The Blue Chair

We picked up this black chair someone was throwing out like a year ago, and its sat around my house for just as long begging to be painted. The black looked O-kay, but really I thought a nice coat of aqua would JAZZ it right up.

Really why this chair has sat around so long was because I did not know how to cover the seat part of it, so the spray paint wouldn't get on that. I did not want to hand paint it so I needed to figure out a way to cover the seat portion of it.

As I set about to cover it in a brown paper bag, it dawned on me that the seat can be unscrewed and taken out (DUH!!!)!!!

So now we have a nice compliant chair ready to be painted. Before I spray painted it, I sanded it down a bit so the paint would stick of course.

So this is what I leave you with: Mr. Trump aka Mrs. Potato Head. There is a striking resemblance, isn't there? From the way he holds his hand to the hair. Mrs. Potato Head for president!

Another Wall Bites the Dust

Are you ready for this? Hey are you ready for this? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

Ha ha see what I did there? Very punny or err funny.

This post has been a long time coming, so hang on kids, its about to get WILD.

This whole project started (and finished) about two years ago. The reason for the delayed post is because with a new baby and new house there was absolutely NO room for blogging. 

As I said before, in order to rent the house we decided the third floor needed to be a space where someone could comfortably sleep and live. When we purchased the home, the third floor was an attic space marketed as two bedrooms. It was basically not useable because these two "bedrooms" were much too small to be functional spaces. There was no way we could rent the house as a "3 bedroom" place or even a "2 bedroom" place in that condition. The pitched roof made it much too crammed for anyone to move around comfortably, without the very high risk of bumping their head. 

As I've posted about previously, we have experience with taking walls down in this house. So we figured whats one more wall to get this baby on the market for renters?

The order of how this project progressed is as follows:

1. Wall demo
2. Clear out rubble and debris
3. Install a door up to the third floor
4. Install electrical (take out old nob and tube wiring and put in new grounded electrical)
5. Sand the 3rd floor THREE times and put down THREE coats of polyurethane
6. Trim work, patching up ceiling and painting

This post will just cover the wall demo and clearing out the rubble and debris (#1 and #2 for those that read the syllabus ;) ). 


Ok so roll up your sleeves and prepare to get dirty cuz we're going to dive into the wall demo portion, NOW!

Here is a glimpse of what it looked like prior to our demo project:

This photo (below) is the landing when you first come up the spiral stair case to the third floor. It is the first thing you'd see upon entering the third floor and before choosing to enter one of the two tiny and height-adverse rooms. 

This photo (below) is a view from the landing on the third floor, peering into the room on the right. As you can see there is old carpet in this room that is BEGGING to be ripped up. So we obliged, you'll see the results in later photos.

This photo (below) is a view from the landing again, peering into the room on the left. 

Look out Margaret, the cat!  Both walls pictured below will soon toast. Bye Felicia!

Here is another shot (below) of the wall that separated the two rooms on the third floor. This is the view from the landing looking directly at the wall that separates the two rooms on the third floor. 

The walls in this 19th century home are not messing around. These walls are constructed to stand the test of time. The wood frame of the wall is built first with studs, then wood slats are nailed in across, then the plaster and mortar is piled on top of it and smoothed into a flat surface creating the wall. 

 This (photo below) is a view from the room on the left, standing in the dormer window, with the center wall demo in view. This photo shows the beginnings of the wall destruction.

                                    

Progress and more rubble!

"What did the hubs do to achieve these marvelous results?" you might be asking yourself. Well I asked him this same question and he wrote a nice little description for the blog:

Removing Plaster - I made every effort to control dust and debris from the get-go (based on my experience from the 1st floor wall demo).  Using a hammer, I would get a starter hole in the upper half of the wall, then expand out, prying off large, but manageable chunks of plaster, and drop them directly into a trash bag.  Large chunks mean less chunks, which also means less dust, but plaster is basically like concrete, so you have to be careful how big the chunks are, and where they are falling.  I accumulated something like 15 or 20 of the large paper waste bags (from Home Depot), and I estimate that each bag had about 50 lbs. of plaster debris.  After the plaster was off the walls, I would sweep up the chunks and dust on the floor and dust-pan it into one of the contractor bags.  I used the shop vac to get the really fine dust up off the floor.

