What we’ve been up to this week…

No, not an exciting post.  More reflective than anything.  I felt sick today, so I left Steven over at our rent property putting in the final touches in each bathroom, installing baseboards and finishing up the plumbing….yay for him!  I did help him caulk the baseboards and liquid nailed finishing pieces onto the cabinets in the kitchen.  I am convinced that paintable caulk and paint can fix a multitude of ugly!  I started to feel ill, so I came back over here.  Hopefully he won’t read this post and realize how much of a slacker I am being this evening while he is over there slaving!

These beautiful flowers have been blooming in the backyard of 94 Bungalow (the rent house we are currently fixing up).  They are gorgeous and almost look like roses.  They come from a ten foot tall bush.  I cannot identify them.  They do not have a scent and their constitution is very weak, they did not last one day in a vase.  So, if anyone knows what they are, please drop me a line.

Yesterday, I had the day off.  I realized two things: 1) I seem to never get anything done on my TO DO list, even if I take the day off; 2) that my dog shares my affinity for people watching.

And believe me, there are some interstin’ people to watch on my street!  Viv and I packed up the boxes of Christmas presents that we send to Handumanan Village, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines.  We send gifts to the children and a box of supplies for their school every year.  This year, when I emailed our contact over there to ask what they need, she said: the presents are nice, but send school supplies and books.  LOL….it is funny to me that the adults find the presents frivolous.  They just want basic needs met.  But, the kids LOVE the gifts we send.  Some of them do not even take them out of their packaging.  When some people from our church visited this Spring, they noticed that several of our gifts were on shelves unopened.  They did not want to get them dirty.  It was more like a trophy not to be touched than a toy to play with.  Very interesting.  I hope they get around to playing with them.

Vivian had a great time helping me.  She kept asking me, “Are we sending these to the kids?”  Too cute. Speaking of cute, Vivian and Taavi are getting along better now.  She has completely gotten over being jealous and is actually enjoying him now.  I catch her singing to him sometimes.

Taavi has a little blue and green turtle that we call Louis.  It is his teddy bear.  He loves the dumb, stinky, smelly thing.  He picked it out himself from PetSmart.  Since he would not part with it in the store, I bought it for him.

Taavi is looking more and more like his dad everyday.  Would you listen to me?  You would think I was talking about my son or something.    Fortunately, I am not.  I do not think Steven would appreciate me comparing Taavi’s looks to his.  Here is Taavi’s dad.

When posting these pictures, I saw that Steven snapped this picture of Vivian Thursday.  I wonder if she got a whooping right after it was taken.  She is positively staring daggers!  If looks could kill…

Well, besides a lot of other boring details, I have had a very busy week.  Soon to come will be pictures of the finished 94 bungalow.  We are finishing up, affixing the details and next week we will refinish the floors and clean up.  At that time I will take good after pictures and post the whole album online.

Happy Saturday!

Andrea

Labor Day Weekend – Ouch!

Pictures from our Labor Day weekend.  We worked a little bit more on the bungalow rent house.  Not much else to report.  We installed the cabinets and counters in the kitchen and I textured and painted the walls in the bathroom.  For the before kitchen pictures, scroll down a post or two, or click here.

Vivian helping daddy install the countertops

Bathroom pictures before.

After peeling off wallpaper, a coat of paint, joint compound, and then yet another layer of wallpaper, the wall was less than even.  So, I textured the wall and because it still had a few blemishes, I painted it a fairly dark color to hide the imperfections:

Have to pay the painter again!

Haha...that face is hilarious!

I don’t have pics of the room painted.  It was so dark outside when I finished, the paint is semi-gloss and the poor bulb in the bathroom is about to give out.  So, I will take one tomorrow and post it.  I wanted to clean up my mess and paint the window sill before giving you a nice “ta-da” picture.  I hurt when I got up Sunday morning…..ouchies!  As they say here in Alexandria, I am all stove up!  (I never heard that saying in New Orleans….lol).

***UPDATE: Here is the bathroom all nice and painted.

 

Have a good weekend!

Andrea

Work accomplished this weekend

Well, its that time of year again.  School is back in full force and my blogging is down to an all time low.  Work on our recent bungalow purchase has not slacked off though.  Friday, after we ate, we went over to 94 Bungalow and painted the kitchen.  Steven primed it Thursday night all by his lonesome self.  I have to say, I was impressed!  The kitchen is an old time bead board type both wall and ceiling.  So, Steven had to prime the wall, ceiling, trim and windows….basically everything in the room.  I painted the walls and ceiling with Glidden’s Cozy Light.

