decision making :: floors, backsplash, wallpaper

I'd prefer to be posting things like, "hey guys, check out the new counter tops" but for now we are still waiting for these darned contractors to get moving on the quote process to get rid of this wall. There are quite a few issues, let alone the fact that it's a load-bearing wall. There is plumbing, HVAC ductwork and electrical lines that will need to be reconfigured. Each contractor that has come through ends up having to schedule a second appointment with other people to give an accurate quote. So - it's taking longer than expected.

Fortunately, while we complain about not living on the first floor, we do have a fairly comfortable, efficiency'esque 'apartment' in the basement.

As the process goes on, decisions are constantly being made - and then changed - and then changed back - and then thrown out the window completely. Here are some considerations:

Wood floors - the ones in the house are pretty amazing. The planks are all slightly different widths, the color is warm and they are some seriously solid, thick floors. Original to the house, I imagine they could have been hand-scraped, according to this article, wood floors weren't mass produced in factories until the 1900's. Although, we were told by the previous owner that at some point in the '80s they were pulled up, cleaned and relaid - this is probably why they are in as good as shape as they are - not much squeaking or moving at all. Anyhow, they're in need of a refinishing. The options are:

--- a typical sanding/refinish to expose a new, very clean surface to then finish with polyurethane of some sort (we probably won't stain them, which will leave them a very light color) or;

--- buff them with a light sanding, leaving them the current color, but giving them a very shiny, hopefully nice look with multiple coats of poly. We like this option, because it will retain the rustic look that we really like - I love the dark line in between each board and would hate to lose that to a deep sanding;

--- any thoughts? like that window in the middle of the house? That's the wall that needs to be taken out - it used to be the rear of the home, hence the window.

Backsplash - this is so far down the line that I have time to change my mind at least 37 times. We are considering a few materials. One being stainless steel tiles. We saw this in a house and it looked great. I've read a few things about people having problems with it looking dirty and/or scratching - which makes me nervous. Especially when considering the fact that it'll probably cost twice as much as other materials. We went ahead and ordered some samples from Modwalls, just to see how they look. They look pretty great - the subway tile (second below) is my top choice (it's about .75"x1.5", to put it in perspective):





Wallpaper for the bedroom - Despite the fact that we sort of hate it after removing as much as we did (and still have more to do) - we love the stuff over at Ferm Living. This is only going to be on one wall in the bedroom, behind the headboard (which I'll post about later, we're making it out of the huge doors that were on the first floor - s'gonna be nice). We don't agree on this decision at all right now.

Craig is fighting for this:


But I like this one:


I'd actually pick this one right now - but it does not seem to be within Craig's compromise-able range:

passion flower and blue paint

This is one of my favorite plants in the garden. The flowers are different and unique looking, the dark green foliage is beautiful and as a quick grower, it should cover a good deal of this wall before summer. The vine is on the left in this picture.

Here is the flower - this vine sometimes produces fruit, but I'm a bit skeptical of eating produce grown around all this, um, wildlife.

I love how the tendrils are always reaching for something to grab.




We also painted the back door and awning blue... along with our bench, that was looking pretty sad lately. At first the blue was jarring, but it's really starting to grow on me. I would like to replace that awning at some point.



Sorry the pictures are blurred... I'll be switching to Flickr after this post.

And one more - this is the Salleyway I mentioned in a previous post. We're looking for a gate to replace this old, dark wooden door. This picture, makes it look bright in here... it's usually dark and the air is stale. We pressure washed this past weekend and plan on painting it all a light yellow color sometime soon.

wallpaper removal

There are many ways to remove wallpaper. I initially tried a mixture of fabric softner and water on wallpaper that had been scored - I've heard of this working, but it didn't fair too well. It would have taken months to finish the job we have - and I imagine it would take ten bottles of fabric softner. So we rented a steamer for $34.


...still a slow process, but it helped immensely. It's easy to use and no chemicals. First, you fill the tank with hot water - it took about 30 minutes before the steam started, so the hotter you start with the sooner you'll be working. It's a relatively small tank, but it lasted a good amount of time. While you're waiting for steam, score the paper so that the steam can permeate the glue. Slowly run the steamer plate over the paper and it should start loosening from the wall.

The stuff in the bedroom was horrible and took much longer. It came off in two layers, first the decorative easter egg layer, then the backing paper.

The walls will need repair and primer before painting, but it's nice to take a step in the right direction.

The ivy paper was thicker and held together, so removing it was much easier. You can also see that we ended up exposing the brick all the way up the stairs. The darker diagnol line is where the roof over the basement stairs used to be.

Some tips:
-Keep a spray bottle nearby. If the walls are very wet, it comes down easier;
-Using the scraper is sometimes inevitable, but I tried to keep it's use to a minimum. If everything is wet, you can use your fingers to pull it down with less damage to the wall;
-Pull slowly and try to get as big a piece as possible.

shopping :: housewerks

Housewerks is an "architectural werkshop" chock full of great items.

We're on a mission to find a few iron gates for the salleyway. This is a recently learned term - our house has a side alleyway, which is basically an outdoor hallway connecting the back 'yard' to the street out front. Because we're a middle unit and we don't have an alley running behind the house, this is a convenient way to carry trash to the curb.

We need two gates, one for the front to replace the current barn'ish wooden door and one for the back to keep the dogs out of the neighbor's space - who also has access to the same salleyway.

These look good, but too narrow:


I liked these more than Craig did, but they need some substantial modification to fit the space, let alone some serious cleaning up:


For now we'll keep searching, there are a few places to check this coming weekend.

Housewerks has all sorts of fantastic items, check out this sink:

And the main room:


Off topic, the garden is coming in nicely - and much less work than the yard at the previous house!

exposing the brick...

...is hard work.

Typically, the rowhouses in Baltimore are brick boxes. There are a few wood framed rowhouses still around the city - and we looked at one that was beautiful - but for the most part they're all brick. There was even a law at some point in the 1800's requiring the houses and buildings be constructed with brick because fires were much angrier then and entire cities would be destroyed in hours.

I like the fact that our 200 year old box is made of brick.

In most houses, the brick would be covered with plaster. In our case - and many others - drywall would be hung over the plaster. The drywall is typically the easy part. The plaster should have been outlawed along with the wooden houses. I've read some articles about how the plaster would fall off in large pieces. Our plaster holds on to the brick for dear life.

A few tips:
-Wear gloves, dust mask and safety glasses;
-Your brick might not be pretty - test an area to make sure it looks good;
-We used hammers, prybars, mallets and a good dose of elbow grease;
-A labradoodle could do this - DIY 100%.

We haven't committed to doing huge areas just yet. Here's what we have so far.
This is in what will be the living room:



In this area, rather than hanging the drywall on furring strips, it was glued to the plaster for added fun!


Eventually, the television will hang on the wall above the fireplace - oh my, I hate that wallpaper. Play Cornhole.


John McCain makes one angry.


Speaking of fires... do you think there may have been one in the basement at some point?

The next step is cleaning the brick, which creates an incredible amount of dust and sore biceps. More on that later.

Oh, and we have to do something about the dining room:


Meet Kanga and Jaxxon - renovations are exhausting, but plaster tastes delicious

hello pop candy

hey all!
welcome to the site!

a change of scenery

The before pictures of the outside were depressing - these are from our previous house - loved those day lillies:




Another contractor is coming by this week to take a look at the wall we want to remove. Hopefully, more updates to come.