Things on a List

23 Friday Jul 2010

Posted by Karen B. in Decorating, Renovating

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Because its Friday and we’re headed into the weekend I thought we all might want to work on our respective “list of things to do”—even if #1 on the list is 1. RELAX! Here is what has been on my mind/list and I hope to get a DIY project done this weekend. I’ll keep it (the project) a secret in case it doesn’t turn out and I can just casually say, “Oh, my DIY? No, I ended up relaxing all weekend.” 🙂
Happy Weekend and enjoy!

I’m an avid list maker—I often have more lists than I can keep track of. That pretty much defeats the purpose of a list, right? Originally my list making was strictly of the variety commonly known as “Things to Do” list. But over time I have started making lists of home improvements, reference list (such as blog sites that have tutorials that may come in handy in the future), blog sites I love to visit list, and things we’ve done to our home list.

The prettier the paper for making a list the happier I am.

What I discovered is that lists, in addition to bringing order to chaos {when you actually fulfill your list}, can be a journal of sorts. When I review my lists they help me recall what I’ve been doing.

Finding a mirror where this framed picture is hanging is on my "dream" list of future home improvement projects.

This comes in handy where our home is concerned. In fact, I discovered that if a home-improvement project makes it to the “things I’d like to do to the house” list there is a pretty good chance that even some of the larger projects will get done sooner rather than later. Is it that whole “positive thoughts produce positive results” thing?

Okay, I realize I don't have this view but one of the things on my list for a few years has been to create a stone pad in our backyard...we have a natural canopy of ficus trees that would be the perfect spot to have some comfy chairs.

Another thing on my list is finding a fountain that cascades the water instead of sounding like someone using the restroom (if you know what I mean).

I also found that the list of “things we bought/done to the house” serves me well when it comes to things like—why does this sofa fabric look so worn? Oh it might be because its been 10 years since we’ve reupholstered! Time does fly and we often forget that it was some time ago that we replaced/repaired something in the home.

This is inspiration for my "remodel the guest bath" list. It may be awhile but having it on the list helps.

I believe lists help me feel less stressed about the things I’d like to accomplish. I do believe my list, where my home is concerned, is an unending list! What’s on your list to do to your home this year?

Wood floors

16 Wednesday Jun 2010

Posted by Karen B. in Renovating

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hardwood floors, tips for repair

I love the look of wood floors. We have 3/4″ red oak hardwood floors on a plywood base in most of our house. The 3 bedrooms have carpet and the 2 bathrooms have tile floors.

Photo via Veranda - Wood floors in the kitchen (above) and Graystone mansion (below).

We have had our floors refinished twice in the 25 years they have been down and they are in need of being refinished again. This would be a huge undertaking since we would have to move all of the small pieces of furniture and most probably would have to board the dogs/cat and stay in a hotel for at least a couple of nights ourselves. It would also take some $$$, which we don’t seem to have right now.

Photo via Veranda - Hardwood floors seem a natural in a library.

So, my husband volunteered to stain some of the areas that are really bad (since he is currently looking for a job). I confess, I was skeptical…I was concerned that the floors would look splotchy and possibly look worse than before we attempted to spot refinish them but I was wrong and he has given the floors a once-over and they look so much better than before. This will tide us over for a bit.

This is a part of our family room wood floors that my husband added stain to, it looks so much better than it did.

What kind of floors do you have?

One Method for Removing Wallpaper

26 Wednesday May 2010

Posted by Karen B. in Renovating

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home improvement, Removing wallpaper;, Tips for removing wallpaper

Since I listed removing wallpaper from my library in a recent blog, I thought I’d pass along tips from my experience with removing wallpaper. And no, I have not started removing the wallpaper in the library yet. The method below has worked for me even when the wallpaper seems to be cemented to the wall.

Begin by tearing off the any loose edges/strips.

I suspect there may be some wallpaper that requires a wallpaper steamer, something I’m sure most of us don’t have waiting in the garage! I haven’t encountered paper that requires one, yet, thankfully. Be sure plant plenty of drop clothes before you begin.

1. If there are any loose edges, or if you can lift a corner of the paper you will have a place to start. Slowly tear the paper, don’t worry if it leaves a thin layer of paper on the wall, we have a solution that will take care of that.

2. Remove as much of the paper using the tearing method—don’t despair if you cannot get very much of the paper off using the first step. Once you’ve taken as much paper off the wall as possible, mix DIF Liquid Concentrate Wallpaper Stripper with hot tap water (following mix to water ratio on bottle) in a spray bottle. Don’t be tempted to buy the pre-mixed spray unless you have only a couple of strips of wallpaper to remove, its more expensive and you will most probably need more than 1 bottle to do the job. Spray the hot wallpaper remover on the area you want to start with. Note: I would work 1 strip of wallpaper at a time, ceiling to floor, that way if you have to stop it looks a little less like the big mess that it is.

