armchairdesign

So, it’s been a few months since I last updated this here little spot of mine.  I’m sorry.  In the last four months I’ve knit over 400 newborn baby hats–the response to my Etsy page (www.armchairdesign.etsy.com) is, to say the very least, overwhelming.  And I’m very grateful.  And tired.  And my home remodelling has screeched to a halt.

But a few interesting things have happened:  the living room ceiling is completely scraped, but the idea of sanding it down for a flat finish makes me want to sit in a corner and suck my fingers while I rock back and forth.  It hit me one day that I don’t have to do that, though.  Why?  Because they make textured, paintable wallpaper!!!  Hello awesome idea!  I’ve been scouring the web looking for options and I’ve come away with several.

The other interesting thing?  The bathroom.  A horrible, vile descent into Tuscan decor that a) does not look good at all b) doesn’t work with the house, and c) was badly done.  Think orange-y beige, brown, and brass.  I’m not kidding.  It’s almost too embarrassing to post a picture of.

So after dropping off my oldest I headed to Home Depot for silvery gray paint (for the shelves–I removed the doors) and a beautiful gray-blue for the walls.  I’ll worry about the brass fixtures later.

I’ve managed to get the shelves painted (yay!) and plan on finishing the walls this weekend.  Pics to follow shortly! :)

So!  What week are we on now of this remodel?  37?  2?  Does it matter?  I guess not.

I am one 6×20 foot length of ceiling away from being done with that debacle.  Scraping a ceiling is not fun.  It requires lots of patience and a credit line at the liquor store, I swear.  My friend, J, watched the boys for 5 hours the other day and I was able to knock out two 6×20 lengths of the ceiling, so…V.I.C.T.O.R.Y.!

Hubby is currently (as in “as we speak”) putting up the window trim and it looks fan-tas-tic.  He spent the morning framing in the doorway you see here:

Don’t mind my half-naked kid.  We’re running on fumes around here and have little left for things like getting children dressed on the weekend.  Don’t judge me, man.

Here’s the view of the framed in door from the kitchen side (don’t worry–it won’t stay like this; neither will that ugly-ass ceiling fan for that matter!):

And since I’m sure you’re dying to know what we did with those gorgeous walls, well, I’ll tell you!  After we finished mudding and sanding the walls, we decided to put texture back on the walls, so we headed back to Home Depot with a head full of dreams (and faith that can move anything…name that tune!) and came home with 3 5 gallon buckets of Behr Premium Sand wall texture and came up with the idea of using a hand held whisk broom, slapping some of that thick sand texture up there and running it down the length of the wall.  Actually I came up with the idea–thank you–and did the work by myself.  Yowza.  At any rate, this is what I came away with:

See it?  It’s so subtle, but it lends *so much* to the vast swath of wall in that room.  It reminds me of grasscloth.  And we finally decided to go with Winter Harbor by Glidden.  It’s a perfect moody gray with the *teensiest* hint of blue.

So we’re getting there.  The kids’ playroom is still a FEMA-declared disaster area, but they understand that we’re working hard to get things back to normal. 

I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to stop by here, only to find that I still hadn’t done any updating, but the hard part of the remodel is over and now we can all look forward to seeing the fun stuff start happening!

I have an Etsy page!  It’s a little sparse, as I am a craptastic photographer, but will be filling up with all kinds of beautiful photos with my work in them!  You can find me at www.armchairdesign.etsy.com!

which is good, because scraping a ceiling is *no fun*.  At all.  But I’ve gotten 1 1/4 of the entire ceiling done as of today, and we’ve decided to add 3 faux beams to the ceiling to break up the vastness of the space, since it’s such a large, square room.  Of course that won’t be happening until we get the rest of the drywall up and taped, but we’re still picking away at it.

In other news, I’ve added a new page to my blog: {knit designs}.  It’s a little sparse for now, but I’ve got a pretty significant client list and look forward to getting photos so I can show off my other hobby!

But I couldn’t bring myself to do it, especially since I’ve learned previously that it tends to bite you in the ass down the road.  What am I talking about?  Why, so glad you asked!  The popcorn ceiling of course.  Originally, I had petitioned to just drywall over the drywall, because the idea of standing on a step ladder with my hands in the air for gawd-knows-how-long was making me nauseaous.  But how could this be a home improvement blog if I was taking the easy way out? 

