So it’s officially been a week since closing (yay!). They say when you become a first time homeowner you learn a lot of things you never thought you’d learn. Well, in the past week, Xris and I have learned how:
- To remove existing flooring
- To remove wallpaper (chemical free!)
- To remove drop ceilings
- To uninstall existing light fixtures
- To rewire for new light fixtures (instead of just busting a hole through the side of the wall like no big deal. SHAME!)
- To install drywall to fashion a new ceiling (still so sorry about your back, Sean!)
- To fill/patch holes in plaster
- To plaster. In general
- To tape and skim-coat (Not to toot my own horn here, but I skim-coat like a boss.)
- To scrape existing shitty paint and prep existing ceilings for revival.
All things we had zero experience and knowledge about one week ago. Not bad right? I know we’re up for a reaaaaaaaaaally huge screw-up at some point but at least we have these victories to look back on. I know we’re not alone here, many a homeowner before us has been thrust into this stuff and tackled it like pros. But considering we literally have NO idea what we’re doing here (thank God Home Depot is only like 10 minutes away…) we have at this point taken about 50% of the house from this:
and this:
to THIS:
I made it all big because it’s very exciting. (this is the same corner from the previous shot BTW.) Also the photography will get better when the entire house isn’t a danger zone and I’m not afraid of destroying my camera.
That’s only a couple coats of primer, and I’m not a fan of white walls, but God almighty that is leaps and bounds from where we started. And now that we know that we can somehow revive crumbling, stained, and moldy walls to crisp and clean walls, we’ve got our second wind to take this magic into the living room and kitchen.
Also just a note, we thought those blinds and the trim were white BEFORE we primed, that’s how grimy everything is.
At this rate our house will actually look like a house instead of a horror-movie-haunted-cabin right on schedule.
And just because it must be said: prepping peeling ceilings for priming is horrible work that I would not wish upon my worst enemy.
But let’s be serious, those don’t look like 100+ year-old walls do they??? Naaaah they don’t. I’m going to go baby-talk them now.
Cheers!
Itty Bitty Living 