Finishing Details

Another batch of photos from Mom! She said that everything is ready to go now. A little cleaning here and there and a couple last projects. She painted the inside of the storm door, painted and hung the wood storm windows on the porch, painted the porch floor, and touched up some of the stain on the banister. The staircase is far from perfect, but the new owners need to experience some of the joy of old house ownership, right? Photo time!

The green-ified storm door:Paint for the porch floor and re-hung, painted wood storm windows:
For the staircase lets do a little retrospective. Lets start with the beginnings. Faux-wood paneling as far as the eye can see, a closet blocking the view from the living room, drop ceilings, worn-out rust-colored carpet. Behold the grossness:
DEMO!!! By far the easiest and most satisfying house project:Wall gone, paint stripped, carpet removed, walls repaired and painted. Lookin' good!Lastly, I'd like to wish a very happy 1st anniversary to my very, very good friends Eric and Lindi! I doubt they read the blog, but congrats to you two anyway! This is a photo from one of our Fraternity formals. Cute couple, no? They are seriously the most laid-back, easy going couple I've ever met. In the four or five years they've been together I don't think I've ever heard them fight... and I lived with Eric for a couple of those years. They're a perfect match.

Here's one of my favorite photos of the wedding party. We were in the limo midway between the church and the reception. As we passed a park we had a spontaneous photo session. I'm on the slide on the left, second guy in (look how short my hair was! What was I thinking!). Eric and Lindi should be obvious. He's the guy holding the girl in the white dress. Yup, that's her. Really, you should have already figured that one out by yourself. Fun factoid: The guy to the left of me and the girl standing to the right of Eric are my friends Tony and Laura who are getting married September 6th. That's right in the middle of Fashion Week so unfortunately I can't make it. Eric and Tony were best friends growing up and Lindi and Laura were best friends growing up. How did they meet? Lindi and Laura were my friends from high school. Eric was my roommate in the dorms and when we moved out Tony, Eric and I got an apartment together. Basically, they met through me. Cool, huh?

Gather 'Round Everybody, Pics from NoDak!

So, while I've been playing around in New York, my parents have been putting the house back together. They sent pictures!!! I was so excited to open that email. Ready? Here we go!

The living room and the stairwell got their coat of khaki and are looking pretty good. Do you remember the hole in the wall at the top of the stairs? How about the paneling? Nope, me neither.The dining room has the new crown moulding and trim painted white. So crisp, clean.
The cabinets are now updated with a clean coat of white paint. Maybe the new buyers won't notice how small the kitchen is when everything's bright and clean? But where are the doors?Oh, there they are. They're upstairs waiting for some new hardware.
Even though I told Mom not to waste money on little details that won't up the selling price, she couldn't leave the front of the house without some color. I guess there's a flowerbed out there now. I bet it looks more like a home now. Thanks Mom!Well, that's all for now. The family's out of town for a bit so I'll have to wait until they get back before I can call the realtor. I'm going to have her go over to the house when Mom or Dad is there so she can see how things are going and what needs to still be addressed. I wish so much I was there until it went on the market. I mean, this was my project and I just left it for everyone else to finish. I hate not finishing what I started!

More Photos! Wood! Stairs!

Ok, I just finished stripping paint for the day and I'm really happy with the results so far. I have all of the spindles done on three sides and have four of the backs done. I shot a few more snapshots because I'm really excited to see so much woodgrain going on!


Notice the laptop on the stairs. The ipod decided to take the 'dirt nap' (as my professor calls it) so the headphones had to connect to something!


Too bad the house smells like old, melting paint. Sorry roomies!

I believe I've made a decision...

I'm going to sell the house. I'll be working hard to get it ready to list in May. Plan to see big changes; big inexpensive changes.

My Realtor came over today and we sat down to talk about selling the place. She had a list of homes on the market now that would be comparable to my house once I make those fixes I posted a few days ago. Her estimate fell about where I expected it. Basically the value is higher than when I bought it, but the fees associated with the sale cancel out most of the increase. If I got my asking price I could make a little pocket change, but not too much. There'd be even less if anyone asks for closing costs.

Basically, I just need to not have this liability in North Dakota when I'm in New York, Paris, Milan, etc. What if I couldn't find renters? The furnace breaks down? Renters damage the house? Just too much to worry about.

