Part III
The Back Entry
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| She's rough. |
The orange from the foyer continued into the small vestibule where the back door is. The shelves were hung crooked, the power box stuck out like a sore thumb, and that brown beadboard was doing nothin' for my taste.
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| Taped and ready... in November... |
After I got rid of the orange and calmed it way down with Requisite Grey, I was able to turn to taking the shelves down and pitching them in the trash (or burn pile, natch).
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| One coat |
Primer makes the world go 'round. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's my least favorite thing to do in the world but it is 100% necessary if you don't want to paint a million coats of the expensive stuff later.
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| All tidy. |
She real cute. I still have to add top pieces of trim to the baseboards back here, and eventually a bench as well (though the bench may go in the downstairs hall nook instead, to be determined).
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| The back door. |
I don't have a before picture of the back door unfortunately, one of my many failures as a human being. The whole thing used to be painted chocolate brown though. I got that little horseshoe from west elm and I keep it turned down so that it passes luck to whoever comes and goes from the house.
Just a little superstitious.
The Pantry
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| The OG pantry. Yikes. |
You may recall from my walkthrough video that the pantry had a cranberry colored silk tapestry serving for a door. On the opposite wall of these HUGE shelves was a rack of mason jars (emptied out by the previous owners) filled with seeds and witchy things. This shelving unit was from IKEA and took me forever to disassemble enough to take out of the pantry. There was a lot of swearing involved.
This should come as no surprise to anyone.
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| Notice the latch in the wood trim where a door had once been. |
Clearly this room hadn't been painted in a long long time. Also it must have had some sort of built in at one point, solely because that grey portion of floor had never been stained. I wanted a functioning pantry that could also hold the trash and recycling bins, plus the cat feeder and water. And a microwave. And the keurig. Just a few things.
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| Shelves! |
After a visit to my friends at Menards I had all I needed to spruce up the pantry. Take note here that the original shelving unit came all the way out to the window frame, totally unnecessary. The shelves wrap around the inside to the right as well.
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| Semi-finished |
I still have to paint the baseboards in here, and only neglected to do so because they are completely missing along the back wall (plus the top trim pieces are missing as well). But she works!
The Kitchen
This is what started the kitchen renovation, which was undoubtedly the biggest in the house so far (until the bathroom) and made the biggest mess. You can see the horrific electric blue sponge paint on the walls, the very 2000's color of the IKEA cabinets, and a junky fan on the ceiling. In the ensuing photos, you should also take note that there was a single can light above the sink, that ceiling fan with three spotlights, AND THAT WAS IT FOR LIGHTING IN THE KITCHEN.
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| Inspiration |
This is what I was planning on. Cool exposed ceiling, industrial lighting, all white and fresh and clean. That was the goal here at Parker Manor.
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| It begins. |
I sent this to my sister and said "I did a thing."
I'd like to point out that I slurred the word "critical," which should have been an indication for me to not tear the ceiling out.
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| All gone. |
So here's the skinny. On my second night in the house, I decided to take a bath. The bathroom is directly above the kitchen. I was leaving for Wisconsin after work the next day for a visit (why I decided on a trip home right after moving into my house, I have no idea) and figured a nice bath would soothe my stress. Midway through the bath, I could hear a splashing sound that didn't really make sense. I sat up and looked over the edge of the tub (it's a clawfoot, as you'll see), and saw that the bathroom floor was a lake of water. Turns out the overflow pipe was not secured firmly to the tub, so the water was escaping rather than going neatly through the pipes.
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| After tearing the ceiling down. Thanks humidity! |
I jump out of the tub and drain it, throwing towels on the floor in pure panic. Now the CHARM about old houses is that nothing is sealed, nothing is airtight. So I went downstairs and discovered the kitchen floor was sopping wet as well, with water quite literally running down the cabinets from the ceiling above and draining through the single can light.
I had a good cry (I'd had a couple at this point) and sopped it all up with more towels, and then went to bed. My trip to Wisconsin was filled with thoughts about how I was going to resolve this. What was the plan?
