Ty’s Study
Okay, our “formal” living room has officially sucked since we moved in two years ago. It was a room we really never used, so we didn’t put any energy into making it pretty. (The family room is our main living area.) Throughout other renovations, it became the room for storage, supplies, extra furniture, etc.
Once we got most other rooms in the house under control, we decided to turn the living room into a study/office for Tyler. I think this room has been the most fun project so far in this house. It’s all come together pretty nicely. A few things to still come: new armchairs (I’m thinking leather, off-white), built-in bookcases in the corners on either side of the bay window, desk and floor lamps, and curtains or blinds. But it’s looking much better now, wouldn’t you say?
- Paint: Benjamin Moore Ulti-Matte in Trout Grey (gorgeous colour and finish, which is impossible to tell from the photos) on walls and mantle; Thundercloud Grey on ceiling; Swiss Coffee on trim.
- Wallpaper by Graham & Brown. (I love it, but it doesn’t line up very well. One section lines up, and then it doesn’t anymore, and then a foot later it does. Arg! Also, it’s eco-friendly so it’s not pre-pasted.)
- Wool rug from Home Sense
- “Missing Connections” prints by Sophie Blackall.
Filed under painting, renovations | Comments OffStaircase Update #2
Since December 30th our work on the staircase has slowed down considerably. Andy came to visit for a couple of days, so we cleaned up and left everything as is in order to relax in our pjs and celebrate the new year. Then suddenly it was back to the real world.
I’ve been dawdling along this week, between work assignments, trying to patch up holes in the wood and such. We decided against staining anything except for the new treads. It’ll be easier that way, and still look good.
We ran into a major problem. It appears that underneath all the paint is a layer or two of dark red stain. I primed the baseboard around the first landing and it seeped through, making the white paint, pink. So I tried a water-based stain blocker, and that didn’t work either. So I either had to sand down to bare wood (no way), or try an oil-based stain blocker. I did the latter, and it worked. I wish it hadn’t come to that, the stuff is so toxic. Ick. I used it to prime the banister and posts as well, since I imagine the orange paint that is seeping through is likely due to that oil stain. That’s why people just keep painting over it, because after a few months the paint colour underneath begins to weep. I don’t know…speculation.
See how red the newel post is? That’s stripped. There’s no way I can sand in all those recesses, so if that stain blocker doesn’t work for that post I’ll have to get a new post turned. Here’s a part of me wishing I hadn’t stripped that post…
Filed under foyer, painting, renovations, staircase | Comments OffFoyer and staircase
We’re slowly making our way through the interior of the house and painting every room that is gold. The colour is in almost every room, and we can hardly stand it anymore. A few months ago we painted our family room and my goodness it felt good. We used Benjamin Moore’s Hazy Skies and Clarksville Grey. It looks pretty good, but Hazy Skies is much more grey in this room than downstairs in the suite, where we used it first and fell in love with it. I like it, but Ty’s not sold on the grey look just yet. We’re thinking the accent wall isn’t quite right, so we plan to paint it some other colour at a later date. For now, it’s fine.
Over the holidays we’ve been working on the foyer and the staircase. Painting the entrance area also meant painting beside the stairs and into the hallway upstairs, as the walls are all connected. We decided to go with a bold accent wall on the left, and four shades lighter on the right wall and ceiling. There is horizontal moulding on the walls beside the stairs, and we decided to paint the walls above that moulding a neutral shade, called Elephant Tusk. It looks fabulous so far.
Here’s what the foyer and stairs looked like before we painted.
There was no way we would be able to live with the new wall colour and the dilapidated brown and gold stairs. This is what they looked like before we began demolition.
We’re pretty sure they are the original stairs. They don’t appear to have been built well (many gaps, and a lot of nails, some in unusual spots), although it could also be that they weren’t maintained. And they are somewhere’s around a hundred years old, so it’s not surprising they are in such disrepair. Some of the treads were broken, and the landings are uneven and have breaking boards. We considered simply putting carpet over them, but after doing some research, we decided it wasn’t a very good option. So our Christmas present ended up being 15 engineered oak stair treads at the contractor’s rate of $35.95 each. And lots of sweat equity. (Hopefully.)
The newel posts are gouged and scratched and look terrible. They were painted brown, white, orange and then gold. The orange paint must have been oil-based, because over the past year the orange has “seeped” through the gold. You can see it at the top in this photo.
I stripped the paint from the bottom of the banister and started on the bottom newel post. I’m sanding the risers as they aren’t too bad and don’t have as many layers of paint. We’re also going to paint them the same colour as all the trim and moulding in the house (Swiss Coffee), so it’s not as prudent to strip them.
Our staircase design is to also paint the uprights with Swiss Coffee. The newel posts, handrail, and the bottom of the banister (the part I’m stripping) will be stained a dark brown. This is what they look like right now. Lots of work still to do, but oh boy they are gonna look fabulous when they’re done.
Finally Fini
We finally finished the renovations in the suite early Saturday evening, mere hours before our new tenants moved in. What a week, holy schmoly. The Friday before, Sharon called and asked if they could move in March 1. I figured I could get everything done in time. Which I did, of course, but I worked almost nonstop all day and evening all week, and on Friday night we worked until 3 am. I slept five hours that night. We had an enormous amount of work still to do, and it all took a lot longer than I anticipated. I worked so hard that at times I didn’t know how I kept on. I hardly ate. The only breaks I took were my numerous trips to Home Hardware and Rona for supplies. I think we spent a small fortune just on tools.
But it was worth it. We tested our mettle, and found it to be resolute. Sure, we didn’t plan it out all that well at first — “Oh, we can just take down that wall, no problem!” — but we persevered. We went way over our budget, but I guess that’s to be expected. Still, we had an enormous storage room and a useless hallway, and now we have a beautiful two-bedroom suite with a lovely, warm living room.
We took out the wall behind the wood stove and made this whole area the living room. We added a wall on the right side of the old room to make a small storage area. Some electrical had to be moved, and a baseboard heater installed. We cut out two long strips of drywall on the ceiling and put in insulation.
Oddly, the shared laundry room at the back was open to the suite. We put in a wall and a door there, by the kitchen, so we don’t have to walk into the suite to get to our laundry.
The floor obviously became an issue. We weren’t prepared to replace the whole floor, but the living room definitely needed new flooring because half of it was just concrete, and the other half was simply a very thin vinyl. VERY cold on the feet. After much debate, we opted for carpet. We tried to go on the cheap and bought from the Carpet Dollar Store. You can’t get much for less than $1.50 a square foot. But I didn’t skimp on the underlay (hopefully). The carpet guy I found on Used Victoria ended up telling us that he had to charge more AS HE WAS CUTTING THE CARPET. Apparently it’s a very difficult carpet to install, and the seams are a nightmare. Sure. He didn’t do a great job, and with delivery cost near $400. All told, less than 300 square feet of carpet was $1,100. I didn’t even measure for enough carpet, and so the carpet doesn’t go to all the other rooms. We were pretty bummed, but it turned out to look just fine. I got these lovely wood transition strips too, and this little touch really makes the floor look great.
Unfortunately, we had to have the carpet installed before I sanded the drywall and painted, so we had to put thick plastic down to protect the new carpet. What a mess. The sanding part? The hardest thing I’ve ever done. And so gross. I absolutely LOATHE the feeling of sanded drywall on my skin. And my hands? Trashed. I did, however, get a kick out of wearing my sexy mask.
My radial sander broke as I was sanding the ceiling. Either because I dropped it, or it doesn’t like sanding upside down. I didn’t have time to get to Rona for a replacement, so I used a crappy old regular sander and my own brute strength. Rawr! Any idea how hard it is to sand above you? It makes a person want to die. And so I’m terribly embarrassed, because the ceiling looks freaking horrible. But I got over it after a while. Once I primed it, there was no turning back. And cleaning up that sanded mess was a pleasure like no other. I didn’t get any photos because I didn’t want to take my camera in there.