Kitchen before 1

Kitchen before 2

Kitchen before 3

Kitchen before 4

It was pretty gross, as you can tell from the pictures above.  It looked like the house was starting to be remodeled in most of the other rooms, but the kitchen had not been touched.  It has grease all up the wall and the large vinyl linoleum piece they had in there was peeling up around the room.  After we scrubbed the walls, scraped the peeling paint down, primed, painted and redid the floor, this is what it looks like…beware, it is not a true AFTER photo as we have a few details to finish, but you can see the difference:

Kitchen in process 1

 

Kitchen in process 2

The spots that you that are not painted very thoroughly are where the cabinets are going to go.  The cabinets will run along under the window and then “L” on the wall opposite the window.  Didn’t Steven do a good job on the floor?  I thought it came out very nice.  We bought some generic ceramic tiles and terra cotta grout.  Steven is going to install the cabinets sometime this week, and I will finish them off with a red chestnut stain and a coat of poly. 

Kitchen floor

Cabinets waiting to be installed and finished

 ***Update: Click here for updated pictures of the kitchen***

Here is a picture of Vivian doing “karate” with the shop vac attachments in front of the cabinets where I was trying to take pictures.

Vivian looking fierce, trying to do karate

Hi-yah!

Finally, I put a coat of black paint on this thing.  I think it makes it look better.  I need to get Steven to make some doors for the cabinet.  I tore out the cabinet pieces on the top half.  They were falling off anyway.  I figured whoever rents it can use it for a Kchotke shelf.  Hopefully, in the near future, I will post pictures of the complete house.  But for now, here are the in process ones.

Built In Before

Built in after

For more pictures of the transformation of this room, click here.  I painted the front three rooms of the house the same color, Timothy Straw by Glidden.  It makes it easier on the eye than seeing two shades of orange and one room bright Irish green.  We have a lot of finishing work to do, which we will try to accomplish on Labor day weekend, but I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Once we get this one off of our books, we will be able to return to OUR house projects!

Happy weekend everyone!

Andrea

Bungalow Work on Memorial Day

Since we have not done a whole lot with the new bungalow rent house we purchased, we decided to go over there today to clean up, paint and plan the next stage for this house.  I painted the dining room and then, somewhere in there, I got bored and took my new SLR camera around to see what kind of pictures I could get out of it.  I have bought two books on digital SLR photography…by the way…so, I wanted to try out some of the tips in the book.  Even though they are not phenomenal, you have to admit that these photos are MUCH better than what my old dying digi cam was taking last month.  The last picture cracks me up.  It looks like Vivian needs to go on a FEED THE CHILDREN campaign poster!  LOL.  I found her in the living room eating a piece of leftover Popeyes chicken.  She looked so funny in her do-rag (I wear one when I paint and you know the old saying, monkey see, monkey do, monkey has to have one too!)  Although, I do believe she looks a LOT better than I do in a do-rag.

Bye bye orange peel!!  Hello Timothy Straw by Benjamin Moore!

This house has a beautiful yard.  Since it borders our yard, we are toying with the idea of moving our property lines and having it resurveyed, etc.  I cut several blooms from this very old hydrangea bush.  I am also toying with the idea of digging the thing up and planting it somewhere in our back yard.  I found this pink looking bloom.  I am not sure what it is.  I can’t tell if it is a weed or if it is some sort of old flower.  Anyone know?

Andrea

Q: What happens when you paint latex paint over oil base paint?

A: Simple.  This happens:

(This is the Craftsman style bungalow next door we purchased in January.  For other related posts, click on the tag Bungalow)

Kitchen Door

And this:

Bedroom Door

 It appears that someone found a sale on green oil base paint and painted every door and baseboard in this house.  Then, later, a super smart person painted flat latex paint over the oil base paint.  Result?  A house full of peeling paint for me to scrape off and start over!   YAY!

Kitchen Wall

Dining Room Arch

Butler's Pantry

I am scraping, sanding and peeling off the paint at present.  When I am finished, I will cover the lovely green with white oil base paint.

Yay for me!

Andrea

Accomplishments of the Weekend

YAY!  We are finished painting the windows at our bungalow rent house.  You may have remembered us complaining about it here.  Anyway, here is the before picture when we bought it over a year ago (this picture is before we did ANY work to it) and here is the now picture after the windows have been painted:

Before...

...After

I know it is not a huge improvement.  But it does look a lot better from the street. 

Also, yesterday evening, we pressure washed OUR house in preparation to sand and scrape the porch rails and porch walls to paint.  Here are Vivian’s pictures.  She was bored, so I gave her my camera to play with:

Yay! My legs. At least I got a pedicure yesterday.

And this is how we ended our day:

Vivian and Mercedes

Notice me in the background painting while my daughter is loafing!    Oh to be four again.  Hope you got everything accomplished this weekend that you had on your list!

Andrea

Wow! What an Improvement!

During my Mardi Gras vacation, I decided to paint the living areas of the bungalow we recently purchased.  Gone is the garish orange and the brilliant green.  In its place is a neutral, light green called Timothy Straw by Glidden.   By painting both connecting spaces the same color, it makes the space look bigger and less like a fun house.  The room you can see through the swinging door, which is another bright shade of orange, will be painted the same color.  The hall, which you can see from the living areas, will be painted Cream Tan, which is also by Glidden and on the lighter side of the same paint chip as Timothy Straw.