And naturally it’s been painted over, so the work is pretty tedious.  I officially started on it today after I mudded and taped the seams on the drywall, and I have a 6 foot wide, by 1 foot deep dent in the 20×20 ceiling.  That’s good, right?  Actually, the hard part is entertaining two small boys in the process.

I’ll be back to eat my words about the hard part once I’m done with the whole project, but for now, a Removing Texture From A Ceiling Supply List:
1.  Spray bottle of water

2.  Step ladder

3.  Elbow grease

4.  a prescription for anti-psychotics, because if you don’t need them to start the project, you’ll need ‘em to finish it

I’ll admit it:  I’m a homebody.  So when it’s raining outside it’s no secret that I’m more than happy to stay in comfy clothes, clean the house, work on a remodeling/decorating project (though I refuse to hang drywall–if it gets screwed up, it’s hubby’s fault), or knit–which is what I’m currently working on this rainy afternoon.

But I think I’m going to hang that up for now and start working on the template of bubbles for the boys’ room, which is the next project in the can for me because I’m the painter around here.  I’m so excited to see their room transformed from sterile, unwelcoming white to cool and serene blues and greens. 

Originally I had planned on vibrant oranges, but quickly realized that the goal when they’re in their room is for them to actually sleep.  So we’re swapping color schemes with the playroom.  Works for me, and I think that the oranges and creams will work well with the green and creme wallpaper we have lined up for the adjoining hallway.

Not two days ago our walls looked like this:

In the Beginning

There were 33 sheets of drywall

So down they came

One by one they were felled

And 6.7 million drywall nails and 4.2 million tiny ass wood nails (from the PANELING behind it) were removed.

And a new era was ushered in

One that involved lots of husband admiration.

It can’t be helped.  I’m a traditional kind of girl.

If you’re wondering what that little thing is on the end of the drill, that’s a drywall setter–it’s designed to keep your drywall screws from plowing right through the drywall.  Also very handy because it doesn’t cause the screw to break the outer layer of paper.  And at $4 it’s been well worth the investment.

We also completely lucked out because (unbeknownst to us), our city was having it’s Spring Cleaning Day at the transfer station.  So instead of wondering what we were going to do with the 33 sheets of old drywall that might have had to sit in our garage for six months, we were able to haul it over there and wash our hands of 1/16″ drywall and a bad plaster job for good.

A before and after to come!

Over there ————-> on the right you’ll find my link about Megan Auman’s stunning work available on Etsy, and this chandelier, while not in the medium she works with, reminds me of her work.  I’ll be having Megan’s gorgeous pendant light hanging in the foyer (the scale is *perfect* for the space), but this?  This *has* to go in the master bedroom:

What really drew me to this particular one is the fact that while it’s very definitely a chandelier, what it isn’t is clunky and space-hogging.  Nevermind the fact that it feels so organic to me, even though it’s got plenty of structure.  It’s gorgeous and has sold me on their site.

But wait!  While we’re at it, let me show you this:

That blue one?  It makes my heart pound.

Our home is 1756 square feet; the average square footage of a home built today is 2400.  The average number of children under 18, living under one roof, was higher than it is today (today’s average being 3.18).

Our home has 1.75 bathrooms and 3 modest bedrooms; we have two children.  The lady in the house behind me (who bought her 1700 sq. foot home with her husband and FOUR children in 1967) also has the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms.  Things have changed, haven’t they?  And I’m not convinced it’s for the better.

There’s much talk about “today’s economy”, the foreclosures, learning to live smaller, and I even heard one woman say that NOW she has started shopping with a grocery list and only buys what’s on there.  And to me, that kind of thinking is treacherous–that only now have people begun to see that the chips are down.  Did they never think it would ever happen? 

We’ve always lived beneath our means–sure, this website is dedicated to our new home and all the “fluff” we’re putting into it, but this is our home, where we like to spend most of our time.  I want a nice kitchen because I cook three full meals a day.  I want a nice living room, because this is where we spend time as a family playing, watching movies, talking about our day.  So I guess it’s all a matter of perception, but there’s a clear line between wanting nice things because you just do, and wanting nice things because that’s what society expects of you. 

I’m not trying to say that our way of living is better than anyone else’s–I’m just genuinely perplexed about today’s standards and the value society places on having lots of “things”.

Just food for thought.