The Tortoise Wins, Right?

Sometimes I think that I should have chosen a different name for this blog. The Papered House is fine, as far as names go. It's accurate and descriptive: it's true that our house was completely covered in vintage wallpaper when we moved in. It's also true that I spend far too much time and energy thinking about what type of wallpaper I'd like to install when we're at that stage of the DIY process.

To say that I'm a wallpaper nerd is an understatement. Case in point: for my birthday last year, my husband S bought me a 300-page book on the history of wallpaper. It was shipped from the UK, because no copies were available within the US. I've been known to exceed our cell phone data plan while browsing William Morris and Sanderson wallpaper designs. If I ever win the lottery, my first purchase will be hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper murals for our dining room (actually that's a lie. First I will order orchestra section tickets to Hamilton. And then, I will buy de Gournay).

Although I wasn't clever enough to remember the more common meaning of a "papered house" when I selected the blog name, now I take perverse pleasure in imagining some 19th century rascals dressed like the cast of Newsies covering our Victorian house with toilet paper. I know that's a highly improbable scenario. In all likelihood, the primitive toilet paper available during the late 1800s would have been expensive enough to prevent frivolous use. But reality aside, imagining this scenario gives me the giggles nonetheless.

Anyway, The Papered House works fine as a blog name. But if I had known then what I know now, I might have named this blog The Tortoise House. You would then know to expect verrrrry sloooooow progress from us. I'm a big fan of managing expectations.

This is how I often feel about the pace of our DIY projects:

We sometimes feel like we're spinning our wheels with this house, and it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have learned that instant gratification is not compatible with rehabbing an old home. When I'm feeling frustrated with the pace of our rehab, occasionally I'll give myself permission to take the night off and relax after work with a glass of wine. But more often, I tell myself, "this house isn't going to fix itself." That saying is a constant mantra in this household, and it's usually enough to kick myself into gear and get back to the task at hand.

Since I last posted (in June), we've made progress on several big projects. Actually, I should say that my husband S has made progress on these projects. As much as I hate to admit that he does the heavy labor, it's true. I'm in charge of painting, cleaning, and otherwise containing the chaos that comes with having an open project in nearly every room. In the past few months, "we" have installed new electric for five of the seven overhead lights on the first floor. The overhead lights in the kitchen and back porch still need new wiring, and then we'll be ready for inspection. Since we were already drilling holes into the plaster in order to install the new wiring, we decided it would be a good time to repaired cracked plaster ceilings along the way. So far, the ceilings in the dining room and front hall have been repaired (though I still need to sand, which tops the list of my least favorite projects). In between those projects, we have also continued to chip away at other tedious, time-intensive projects on our list, like stripping and repainting all the original molding and restoring our windows.

Unfortunately, this summer we also encountered several house-related setbacks. I had a long, protracted post written about those frustrations, but I'll save that for a different post. Spoiler alert: it involves a slate roof, leaky pipes, an old HVAC system, and structural concerns about our porch. I think it's important to be transparent about the challenges of owning and rehabbing an old home, so I'll publish that post at some point. But today is not that day.

I'm determined that this post will be about the things that are going well at The Papered House. Like the family room! Our family room is coming together quite nicely. Our goal for this room is to give it an Arts and Crafts/Mission-style aesthetic, while still coordinating with the rest of our decor. We aren't done yet, but here are a few shots of what the family room looks like today:

As of my June post, we had checked off the first six steps in rehabbing the family room, including:

1. Install two new outlets. Run new wiring to overhead light (will be active after inspection)
2. Remove all the baseboard, window casings and door casing
3. Purchase, cut, prime, and install new window and door casings. Patch nail heads and caulk if needed
4. Repair plaster using Big Wally's Plaster Magic. Patch and sand walls after repair
5. Prime two walls (other two walls will have existing wallpaper)
6. Paint two walls (other two walls will have existing wallpaper)


In the past three months, we checked off the next six steps on our family room project, including the following: 

7. Paint new molding
8. Repair ceiling plaster. Patch and sand ceiling after repair
9. Prime ceiling
10. Paint ceiling
11. Restore three windows (strip paint on sash, channel, and sill; apply new glazing; install new weatherstripping, sash cords, and new parting bead; prime and paint sash, channel, and sill)
12. Install wallpaper border to coordinate with existing wallpaper and wall color

When we moved into this house, there was crown molding in this room. Like the existing baseboards, window casings and door casings in this room, it was clearly not original. However, all the woodwork was covered in chipping paint that was beyond repair, so it had to be removed. Rather than installing new crown molding, we decided to hang a wallpaper border from Bradbury & Bradbury. We used the "Aster Border" in Aesthetic Green from Bradbury's William Morris Woodland Roomset. We couldn't be happier with how it complements our existing wallpaper and the color on the walls (Craftsman Gold at 70% intensity from California Paints).

These pictures also show the detail of the new Craftsman-style trim that we installed around our doors and windows. We're so happy with the new trim. This was a design that my husband S created after researching and speaking with an Arts and Crafts expert. He spent a lot of time down in the basement using the saw to cut this molding, but it was totally worth it (says the lady who has only used the saw once in her entire life).

The antique swing-arm curtain rods were an eBay purchase. We have very similar ones in our bedroom (those can be seen here); we like the style, and the price was right. For the three sets in our family room, we paid just $60 including shipping. There is a downside to buying antique hardware: several of the brackets are a bit cock-eyed and bent, which causes the rods to be out of alignment. We might tinker with them in the future to see if we can get the curtain rods to appear more level. For now, they are fine. The curtains are a sheer linen fabric with embroidered medallions. They previously hung in one of our guest bedrooms, and were a last minute purchase at HomeGoods when we were hosting houseguests. Initially, I just hung them in the family room as placeholders, thinking they might be too modern for the family room. But now that they are there, I like them. S pointed out that the medallions on the curtains are similar to the medallions on the wallpaper. He's right. 

