Paint the floors. Remove visual pollution and feel the anxiety roll out of your pores..

I have found that if you remove the pollution of visual bombardment, you get a better overall feeling.  

A sense of relief, serenity and just a plain calmness.  

Every floor in this house is wood or concrete.  To finish the floors will cost a fortune, simply because of the size of this house.  This floor below, in the dining room would cost from $500 to $1000 for something traffic proof.  A vinyl wood-look plank flooring is over $600 just for this room.  This is one of 5 rooms this size and bigger, on just this floor.  $5000 is not in the budget just for flooring on one level, soooooo I did some pintresting and found people painting plywood floors all over the place.  

This is the dining room before it was totally painted.  Not a very good picture but you get the idea of the visual pollution with all the spots and lines, and knots in the wood.  

See how much cleaner it looks?  I spent $30 on a gallon of paint.  

The lines you see are paint lines and completely disappear when the paint is dry.  

In the last picture you can see the entrance to the hall way from the dining room.  

This is the hallway floor.  It really shows the distraction of spots, lines, wood grain, and gaps.

Here it is painted.  

I went over the floor with a scraper, and a damp towel to prep.  It is, after all, just plywood and not permanent so I didn't want to spend to much energy and time prepping the floors. 

The clean white stairs with the dark floor and darker hand rail just pop for me.  It makes it cleaner looking while it is on the market.  

Check out my Stairs of the Shortline blog here Stairs of the Shortline on how I painted the stairs, and why.  

Stairs of the Shortline.

These stairs look like a tornado hit them, and a gaggle of Canadian Geese landed for a 15 year vacation. 

Best thing going for 'em is how solid they are.  Hit this house with a 3 ton dump truck and I bet the stairs are still standing.  

They have been painted at least 7 times.  Had 3 different types of carpet glued, and stapled down the center, and the fancy banister spoke things are missing.   

Remember this floor for a later post.  ;)

After scraping, staple pulling, tape removing, and a weee bit of sanding, I began painting.  Could. Not. Wait. Longer.

I began with the side facing into the hallway.  

It was a mother.  A mother like me.  A bitch.

Then the risers for each stair, and the treads of every other stair.

Yes.  Skip a stair.  

Gotta be able to get to bed that night, right? 

The side that was a mother, like me.  

Missing banister spoke thingies.  I wanted to cover them some how.  Fancy trim, a painted metal lid, fancy wood medallion.  

Something cheap and easy, as I'd need 32 of 'em. 

Alas, that did not happen.  Painted holes is what it is.   

Ta-Da!!

Right to the finished picture!

You get the idea of painting the other stairs the next day when you can walk on the painted ones, right?  Yes?  I thought you would.. ;)

Faux Trim

No money.

No trim.

Noooooo problem!

White paint.

Fake it, baby......

Bathroom finishing peek!

Finally getting paint on SOMETHING!

Seems like the dry-walling/sanding/primer'n was taking forfreakinever!

Although this bathroom is far from being finished.  It is the closest room to being done in the whole house.  

Up this weekend... 

Finish paint job, paint existing light fixture and install another, lay flooring, and install baseboard trim.  

What top cabinets?

So, with a kitchen this large I wondered if we could do without top cabinets.  Its all the rage now, I understand.  

Here is a picture of the cabinets in place and with the bar still intact See Removing of the bar for that project.  

With top cabinets

We shook, yanked, and pulled on those cabinets for an hour.

One side down, now for the other

This side was a &*##@, they had to come down connected to the each other.  If you were there when I took the picture, you'd hear us calling those cabinets every horrible curse word in the book, and lots of exhausted breath catching.  

They had to come down together.


And now.....
What cabinets?

What cabinets?

Before removing these cabinets I had the brilliant idea of using them in the butlers pantry <pictures of that coming soon> but all you have to do is flip it over and build up the counter-top or build a box for them to sit on to get them to counter-top height.
By flipping them, the handles are now off the floor and nearer the counter-top, plus inside the shelves are now flipped over and look nice and new with the bowing changed.
The picture below gives you an idea of the cabinet flipped, but you are going to have to wait to see where I used them.  

What bar?

Although the idea of this bar was a good one for the former owners, it was not good for us.  The kitchen side was rough sawed lumber and plywood scraps.  No doors or proper storage at all.  The front was outdoor paneling.  It also sucked up all the light from the two bright windows in the dining room.  

I knew it had been installed to hide something, as the floors in the rest of the home are wood.  The kitchen floor is concrete and obviously they'd not gotten around to removing everything and building up that floor to match the others.  

Sure enough, a 1 1/2 inch step.  

It is what it is.  A different flooring design between the kitchen and dining room should save my drunken tripping expected in the future.  

Bar from the dining room looking into the kitchen

From the dining room looking into the kitchen and almost down

What bar?

Paint color "Grey Tweed" by Glidden

The paint just before pouring

This color was bought on a whim.  I liked it in Home Depot, and so did hubby, so we stupidly <or not> bought 5 gallons.  

After getting it to the house, I painted a splash on different walls of rooms I was intending to use, but I just wasn't feeling the color.  

FIVE GALLONS!

In the foyer

In the dining room

In the formal living room

I had to use it somewhere.  Originally, I considered painting the floors a dark brown, but after trying it in a corner of Kyle's room, I knew it would be the floor color and TA-DA I had plenty of it for all the original wood floors in the home. 

In Kyle's bedroom

In Derrick's bedroom

Coming soon, another bedroom and the hallway!

The Shortline Mansion

Here it is.  

My newest endeavor.

Let me introduce you to The Shortline Mansion.

I named it the Shortline because it sits right next to the railroad tracks, and the Shortline is from the Monopoly Game.

But honestly, its because there is a very short line between any level spot in this home.  Nothing is plumb.  

It is what it is, and I love it.

The Shortline Mansion

Train goes by

Just a sample of how loud it is on the front porch.  

Then.... Peacefulness again.

MudandSand MudandSand MudandSand

Painting floors to the tune of Cleaning Windows by VantheMan

CLICK TO LISTEN Van Morrison "Cleaning Windows"

Kyle's room

Kyle's room

Kyle's room, finished

Looking into Kyle's room

Kyle's room showing the kicked in white door

Storm rolling in

I was lucky enough to be at the house when a lovely summer storm rolled in.  Even got a wee video of it!

Rolling clouds

Skies just about to open up

My first ever blog video.

Wish you could smell that freshly dampened earth smell that is so strong when you have a dry August and it finally pours.   

We needed this rain in a bad sorta way.