Nook Report Card

I’m giving myself a solid B+, and in parts maybe even an A-, on the nook walls. That said, I’m not sure I’m ready to have a B+ effort on our kitchen walls and the beautiful vaulted ceiling we’ve worked so hard to expose.  I’m glad I now know how to finish drywall, but I think at least for the rest of the first floor, we’ll be calling in the professionals.  

Here's an overall shot of post-round three sanding:

Because it is white-on-white, it’s hard to get a good shot of the walls.  For the most part, this is what all the large walls looked like after the third sanding:

But the corners get sloppy:

 

Oh, this is what Ryan and Tela did over the weekend while I worked on the nook (guitar is obviously a study break – he's been working very, very hard):

Ryan has his final studio presentation tomorrow night and then I know is really looking forward to some downtime between semesters.

On Ryan’s suggestion, I sanded the walls once more before priming them, this time using a 120-grit sand paper.  My tools of the trade:

I also did a couple very small patches of joint compound to clean up a corner and one area where the corner tape was showing.

After sanding the patch jobs, tonight I primed all surfaces.  Forgive me all these pictures that look the same.  White-on-white is tough.  But I'm proud, so here we go:

As for my learn-as-you-go moments of this portion of the project:

#1:  I used the primer I bought way back when over the summer when I thought this would be a 3 month reno job.  Because we have some colorful walls (a purple to make Barney jealous and the red studio), I bought a 2-gallon bucket of latex primer Killz brand.  I think, however, the roller I used was intended for water-based paint because it seems to have left a slight texture on my previously butter-smooth, sanded to perfection walls. 

#2:  The paint seems to make those darn bubbles under the joint tape blossom – even ones that under layers of sanded compound had seemingly disappeared.  There really is only two cases of it, and one will be eventually obscured by the seat cushion, but gosh that is annoying!

Honestly, I’m not losing sleep over it.  It seems silly, but this little nook right now is giving me so much joy.  Lately, the reno has been wearing on me, I’m officially over not having a kitchen, and with Ryan understandably tied up with school, progress on the house has been limping along for the last month.  But right now, I don’t care.  We have [Almost] Finished Walls [in one small corner of the house].  And they don’t look that bad.

Next up, I’ll be painting the ceiling eggshell white and asking Ryan to help hook up a Just Perfect light fixture that I purchased in July (again, wishful thinking...).  Not only does this fab light coordinate with a great walnut brown/black fan for the kitchen, it’s important we get it installed before painting the walls, because after that, we will be testing greys for the nook and the front room.  Artificial and natural light both make a huge impact on how paint looks up on walls.  Never trust a paint chip.  And, after we select a grey and paint the nook, it will be time to work on the Cape Ann accent wall.  I have a plan to borrow a projector I saw Education staff at the museum using to make the process a little easier. Also on the nook docket: finding the right fabric for, and upholstering the bench, and of course flooring installation throughout the first floor.  Here I go, getting ahead of myself again…

I'm Dreaming of a Front Room... *

* to be sung to the tune of "White Christmas"

Deck the House

Alas, our Halls will go unadorned this Yuletide Season.  I drove Ryan crazy going back and forth on if we should have a small tree somewhere in our two-room efficiency unit (aka the second floor), but ultimately decided that we’d skip it this year.  Just one more thing for construction dust to land on.

That tough decision behind us, I ventured out this past weekend to find a wreath for our front door.  I found said wreath at Gordon Florist & Greenhouse in Ipswich, a delightful shop.  Not only do they have cut flowers galore, but also a huge greenhouse, and of course a large assortment of balsam wreaths, swag, poinsettias, and so forth.  I picked out a plain wreath and had the florist put on a cranberry bow to match with the house trim.  Et voila:

Earlier in the week, I’d put candles in the windows, so at least from the outside, the house is decked.  (An aside: I found candles at CVS that have sensors on them, so you don’t need to remember to turn them on and off.  So nice!  It’s especially nice to arrive home from work to cheery lights in the windows.)

No updates on the nook, which is patiently awaiting my return.  The rest of the weekend was consumed with holiday gift shopping, errands, a trip for me into Boston, and for Ryan, you guessed it – more schoolwork.

20 Pounds Lighter

My Photoshopped version of of the picture I posted a few weeks ago.  You can also see what the roof line looks like with the chimney removed.

Happy Turkey Day

We had a wonderful time celebrating with both the McSheras and Smiths over the holiday weekend.  This year, we are thankful for wonderful friends, family, a dog who tries so very hard to be a good girl, and of course, our new (old) house on High Street.

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Back at the house, we assumed our usual tasks of wiring for Ryan and finishing the breakfast nook wall for me.  I started by sanding down the fill coat I applied last weekend.  Everyone gets dusty when you're sanding joint compound.

Here’s the nook after sanding and the third coat of compound.

I ended up cutting out the bubbled tape and applying compound over it.  It’s getting there… we’ll see how it looks once I’ve sanded it down a final time.  I am now researching the pros and cons of applying a final skim coat to level everything out.  

Not too much else to report on for now as far as progress on the kitchen goes.  Ryan’s in his final push for fall semester, so that’s taking up a lot of time and I have my breakfast nook project.  I’m keeping myself sane through the framing and heavy construction phase of this project with this inspiration binder.  I have it organized by each space in the house and am continuously adding to it.  Here’s a couple spreads.

This gave me the idea to use tinted grout between our subway tile back splash.  I think it gives a little more interest and my savvy sister-in-law Tatyana once pointed out that it is a good idea to use dark grout between tiles so that over time, the white grout doesn't get dingy looking.

  

I've pulled lots of pages from House Beautiful (like the one above) and This Old House Magazine.  Here is a whole article with advice on selecting the right gray paint, our plan for the front rooms.

We won't go as dark as the gray above, but I pulled this for the bright white trim and also the yellow.  Love gray and yellow together.  I'm also pulling potential furniture for when we get to that point.  

More front room inspiration.

We had a blue and brown bedroom in Salem, which I'm desperate to recreate and improve upon in Ipswich.  I love this idea of an accent wall, and plan on doing it once we get to the second floor.  But until then, we're rocking the lavender walls...  no point in painting walls if we are going to tear them down.

Also in the binder is some of the research that my mom has put together on Ipswich and our ancestor Thomas Dudley, who also lived on High Street from 1633-38 (I read that on the marker we walked by today).

The large plot highlighted was where his house was (the original structure is no longer there) and circled in red is our house.  How cool is that!?

I (and Ryan, and Tela) hope that everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving.