An Experiment on Curtains and Curtains

The office is close to being done. I just need to touch up some areas. The next big step is going to be decorating the room into something that works for Steph as her office, and helps to seperate her work space with her living space. This won't happen over night, but we're talking things over for what she wants. To start things off with decorating, however, we've had some yellow curtains that we used in our old apartment that we put up temporarily in the living room. Over the weekend we went to target and made, what is for us, a rather bold choice in new curtains: eggshell blue.

Aside from a messy living room, I do't know what to make of these. The color, at first, is kind of off putting, but I think mixing them with the right paint color and decorations could really be fun. Here is what Steph found for inspiration. Like I said, I'm still of the fence about these curtains; I'm hoping they'll grow on me, and I'll find a color scheme that will work in my mind's eye. 

A Work in Progress

Work has been crazy busy the last couple of days. I haven't had time to work out, read, or write. However, Steph and I have been diligent with working on the office. After a month of  paint removal, followed by wallpaper removal, followed by even more paint removal, we were finally ready to prime and paint the room.

One big issue we ran into as we were removing the paint, however, was removing parts of the wall. There were quite a few dings and chips in it. While most of these were not too noticeable, I needed something to hide the nicks, so we bought some wall texture that could be easily rolled on. It wasn't the perfect fix, but it helped dramatically. 

After priming and texturing, we began painting the next day. This was a really exciting moment; after eight years of marriage, we had never painted a room together. Choosing a color took some time. We're both very much attracted to green shades (I worry that all of our rooms will end up green, if I'm not careful). But because this was our first paint project, we both decided on and fell in love with a nice, lightish green color. The camera makes it look darker than it actually is. 

The next step is redecorating the room, finding some art, and finally making it Steph's place of business. 

in medias res

I hope to have a full update for the office tomorrow. We're currently in the middle of priming and spackling.

A Very Busy 4th

We had a super busy and productive day. We're getting much closer to being able to paint the office. After using the paint remover on one of the walls, I noticed that there were an additional two layers of wallpaper covering it. Layer number one was quit easy to remove; layer number two, however, had permanently bonded to the wall and was stubborn as all could be.

Paint layer 1, wallpaper layer 1, and wall paper layer 2

After watching some really informative how-to videos on YouTube, we needed to go to a hardware store to buy the appropriate equipment: a scoring tool, a plastic scraper, and wallpaper remover gel (in addition to the not-so-effective, water/vinegar mix I was using for the first layer of wallpaper).

Wallpaper circa 1958 (it smells like it too)

In addition to buying all of the wallpaper removal items, we came across the exact shades we were looking for at Lowes. Good bye, blue tarp, you served as a great means of privacy for the first two weeks of living. Our new bamboo roman shades from bring in the perfect amount of light while giving us the privacy we want.

We're making some progress and are holding out on choosing curtains until we decide on a new color for the living room. 

More to come on the wallpapered office from hell as well. 

A Room with a View

Right when we moved in to the house, I noticed that the office paint was beginning to peel in three different areas. Of course, I started peeling it without a care in my mind, but I now realize that this is going to be a much bigger project than I expected. Just painting over everything won't do.

The office as the previous owners had it.

Last week I bought a can of non-toxic, indoor paint remover. However, after testing a small section of wall, we've discovered that we're not only dealing with paint but several layers of paint and wallpaper. I've spent several hours already removing the paint/wallpaper/paint/paint on the west wall and this is about as far as I've progressed.

My mess...

Steph is already rolling her eyes at me, but I don't think there's a better way to start off homeownership than by stripping paint and wallpaper. I'm sure my happy idealism will subdue into negative (whathaveIgotmyselfinto) pessimism after a couple more hours of paint removal.