To Paint or Not to Paint

[First of all, thanks for all the encouragement I received during my panic attack last week.  I have decided to proceed with life as a mature and well-adjusted human being.]  

It seems like there is always a debate with older homes: to refinish the original woodwork or to paint it? Our last home in the same neighborhood had pristine woodwork in most parts of the home, which I never considered painting.  

Our new home has woodwork in fairly good condition, but I have decided to paint the woodwork on the upper level.  This project began on Friday evening, but I didn't make much progress that night.  The prep work itself took about 3.5 hours.  This work involved scraping the top of the baseboard to remove the plaster/sanding mess; next, scraping the inner crevice of the baseboard, which has been compacted with years of grime; then, scraping the top of the base layer of molding to remove more grime; and finally, scraping the floor to remove the compacted dust and debris.  After that process was complete, I swept the mess away from the baseboards so the dust wouldn't get into my paint job.

The "before" condition of the baseboards

After that job was done, then I moved onto removing the millions of hooks from the closet.  Some of the screws were badly stripped, which made the removal of the hooks, well, interesting.  Also, I removed the hinge plates from the door frames and put each hinge into a labeled bag so that I would return the hinge plates to the rightful door.  

*Whew.*

Then I was ready to paint.   

I got the first coat of primer on in one part of one room and quit around midnight. The next morning, I returned to the mess around 8:45a and painting for 15 hours,  people.  Keep in mind that the house has no plumbing and no toilets.  But also keep in mind that Greg had taken the girls out of town for the weekend and I don't know when an opportunity to work continuously like that will happen again. And also keep in mind that I am a woman in the middle of a severe nesting crisis and was bound and determined not to let little things, like hydrating myself, get in the way of the work that I was doing.  I made a lot of headway and by late, late Saturday evening, I had all the woodwork upstairs primed (one coat).  I felt proud, although my knees were bruised from kneeling and my hand that held the paint brush was swollen.    

I decided to leave the window sashes unpainted.  I think that the wood allows the leaded glass to pop a bit more.  I have to sand and refinish the wood sashes, but that is a project for another year.  Here's some shots showing one coat of primer:

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I returned on Monday, armed with three children, a caulking gun, a laptop and a giant pail of animal crackers.  I was hoping to get all the gaps caulked before putting on the paint.  I put on a movie for the girls on the laptop, gave them the pail of crackers, and hoped for the best.  I strapped my two year old into a portable highchair so that she would be immobilized, but she figured out how to crawl around with the chair strapped to her back and bottom.  She is as determined as her mother, I suppose.  But all things considered, the kiddos did well and I got most of the caulking done.

Today, I painted some more with my mom and mother-in-law and we finished the second coat of primer on all the woodwork and began priming all doors.  I wanted to take the lazy way out and paint around all the doorknobs, plates, and hinges, but it just looked ridiculous.  So I removed all of the hinges, plates, knobs, and hardware because this is a job that I never, NEVER want to do again and I want to get it right the first time. As of now, most of the doors are primed with one coat and the second coat may be going on tomorrow.  

One coat of primer

We took all the hardware home and cleaned it up. I am so glad we did because the knobs really needed a good scrubbing.  We also discovered that the hooks are solid copper after scrubbing the layers of tarnish off.  I love surprises like that.  I need to find a good product that will remove all the tarnish to expose the copper.   Here's the hooks and knobs after a good scrubbing:

The carpenter was there today to patch the wood floors where the radiators used to be and also to fill in the back room where the floor was severely water damaged.  Here's what it looked like this afternoon:

On Friday and through the weekend, the floors will be sanded.  This feels like the moment I've been waiting for:  the house will look so much better after a good sanding.  I am meeting the stain guy on Saturday morning to choose the stain color for the floor.  Also, the piano is now residing in the kitchen and is precariously balanced on blocks of wood to make way for the sanders .  (Let's hope for the best).

It's been a busy week and I am covered in paint that won't come off my hands and arms despite my vigorous handwashing.  Color me happy.

