House Projects on Daughter's Old House

Aha... instead of Our Old House projects... this blog is about our daughter's 100 year Old House!   She has owned it for 8 years now... and decided to do some kitchen work.   So Friday evening Steve and I drove up in the motorhome with the dogs to park alongside the house all weekend.  That way we could have our own bed, shower and place to keep the dogs out of the painting!

We got there in time Friday night for another little birthday celebration for me with grandtots Jameson, Chelsea and Clayton. We had a celebration with Allegra and Mason the weekend before at High Cliff but Jameson hadn't been there.  So I got DOUBLE birthday fun! 

In the morning, two little stinkers came out knocking on the motorhome door ....  "We are here for breakfast!" they declared!  hahahaha

Okay.. now back to the purpose of our visit.  When Erin bought this house 8 years ago, the kitchen was totally UGLY!  I am not kidding.. she actually entered it in an Ugly Kitchen Contest!   (she didn't win, but I think it should have been a close runner up?)   The first week she owned the house, we wanted to at least rip down the wallpaper, paint the cabinets, and swap out the light fixtures.  Her husband at the time said NO.... why waste paint and time and money and effort when we will gut it out and put in all new stuff......  

Year after year, it never got done. Each time she brought it up, he said NO.. don't waste the money fixing it up if we are gonna rip it out later. You know how that goes. Well..... now Erin said THIS IS THE TIME...   so we came up to lend a hand!   

I am soooo glad she decided to redo the original kitchen instead of ripping it out.  I love old things, and her cabinets were nice, just painted ugly.  There were soooo many coats of paint, it didn't make sense to strip them down. She loaded up on good quality paint, sandpaper, spackle and supplies.  I brought along my painting tools and we set to work on Saturday morning.

Here are the BEFORE pics:

BEFORE- Colors: PINK cabinets and HUNTER GREEN wallpaper!
Check out the wooden dowel divider,
the ugly hanging light and the HORRIBLE wallpaper!

BEFORE - these wonderful 100 year old cabinets are painted PINK....  

and grubby creamy paper inserts on each panel

I love her heavy brass towel ring by the sink... she is keeping that! 

BEFORE- the countertop is a "boomerang" Formica from the 50's.. 

ya know with little gold boomerang shaped designs on it! 

and the flooring is 70's patterned olive green and gold!!!!!!!

BEFORE- two ugly 70's ish hanging swag light fixtures, 

plus an ugly ceiling fan too! 

BEFORE- A corner "desk" made of a piece of fake butcherblock counter on a set of drawers...
and that wallpaper with hunter green hearts and ducks??? oh my! 

BEFORE- Erin ripped out the fake desk thing and she pulled back some 

of the hunter green paneling... guess what she found underneath???? 

REAL WAINSCOTTING WOOD!  

Why oh why would anyone cover that up??????

You can see a bit of the wainscotting in the corner ... it had been painted rusty brown, and we knew it would look great painted white.  Then we tried to rip off some of the wallpaper, but decided to leave it on the walls and paint over it.  It was not stripping off nicely, and would be a heck of a lot more work to get it down and repair the plaster. Check out the ugly ceiling fan too.. ewwww   I hate ceiling fans anyhow.  Over the stove was a dumb fake wood cabinet that was stuck up there to hold the hood vent up over the stove.  That is all gonna go...... 

BEFORE- all the walls were ugly wallpaper printed designs... 

and even this great old door was painted PINK

DURING-  By the time we got there, Erin had already removed all the cabinet doors and brought them to another room to paint.  She stripped all the hinges of old paint and redid them in black. 

She was so happy, she started painting the first coat on the lower cabinets to get an idea of what it was going to look like.  WHEEE HEEEEEE she dove in with gusto! 

While we gals were busy painting,
Steveio was being the Houshold Handyman...
(he hates painting)
He laid flooring in her porch,
repaired some tiles in her shower,
reworked the wiring for the kitchen and porch,
redid the plumbing lines on her bathroom sink,
 installed her icemaker line for the fridge,
cut her lawn,
fixed her lawnmowers,
repaired the locks on the garage,
examined her flues on both fireplaces,
and hauled away all the trash we accumulated!

DURING- Our other daughter Heather came for the day and brought Jameson along to help.  Being 6 years old now, he knows how to handle a hammer.  He helped pull out nails from the original wainscotting, and pound in the ones that couldn't come out.  Then he helped his mom with the first coat of paint.  What a great helper! 

 DURING- we painted most of the day.... Good thing Erin does yoga, eh?
Heather often paints a lot at her job, so this was just another project for her.

It was great to spend the day with my daughters,
laughing and working together on such a good project.


DURING- When Erin first bought this house,
there was a great old wooden chair in the kitchen.
She kept it all these years, and it's become such a helpful kitchen stool
to reach the upper cabinets.
Jameson helped me paint it up with a fresh coat of white.
What a creative painting boy, and he didn't get very messy either!

DURING- Here is the result of Jameson's hard work!



DURING- Erin chose a federal blueish color for the upper walls,
and I rolled the ceiling in two coats of white.
We added some crown mouldings around the top of the room
to help with the transition between the blue and white.
 (easier to paint that way by covering up the area where they meet)

DURING- Although Steve HATES painting, he came in with the power tools 

to use the air nailer and compressor to put up the crown moulding for us. 

Notice, these old houses are never straight... so we had to do a little creative caulking 

where the dip is to the left of Steve's head....

AFTER -
Erin picked up this lovely table and benches for putting in the kitchen once the floor is done
She is going to paint the floor with floor paints in two colors
in a marble texture with a special roller device.
She bought a different light fixture that was really too big for the kitchen,
so Steve installed that one in her dining room...
and took the one from the dining room and installed it in the kitchen!

AFTER -  here is the corner where the fake desk thing was...
This is now sporting a work food prep table Steve made years ago.
I gave it new fresh paint on the legs.  See the pretty wainscotting now and trim?
All fresh and clean and white!
The old iron floor register needed a coat of rustoleum paint too.

 REMEMBER --- IGNORE THE FLOORING IN THESE PICS
IT WILL BE CHANGED LATER TO A MARBLE LOOKING BLUE AND GREY 


AFTER- Oh my, it's all coming together now!
We brought down the cabinet doors and screwed them into place.
Erin bought new knobs and coat hooks for the coat alcove.
 Just look at that gorgeous real wood wainscotting we unveiled
by pulling off the dumb 70's paneling covering it up.

AFTER-  Erin bought all new appliances for her kitchen!  Even a nice "over the stove microwave" that is kinda put up into place.  Steve is making a top shelf bracket to hold it more securely and she can put things on top of it later.  Erin put this silvery colored tin-textured back splash behind the stove (and she will do it behind the sink after the new countertops are put in) 

 AFTER- Wheewie!!! Look at this!
She is going to pick out a new light to hang over the sink...
The new countertops came this week and we are going back on saturday to help install them.
The same grey tin texture backsplash like by the stove will go up around the sink.
New sink, new faucet, and wonderful floor will finish it up!

As an added P.S.
I would like to thank everyone for the kind words about the loss of our beloved Duke.
 It's so hard around here without him.  Finney keeps looking for him,
and we are missing the sounds of his jingling tags,
the pant pant of his breath, and the snuggles and
silly antics he gave us over the years.
It was 11 wonderful years of canine companionship and
we miss him dearly.....