Rehabber’s Rehab

When we got back from our rafting trip in Pennsylvania this Labor Day weekend, we returned to our half painted office and all disorganized house.

There seems to be a strange phenomenon in the house that as you work in the evenings, instead of cooling down the house gets hotter.  Maybe the stucco house releases heat stored up in the day as the evening goes on.  By the end of the evening I felt like I had spent an hour sweating it out at a bad spa and we finished putting up the paint on the walls of the office.  We painted the office “spinning wheel” by dutch boy, and decided not to change the color any (we were debating making it lighter), and are in retrospect both pretty happy with the results.  I’m leaving the trim white.

The office is not part of the great trim reclaiming project since if we do decide to add on a second story, this room is currently the top contender for where the stairs will go.  No point is doing a lot of work on it when it might all just be ripped out.  Plus it will be nice to have at least one room that is done.

Still to do: touch up the trim, paint the pink closet white and put up a curtain over the closet.

After the cleaning spree of the past few days and with a friend coming into town this weekend, we are considering spending our first night in the house in the next couple of days. But first, we needed to set the furniture up, leading us on the first steps of layout and deciding how we want the rooms to look.

living room with couches and a bed thrown in

back bedroom with guest bed and room for side tables

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Courtesy of De-victorianization on Division we found a fun design quiz to help your put a name to your style. I filled mine out and then had fun watching Thor take the test. I got to see what things we had in common, and where we were different. Thor told me half way through “I hate this.” I guess he wasn’t having as much fun. Final results?

Liz: World Traveler

Global influences abound in the way you’ve decorated and furnished our home. It’s a look that works well on a budget, and at the same time it says something about you and your interests: you particularly love collecting things that tell a story or trigger a memory and help make your place relaxing and inviting.

Describes me pretty well. I love displaying things that we’ve picked up in our travels around our home.

Thor: International Chic

Not so long ago the craze for ethnic-style was ubiquitous. Maybe you embraced it or eschewed it, but anyway, you’ve moved on since then. Your home still reflects a passion for travel and an appreciation for other cultures without seeking to mimic or patronize. Classic, or even quite anonymous, pieces of furniture sit among pieces from far flung parts of the globe.

An alright description, but the furniture pictured doesn’t describe him at all. Still, sounds like we’re similar enough that we’ll both be pretty happy with however our home turns out. Take the quiz and let us know what you are.

Our most dramatic change to date has been the floors. In the first minutes of owning the house we immediately turned to ripping up the nasty carpeting from the sixties. What we uncovered was a mess or red oak floors. The previous owners had applied several different stains, from light gold to dark red. The floor had about a dozen places badly damaged areas. Our floor guy suspected the damage was caused by a overly competitive pets urinating around the house.

The fortunate thing about uncovering something disastrous in a remodeling is that if it can be fixed easily, it can have a dramatic impact and greatly improve the value of a home. Step in our floor guy, Jerry. Over our six day vacation, Jerry worked wonders, repairing the pet markings, filling in where we had taken out the living room-dining room divider, and refinishing all of the living space. (more…)

Back yard mess

We went back to the house today after the vacation and the 48 hour waiting period for the floors to dry.  The yard was just as bad as I remember.  I don’t know how much longer the neighbors will put up with it.  We were so excited to see the new floor with out the water stains and the holes filled in.  We arrived only to find that Matt had taken the key home with him after he had stopped by to take some more measurements!!

We had frustratingly locked all the windows and were unable to break in.  I suppose we should be comforted by this fact.  At one point Thor contemplated cutting one of the screens, he wanted to see the floors so badly, but was talked out of it.  I was then accused (for the first time in my life) of being too optimistic because I pointed out we can just wait until tomorrow to get in. (more…)