Dining Room Progress

Hi all,
For those who give a toss, yes there has been some rather magnificent progress in the past month, but as has been the case for awhile lately, I've had little time to blog it.
So where to begin?
First of all, forget about that time, a few seconds ago, when I used the word magnificent. There's been some pretty good progress OK?
The progress has really lead to a less war-zoney feel, and it is way way way more civilized downstairs these days.
For starters, the dining room walls and ceiling are done. (Except for the tons of panel and crown molding that we'll be adding)
The color is lead by Ben Moore. It's a really cool dark grey with a bit of navy - though it looks navy in these shots. In real life it's exactly like pencil lead scribbles. Yum!
Here it is with the dining room table in it.
Note the TV and all other manner of crazy clutter - we have to totally over-utilize the livable rooms that we have. So, it's a TV room, living room, dining room at the moment.
No, we will not have a telly in there forever.

I only have a few chairs in from the garage. But hey, it's not like I'm throwing dinner parties right now anyway. So we are jazzed with what we have.
The floor still has some adhesive residue. It has no stickiness, just the grey film you see everywhere. The downstairs floors will have to wait awhile, they'll all get sanded down together.
Here's a super cluttery shot of what's going on with the fireplace. As you can see there isn't a mantle yet. The plaster treatment proj turned out pretty well in my opinion.
I piled some art around it in the meantime, cause who can wait really?
Those candles seem rather matchy don't they? Unintentional, so just calm down.
There will be no geese with bonnets forthcoming.
I am still allergic to all things "done" looking, perfectly symmetrical, and/or adorable.*
Not that I'm in any danger, considering the current state of things, but a girl has to defend her reputation.
You may also notice the drape situation. That's it's own entry, but suffice to say, I am aware that they are not a slam dunk and am tackling the issue (at the usual snail's pace).
In the huge box is an amazing chandelier I got for the room. You will not be able to handle it.
Ok maybe you will, but it's dreamy I assure you.

* except for those found in the animal kingdom.

Closed up shop in Willy

Yup, we left. Bye bye Mario. we didn't buy very much meat from you. But you are still our favorite meat guy ever. We love you and you made us really really wish we spoke Italian.
For those of you just tuning in Mario once saved my diabetic cat's life. She had an insulin overdose and was going down fast, it was pouring rain, i called a car service to get us to the vet, ran outside in the crazy rain with the cat carrier and the a@#hole driver refused to let me in with an animal. I know!
I lost it and stood there crying in the rain. Mario ran out of the butcher shop and yelled, "what? What what what?" or something to that effect. Then seriously seconds later a huge white Lincoln tears around the corner and screeches to a hault in front of me.
It was one of Mario's employees who proceeded to deliver us to the vet in about three seconds.
When he dropped us off he said, "so.... now you know where you gotta buy your meat."
Anyway, bye Mario we love you in a weird Brooklyn neighbor way. Tura says thanks.
These pics were taken thenight we left - just as we were about to pull away.
Bu-bye ghetto storefront apartment where I could hear subway announcements while watching TV and enjoy the hum of 16 wheelers which made the windows shake 24/7.
We enjoyed paying sh*#loads of money for you.


And that was that. We will rent another apartment in the spring probably but the winter is all about home improvement and Hudson full-time.

Dad Labor - The Final Installment

I probably didn't mention that my Dad went home with a nasty case of full body poison ivy. But yeah, my Dad went home with a nasty case of poison ivy. One of the other things he did for me while here was clear the crap out of my yard. Here's a fascinating picture of the side of a dirty garage. You don't give a rat's ass? Well what if I told you that there used to be weeds (probably 85% poison ivy now that I reflect upon it) the size of a box hedge that came about two feet up the side of said garage? Oh you still don't give a toss? Oh Ok.

So anyway - Dad cleared all of it. 

The underneath of this tree was piled with three years of sticks. Gone! Thanks Dad. 

The lawn is cut and the weeds are wacked. This part was a Joe/Dad collaboration. It's really starting to look nice back there. 

So Dad really wanted to try stripping the fireplace mantle, just in case there was something cool under there. I tried to get him to buy a green stripper - but his actual words to the Lowes salesman were "I'd like the toxic chemicals please." Argggggggg. Anyway - after he stripped it for awhile this beauty emerged. All we could say was REALLY? 

Yep - they really did paint the whole thing pepto pink. It's even gnarlier when you realize that the kitchen ceiling was also this color as were the living room walls... as was all the... wait for it...

window trim - which we stripped a tad just to see what was under there. 

So yeah - we're going to ditch the mantle and just give all that trim a fresh coat of white. And that concludes the Dad trip. Thanks Dad xoxo.I needed to get this last installment posted because I have pics of the fireplace project which I started last weekend. So stay tuned!

Dad Labor - Installments # 3 and 4

Since another weekend has gone by filled with proj-ing, I figure I'd better get the backup of posts from my Dad labor extravaganza series up. Both Dad and Joe have been bugging me about when I'm gonna post the shots of the stone wall they built. It was brutal work and they were (are) pretty damn proud of how it turned out. Here are a few during pics. 