Reality

This has been a difficult week for me.  I am five weeks out from my due date and four weeks out from moving into our house.  I am living in a two bedroom apartment with three little kiddos in a suburb that I am unfamiliar with.  Our possessions are scattered in one of three locations.  I can't sleep at night because I am either plotting something brilliant (a habit of mine), trying to figure out paint colors, or because I am simply too pregnant to sleep. And not too much has been happening with the house this week.

I have to admit that yesterday, I gave up.  I laid down in bed at four in the afternoon and would have sucked my thumb if my dignity would have permitted it.  Instead, Greg brought in some headphones, plugged me into my favorite Pandora station to help me decompress, and made popcorn for dinner.  My favorite.

I feel much more human today, especially after meeting with our contractor this afternoon.  People always tell you that renovating will move slower than you want, will cost more than you planned, and that there will be unpleasant surprises along the way.  I know all this in my head but experiencing it (especially in the height of my "nesting" phase) is just excruciating.

So tonight I am reminding myself of reality.  Reality is that the house will be finished eventually, I will not be pregnant forever, and that this is actually an opportunity that I have been wanting for years.  Reality check.

The Hardware Dilemma

I have a dilemma. A first world problem, really, but a problem nonetheless.

I chose antique brass sconces for over the kitchen window to coordinate with bronze and brass pendants for over the stove.  I originally was going to get the coordinating brass faucet to tie in the brass until I realized that the one I wanted was….twelve hundred dollars.  Not rupees, dollars.  (I have great taste).

I decided to go with a brushed nickel faucet, mainly because I figured that a nickel faucet would blend better into a light countertop and wouldn't be in competition with the brass sconces.  In my many sleepless nights given over to thinking about kitchen fixtures, I realized that an oil rubbed bronze faucet would draw more attention to the disparity in the finish between the brass light directly above the faucet.  Clearly, I have spent too much time thinking about this.

Here's the fixtures I chose:

Brizo Tresa Bridge faucet in Stainless

Visual Comfort Boston Library Sconce in hand rubbed bronze

David Hicks pendant 

I have been hardware shopping this week and I don't know if I should choose the oil rubbed bronze finish or a weathered nickel finish.  Do I try to tie in the bronze from the pendants or the nickel from the faucet?!?!

Here's the case for bronze:

And here's the case for nickel:

While I was out yesterday, I did find a pull that I liked.  It's simple, and has a bit o' bronze in with the nickel.  Or perhaps I should just decide on one or the other and stop all this in-between nonsense?

What say you?  Oil rubbed bronze or nickel hardware ?

The Miracle of Drywall

An exciting day.  

There was a crew of plaster guys at the house today and they got all the cracks on the first floor filled, sanded and sprayed.  I was at the house a couple times today to sign for some packages (the medicine cabinet and upstairs vanity) and I loved seeing the progress each time.

Here's some before and progress shots:

We have two inspections this week and the HVAC should be complete by week's end.  Next week, the tile in the bathroom begins! 

Get out of the kitchen

We're up north this week, and while I am excited to get home to check on the house progress, I am enjoying some time away from apartment living.  We've been fishing, biking, paddle boating and lounging about.  And feeding little birdies at a zoo.

Note my pregnant "bodybuilder veins" look

Right now, I am sitting in a cafe, enjoying the internet connection to do some more research on my countertop options.  I have one more [huge/expensive/overwhelming] kitchen decision to make and then will be done researching pieces of rock online and may return to being a responsible & attentive mother and friend.

To back up, I like the look of marble in the kitchen and have found that that quartz countertops that are made to replicate the look of marble fall short.  I heard about a new product made out of a porcelain slab (in 5' and 10' lengths) that is supposed to replicate the look and have even more durability than the quartz.  I saw a 24" x 24" square of it at the design center and it looked pretty good.  However, because it's new and don't know what it's even called, I haven't been able to find a lot of photos or reviews of it. I may be taking a trip this week to Chicago (the nearest showroom) to check out some options and want to make sure the trip will be (hopefully) be the last countertop quest.  

Here's the showroom pics:

I did some more research on it today and I think it's called "Statuario Venato" Porcelain Slab countertop.  I found these photos of it online:

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Here's my advice to others like me out there:

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Just make the choice and get out of the kitchen.  It's only a ridiculously expensive piece of rock.