Fake Board and Batten

Or how my husband learned to stop worrying and love my the blogosphere's ideas.

Some time ago I had a small fiasco involving exterior paint, paint stripper, and a large mess.  Paint stripper on painted walls is kinda a no no I learned.  I should have busted out the sand paper instead, lesson learned.  I needed something to fix or at least cover the mess I made on the wall between our kitchen and dining area.  I happened to have some wallpaper we'd bought at Home Depot an even longer time ago for like $1.  I put up the wallpaper and my husband cut some chair rail for me to finish it off.  

This is what it looked like for quite a while.  A couple of spots got torn while I was putting it up, but they weren't super noticeable.  The seams got kind of gappy too (that part was a little more noticeable.  When we started getting the house ready to sell, I knew I probably needed to do something else with those walls.  I wasn't too keen on pulling off the wallpaper (remember the whole messed up wall thing?)
After seeing so many versions of faux board and batten wainscoting online I decided it would be a good thing to do for these walls.

We had already installed new baseboards after redoing the floor, we already had some chair rail put up too.  We even had enough left over to continue the chair rail around the other little wall to the kitchen.  After getting our granite counter tops put in, we had a big gap at the top of the half wall (the old tops were sloped by a whole inch!) We got a piece of baseboard trim and installed it upside down underneath the counter to cover the gap and the area where the old, thinner piece of trim used to be.  We bought some inexpensive white screening and some wood corner guard pieces.  My husband manned the saw and cut the pieces for me.  I used liquid nails to attach the screening to the wall over every wallpaper seam.  I dug out the rest of the wallpaper and continued the wallpaper around the small wall (that wall was a mess too, totally unrelated to paint stripper).  My husband installed the chair rail in that section.  I continued with the liquid nailing parts, and then the caulking.  Caulk is definitely your friend when you're working with trim.

gappy

That wasn't even the worst part.

I debated adding more vertical pieces, but decided it was fine the way it was- with pieces over each seam and corner guards over each outside corner.  I primed everything with zinsser primer (I'd read that it was good for sticking to all kinds of surfaces) and then painted it all with a semi-gloss white paint.  I wish I had not used cheap paint (I might have to do another touchup coat at some point, plus the cheap paint took three coats as it was).  Good paint is definitely worth it!  I'm very happy with how it turned out and the reaction to it has been very positive.  Would I have done this if the wall hadn't been messed up?  Probably not, but I think it will be helpful in selling just because it's one less problem and might even be another reason for someone to like our house.

linking to

Five Awesome Things: Transformers

The idea for this feature has been rattling around in my brain for some time now.  I want to post about five awesome things that bring me joy or help me in some way.
This first post is about five things that have helped me make awesome transformations, the catalyst for the before -> after reaction if you will.
1. Spray Paint- Many a project I've done has involved spray paint.  It is very handy for painting a wide variety of things.  I've done light fixtures, plastic lids, wicker baskets, picture frames, a dishwasher, cardboard boxes, trim, outlet and switch plate covers, railings, and more.

2. Caulk- What can I say, caulk covers a multitude of sins!  If you've ever put up trim of any kind, you know it's true.  Caulk is what makes trim projects from looking awful to finished and chic.  It's also great for keeping water out of places where it doesn't belong.

3. Rub n Buff- A few months ago, I didn't even know what Rub n Buff was.  I learned about it on other people's blogs.  People were using it to fancy up picture frames or to spiff up the metal hardware on furniture pieces they were restoring.  I bought some at the craft store (I didn't find any at home depot) and boy did it make a difference on our porch light.  It's a wax paste that I believe has some kind of magical properties.  It's held up beautifully these last few weeks through rain, wind, and falling tree debris.

4. Restor-a-finish- My mother in law told me about this product a couple of years ago when I told her I wanted to paint our kitchen cabinets.  I ended up painting the kitchen cabinets any way, but I bought a can of this stuff to fix up the finish on this railing.  I had absolutely zero desire to try and refinish that thing so this was just the perfect product.  All I had to do was rub it on, wait, and then rub the excess off.  It took just a couple of minutes and it made a huge difference!

5. Mulch- Can't grow grass?  Have a bare patch of dirt?  Put some mulch on it and say, I meant to do that!  I don't know that it would work in every case (random little islands of mulch in the middle of sea of lawn might look a bit weird, though with enough effort, you could make it work).  We put mulch in our front slope yard regularly.  The tree blocks out a lot of the sun.  We've put some in our back yard as well and it's turned the ugly, muddy, perma-shade into a "we meant to do that!"

Listed

Now that the house is on the market and I'm not constantly working on projects (just constantly cleaning) I'm going to be posting a lot more. I have a large backlog of projects to post about and fortunately I can go back through my pictures to jog my memory. Hooray for digital cameras and cell phone cameras!

Stained Stairs- Good Enough for Me

We pulled up the carpet in the basement and put in vinyl plank. We were going to be pulling up the carpet on the main floor too. We couldn't just have a lonely little island of carpeted stairs in between! But what would we do? We talked about continuing whatever flooring choice we made for the main floor down the stairs, but eventually decided against it, thinking it would be too expensive and difficult to do. After showing Bob Thrifty Decor Chick's stairs (the first one I saw, and boy was my mouth hanging open when I saw that one!) and some others I'd seen online, I finally convinced him it'd be worth a try to stain the steps. If it didn't work, we could plan B it with a can o' porch paint!