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| I like seeing the shadow of the old original cabinets. So small! |
I found that picture of a ceiling and thought "the drywall is all lumpy already, clearly this water damage has happened before. It needs to come out." I was pleased to discover that my ceiling looked the way I wanted it to in terms of painting it all white. There was one little catch though...
Yes, that old house friend of knob and tube wiring. It was in good condition, nothing was frayed or chewed on by mice (of which an enormous amount of mouse shit had fallen from the ceiling when i tore it down, ps), but I was cautious. Still went forward with my plan of painting.
Went through two whole gallons of Kilz primer on the ceiling, and ruined four tank tops by dripping on them. I know everyone has a favorite primer, and Kilz is definitely not mine. I prefer Zinsser Bullseye Primer, I just feel two coats hides infinitely more than Kilz. Those are my two cents.
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| How I spent the 4th of July after being ghosted by some guy. Don't get me started. |
So here you can see that I've primed all of the trim, painted the walls French Grey by Sherwin Williams, and have just about completed painting the ceiling. I was super excited for my dad to come out in a week so that we could remove the knob and tube wiring and install my lights and just have a GREAT time making my kitchen that perfect combination of industrial/modern.
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| Obviously so happy. |
Except here's the catch. The knob and tube wiring was ALL live, and while yes it could be removed, it was also likely powering something somewhere in the house. Sure you can leave it as is, but when the time comes to sell, it would need to be covered because funny enough, you can't have live exposed wiring in your house!
Not to worry, dad and Tony came to the rescue and said "we can re-sheetrock that in no time." Begrudgingly I gave up on my dream of an open ceiling. Mostly because I'd spent my entire 4th of July painting it bitterly after being stood up by someone I thought could develop into something, but perhaps that made this choice for the best. Hide my angry painting away, just like my feelings ::insert laughing emoji, then crying emoji, then like... a pizza emoji::
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| Spackled |
The great news that came with this was that we removed the shitty light above the sink and added six can lights to the ceiling, along with my new fan that I adore because it looks like a plane propellor. I also was able to get the experience of spackling sheetrock, which was not as hard or as easy as I thought. Mostly just messy.
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| Done! |
I'm super pleased with how the ceiling turned out and in the end, I'm happy the beams were covered. It's much cleaner this way and I don't have to worry about seeing spiders tucked up between the joists.
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| I give you my favorite stain color ever, Kona. |
Next I sanded down the butcher block counters. They were in rough shape, with the previous owners over the years using them as actual cutting blocks because they must have been fuckin' morons.
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| More painting. |
The cabinets and counters were all from IKEA, so I didn't feel bad painting and staining them. I figure if the time ever comes to replace them, this was going to be a satisfactory place holder.
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| Staging area |
At this point though I just wanted the mess to be gone and to have my dining room back.
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| So clean! |
First coat was done, ready for the second. Everything was coming together better than I could have hoped for. Isn't it funny when you only picture things in your mind, and then once you put it all in the order you imagined, it's an incredible representation of what you had assumed it would be? I never held color swatches up to each other, I just blindly was like "YEP! That'll work! BUY IT!"
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| A small sample of outlets. |
Here we have two different types of outlets, there had been others as well that we just pitched right away. I got very good at changing these out over the course of the year.
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| Final stages |
When I finally painted the windows, everything made so much sense in the kitchen. And it looked beautiful.
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| Damnit. |
Aside from Paolo jumping his big fat ass up on the window ledge and leaving evidence behind. Some burglar he'd be. Time for the reveal!
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| Classy af |
I suppose here you can see what the backdoor had looked like before. Also notice the electrical behind the oven. Originally it was mounted above it, which I hated, so my dad moved the power box down to hide behind the range. He also wired up the wall so that I could add a hood with additional lighting. Thanks pop!
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| Still classy af |
I took out the chair rails and the corner protectors throughout the house. That little piece of wall between the cabinet by the oven and the part that juts out is actually the chimney. I'd started chipping all of the plaster off of it because the brick is this cool grey/white color, but ultimately decided to save that project for another day. It had been drilled into so many times and was crumbling so bad that it was a testament to my limited skills in patching that I could make it look as smooth as I did.