BEFORE:

Living Room and entryway

AFTER:

Once we refinish the floor and put down a baseboard shoe, I am going to repaint the trim in a white oil based paint.  Right now it is painted with a flat wall paint!  So, every time you touch it, it gets smudged.  Who would paint their trim in flat paint?  Insane!  I wish I had the time to strip the paint off of all of it.  There is a small chip missing on one of the columns and underneath all 3-4 layers of paint, the trim boasts of beautiful wood.  If I were going to live there, I would take the time and scrape all of the paint off.  However, I have enough paint stripping projects in my own house to contend with.  For the time being, it will get painted and if someone buys the house from us in the future, I will let the paint stripping become their headache.  Right now, I just have to get the thing back in good condition (New HVAC, new windows…most of them are broken or cracked….new appliances, floors refinished, new light fixtures, etc.) so we can rent it out without having to make two house payments! 

This color turned out so well, I can’t wait to get the rest of the house painted! 

Andrea

The Fun House

(Not to be confused with our home, this is the bungalow next door that we purchased last week)

Living Room and entryway

I use the word “fun” very humorously and saracastically.  Besides the “fun house” color scheme, there is nothing “fun” about this house!  The good thing is, it is in a LOT better condition than the other bungalow we purchased.  It took us nine months to return that house to a habitable state (this one is dubbed the “Little House” by our daughter).  This particular house (we shall name it the “Fun House”), was remodeled right before it was bought in May 2006.  The new owner made only three to four payments before he defaulted on it around late 2006.  On my way to work, I would notice now and again, things missing.  The blinds, a window screen, the flower pots, etc.  On my lunch hour one day, I caught a guy taking things in broad daylight.  He was cleaning the shed out.  He backed up his van and was loading flowerpots and other knick knack things that were housed in the shed.  I called the police.  By the time the cop got their, the other man was gone.  I gave her the license plate and told her that the man just left.  She said she saw him backed up to the house, but that he wasn’t taking anything real important, so she wasn’t really worried about it.  Besides (she said), I know him, he is harmless.  I stood there shocked!  He was stealing…….stealing IS stealing!  Since he was able to do it in broad daylight and the cops not stop him, that led to others coming in and taking what they wanted.  Anyway….we own the house now.  It is all shored up.  When I have the electricity turned on Monday, I will make sure the alarm is reset, have motion lights installed  and that will ensure that no one bothers this poor little house anymore.  I have not had any problems living in my house.  It seems that people will leave houses alone they know are occupied.  However, if they get wind that a house is abandoned or foreclosed upon, they come by looking to see what they can salvage.  But, even the richest neighborhoods are not immune to these happenings. 

Here are some pictures I took this weekend of the Fun House.  Besides a new paint scheme, it is in great condition and has beautiful columns and arches in the living areas.  I can’t wait to refinish the floors and have this little lady gleaming again.  I already have the paint scheme picked out!  The living room, entryway and dining room will all be painted “Timothy Straw” by Glidden, and the hall will be painted one lighter on that chip, “Cream Tan”.  The bedrooms will be painted a “Bone White” by Benjamin Moore and the back bedroom will be painted “Weekend Getaway” by Benjamin Moore and since the bedroom opens into the kitchen (Yes, strange I know), it will be painted a lighter shade on that weekend getaway card, a color by the name of “Aganthus Green” also by Benjamin Moore.  The bathroom will sport “Stratton Blue” by Benjamin Moore and the half bath (If I can talk my husband into it) will be painted a very nice “Spicy Cayenne” by Behr. 

The Benjamin Moore store is able to mix anyone’s paint colors.  I will probably take all of these chips to them and let them mix it.  I love Benjamin Moore’s second tier “contractor” paint.  It is of a much better quality than Behr and it rolls on so nice and smooth.  It has less of an odor than Behr paint too.  Even nicer are Benjamin Moore’s premium paints, but I hate spending so much money on premium when the second tier paints are of a better quality than what you can get at Home Depot or Lowes anyway.

Here is a Lowes Color pallette:

 I guess I need to give my paint contractor a call. I am sure you all know her. She also happens to be my daughter. I guess a visit to Chuck-e-Cheese will be in my near future

Wish us happy painting!

Andrea

We shape our buildings…

…thereafter, they shape us.”  Winston Churchill

This is so true.  In about 20-30 years, a lot of the McMansions being built today, full of plastic doors and cheap stuff, will be run down eyesores begging to be torn down.  They just don’t build houses like they used to.  I am proud to live in my one hundred year home that was built by the last owner of the Kent Plantation, Sally Hynson-Ringold, and to own another significant older home right next to me.  I am happy to announce that this coming Tuesday, we will become the proud owners of a third piece of Alexandria’ history.  I am very excited about our purchase and am glad to aid this older, once grand, neighborhood and have hopes and visions that it can be returned to its former glory.

This lady is doing it, why can’t we?  And this group: Save the Bungalows 

Andrea