Redo

I had nearly finished this post, when the internet connection went and everything disappeared. I have to say it doesn’t happen often, but it certainly is frustrating when it does. I’m way behind on my blog reading, and just wanted you to know if I haven’t visited in a while, it’s not disinterest by any means, just a bit too much on my plate right now. I’ve also taken some time out to spend with Tracy. We’ve watched three movies this week on our new TV and spent a day on a local roadtrip—a bit of antique shopping (another post to come) and a wonderful meal at our favorite Mexican restaurant. I hope to catch up by the end of the week. I thought I’d share some photos of our dining room/living room redo.

When you live in a house that was built in 1930 the walls are plaster, and about every 10 years or so they begin to crack. So a repainting job that some could do in a weekend took nearly six weeks here. Every crack has to be opened up, filled, taped, spackled, and primed before you can paint.

It’s a tedious job, but Tracy has done it often enough that he knows exactly what must be done.

Here’s a look at one of the dining room walls that has been scraped and some of the cracks taped. This was one of the worst walls, but there weren’t any that didn’t need attention.

An advantage of an older house, however, are the built-in cupboards and bookcases. This is the china closet in the dining room scraped and primed.

And here it is, painted with most of the china back in place.

There’s no way to tell from this photo, but one of the things I like the best about the living room is the reorganized shelves. We took everything off the shelves, donated over 150 books from six different bookcases in the house, and then placed good hardcover books and reference books in the living room. All the paperbacks are now upstairs. I also took down many photographs and left just a few special family ones. Now there’s a shelf for my vintage cameras which I really like having on display.

Here’s our concession to the high-tech world. I like it a lot more than I thought I would since I wasn’t sure how it would fit into an older home. The media cabinet is new, as well, and came from Crate and Barrell. We saw it in November when we were in California and didn’t even look locally for one. The older one has been moved upstairs in the den where it looks fantastic. The entertainment center from there was given to the Volunteers of America. So, actually, three rooms got a new look and five bookcases were reorganized.

This is the last addition to the living room. We had a watercolor done of our house by a watercolor artist (Irene MacKenzie) we love in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. We picked it up in October, but just had it framed and matted a week ago.

Tracy’s taken a week off from the painting, but expects to start again next week on the hallway which is a two-story affair and will require scaffolding. I expect it will take even longer, but we’ll be in the best shape we’ve ever been in here once it’s finished. That project won’t affect our daily routines much. That’s a good thing, but it also means there’s not quite the incentive to get it done. Hope you’ve had a good weekend.