We have a huge lilac that just came into full bloom. I love having the upstairs windows open this time of year because the sweet smell of lilac wafts through the whole upstairs.
Right now the rose garden on the south side of the house looks kinda sad, but when I get it weeded and the roses bloom in a few weeks it will be very nice!
No, not mine, the one across the street.
It was on the market for 9 days with an asking price of $419k. It used to be a rental but it got a full renovation (and a nice one at that!) and will soon be home to a new family on the block. It's nice to know that in the current real estate market my neighborhood can still do well!
...It will be titled "How to Remodel Your House 10 Minutes at a Time". It's been a long, slow, steady process but I finally got all the trim up on the second corner of the dining room. I literally didn't spend more than 30 minutes in any one day on this. Now all that's left is some priming, the finish coats, and touch-up. Oh yeah, and then the other two corners of the dining room, and restoring all of the windows in the dining room. Now that we've hit 90 degrees I'll be highly motivated to get those windows un-stuck.
Here's a shot of the first corner of the dining room with the finished plate rail and wainscotting. I must say I'm really pleased with the results.
Those of us lucky enough to live in Portland have two excellent local suppliers of traditional millwork. I used McCoy Millwork for all of my kitchen trim and Rejuvenation for all of the dining room trim. Sorry to say Rejuvenation can't ship any of its millwork, but McCoy will gladly ship anything anywhere.
This is a mockup of the plate rail I am installing in the dining room.
Most of the wood is up in the first corner. The only thing left is the beading on the right panel and then finish priming and painting.
A little more detail.
I love it when the pieces line up with the layout marks!
I decided to start putting up the new moulding in the corner of the dining room that has the thermostat. Since the thermostat will be mounted on the new board, I had to unhook it in order to mount the trim. That was last night. Laziness got the better of me and I left the thermostat unhooked because I didn't want to go through the hassle of connecting all the wires only to unhook them again the next day. When I got home from work today it was 61 degrees in the house! I quickly set to work to get the trim mounted in that part of the room so I could get the heat going again. I learned the hard way that you should cut the power to your furnace when you unhook the thermostat. Some of the bare wires shorted and blew the fuse on my furnace control board. Luckily the auto parts store 2 blocks away had the replacement 3A fuse.
I couldn't really get a good picture of this, but I wanted to show how I handled the junction of the new moulding with the old. The door casing is the same thickness as the new board, but the casing has rounded edges so the two do not meet flush. Filling the gap with wood filler would probably crack fairly soon, so I decided to go the opposite route and accentuate the joint instead of trying to hide it. I simply put a 45 degree chamfer on the end of the new board. Once everything is caulked and painted it will look nice.
Ahhh, "The Joy of Painting". That reminds me of another place, another time: summers in college spent sitting on the couch watching PBS while the late, great Bob Ross taught and inspired us. I miss that guy. Never before or since has there been any one quite like him.
Get yourself some good quality brushes. I am hooked on Purdy brushes (made right here in Portland). These cost between $4 and $18 each, but they are worth every penny. I can count the number of lost bristles from all 4 of these brushes on one hand. The handles are very comfortable, and they wash up nicely. Speaking of washing up, be sure to get a brush comb if you don't already have one. It makes washing brushes a breeze. The fat 2.5" brush takes about 90 seconds to clean with running water and a brush comb.
The HANDy Pail and the Paint-n-Pour gallon lid are two of my favorite accessories. The pail has an adjustable strap that works great, and a magnet to hold your brush out of the paint. It also has disposable inserts available, but I just wash mine out each time I use it.
I have been using Devine trim paint which is luxuriously thick and rich, but a little too thick to get good results with a brush. I thin it a little with Floetrol and it goes on like butter (or yogurt, as the can says).
I have the Devine "Blush" on the walls. I like the color, but I love the Devine paint. With a properly primed wall it gives complete coverage in one coat. I need to touch-up the picture rail around the top of the room because the painter's tape pulled off some of the paint. Then it's on to getting the moulding primed and installed.
Click on the pictures below to see the bigger ones.
I was going to finish taping the dining room tonight so I could start painting tomorrow, but I had our beautiful new train rack from Restoration Hardware sitting in the way so I had to move it. Instead of moving it from one place to another and risk dropping something on it while working in the dining room, I decided to go ahead and install it!! What a concept!
I did my best to keep the dust contained in the dining room while we sanded the topcoat. Let me just say... sanding joint compound in a living area is NOT a good idea. Unfortunately we didn't have much choice.
Done sanding and ready to be thoroughly cleaned and primed.
The dried joint compound is amazingly close in color to the beige on two of the already finished dining room walls.
This time around I spend a lot of time prepping the walls before I broke out the mud. I paid special attention to all of the corners where little bits of paint and wallpaper hide out just waiting for you to come along and snag them with a knife full of mud, which leads to streaks in the finished surface. I also decided to do a small portion of the wall and really take my time. I think it paid off.
There's not much to see in this picture, which is exactly what I was after. A light sanding should be all that's needed before it's ready for primer.
This is the Bistro tissue holder in polished nickel. I really like that the paper just slides on the end. Nice design!
This is the new toothbrush holder with a stout porcelain cup. As much as I love the design, I gotta say it's expensive, and the cup was sold separately! As with all the pieces, the toothbrush holder is mounted to the wall with 5/16" anchors that work in drywall or plaster. These are very sturdy.
This is the double hook. For some reason, my old double hook had a mounting plate that covered two holes that had been used in the past. The new bistro hook lined up perfectly with the two original holes, leaving the previous holes exposed. I'll patch those when I get around to painting the bathroom.
