Newborn House

This composite image of the upstairs hall is a series of pictures stitched together into a single image. Click picture to see a larger version.

The restoration of our old house reached a milestone today when we finished work on the upstairs.

There are still a few minor tasks remaining -- grouting one fireplace surround, tiling another fireplace surround and hanging two light fixtures. Nevertheless, we are declaring victory and moving on to the next project.

The upstairs hall, which we are calling the library, didn't have any major structural problems. We only had to rewire, strip off the old wallpaper, repair a lot of cracked plaster, clean everything, patch and caulk, paint and stencil.

The hall, as you can see above, runs from the front of the house to the back, and is nice and wide. We are planning to put in some bookcases, a simple desk, and some nice comfy furniture for sitting and reading.

The color scheme is a continuation of the colors from the downstairs hall. The stenciling here is a simplified version of the pattern from the front part of the downstairs hall. We have a couple of matching antique light fixtures for the space. As soon as I find some missing parts and get them rewired, I'll be able to put them up.

The next project is building a barn. We've about decided to hire somebody to do that project for us. If we go that route, we'll spend the next few weeks getting that launched, and then move on to either the master bathroom or the dining room. Stay tuned.

Posted by Tim at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Before and after of the upstairs bedroom we are using as Andi's sewing room. The room required a lot of plaster repair, stripping of painted fireplace mantle, and a lot of cosmetic patching and painting. (Click picture for a larger view.)

As you can see from the before-and-after picture above and from the photo gallery, the room took a good bit of work to transform it from a big white blob of a room to something with a little panache. Major work included:

• Minor repair and repaining of the beadboard ceiling.
• Lots of plaster repair.
• A new, antique light fixture that we got on E-bay.
• Stenciling. Once again, Andi out-did herself. The border around the room above the picture rail is stenciled. And, instead of a ceiling medallion, she stenciled in a very complex design.
• The mantle had to be stripped and refinished.
• The walls were painted with a currant jam color that required a primer color and four coats of the top color.

The only remaining work in this room is to tile the fireplace surround and hearth. We have found a source for the tile, and that project won't take too long.

We also have finished the spare bedroom, and I don't think we've blogged about that, so I'll get to that post soon. This weekend we made a lot of progress on the upstairs hall. We're hopeful that we'll have that finished by the end of next weekend, and the entire upstairs will be complete! Stay tuned.

Posted by Tim at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)