Removing Wood Slats - The wood slats behind the plaster have the structural integrity of popsicle sticks, and are only held into the studs with 1-inch long old-fashioned square-cut nails.  I could pull them off by hand, or using a hammer and/or pry bar for expediency.  I made sure to use gloves, because these slats will give you splinters like crazy.  I placed the slats into a trash can, and when filled, I would take it downstairs and outside.  I tied some of the slats into manageable bundles, and we also burned most of this wood as fire-starter.

Next up for demolition, the wall that surrounded the landing on the third floor. Here are a couple of shots of it before it was taken down. 

Below is a shot of it after the hubs started demoing the wall. 

In between my husband side-bared into ripping the carpet up in the right room. Oh yea, and there I am in my pregnant glory looking at that white german shepherd dog.

Here (photo below) is after husband broke through the center wall on both sides. Now you can sneak a peak at what it looks like without the wall there.

We knew we would have to refinish the floors anyway, so we took no precaution in protecting it from all the rubble. 

Here (below) is a good shot of when the left side wall that encased the third floor landing came down. 

More progress! As you can see there is a HUGE amount of rubble that was amassed from this wall coming down. 

We used lots of Home Depot bags as you can see.  The wood got put to good use though (keep reading to find out how).

Because of our experience with the first floor wall removal, we knew the job would kick up a lot of dust that would spread like wild fire throughout the house. So, we took precautions from the start and hung plastic sheets, to help contain the mess. Even with these plastic sheets, dust still gets through, but it helps a lot.

But first, let me take a selfie. 

Crit is wearing this mask so he can look like be Bane from Batman, The Dark Knight Rises. 

The light shining through, in this picture below, really illuminates all the plaster dust that was in the air.

Good shot (below) of the progress and again, all the rubble accumulated. You can also see the tracks in the ceiling of where the walls used to be.

Below is a good shot with both walls removed, studs and all. All that is left to be removed is the rubble and debris. Don't worry, the electrical outlet that is hanging freely will soon be taken care of.

 Now, I will hand the mic over to my hubs to cover the debris and stud removal. 

Removing Studs - I used my Ryobi battery powered saws-all to cut the studs about 2 inches from the ceiling, then used a pry bar to remove the studs and the stubs (they were secured with about 3 inch long old-fashioned square-cut nails).

Construction Waste Cleanup - I asked my good friend Dave if he would help me out by using his truck (Toyota Tacoma) to cart all this debris to a dump.  Along with Dave, my friends Scott, and Burton helped move the bags of plaster, and bundles of wood down two flights of stairs to the street, where we then loaded it into Dave's truck.  This was definitely a test for the Tacoma, which is a half-ton truck.  I think the final weight of material we unloaded at the dump came to 1,600 lbs.

After reviewing the photos of the demolition, all I can say is WOW. I am most impressed with my husbands work, because trust me folks, my very pregnant arse did not do a thing to help besides enjoy the fires that resulted from the wood being pulled out of the wall. 

Its hard work, but someones gotta do it, and I'm always willing to sacrifice for the greater good.

Below is a sneak peak of the after results. Stay tuned to see how it all comes together!

Next on the blog:

1. Wall demo
2. Clear out rubble and debris
3. Install a door up to the third floor
4. Install electrical (take out old nob and tube wiring and put in new grounded electrical)
5. Sand floor THREE times and put down THREE coats of polyurethane
6. Trim work, patching up ceiling and painting

Life Update

SO guys. Its been a while. A lot has happened since I've blogged last! So I will give you the run down of all the fun stuff.

When the news broke that we had a bun in the oven, we initially thought we would stay in our quant little Philadelphia home. But a new baby combined with a big giant white German Shepherd in a small house with a husband that travels a lot for work = did not compute. I always jokingly say we moved for the dog, but really we did. Because Chris travels so much for work we really needed a yard to let the dog out into while he was on the road. Me without a baby in tow could walk the dog in the city, but with a baby in tow, thats a bit too much to wrangle around the city. I know, I know, people do it. But really they don't have giant german shepherd dogs. Anyway, it has all worked out! Claire (our daughter) loves Kane, our giant german shepherd. She calls him "Puppa." She loves chasing him around the loop that our kitchen, dinning room and hallway create in the new house.

Here I am in my pregnant plumpness after we bought the house.

