the floors

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).

pulling up carpet

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

floors before

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

sanded floors

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

floor stains

and here’s the result:

finished floors

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:

crash thump thump meow!

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.

triumph over wallpaper 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 — starting by stripping the boring white paint from the baseboards and door and window frames.

dining room wallpaper 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.

hey-wake dogbone dining set 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.

jim strips a window   he stripped windows with us…
 
 
 
 

bye bye wall unit   he helped us get rid of an a/c unit the size of a SmartCar
 
 
 
 

too dark   he helped us test some paint in the living room that turned out to be too dark and too gray…
 
 
 
 

very very light blue   he helped us paint the whole living room again in a lighter shade of blue…
 
 
 

jim n pluto   he even helped the cats adjust to this freaky house…
 
 
 

it's my beer!   and he chilled with us while we watched way more dave chappelle than one weekend calls for.