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| More class than I know what to DO with! |
Overall it was a complete transformation, but that's true for most of the house.
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| The final kitchen shot. |
I wasn't going to put my magnets back up and held off until almost the end of winter. They're great conversation starters and you see something new every time you look at them. And that's a wrap on the kitchen! We're almost ready to scoot upstairs.
The Hallways
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| I forgot about this horror. |
If you were wondering if there was a color worse than the orange, well here you go. A cross between bubble gum and salmon pink. I had a BITCH of a time taking these cabinets down, they were only like 9 inches deep inside so I'm not sure what the hell they were meant to do in terms of storage.
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| Oh, don't worry. I will. |
Side note: when you frequent places like Menards and Home Depot sometimes multiple times a day, you're bound to luck out with some form of eye candy. And by "luck out" I clearly mean "stalk someone through the store and then out into the parking lot." Single and ready to mingle!
If this is you in the photo, you now know where to find your dream husband.
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| Cleanin' up |
French Grey is on the mission and shockingly only needed two coats to hide this atrocity. Thanks Sherwin Williams!
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| I got good with caulk. |
It's amazing how much of a difference caulking makes.
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| Mostly done. |
This is the downstairs nook, which is never this clean. It's typically full of painting supplies, power tools, the vacuum, cans of paint, brooms, and a myriad of other shit. It was also filled back up with all that shit after I took this picture and moved it all out of the foyer. You're welcome.
Finally we can move upstairs. With no air conditioning. In July.
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| Two toned nightmare. |
The stairwell was terrifying to paint. To get the high-up point, I had to lean the ladder against the stairs toward the wall, like a scaffolding, and thin shimmy across it. I'm not light as a feather, either, so every time that thing groaned I just thought "someone's gonna find me in a month, covered in paint and half eaten by the cats."
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| Dad up in the attic |
Dad came back out at the end of November to help with a few projects, chief among them being to add a can light here at the end of the hallway (and replace the other pendant with a can light), and to switch that bathroom door so that it swung inward. More on that part later.
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| Stages |
I'm not sure why they had the door swinging into the hall in the first place but whatever, it is what it is. I wanted it to swing into the bathroom because I felt the nook at the end of the hall would make it feel that much bigger upstairs and a little less claustrophobic. Not that people congregate in the upstairs hall, but it could happen. Here from left to right we've got the super colorful doors with primer on them, then painted with the Iron Ore color I used on the kitchen cabinets, and then finally with the trim finished.
If you look closely at the trim on the right door, you'll see it sticks away from the wall by about an inch. This is from the house getting a small renovation in the 90's, where they removed the old plaster and lathe and used sheetrock instead. The different in thickness between the two left those gaps throughout the house (and along the baseboards) so it's something I've had to contend with. Why they didn't just cut the door frames down to fit at the time is beyond me.
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| Boiling is better than cleaners. |
Little trick I learned from Nicole Curtis is that instead of dealing with harsh chemicals and cleaning agents, you can take old hardware that has been painted on, filled with wax, etc, and just toss it all into a crock pot for a night on high. In the morning...
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| Clean! |
You are left with these beauties. I still had to take a scrub brush to them to get all the film off, but in the end they turned out beautiful.
The Office
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| 2018 listing |
Now, why they painted the baseboards blue, I don't know. They were white in the 2013 listing but I digress. Another room of high gloss paint, mostly white, but with some ivory as well. Depended on the wall.
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| First things first |
Gotta get the ceiling paint up, and lemme tell you, it was a bitch. Because the paint in here was mostly white, and such a high gloss, it was nearly impossible for me to tell the difference between the wet new paint and the old paint. Thank god for second coats because I would've been up a creek.
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| Cool down mode |
It was the middle of summer and I needed a popsicle to cool down. I may have had several more than this one, but who's counting? Theres a single coat of paint on the wall, in case you couldn't tell, and I was frustrated because it was not covering as well on the first round as I wanted.