First I had to pull up the carpet. That was not so hard. Taking all the pad and especially all the staples out, that was the hard part. I ended up using this plain old staple remover quite a bit. I also had some pliers and the end of the hammer.
Our stairs weren't in the best of shape, but we just made it work!
We did a lot of sanding. Sanding by hand, sanding with our power sander. I also filled some of the holes with stainable wood putty. I don't know that I'd bother with it too much if I did it again. It was good to fill deep, small holes, but not good for evening out big patches. It did stain a little differently than the rest of the wood, but each piece of wood stained a bit differently anyway, so it's not too noticeable. The risers were like dry, flakey woodsville. I used some filler on them too, those were getting painted anyway, so it didn't matter as much. We decided to use a pre stain wood conditioner. I don't know how much it helped, I like to think that it did. That stuff was stinky though and it had some scary warnings on the label. That and the top coat were the only things we paid full price for though. I hit the jackpot in the oops paint section. I got the stain for $2.50 since the can was dented (it was marked down and in the oops section). I got a small can of black (or close enough to black) exterior paint for $1 (marked down from like $13). The white paint, for the trim along the sides, I already had on hand.
So after getting all the staples out, sanding the heck out of it, wiping it all up very carefully, I pretreated every other step then stained. I didn't bother taping at this point, since I knew I'd be painting all the other surfaces over. After waiting, polying, and waiting some more, I covered those steps with paper and did the same thing on the others (several days ended up passing before this part). After all the stairs were stained and coated and good and dry, I taped around the risers. I mixed some of the black paint in with some primer I had on hand and primed the risers. I used one sheet of paper to cover the step I was working over and moved it as I went along (it would have taken for ever to cut paper for each step and tape it carefully avoiding the risers) The next day I painted them over with the black paint. After all that dried, I removed the tape and taped along the trim on the sides. After doing two coats, I took the tape off. Some of the paint got through the tape. I tried to clean it up as best I could. It came off quite well from the treads. I still need to caulk a few spots on the trim and touch up the wall paint, but here it is- before and after.

What Lies Beneath

We've been working hard these past two weeks on replacing the flooring on the main floor of our home. We had to move all the furniture and find new temporary homes for it. Then we had to pull up the carpet, padding, tack strips, and staples. I found some interesting stuff under the carpet. I should have taken a photo of the stuff for the record. Imagine here a photo of the following stuff all lined up next to a ruler for scale (archaeology skills my friend) a nickel, the starting end of a tape measurer, two rusty razor blades, the pull off tab part of a disposable coffee cup lid, two plastic beads, speaker wire, and a pile of dirt. We knew that the carpet was 6-3 years old when we bought our house (since the previous owners had put it in), which would make it 11-8 years old now. I found evidence of previous carpeting (brassy staples with remnants of green padding). The 'archaeology' got more interesting in the kitchen/entry area. The subfloor is higher in that area which led me to conclude that it was originally tiled with vinyl glue down tile (that and finding said tile which is also underneath the cabinets). The carpeted area was lower so it would be level with the padding included. Over the original vinyl tiles, someone installed a sheet vinyl floor. The bucket of vinyl floor adhesive used for the job was recently taken to the dump by us. Our utility room is like a previous fixture/floor or window covering/parts cemetery. Nobody before us seemed to want to throw anything away (we're either the 3rd or 4th owners of this house). The people we bought the house from put in laminate flooring in the kitchen and entryway, right over the partially removed sheet vinyl floor. Maybe they tried to remove it all but gave up? Kind of like the sheet vinyl installer tried to remove the original vinyl tiles but then gave up. Needless to say, the floor wasn't nearly as level as we thought it would be in that area. We had no illusions about the rest of the floor. We knew it was way off level (as is just about everything in this house). We tried to make things level (or at least flat) using roofing felt (I got that idea from the internet). It was an interesting process. I'm not sure how well it actually worked. Hopefully the new floor doesn't break or fall apart or something. In the kitchen and entry way we pulled up the rest of the sheet vinyl. Bob chiseled off the vinyl tiles that were in the front closet so it would be level with the rest of the entry way.

Here's the transition between the entry/kitchen and the rest of the floor- seemless, right? Hopefully it keeps looking that way.

Happy New Year! Doing Stuff in 2011- house goals

I'm excited for 2011. I have a lot of hopes for this year. We're hoping to list our house for sale this spring but we sure do have a lot to do to get there!

Projects to finish

half bath

basement stairs

ledge

kitchen odd jobs- trim under granite, trimming out the new upper cabinet, recaulking some areas

Projects to both start and finish

install laminate floor on the entire main floor

declutter, declutter, declutter (that one is ongoing and never really ends)

paint walls and trim in various locations

do something about the backyard- new back porch (mini deck?), drainage, transform the ugly into pretty (or at least less ugly)

do something about the front steps and railing- cracked cement and rusted metal railing need some help

hire someone to replace the upstairs carpet

clean, clean, clean like mad (another one that's ongoing and never really ends)

pack, pack, pack (also ongoing, since we've started babystepping it, but this one is finite, yay!)

Finishing touches:

I want to make all the storage areas look super organized (selling the lifestyle right?)

I'm going to buy a curved shower rod and a nice new curtain for the bathroom (much cheaper than a new tub and surround!)

While our house is on the market, I'm planning for us to live out of suitcases and pretend like our bathroom is a communal bathroom you have to bring your stuff in and out of every time you use it. I'm also planning to set the girls room back up as a master bedroom (since it is really) and just have the girls share our queen sized bed in there. Bob and I will get a full sized bed in the little room (the realtor suggested a smaller bed to make the room look bigger). Most of our stuff will be in storage, oh yeah! I hope we can sell quickly!

Letting Go and Enjoying

Day 24

Not every holiday will turn out picture perfect, perhaps not any. And that's okay. That's what memories are made of.

the kids had a lot of fun playing with the paper houses and adding their

own touches.

next time I'll think we'll save the horizontal stripes for the kids