What’s going on at the house(s)? Well, quite a bit.
Today in our current house, we were blessed with eight friends that showed up to form teams and cleaned all of the hundred-and-fifty-whatever windows we have. I made a taco lunch for everyone, and wished more than once I could grab a camera. But sometimes life moves too fast to stop and take a photograph, know what I mean? I was too busy living IN the moment to step OUT of it to record it.
The rest of this week will be busy with carpet cleaning, housecleaning, staging and professional photographs for the listing. Hopefully what I won’t be doing is annoying my children with constant, “Don’t touch the window….don’t make a mess…don’t move that perfectly placed pillow arrangement….”
We are trying to get moved into the new, smaller house. I’m expecting there will be a lot to do once we’re moved in, but the main things need to get done beforehand. We decided to put in skylights (that open) into the attic bedrooms, both for temperature control, and for light. That was a very good choice, as already we can see–and feel–a difference.
A lot of priming and painting is going on, all 1632 square feet. And see this checked floor that is in the main room? It tested positive for asbestos, and we decided to have it all removed with the *hope* that removing the glue underneath won’t damage the fir wood floors to smithereens. It was either remove it all, or cover it with carpet. Please, no. Please no more wall-to-wall carpets. So this week the floor gets removed, and then we shall see what can–or can’t–be salvaged.
This is the primer that we’re using on the walls and ceiling. The wood soaks quite a bit of it up but the finish is outstanding, and makes applying the top paint incredibly easy. The odor is very faint, and not really bothersome to me at all. All of us that are using it like the coverage.
I have to admit feeling, at first, a bit guilty covering up all of this gorgeous original wood with paint. But once the primer went on, the house just looked BIGGER. And once the first coat of paint went on, the house looked BRIGHTER. And–face it–in the Pacific Northwest I need all of the light I can get. Besides, I’ve pinned enough pictures on Pinterest of old farmhouses with sweet whitewashed walls to know that I really do like the look.
The paint color we all unanimously agreed upon was Benjamin Moore’s Simply White. At first I thought it would be too stark, too sterile. I spent wayyyyyy too much time on Google and in angst over picking the “Right White”. Taping large paint sheets onto the walls didn’t help at all. What finally helped was buying four samples and actually painting them onto the wall in large 3×3 squares. I’m now convinced that nothing is better for decision-making than doing that. The whites I was so sure of either disappeared or looked muddy or just plain wrong. Furthermore, every friend there chose the same white as the right white for the house once they could all see it painted for real and not just on paper. When I learned it was Simply White, I was surprised…but even now as the color goes up it just looks yummy and perfect. Lesson learned: BUY SAMPLES!
While the painting goes on downstairs–and even when I can’t be there like today, my friends are–upstairs the attic is getting turned into two good-sized bedrooms. Here the vent thingies (yep, that’s what I’m calling them) are going up, before the insulation. Then drywall and fire taping will go up, and then we’ll be cutting luan boards into strips to cover the drywall, to keep the same look as the wood downstairs. It will look like what we did with our dining room wall (scroll down to see a photograph). All of the upstairs will be painted, too.
I was hoping to finish the small house before listing our current one, but it looks like there will be some overlap. So soon enough I will be dealing with showings and in the midst of it all, trying to remain pleasant while keeping it *showable*.
Oh, and also this week, I am getting our 20 week ultrasound done. I can’t believe we’re halfway through this pregnancy.
Blessings,
Wow! Busy season for you! I love hearing about the updates! 🙂 I hope your week goes well!
Have you tried saving your wood floors yet? I’m convinced by watching “Rehab Addict” that almost any wood floors can be saved! See if you can watch it (in all your spare time!) or find a few clips online. I think HGTV may have a few. I haven’t checked youtube. She is ALL for keeping the old, even if it’s imperfect. I look at things in a whole different way now! Very inspiring. Can’t wait to see everything you do. God bless you all!