The “hard part” over, I set about priming and painting. This should have been a lot easier. But no, not in my world. Because despite my best efforts, I like to do things the hard way. Oh well, maybe it wasn’t so bad. I bought this beautiful paint called “Hazy Skies” from Benjamin Moore. After I bought it, I put a swatch on the wall in the second room, and after much deliberation decided it was a tad too grey.
Listen, I spent a couple of hours going over colours in the living room: putting the paint chips on white paper, looking at them in different light at different times of the day and on all the walls. So for me to go and put the real paint in a different room was just silly. What was I thinking? I know better. Obviously, after spending all that time in the living room to make sure I got the right colour.
The suite isn’t super bright. We have a bank of large trees to the south that block the sun. The living room has but one small window. So it was very important to me that I choose a light tone to reflect light, but I also wanted a warm colour tone. I really love blues and greys, and they suite the “west coast” feel of the property. But they are cool colours. As well, I wanted to steer away from beige and taupe because they are so BORING. Besides, I heard grey was the new beige. But not too grey. This is tricky stuff! Perhaps you’re thinking, “It’s just rental suite, why are you going through so much trouble?” Well, my integrity is at stake. I just cannot rent this suite to anyone unless it’s good enough for me to live in. This is a good thing in the end. Because if our tenants see that I CARE about their living space, then hopefully they will respect it as much as I do. Give them crap, they will treat it like crap. To me, it’s a no-brainer.
But back to the paint. I went up to Home Hardware to see if they could make my Hazy Skies just a tad green. Sure! That’s what the special computers are for! I picked out a lovely sagey green called “Beach Glass.” Well, I took a risk, and she added to one gallon the wrong tints and it ended up being much MORE grey. So she mixed up a fresh gallon of Beach Glass. Looked green in the store.
On the wall, wet, it looked very green. Like medical gown green. Hrm. No turning back now. It was rush time. I didn’t put on a swatch, I just went for it, hoping it would turn out okay. After the first coat on one wall, I grabbed the paint chip and compared it to the paint. NOT THE SAME. NOT EVEN CLOSE. The paint on the wall after dry? BLUE. No doubt about it. It’s robin egg blue. I was worried. It looks a bit baby nursery. But after two coats, it looked really good, and the colour grew on me. Now I love it, but of course since it was a mistint, it can never be recreated. BOO!
I originally bought my paint from the Benjamin Moore store in Langford, and the girl there said the folks at HH mistint their paint quite frequently. Urgh.
So I still had a gallon of Hazy Skies. Since the blue is so dominant, we decided to use this in the “hallway” area. It looks just fabulous. What a gorgeous colour. Calm, sophisticated, light. It changes with the light, and often looks a tad green, perhaps reflections from the blue. I think it looks sort of like putty, or plaster. We love it so much, we’re going to use it upstairs.
A note on Benjamin Moore paint: I love it. It is superb paint and I feel it’s worth the few extra bucks. It goes on so smooth and easily (with the right roller brush). We also used a telescopic handle for the first time and love it. I broke the one I bought within 20 minutes, and then Tyler broke three of our broom handles. Someone needs to invent one that can’t break. Still, it’s a way better way to paint.
With the painting of the walls done, I set about paint all the trim and Tyler worked on everything else: framing in the window and building a sill (which involved making a hole for a bolt that was sticking up – tricky!), cutting and installing the door trim and baseboards, securing and moving some baseboard heaters, spray painting the wood stove pipe cap, installing the transition strips, putting in bathroom hardware, replacing light bulbs, and cleaning up.
And so this is the result of all our hard work. We think it looks awesome.
Doesn’t Hazy Skies look fabulous?
Even Piper loves it!
For a complete set of photos, visit my flickr photoset.
What’s next? Well last week we also had our driveway cleaned up and leveled, and then crushed rock put down. It looks really good, even though it’s not my ideal driveway, and there’s no more mud when you step out of the car. We’re going to build a patio for the suite: a simple pergola and lattice to block the view of the cars and driveway a bit, and space to hang flower baskets and such. I’m excited about this, as spring seems on its way and getting outside more lifts my spirits. Next week we’ll have top soil brought in for the front yard too, and we can start making some bedding area and planting for the summer. Yah!
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