Note Dads headband. The sweat situation was not a joke. They don't have humidity like this in Montana. But seriously I think he wore it because of a secret longing to look like Keith Richards (ala Pirates of the Caribbean). 

The deal with this section of the wall is that a car crashed into it before we  bought the house. The wall has been standing for a hundred years and it's one of the first things we noticed about the house when we stalked it on MLS. We love it. Now it's even more special. Ok barf. But seriously!  

Now all it needs is the cement cap (not our first choice but that's whats there - so we need to match it. Note the cap on either sides of the menfolk. So anyway - tadah!

Where was I you ask? Um... I think I was upstairs hiding under the bed because the prior three days of hard DL had kicked my lily ass. 

And now for part 4... So last Friday during Dad week. We drove down to Brooklyn, picked up Joe and a moving truck and then filled it with stuff from our apartment AND our storage space. We also stopped by a friend's new apartment and picked up this...

She's going through demo and let me dumpster dive. Isn't it gorgeous?  I got the sink and faucet and everything! It will look great in our downstairs bathroom (someday).

Then we went by the used refrigerator dude in our hood and grabbed a fridge to make the whole camping experience a little more civilized (we'd been living with a dorm fridge till then). Not too gorgeous but hey - it cost $180 and it isn't too much of an energy sucking behemoth. So it'll do. It really sets off the skanky counter top and scabby linoleum(s) nicely I think. I got that groovy breadbox for a dollar at a Hudson "trash or treasure sale" the next day.

So yeah - then we* drove the full truck of stuff upstate and THEN unloaded it all into the house. My poor Dad... that was just day three!

*ok in the interest of full disclosure I'll admit that I was strangely absent during much of the unload. There's a rumor going around that I was hiding under the bed again. But I will not confirm or deny this sort of nonsense. 

Dad Labor - Installment 1

There was way more mudding and sanding to do in the living room when my father and I got up to Hudson - so I didn't get to dig in to my fireplace project although I bought all the stuff. My Dad felt pretty strngly that there were bigger fish to fry (and also that his strengths lay elsewhere). First and foremost - he was freaking about our utterly useless rain gutter sitch. He simply could not abide the damp basement. So that's where the fun began. The entire yard slopes toward the house on all four sides and doesn't stop till you get to the front sidewalk. so we ran some pretty crazy looking downspouts that go along the ground the whole length of the house and basically look like ass. But it's a temporary fix. We need to get the ground re-graded all the way around. We talked about burying drain pipes but they have to be burried so crazy deep in our frozen-solid-all-winter climate that we abandoned the concept. I didn't take a lot of pictures of this project because the visual payoff wasn't super sexy. but here's one that shows how it looked when we left. In a word ridiculous - but we needed to keep it all away from the stone wall (more on that later) that Joe and Dad built - and the rain was a comin. We will move them back closer to the house this coming weekend since all the mortar in the wall will be dry. 

Just to remind you what we were dealing with before...

So yeah - it was a bit of an improvement. We did about 5 million other project so I'll post them all individually to keep this form being a total book. Dad labor = priceless.

Fireplace Project

So finally - a fun decorate-y project! This week, one of the things I get to do is work on the fireplace. My Dad is coming up (over?) from Montana to help me and together we are gonna work our asses off. Here's my plan for what I'd like to do to the fireplace. (yes that is a snow shovel that I was using for a dustpan - thank you for noting my ingenuity).

First a few facts about the fireplace that I call "creative bricklaying gone bad." It may surprise you to learn that this fireplace is not some wacky addition thrown up in the sixties. Because I am a crafty little detective I discovered that this baby is either very early 1900's or actually 1800's! First of all every Hudsonite who has seen the hearth has said that the square hand made tiles (not pictured in my photo but they look exactly like the ones pictured below) are pre 1900's. But that's not enough to get me excited or anything.

Here's what did it for me....

I was in a church in Hudson (do not ask me why darling) when I saw this... My fireplace's very own ugly twin! Ok I'll admit that mine is much uglier. But still! Of course I made a total spectacle of myself snapping these photos without explanation, but whatevs. I was on a mission.

Here's the aformentioned hearth. not nearly as ugly as the fireplace surround but nothing too darling either. But regardless, mine will probably stay (thought possibly painted - inspiration pictures to come soo).

So here's where I gleaned some info. this fireplace was gifted to the church in honor of Mary Leeds Punderson 1818-1916 for her 98 (for real y'all) years of service to the Senior Sewing Society. So this was after her death. Sometime not to far after 1916 I'm thinkin.

So I'm also thinking that these were probably made by some local designer. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more like them in the area. NONE of this info however, is enough to make me want to keep mine intact. I'm just not that deep. Much as I'm into historic restoration I'm just not feelin it.

