Wednesday, September 29, 2010

:: THE WALLPAPER AND OIL BASED PAINT LOSE AGAIN ::

This room is so far from being an "after" because one wall is still lined with boxes and we haven't put up the baseboards or door molding. However, this room took THE MOST work of all of the rooms in the house because of it's fabulous wallpaper and oil based paint and paneling. YIKES!

This is the basement living room. I don't know the difference between a living and family room, but this is the place that houses the television. So, which one is it?

Before:
That bookcase hides the water main shut off for the the house. We needed to keep it open, but didn't want that shelf there. The carpet was a nice purplish colored Berber that had been loved by dogs. Are you jealous? Are you wondering why we thought this house was the one?


The white is the 1970's finest paneling. The creamish color is a really rubbery natural patterned wallpaper (that was falling off) and the border well...

... it was just lovely. AND - they left three whole rolls in case we needed to do some touch ups.

We enlisted the help of my sister and her husband (there may or may not have been a baby in the blanket) and got to work. I hope all of you have a sister like Lyndsey with a husband like Darin. They are hard workers! (side note: they do it all with their little son strapped in a backpack on their back. They are teaching him young!)

Mike worked on this section in the hallway for 2 days. He was determined to get it smoothed out. After all of this hard work, he just knocked the wall down and started over. We have cement lip through out the entire basement and the previous owners tried to hide it with lopsided walls and poor taping. Mike raised the drywall up above it and we're hiding it with wide baseboards.
The paneling came off and the bookshelf came down. As we removed the wallpaper, we started noticing some yellow shining through the white primer. We started washing the wallpaper paste and more yellow was showing up. UGH. The yellow was an oil based paint that they didn't cover correctly so we had to wash all of the old primer off and then do some perfect primering (not a word). Mike framed out where the water main is and made it look much cleaner.

After:


A nice smooth wall with no bulges and bows in the sheet rock.


This is where the bookshelf used to be. Mike is going to build a door that will hide the water main, but I think he did a stellar job on this room. We've got a few more things to finish (after we're done concentrating on the outside) but over all it is a billion times better than it was.

8 comments:

Julie Thurgood Summerhays said...

Wow, so much work! It looks SO good! I LOVE that they left you 3 rolls of the wallpaper - so nice of them:)

Dave n' Kristi said...

You guys are AMAZING!

Hayley said...

that makes my fingers sore just looking at it. great job guys!!

Esther said...

I'm almost positive that my parents chose to put that exact same border in our kitchen when I was a kid. Funny! Looks like you've been working your a**es off! Good job.

Katie said...

If the tv is in there, then it is the family room.
Btw, I love seeing all of the remodeling you are doing..keep posting!
That rooms looks so much better!

Liz said...

Looking good and WOW that is a lot of work! Luckily you guys know what you are doing. I can't wait to get a tour of your fancy new house that you are making even newer.

chchoo said...

Wow! You guys know how to get to work. It looks great.

Risalyn said...

Go, Van Wagoners! That is a lot of work, but it sounds like you are having lots of fun at the same time. The outside of your house reminds me of your house in St.Anthony. No wonder it felt like home.

 
Site Meter