Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Putting a Face on the House: Before and Afters

If paint is the makeup, then crown molding and floors are the jewelry and handbag that made these rooms a star!

Thankfully, my father-in-law, who shall be hence forth known as contractor/painter/gardener/handyman (although he actually sells industrial heaters and is not in fact in the business of any of the previously mentioned professions) had the great idea to paint before we started working on the floors.  I bring you, grey and peacock walls with yellowy oaky floors. 

My favorite part about painting? Knowing that we're putting in crown molding and baseboards and not having to edge the ceiling or floors.  Isn't that THE WORST EVER?

color testing in the living room

camp cornwell in the living room, post painting and pre crown and floors


I should also note here that in preparation for new floors, and subsequently new baseboards, D and I took off the old baseboards.  We ultimately replaced the measly 1 inch baseboards that came with the house with big chunky 3.5 inch base, buy needed to get off the old guys in order to make the floor refinishing that much easier.  Taking the old off was literally our first Saturday morning project in our house (all the way back in early May!)  We got a pair of these guys and went to town. 

via


I have to say, it was pretty satisfying and made me wish we were going to pull down some walls or do some other fun demo.  An hour after all the base was down in the house, I quickly recanted this notion as anxiety set in about how ugly everything would look until the new stuff was installed.  I'm a vision girl, not a execution person.

The father-in-law also recommended that we install the crown before the floors come, seeing as this was a new to us project and would surely involve dust, dings and other unhappy things.  We were lucky enough to have my father-in-law's neighbor, a general contractor, come over to show us the ropes and aid in the process.  After about 8 hours of work and TONS of dust, we have new, chunky, 4 inch crown in the living room, dining room, halls and all upstairs bedrooms.  The den, upstairs hall and 4th bedroom will be secondary. 

Crown up in living room, pre floor refinishing, we don't live in a cave, my father-in-law is just part cave man at 6'6"

All in all the crown was an expensive detail but we saved a TON by doing it ourselves and it made a huge impact on the rooms.  I wish I could tell you how to do this step by step but my involvement in this particular project included going to Home Depot, picking out crown, gawking at how much said crown molding costs, paying for ridiculous expensive crown molding, monitoring the loading of crown molding into the pick up, driving behind the pick up to make sure that if expensive crown fell off pick up, it only hit MY car, and then making the boys burgers for lunch and providing approving "yes, this is nice!" when prompted. 

If you want to know more detail, I have a feeling we'll be recreating this day at my father in law's somewhat soon so I'll be sure to take better notes.
I digress.

Once we painted and crowned the place we decided to resand/restain the hardwood floors a darker color to make the whole space look a little more modern.  Lucky for us, the floors were in great condition (not too thin) and were able to accept a dark stain.  After looking into the costs of sanding and staining, we decided that for a mere $500-$750 more, we could have it done professionally.  Sold!

We used Blake Floors in STL after hearing great things about them from friends and our realtor.  They offer the unique ability to "pop" the grain of wood with water which allows the wood to accept a greater amount of stain, yielding a darker color.  Hooray! 

The whole process took 5 days from staining, drying and two layers of poly.  I bring you new floors!




Here's where we tell you that as the floors were being restained we happened to jet off to a prior commitment... out of the country... for 6 days...more on that and the great surprise we came home to tomorrow!

xoxo,
KC

1 comment:

  1. Darling Daughter,
    I know you already know this...but I will reiterate anyway...YOU MARRIED WELL!!! And though I love Daniel -- I am including his entire extended, extended family in this statement!!! Mark & Crew have been so wonderful in all that they've helped you with -- it does my heart good to see not only your beautiful new home coming together, but also your new family!!! My excitement for each step is bubbling over! Can't wait to come and participate in the transformation! Love to you all...Mom (aka Kath)

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