More Time in the Yard

Yard work kept on through Friday. The vines came down off the fence.

Before (side view):

After (looking straight on):

Then Norm came over to help us remove the holly. It was growing too close to the house and was well on it's way to damaging the eaves.

Saturday I spent several hours stripping one side of the closet door for the office/guest room.

It's not quite done, but it's close. I'm debating whether I want to strip the interior facing side of the door. It's roughly 4 hours worth of labor that I'd rather put towards something else. So I may just sand it to clean up, and repaint. Or I may give in to the guilt and strip the paint anyway.

So far as a day spent stripping paint goes, it was pretty awesome. I had music playing, it was warm and I was well shaded by the giant fig tree.

When I decided to call it day, I still had enough motivation to clean up the front room, which has been a disaster area since starting the office project. Yep, it was a good day.

So, how did you spend your weekend?

Paint Colors for the TV/Guest Room

While technically a bedroom, we use the space for watching television and hanging out, as well as for overnight guests. Located in the front of the house, we expect that this was originally the master bedroom. It is wallpapered over a smooth finished plaster, and has its own entrance to the bathroom.

Similar to the dining room, we will:

-strip wallpaper and paint

-repair plaster

-repaint

Also, we're also removing the entrance to the bathroom. The door limits the sense of privacy you have when someone is on the other side of that door, so we'll have to take it out (and reuse it when we finish the basement).

When we painted the dining room last year, we picked a great dark blue (I think it's great, anyway). At that time, we also picked out colors for the rest of the house. I've started to second guess the original palette. Instead of tans and grays, we are starting to look at green/gray colors. Have a look:

Now:

The new greens:

What do you think? Should we keep looking?

2011 Forecast

In October 2010, this post described our progress, relating to a list posted earlier in the year (here: 2010 Forecast). We had barely touched the list! Our good intentions meant very little once the home improvement ball was rolling.

Last summer, the City sent us, along with our neighbors, a letter explaining the City's plan to replace our sewer. Good news, right? Did I mention that replacing our fully functional sewer connection will be at our cost? It isn't how we'd hoped to spend that chunk of money, but there is no way around it, so we have to bite the bullet.

This impacted our 2010 list, and will also play into our 2011 list. We can't very well build a retaining wall when it might be damaged by work in the street, and possibly in our yard. So that project has been simmering on the back burner, for a while. I just said simmering, didn't I? More like ice cold. Bummer.

Fortunately, the NE Portland Bungalow still has plenty of home improvement projects to chose from. Here is our pipe dream proposed "To Do" list for the remaining three quarters of 2011:

1.) The exterior:

-remove the poured concrete patio/sidewalk and replace with pavers

-fix the gutters and dig french drains

-prune the out of control fig tree

-remove old plants, till/level the yard, and replant grass

-build a shed for the grill, mower and other lawn care tools

The backyard has seen (and will see) better days:

Here's a peak at the monster fig tree:

There is a lot to say about this tree, and it could have an entire post just for itself. Maybe it will someday.

2.) The current TV room:

-remove wall paper, strip paint, repaint

-repair plaster

-remove door to bathroom and frame in wall instead

The current TV room:

The room is currently egg-salad-yellow paint over wallpaper, has about 5 layers of paint on trim, and has plenty of damaged plaster (not to mention holes in the plaster from insulating the room). This project should be very similar to the dining room project, and will hopefully go much faster.

(at this point, we'll play Musical Rooms, moving our bed to that room)

3.) The current bedroom:

-repair plaster (no wallpaper- woohoo!!)

-strip paint, repaint

-restore sash windows

The current bedroom:

This picture was taken during the insulation project, in November 2009. Clearly, this room will need lots of plaster repair. Fortunately, there is no wall paper to strip, but there are sash windows to restore. I'm excited for that experience, but intimidated by the unknown.

4.) And everyone's favorite category, miscellaneous:

-if we're ever really feeling ambitious, strip some paint off the fire place brick

If anyone has any good tips or stories relating to french drains, restoring sash windows, landscaping or anything else, please do share- advice might be just want the doctor ordered!

Spray Painting Lamps: Before and After

DIY inspiration struck again.

In a quest to graduate from furniture and accessories left over form our college years, I've been hungrily searching for lamps to replace these:

Collectively, I think I spent about $20 for both lamps and the missing shade. Please note: these lamps look better in this picture than in person.

When I have to shop for something, for the first time, I find that I lack any opinion and end up spending months pre-shopping before I feel prepared to purchase. Drapes? Shopped for about 22 months. Rugs? 6 months. Dishes? HA!

With visions of what the current-TV-room/future-office will look like in a few months (after removing wallpaper and repainting), I started getting excited, and feeling inspired. I wanted dark lamps with a clean, casual look.

The lamps pictured above were destined for the "donate" pile, as I started pre-shopping. I was looking for a dark base (to match the drapery rods I picked) and mica shade- in bloth a floor lamp and a table lamp. Most of what I found came in around $40 per lamp- ouch.

At Target, I was inspired to check out the lamps and shades that could be mixed and matched. This shade caught my eye:

I realized that I might be able to add new shades to my old lamps. Two shades were around $35 together (one large, and one medium). I couldn't find the exact shades on the Target website, but they are from Target's "Home" line.

At home, I found the shades did not fit *perfectly* on the lamps, and wobbled a bit. I made shims by wrapping strips of foil around the base of the shade, for a better fit:

A quick sanding, a few coats of spray paint, and the lamps were ready for their new shades. The brown spray paint did not come out as dark as I wanted, so I may repaint them, later. But for now:

Doesn't the little lamp remind you a child wearing a big hat? Not the most amazing lamps I've ever seen, but they will work for now. If I replace them, later, I will probably keep these shades, though.