                                     

So after considering these things, and when a great house became available we decided to take the plunge and move out of the city and into the burbs. We still own our Phildelphia home, so who knows maybe one day we'll get rid of the dog and move back ;) I kid, I kid. But really.


We decided we wanted to hang onto our Philly home because the neighborhood it is in is expanding really quickly. We realized pretty quickly that we had to create a feasible bedroom on the third floor before anyone would pay us money to actually live there. So we quickly had to get into demolition mode of knocking a wall down on the third floor and then rewiring pretty much the whole house. On the third floor the wall had to be knocked down, all the rubbel had to be removed, the floors had to be refinished and then sealed, and then the walls had to be painted as well as other minor home improvements to get the the house rent-ready.

Literally, every weekend between April to July in 2014, we had something going on with either our Philadelphia home or our new home. Our schedule was tight to say the least. I like to think of that point in our lives as "everything at once."

We moved to the new house when I was 6 months pregnant in June of 2014. We decided to start charging Chris' brother Jeremy rent. Well, we kindly house him in one of the bedrooms in our new 5 bedroom casa in exchange for the rent, of course. We decided this extra cash-shola and extra help in the new house would be worth it. Also, Chris' brother is an easy going lad that isn't hard to live with.

The new house we bought did not have a washer, dryer or refrigerator. So we had to purchase a new refrigerator and washer and dryer. Yes, I know what a terrible burden that is. That was actually a selling point to me. I was like a kid in a candy store picking out those appliances. Way too much adulating going on over here.

The first thing that we did, meaning Christopher and Jeremy, was put in a fence in the backyard for that big german shepherd dog I mentioned before.


Stay tuned kids, these posts to follow in detail!!! :

• Wall demo on third floor of Philly home
• Floor refinished on third floor of Philly house
• Re-wiring of the whole dang Philly house!
• Construction of the farm three rail fence at the new house
• Picking out appliances for new home
• Birth story of Claire's arrival 

The Before and After of the Stairs / Wall

The Stairs that finally were

Some very exciting news folks, the stairs that seemed like the never ending job are finally completed! These wood spiral stairs were quite the eye sore for way too long.

Praise the lord!

Here is the finished product kids:

Prior to completion, the stairs looked like the photo below for a while as we slowly realized how impossible it would be to take the paint off.

It has probably been in various stages of this (as seen above) since April 2013. Partly because there were SO MANY layers of paints (literally there were at least 20 layers) and because it was such a pain in the arse to get the paint off. 

We tried various methods of getting the plethora of paint layers off. We first tried chemical removers but there were so many layers that it only took off a few layers per application.  Next was a clothes iron with a wet cloth underneath of it. We'd let the iron get hot then we'd put a wet cloth down on the treads and put the hot iron on top of it for a few minutes. The steam and heat worked very effectively at bubbling and loosening the paint off of the treads so we could scrape it off. So that method was pretty effective at removing most of the paint on the treads. 

But that still left us with the risers! Enter the heat gun. I could work for an hour and get a 1/4 of a stairs paint partially removed. Chris, that wild man, could work for the same amount of time and literally have like 2 or 3 stairs done. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call progress you can't argue with. 

What we found to be most effective was a heat gun and Chris' guns (muscles) = progress, as seen below:

Looks like someone had painted on a runner before on the stairs? Some people!


Here is a shot of what the stairs looked like with the paint (FINALLY) removed:

Glorious!

The next step was to sand them down with a belt sander. That produced a HUGE amount of dust. So we had to take the precautions of putting plastic sheets over the furniture etc. Once the stairs were sanded we could get to the final step in this journey - to paint the risers white and stain the treads! Hal-le-loo-ya!

So I came home the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving to very happily find the progress below! The risers were well on their way to being painted white but the staining had not yet commenced.

                                          

                                         


While Chris was busy with other jobs I took on the task of painting EVERYTHING white!

I even gave the basement door a fresh coat of shiny white paint!

The stairs really start to look swell once we got some stain on them:

Here is what is looks like currently with Christmas decorations and all:

Oh! Also we (and by we I mean Chris) finished patching up the gap in the ceiling left by the wall. 

This is what it looked liked before Chris patched it up:

     

Here it is looking all snappy :

We've gotta work on the photography end of things but you get the idea! Things are a-moving along.