Buying a fixer-upper means spending a lot of time in hardware stores. Our kids used to love them, but the bloom is officially off the rose. Now the combination of fluorescent lighting and lumber makes them go dead-eyed. (That effect is pictured here.)
The first step was painting the trim white. This bedroom had many of the same issues as the other bedroom we already renovated–the trim was comprised of mismatched pieces and stain finishes. Painting the trim was the best solution, but we kept the doors in the original wood stain.
After the walls had been patched, we removed the doors and painted the trim. It was boring, but we caught up on Serial. This bedroom will forever remind me of Adnan. (Seriously, what of the Asia McClain alibi?) Here are photos of the painted trim, pre-wall paint.
It has taken a while to get this blog up and running. Our piecemeal progress does not make for dramatic HGTV reveals and is mostly determined by budget, time constraints and how long it takes to get our children to bed. Before 9 p.m.? Paint brushes all around. After 9 p.m? Our desiccated husks collapse in front of Netflix.
As a refresher, we bought a fixer-upper in the Chicago suburbs–an American four-square built in 1913 that underwent additions in the 1940s and in 1988. We’re trying to restore it in a historically sensitive way, and we’re doing as much of the work as possible by ourselves. You know, like Chip and Joanna. Except with a lot more swearing. Like, a LOT more.
The team includes me, my husband, Andy, and my mom, Mary. We also have two young sons who “help” as well. You know, by going rogue with a paint roller or flushing sponges down the vintage plumbing.
We’ve finished a handful of rooms now, and I’ll start posting the photos room by room so you can see what we’ve done and where we started.
Word to your mother.
There will be a hiatus in posts while we get ready to move! Hopefully will have some new house projects up soon.
We’ve owned the house for three months now. A lot of projects are underway, though few are completed. (It’s a little hard to make any progress with 4- and 2-year-old boys who think that it’s super fun to flush paint brushes down toilets. Maybe I’ll try it sometime. Seems to be hilarious to the under 5 set.)
I won’t post anything from the new house until I have completed rooms to show (with plenty of progress pics along the way) because that’s the way Sarah Richardson would do it. (I want to roll the Sarah’s House way as much as possible, albeit without a Sarah’s House budget.)
In the meantime, I’ll post some photos of the projects that we’ve completed in our current house so you can get a sense of our style. I’ll make a big announcement when posts move into new house territory. Maybe there will be balloons. Perhaps a cake. I don’t know – I’ll get into some hard cider and see where the day takes me.