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| Perfect line |
I had to create the barrier line between the wall and the ceiling because it was rounded off. The paint color for the office is Riverway by Sherwin Williams, and just the right amount of green in the blue gets me to where I wanna go. The second coat of paint covered well enough but I still had to go along and touch up random white spots.
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| I did a thing |
This little nook (which used to be a closet with a door years ago) had no trim in it, so I stole the trim from the bathroom and spliced it in. In hindsight, staining the floor dark was a bad idea because this is where the litter boxes are for the cats and you can always see the litter they kick out of the box. Just means I need to vacuum more, gag. Anyway, ready for the reveal?
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| Ter-dah |
I need to get some more artwork on the walls, seeing as this is "creative space," but I've been slow to do so. The closet will also get a door added back onto it (there are several old doors in the garage, one of 'em is bound to fit), and eventually I'll put in a low-profile ceiling fan. For now though it's my bright little space and I'm happy with it (c:
The Guest Room
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| From the sale listing. |
The guest room was a fairly blank slate. Like the office, it had been painted in all glossy paint (which, again, shows every bump and imperfection), so my first step was going to be painting the ceiling with my adored flat white and then creating an edge along the curved portion so that I could have colored walls.
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| So tiny |
All of the windows in the house had these super shit blinds on them, and while I don't hate the idea of blinds, I couldn't stand these ones. I removed them from every window and donated them all to charity in favor of putting up drapes instead. In this picture you can see the white ceiling has been painted, and what the contrast is between white and the super old ivory (that was covered in cobwebs and cracks).
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| Cutting in |
I ran a tape line around the curved ceiling and then painted my first "color" in the house, this one here being Starboard by Sherwin Williams. If the downstairs of the house was about being mature and cool and monotone, the upstairs was about injecting color and vibrancy and a little bit of personalization. All of the rooms upstairs are in the blue/green category, and each has a name referencing water. Of course I don't plan things out, why do you ask?
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| Starboard |
This is my second favorite color in the house. I wanted a really rich emerald green, with all white bedding and pops of natural wood for the guest room.
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| End in sight |
This was the last room in the house to get the baseboards and trim painted, and I was over the moon. And my wrist was killing me. Loooove that primer...
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| THE FINAL STRETCH |
This was the very last two foot chunk of trim to get primer. I was seriously ecstatic and had to share it on instagram. Ready for the reveal?
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| The room at the top of the stairs. |
I'm not finished quite yet with the guest room. I got these sconces from Amazon and they're wonderful, but I still need to add the grey-wash shiplap headboard to the wall. I'd do a normal headboard but as you can see in the next picture...
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| Tart and tiny. |
...there's no additional space for a headboard. So it would need to be added directly to the wall, which is totally fine. But there she is, white bedding with a small accent of black and a great emerald velvet pillow I found at IKEA.
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| My favorite moment |
And then there's this little moment as well. The large picture is the original 1915 posting from when the house was put on the market; my sister found this in her digging and I think it is SUCH a gem. I had to frame it. The lower left is an advertisement from 1915 for the Whited-Brearley Company that built the house, and at the top is a list of permits pulled on the house for everything from electricity to plumbing. Then of course just the wi-fi network and password because I'm a kick ass host.
The Master Bedroom
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| The 2013 listing photo |
We're gonna start with what the master bedroom looked like a few years before I bought it. Here you can see the window was white, and that there was a closet.
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| No closet (just Paolo) |
This was a week after I moved in. They had removed the entire wall the closet had been on, which I understand because it would've been a super tiny room with it. Notice the door painted blue and chocolate to match the walls, groan.
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| Edging |
Now since the master bedroom felt like a pit, I needed to brighten it up. The ceiling was still glossy ivory, so here I have started edging in with the flat white. You can also see that they unfortunately painted the entire window frame brown and the window itself blue, effectively sealing the window shut (I wouldn't be able to pry it open until about mid-December when I went to work with a couple flathead screwdrivers, a hammer, and Parker determination).
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| Flat on gloss |
I wonder if I missed a spot.
