It was a hot July day and we were standing outside The Nest talking to Tony, the leathery retired contractor turned home inspector. He gave us the sage advice to "
do one thing at a time" among other gems of wisdom, like: "it's been here for 100 years. It's not going anywhere" and "you two, you're gonna have
words" Truth. On all counts.
Well, I started out taking his advice, tackling one large project at a time. But sooner or later I started seeing the tips of ice burgs and had to move along to keep up momentum. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. But that leaves a lot of things partway done and a month long silence on the blog!
At the moment, the nearest thing to being done is the front hall. An under appreciated room in most houses in my opinion. But trust me, it's more complicated than it looks!
First we had to patch large holes where the electricians' fed Romex through the walls and ceilings. The ceiling was falling down in one area. So Bill needed to build up the angular ceiling and plaster over it in three layers to get everything up to snuff.
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| note the hole in the ceiling! |
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| lots and lots of trim |
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| a well loved staircase, in need of an update! |
Then it was ready for paint. The front hall actually has very little wall space. It's mostly trim! So I spent an entire weekend on just this part of the project. First I sanded to surface of the old yellowed and chipped paint. Then I cleaned the dust off of all the trim and the floor. I masked the floor around the base of each baluster (there are a lot of those). And then I got to work with my old pal, white semigloss trim paint. It took over 20 hours for just this phase of the project! Since we are planning on refinishing the floors in the future, I wasn't meticulous about wiping up little white paint splatters (which are inevitable). So I have to live with them until the floors are redone.
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| trim paint complete, we live in a construction site! |
Once the trim was completely dry, Bill painted the ceilings and the walls. I chose the color "Amethyst Sky" as a nod to my favorite crystal. It's basically a grown up version of my childhood bedroom wall color!
Finally it was time to paint the radiator. GOLD of course! But don't worry, I won't paint every single radiator in the house gold ;)
As a finishing touch, I placed a gold pineapple on the tall table in the corner of the landing. A pineapple is an traditional American symbol for "Welcome"!
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| Welcome! |
Truly, the photos of this odd shaped oddly lit space do not do it justice. We need to hang some art and put some finishing touches in the space (stained glass window hanging is coming soon). But since it's so hard to get the full effect through the photos, you should just come visit so you can see it in person!
The front hall was complete just in time for our New Years Eve open house party. We were so excited to welcome so many of our friends and loved ones to see how far we've come. Of course, I didn't take enough photos.
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| My yoga friend Jeanette |
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| Sweet Neighbors: Effie and Cindy |
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| More fabulous Neighbors: Mimi, Jen, Meg, Cindy, and Ben |
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Dear Melissa, who helped me clean the house the very first week
we lived here. It's come a long way since then! |
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| Family Friend Alan who has known me since birth |
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| Some of my besties, Becky and Sophie |
The day after the party Bill and I basked in all the love from our friends. We left the mess for most of the New Years Weekend and drank Champagne in bed while watching Mad Men on Netflix. We earned this rest! The following weekend we went to Newport for our birthday celebration (my bday is Jan 9 and his is the 10th, crazy right!?). And we've had a lull in reno work and enjoyed just being in our home!
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| Newport Cliff Walk |