We still have a few tasks remaining in the family room. Some of these tasks are small, like hanging artwork. Other tasks, such as stripping and repainting the doors, will take more time. We've decided to hold off until stripping the doors until winter. There are five(!) doors in this room and we need to make some space in the basement workshop to strip them safely. We've also decided to prioritize some of the more time-sensitive tasks before winter sets in.

This weekend, we are tackling a number of exterior projects. It's also time for us to decorate for Halloween! In the meantime, I'll leave you with a creepy picture of our family room just after dawn. Tell me this does not look like the promo poster of a horror movie.

-The Papered House dares you to pull a Halloween prank. Go ahead, try it.

Bathroom Mini Makeover

Our bathroom has undergone a "mini makeover." I like to think of this transformation as the equivalent of cooking pancakes for dinner: we needed something quick, cheap, and easy, making use (primarily) of items we already had on hand. And since this is our only bathroom, we wanted it to remain fully functional while we spruced it up. In a few years, we plan to give this bathroom a "real" makeover. But in the meantime, this budget-friendly redo gets the job done.
  
When we bought the house, our bathroom came with paisley gray and pink vinyl wallpaper that was starting to peel. Country chic circa 1990.

There was also a laminate vanity straight out of the 1970s. Look at those handles!

The walls were tiled in 4"x 4" gray square tile, finished with a bullnose border. We think that this tile was installed in the 1940s or 1950s, since it was a popular Post-War style. All things considered, the tile is in very good condition and we actually like the classic look.   

Guest Room Progress

Last week, I posted an admittedly ambitious list detailing the projects we hope to accomplish by the end of March.  One of our first goals is to fix up our guest bedroom so that we have a hospitable place for overnight guests to stay.  I'm excited to share the first set of "Before" and "After" photos.  We still have a lot of work to do in this room, but we're pleased with the progress so far. 



The Papered House Project List: Jan-March 2015

We have a lot of painting in our future...

I've always been a compulsive list-maker.  I make lists of books I want to read, restaurants I want to try, places I should visit.  I tend to be a tad forgetful and the list-making helps me feel as though I have a fighting chance of keeping everything in order.  Even if I'm just going to the grocery store for three items, I force myself to make a list lest I forget something (As luck would have it, I often forget my grocery list at home.  Oh, the irony). 

Restoring our home will be the largest project that my husband and I have undertaken, and it's bound to be a work in progress for quite some time.  When we look around the house at the unfinished projects and see all the work that still needs to be done, it's easy for us to feel overwhelmed and discouraged.  Separating the projects into small, discrete tasks has made the restoration feel more manageable.  Thus, we created a project list for the next three months.  And unlike my grocery list, there's no chance of me forgetting the items on this list.  It would be pretty hard to overlook the peeling wallpaper in our family room or the grimy grout in our bathroom (ick)!

Our Retro Kitchen

When my husband and I started researching our home, we had a strong hunch that our kitchen dated to the 1940s or 1950s.  We didn't have any concrete evidence, just a vague conception of what a retro, post-war American kitchen would look like: white cabinets, Formica counters, linoleum floors, cherry red accents, and kitschy wallpaper. 

In other words, we thought that many 1940s or 1950s kitchens had looked exactly like the kitchen in our new home.  It turns out we were right.  Here's our kitchen, in all its retro glory.

And here is an ad I found in the Retro Renovation kitchen gallery for a 1940s kitchen by the company St. Charles.  The St. Charles kitchen has white steel cabinets, chrome handles, a tile backsplash, black/red linoleum floors, and cherry red Formica counters edged in chrome.  Unless my eyes deceive me, the wallpaper features an assortment of happy, singing vegetables who are performing some sort of jig. 



The Vintage Wallpaper - First Floor

One of the defining features of our house -- and the reason we named this blog "The Papered House" -- is the variety of vintage wallpaper found throughout the home.  I'm a bit of a wallpaper nerd, so perhaps it's unusual that I'm thrilled to live in rooms covered with old, dated wallpaper.  Not all of the wallpaper is our taste, but I'm embracing it and learning as much about it as I can.  Here is what we've discovered thus far about the wallpaper on our first floor.

Living and Dining Rooms (Originally the Double Parlor)

Our house is arranged as a side-hall with double-parlor, which seems to be a popular style for our area.  The foyer and staircase are on the left side of the house.  To the right of the entry hall, French doors lead to two rooms which are joined by pocket doors.  When the house was built, these rooms most likely served as the home's front and rear parlors.  The front parlor would have been the most formal room in the house, as it would have been used for entertaining visitors and important guests.  The rear parlor would have been used as a less formal gathering space for family members.  In other words, the front parlor was the equivalent of a modern living room and the rear parlor was the equivalent of the modern family room.  The rooms would often have been decorated similarly, so that the decor would appear cohesive when the pocket doors were opened.  In case it helps to see a floorplan, the first floor of our home looks remarkably similar to the layout of the Gallier House in New Orleans.

But back to our house.  Although these rooms would have been used as a front and rear parlor, we're using them as a living room and dining room, respectively.  For reasons I'll explain in a future post, this just works better with our lifestyle and furniture.  Currently, the wallpaper in both rooms is a scenic landscape with shades of brown, mustard yellow, and metallic gold.