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| The first window |
The wall color is Drizzle by Sherwin Williams. This ended up being my least favorite color of all the ones I chose, it reminded me way too much of a color I painted a long long time ago in Wisconsin. Eventually I'll revisit these walls with something different but for now it works.
This is also the first window I tackled painting. I was terrified to do it because I knew it was gonna be a beast of an undertaking, but hindsight shows me it was a great decision.
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| Who paints a window blue? For fuck sake. |
I worked really hard to get all of the windows in the house to open from the top as well, but in hindsight there was no point because I'm never gonna have them open. No need. You can see all my little chisel marks on the top ledge though. #whoops
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| Almost there |
Primed with just one coat, not quite ready for the finishing enamel.
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| A snapshot of my life, right here. |
Baseboards came next. For people who think I have an exhilarating life out here in the big city, it's usually just this. Removing tape, getting paint everywhere, caulking, groaning about my body hurting, and usually stopping what I'm doing to sit on my phone for extended periods of time before deciding I had better get a move on.
Anyway, time for the reveal.
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| Fin |
I do love my bedroom. I love coming home to this, the cool colors and calm environment. From the back of the house, I can't hear the noise that potentially rises from the street out front. The cats are usually in here, and if they aren't, they lay down with me as soon as I am.
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| The little nook |
I'm happy the warm weather is here because I love having this door open and listening to the wind in the giant oak tree behind the house. There is a balcony out there but I need to add a railing around it. Maybe this summer, maybe not. No crazy rush, it's just me (c:
The Bathroom
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| First of all |
We are gonna use this picture from the 2012 listing of the house to prove a very valid point. White is a safe color. If you don't know what to do, leave it white. I don't have a picture from the 2018 listing because I'm sure the BRIGHT as hell green they chose was something the realtor was like "hey... maybe let's not."
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| 2018 |
I'd already painted the slanted ceiling here, otherwise there was a lot more lime green skittle covering this bitch.
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| Barf |
Same over yonder. It's a pretty large bathroom, all things considered. Some day I'd be interested in opening up those electrical panels up on the angled wall to see if the wiring is still live and if I could do another 'lil light there, but I'm in no hurry.
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| Tone it down |
The new bathroom color is Cape Verde by Sherwin Williams, and it is my favorite color in the entire house. I love how dark and rich it is.
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| Let's not forget the grey walls too |
The plan here was to remove the metal medicine cabinet (that white square on the left) and to put a shelf up, an actual mirrored medicine cabinet, and then add an additional light courtesy of my papa. The can lights also needed to be replaced because they were not airtight and that meant heat from the house was escaping into the attic in the winter.
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| So... clean... |
I replaced the toilet all by myself and felt pretty proud not to have fucked it up. The bathroom will end up being the biggest renovation because on top of changing the can lighting and adding another light, plus changing the door to swing inward (just a sec), adding a new toilet and a new sink vanity (eventually), I need to replace the floors. They are warped and sagging, which means the toilet cannot sit flush on the floor and it wobbles.
Also, not sure if I mentioned it or not (I did), but when water hits this floor, it goes right into the kitchen ceiling. I can't have that happening. So eventually this will all be a white-ish grey floor.
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| Magic |
The last god awful switchplate in the house to get swapped out.
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| Peek-a-boo |
Electrical installed and ready for the new sconce.
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| Handyman Parker |
Here's dad chiseling out the opening for the hardware to hang the door with.
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| Almost there |
Attaching the hardware after some more chiseling. Had to scrape off the bottom of the door as well because it touched the warped floor when it swung inward.
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| She works |
And there ya have a primed door, still showing that awful green through it. Ready for the reveal?
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| Nice and fresh |
Like I said the sink vanity will be replaced, with something marginally wider but definitely taller (this thing is made for children, swear to god).
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| That big nook |
I quite enjoy how the bathroom turned out. Currently there is no trim along the floors but that's for two reasons. First is that I used those baseboards to finish the office nook, and second is because I figured the floor would be coming out anyway so who cares? That cabinet came from IKEA, I love it to pieces.
And that wraps the inside of the house! Who's ready to see the big reveal outside?