Carefully scrape wallpaper once solution has set for 15 minutes

3. Leave the solution you’ve sprayed for about 15 minutes, this gives it time to work its magic. Set the timer, you don’t want to let the paper dry out, it will make it more difficult to remove. With a 3-4″ metal scraper begin to gently scrape the paper and paste from the wall. This is not an easy 1-2 hour task. But you will get a rhythym going and with an iPod in your ears time will go by fairly quickly. If the paper doesn’t budge, repeat step 2.

4. 1/2 to 1 day later you’ll be finished, hopefully. Those who have read my site before will remember that I live in a cottage, not a McMansion, so the rooms are smallish and it doesn’t take me too long to remove wallpaper from a room. Next, you want to mix a bucket of warm water and TSP (a powder cleaner found at most hardware stores). Wash the walls with this solution until you are certain all paste is off the wall. This step is especially important if you plan to paint. If you don’t remove all of the paste residue it will cause your paint to crackle in those spots. It won’t be pretty and we’re going for pretty!

This is you in your newly painted room once you've removed the wallpaper.

Sounds easy right? So not I need to heed my own advice and get started. Let me know if you have questions, I’m here to help if I can.

By the way, one of my favorite blog sites, Southern Hospitality, recently had a post about wallpapering just one wall—that probably wouldn’t work in my library but I loved the examples she shows us. So, before you use my handy tools for eliminating wallpaper, think about keeping one wall or take down the paper you don’t like and put up some you like.

Images courtesy of Better Homes & Gardens/Cottage living ideas

Home – the ongoing project

03 Monday May 2010

Posted by Karen B. in Decorating, Renovating

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If you own your own home and you’ve made improvements you will have undoubtedly discovered that ‘homes’ are an ongoing project, never really “finished”. When we moved into our home we knew it had our basic needs covered—3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, family room, living room and plenty of yard space to raise our 2 grown sons.

Photo courtesy of: Cottage Living Magazine

It also had harvest gold Formica (not that there’s anything wrong with that, right?), very old aluminum windows that barely opened and white shag carpet (yeah, white carpet and 2 boys, age 4 and newborn, you do the math). As most young families, we were operating on a shoe string budget but my husband agreed to let me tile the kitchen and replace the aluminum window with a wood bay window. I remember like it was yesterday, when we finished those 2 pricey (at least to us) projects, my darling husband said, “Now the kitchen is pretty much done, right?” Little did he know that the work had only just begun…we have made renovations large and small to the kitchen several times.

Not my kitchen--photos of my kitchen will come later

After living in our home for 28 years I marvel at 1) how time flies and 2) how once you’ve finished a remodeling job that seems like only yesterday, when its actually been 10 years and some components of the room have started to wear and need repair or replacement.

Is a home really ever finished? I don’t think so. Maybe that is what’s fun about home ownership. You can always find a little project to work on. At least for those of us who thrive on feathering the nest, we enjoy the search for new fabrics, paint, wallpaper and the like.

I love the look of this library.

My current wish list includes refinishing the hardwood floors—which would involve moving out for a couple of days during the final stain/sealing process. We would also have to board our 2 dogs and 1 cat, cha-ching$$$. Overwhelming in scope right now, it will be on the list for a couple more years.

Putting new sod in the back yard—we currently have a mixture of may kinds of grass, some of which are actual weeds.

Madison agrees, we need new grass.

And finally, the one home improvement project on the ‘wish list’ that I should begin (since it’s more of a DIY kind of project) is to remove wallpaper from the library walls, replace the door casings (which haven never been replaced and are very unattractive), recover the sofa and paint the room.

What projects are on your list of things to do around the house and which one will you do first?

How to repair wallpaper seams

08 Sunday Jul 2007

Posted by Karen B. in Renovating

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A dear friend recently called me to get my suggestions on where she might find a great wallpaper selection to replace the not so old wallpaper in her master bedroom. I commented on how much I liked her existing wallpaper. It turns out that the wallpaper had begun to lift and separate at the seams and that this problem was something my friend wasn’t sure could be repaired. With a little internet homework, I found a “how to” posting on reparing wallpaper. Should this be a problem for you here are the simple, but effective, methods we used with great success. First fill a bucket or basin with very warm water. With a 6-8″ sponge, dampen the seams using the warm water. Then with a plastic spackle knife, apply wallpaper paste to the undersides of the lifted seams; sponge off excess paste with a well-wrung out sponge smoothing the seam until it meets and is flat to the wall. We used wallpaper paste from a paint store designed to apply wallpaper borders. The directions from the internet indicated that this type of paste tended to have a stronger adhesive in it. Our project didn’t take very long and the wallpaper looked as good as the day it was first installed. I hope this will be of some assistance to any of you that might encounter this problem.