Now for some news that's a little more fun: I'm working on the staircase today. Blasting off that paint with my best friend and favorite tool. See it there? Sitting on the newel post. Just waiting to play!

The two whitish spindles are the ones that, for some reason, someone decided to sand and prime before painting. Jerks! This is one time I'm glad that the P.O.'s were too lazy to do things the right way.

I found that a box works really well for dropping the hot paint scrapings into. The cardboard is easier to scrape against to get the stuck-on pieces off instead of newspaper or paper towels.

Anyone for some delicious chips? Paint chips? Now featuring 30% MORE lead!
Scrumptious!

Crazy Crazy! Gotta Get Going!

Oooo! Life's getting crazy! I have less than two months to get everything straightened out here in Fargo. I'm starting a big push to get as much done with the house as soon as possible.

You'll have to forgive my lack of photos (camera's at my Fraternity house) but I've actually gotten some stuff done! I painted the trim in the dining room (except for the trim that I haven't replaced yet: crown moulding, baseboards, cap around doors/windows) and I started stripping the paint off of the banister.

Yup, I broke out the flame-thrower! Yesterday I accidentally took one of those Sunday afternoon naps that goes a little too long. What was intended to be an hour nap turned into a 6 hour slumber. One of those times when you wake up and the sun's just gone down, but your body says 'Good Morning!' I pulled paint off of the newel post and the first four spindles. I will still need to get some citristrip on there, but for an initial stripping I think they look pretty good. Here's a before:
I'll make sure to post a picture of the progress as soon as I can.

I'm going to get a Realtor over here this week to give me an estimate of what I could get for the house if I decide to sell it this summer. I'll get an idea of what would need to be upgraded to get my money back out of the deal. Then maybe estimates from contractors? I'm not sure what I'll do yet but I'm trying to keep my options open.

Gah! I wish there were three of me right now!

Say No to Crack(s)!

It's about time that I post some pictures of progress in the living room. My plan is to repair all of the walls and ceilings in the living room, dining room, and upstairs hallway during winter break.

Problem #1: Living room duplex removal aftermath: walls and ceiling

During the de-duplexing process I removed a couple extra walls from the living room. The walls still show extra joint compound from the transition from original walls/ceiling to the walls I removed. I've been working on scraping off the extra clumps of joint compound and then using some new stuff to level out the surfaces that were marred by the duplex walls.

If you need a refresher, here's where the walls were:

This is about where the ceiling is at right now. It still needs to have some scraping on the far left part there, then a good smooth coat of joint compound, then some horrible overhead sanding that will undoubtedly leave me with a mouth full of dust. Lookin' forward to this one.

Then come the walls. I finished scraping off any excess joint compound from the walls, then I've laid on a new smooth coat to level off the walls. Just sanding needed here. My favorite.
Problem #2: Stairwell walls

When I removed the paneling on the staircase I was left with lotsa lotsa cracks and nail holes. I've started patching up the cracks already, but haven't gotten too far. Here's some of the work. Please notice the smiley face stick figure I painted for the roomies. I thought it was classy. It might need to be repainted onto the finished stairwell. Or not.

First thing I had to do was gauge out the cracks so they were wide enough for the joint compound to get into. Upon my Aunt Bec's suggestion I used a wood chisel and hammer to widen out the cracks. Here's a shot of some of the widened cracks.
Then she suggested that I use the mesh tape to cover the cracks. I haven't gotten a chance to apply a second coat of mud yet, but after that's done I should be able to sand it down to a smooth appearance. Then I'll just have to texture, prime, and paint.
Problem #3: Living room walls.

I also started repairing the fireplace wall. I'm going to cut a strip of drywall to fill that place where the plaster's missing, then I'll be ready to sand, texture, prime, paint, hang some art!

Since I was already messing with the tape and joint compound I decided to rip out the horrible PO tape job over some of the cracks in the other walls. When the cracks turned, this guy just turned the tape over the crack and didn't care about the kinks that were left in the tape. He also didn't mud under the tape so it was peeling up too. It was bothering me quite a bit so I figured I might as well repair them before I start painting. So that's where I am right now. I won't be doing ANYTHING on the house until after I'm done with finals, so don't plan to be seeing anything amazing for a while. But, when those tests are behind me, look out!