So here's the plan. Frst of all - keep in mind this fireplace was coal and does not work. I'd love to get an insert someday so that I can turn it into something functional but that's not gonna happen anytime soon I don't think - due to finance alone. I'd like to cover the brick surround portion with the plaster treatment shown below (from Apartment Therapy). Follow the link to see how to do it. It leaves a sort of softened cloudy surface to the brick. I think I might be able to obscure the weirder brick shapes and sort of re-draw more normal-ish shapes in the plaster with my fingers. We shall see.

How to create BDDW walls

Then, I'd like to whitewash the exposed brick from the chimney portion (which we just exposed - yay!) so that the bricks still show through but aren't so dark. ie the gorgeous photo below (Apartment Therapy). Follow the link for directions on how to do it.

How to whitewash brick walls

Then, I'd like to use an old barn beam or something similar for the mantle. That's the sort of thing I love love love shopping for. So that'll be a welcome break - whenever I get to go hunt for that.

All for now. I'll let you know how it all shakes out. Getting the dining room dialed in is going to feel awesome!

Ch ch ch changes (finally)...

So there's finally been some dramatic movement upstate. Yay! I know we've only had these walls open for a few months but it feels like a long time since anything major happened. We are nickel and diming our way along donthcha know.
Anyway - the doorway in the dining room (creative bricklaying room) has finally been reopened. It looks awesome. This is clearly how it was intended to be. Across the hall you can see where there was once a matching doorway into the living room. That area is now where the super gorgeous parade of plastics bathroom addition was plopped down. And since it's really high functioning it's gonna have to stay awhile. Dang.
When in doubt, just cover your bad decisions up with fauxtastic panneling. Alright people?

Now turning toward the kitchen - we popped open a window of sorts. Why, you ask did we not just open up the whole wall (or at least a doorway rather than a window)? Well frankly, we couldn't sacrifice the wall or storage space. This is the only wall that a refrigerator could go against, and I really want to at least have bottom cabinets. When the cabinets are in, this will hopefully look less window-y and more bar-ish (though I don't want any kind of counter top overhang coming into the dining room). I feel like this was a good way to split the difference and make it a bit more open without trying to make this area something it isn't... in a word, modern.

Here's a full frontal of said pass through.

And finally - some super sexy insulation. YAY!
Those of you who have never paid a $700 heating bill after keeping the thermostat just high enough to stop the pipes from freezing will never know this level of joy.

This week the drywall is going up. We are actually farming that out. Chester (angry Santa) and his boys are doing it, although Joe and I will be doing all the taping and sanding (which should be epic and take forever and ever amen) in order to save on labor.

Stuff No One But Me Will Ever Care About

This top pic is how our electricity looks now....
I wish I'd taken a before pic but if you expand this one you can catch a glimpse of the horror show that was there before. Chester said that just being in the basement gave him the heebie-jeebies. If you could see this guy you'd guess he doesn't get those too often. So yeah, now the house isn't gonna burn down. So there's that.

Cleaned Out Basement

Check it out. I know you are all jealous as hell. Cause what's more exciting than a semi empty basement? Actually, for most New Yorkers this is nothing short of Real Estate porn. So take a niiiiiiiiiice looooooooooong look.
ps: two cool things that came with the house - that green farm cabinet on the right and a really cute kitchen table on the left.

More Afters

Here's another after - I may have posted this one already. Did I mention I'm bone tired?

Group Afters

Here's an "after" group photo. Wondering how I managed to get that beautiful Rob Zombie looking hair? Well I'll tell you. Empty out an attic, Empty out a basement, experiment with drywall, plaster, sanding and paint. Do not rinse. Repeat.




Doesn't Ann look cute?
I'll have you know that she rules at cutting in. Every decent border in the house has her name all over it. Don't look at me, I tape off and it still looks like crap.

4 Day Work Extravaganza

I'm so exhausted that I can't get too poetic in this post - but I will tell you we had a helluva weekend. Joe's parents drove up and we all spent 4 days up in Hudson working our collective arses off on the house. I can't believe how hard the parents worked! Here are a few befores on one of the rooms we tackled.



Another case of painting the panelling to create a decent space for awhile - until we open those walls to insulate. In case you can't tell it's another shade of grey (gray?).


Joe's mommy mopping the icky bathroom. She's so cute.


Action shot of Joe.

An after with my makeshift curtains - I realize the color is all wrong .I want something neutral so that the fireplace is the star of the show - but hey, the free bolt of fabric that I happen to have on hand is this aquamarine business. So it'll work for a few weeks.

Panneling Party

Ok here's a little before and... well I guess during pictures.
We decided to paint the paneling in one bedroom in an effort to create a clean place to camp asap. I was reluctant at first because I know that as soon as any part of the house becomes non-hideous it gets moved to the bottom of the list. Which means this quick fix could stay this way for years. But ultimately I went for it - we need a clean spot and this one has a huge closet so it won the eenie meenie.


We painted it grey - but it looks really powder blue in this shot.

Yes I know that it looks like crap around the windows and baseboards - but we haven't done those yet. Priming and painting was all we had time to do last Sunday. I'll do them this weekend.


What do you think? Is it too tacky for words - or do you think its passable in a cottagey kind of way?