) B.M. Victorian Garden.  On the right, I am not quite sure of the colors--one of them is Sherwin Williams Curio Gray, and the light green shade is Senora Gray by B.M. at regular strength. 

Up close, we really liked the Victorian Garden at half strength. It has the green tones, and was not super dark. 

So my parents decided to paint the whole front of the port part in order to see how the color looked and to cover up that patchwork. 

At this point I was really liking it!

So the next day, I came back during my lunch break to check on the house. I was shocked, I seriously could not see the difference between the old light color and the new! In the pictures, it is visible (albeit BARELY visible). 

(hello, color, are you there???!!)

So in the end, Victorian Garden at half strength is probably not going to work. It is a tad too light, and we want to see a bit of a change...something a few shades darker. Not too dark, but not this light tan. My suggestion was getting the Victorian Garden at 75% strength? 

At least the front porch looks a lot better now that the paint patchwork is cleaned up! 

Have you ever painted a stucco house? If yes, did the paint dry a lot lighter than you expected? 

Entryway is painted!

The entryway has finally been painted and the new light is hung. It has been a long time coming because of the repairs and because we have gotten distracted on several other projects. 

Before:

Here is a before picture from how the house looked before we bought it. The floors and wood detail are beautiful, but there was a LOT of work to be done on the plaster. Cracks everywhere. We also got rid of the random "chair rail" near the ceiling. 

Here is the view from the front door. Unfortunately the floral carpet has not yet been ripped up. We are waiting to do that until the end so the floors don't get damaged. We aren't too worried about spilling plaster or paint on this flowered beauty. 

During: 

Here are some photos of the renovation process. The walls got patched up and we put down painters paper so we don't damage the wood floors while we are doing all of the repairs. 

Stairway walls had to be entirely removed and re-drywalled. 

 My sister came and helped with the painting :)

After: 

Paint on the walls and light is up. I kept going back and forth about this light, but since we waited so long to hang it up, I can't return it and therefore it IS my light. No negative comments because it is staying! (kidding...kind of?). We painted the entryway with Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. It was actually Behr Paint + Primer tinted to that color, and luckily we only needed one coat of that! 

 Gracie had to inspect everything, and she approves. 

 I got the chandelier from overstock (here). 

I'm so happy to be done painting the entryway. We needed to have a room that was nearly complete because everything else is gutted and ugly and it was getting kind of depressing. Now we walk in the front door to fresh paint and a light!