alicia – Page 5 – hello house

rumpus room, jr.

our basement, which used to look like this:

and then looked like this:

now looks a little something like this:

Continue reading rumpus room, jr.

yes, our minds are in the sewer.

yes, we’re comfortable with that.

ok, actually, we aren’t. some of you have already heard the story… Continue reading yes, our minds are in the sewer.

with love, from ebay

we’re 2 for 5 on ebay auctions this week. but the lamp, couch, and dining set we didn’t win were probably junk anyway. yeah. Continue reading with love, from ebay

you might remember (if you truly love us) that our first big project was to get the floors ready to be refinished. it was a tight race to get the prep done in time. jef took one for the team by pulling an all-nighter to make sure everything was ready when the floor guys came.

we started by pulling up the carpet, scraping the padding off the floor, and pulling up the hundreds of staples that had held the padding in place (arggh).

the floors were already in good shape, thanks to decades spent under carpeting.

adam kamien and his crew took several days to sand the entire main floor and apply the stain and varnish.

there were two options for the stain and we picked the darker one.

and here’s the result:

the kitchen floor went from this:

to this:

the floor-refinishing project will live on forever in our hearts as The Project That Went According to Plan.

oh, pluto

pluto’s a bit of an attention whore … and perhaps a bit passive-aggressive. that is to say, he’s a cat.

he likes to park his black-on-top self in high-traffic areas at night when the lights are off. but this time, he outdid himself:

why, yes, those are the basement stairs. (sure, you can see him in the pic — we had the flash on.)

dining room plans

our first day as homeowners: we closed on the house at 9am. we got into the house at 2pm. we had the wallpaper stripped by 5pm.

that’s what i’m talkin’ about.

those lines on the walls give away the house’s history. we’re going to bring back that woodwork some day â€” starting by stripping the boring white paint from the baseboards and door and window frames.

this site sells gorgeously kitschy vintage wallpaper. (the real thing, not reproductions.) thanks to them we have a dozen rolls of this waiting to go up on the walls.

and for the middle of the room? we’re all about Danish Modern furniture. something a little like this, perhaps.

jim

jef’s brother, jim, flew from new york to spend 4th of july weekend with us. he begged to be put to work … so we let him start by carrying his own bed up from the basement.

he stripped windows with us…