Busy Bees.

Yes, we realize it has been 4 MONTHS since we've posted anything, but it's not for lack of work. In fact, it's because we've been working so hard that we haven't had time to fool around on the internets.

As some of you may know, we are in the unfortunate position of having to sell our house, as we are moving to be closer to Adam's new job. The ideal situation would be to take our house with us, but it's not so easy when your house is not on wheels.

So we have been scrambling to get the house ready to put on the market, and here are some of the improvements we've made:

Guest Room
Some of you may remember that the room originally looked like this:


With this lovely wallpaper:


We stripped all that off (sadly, it was actually a really old wallpaper that we considered keeping if it was in better condition) and scraped down the ceiling:


And gave everything a fresh coat of paint:


Now inviting guests to come and stay with us isn't such a migraine-inducing proposition! Cleaning up the old hardware adds that extra touch, too:


Office
What was previously Adam's dressing room/catch-all was finally tackled and turned into the office. Again, it was a sad day to have to remove some of these beautiful details, which someone had painstakingly removed from wallpaper with scissors:



Note also the lovely, glossy red trim that has red panels randomly painted around it. The decals are now gone, and since we loved the colors in the guest room we decided to go with a similar scheme:


Yes, the floor was also refinished and looks lovely. We've set it up as the office, and it is now a much brighter, happier place to stare down at a computer.

The Third Floor
The third floor of our house, with two little rooms, was a creepy, dark, and dusty place that we only used as storage but couldn't wait to turn into two cute little rooms (or at least Reagan felt that way). But we cleaned them up, added heat, painted the walls, and refinished the floors:
(Room 1)




(Room 2)

The rooms originally had old linoleum carpets on them (yes, a large sheet of linoleum painted with designs and used like a rug), but they were too old and brittle to save. The floors underneath came out fabulously!


(Hallway)

The one where Adam and Reagan hang out with a bunch of strippers in the dining room.

Hopefully the title of this post will boost our hits amongst 13 year old boys, a demographic which is normally difficult to attract to home renovation blogs. Now that we have you here, lads, seriously, tuck in your shirt, stand up straight and its called deodorant, look into it.

Recently, we decided to subject ourselves long periods of immobility, loud music, toxic chemicals and fumes, killing brain cells, causing skin irritation and annoying the neighbors. No, we are not going back to High School, we are stripping the paint in our dining room.

Pop quiz: What's more tedious than watching paint dry?

C'mon, can't be too bad, you say? Sure, paint stripping is not so difficult when there are one or two layers of paint. However, the trim in this room might have been painted anywhere from 6 to 235 times over the course of its life. Lucky for you, we are documenting the entire process.


Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. Window sill after first application of toxic paint stripper. See the top layer of (gold) paint bubbling in agony.


How 'bout a little fire, scarecrow? This was early on, when I still had the strength to attempt a smile.


This much work took a full day. We finally got to wood, which looks pretty good.


This amount of work took 2 full days. FYI - there are 3 window frames, 3 door frames, 1 door, 1 intricate mantel, and lots of baseboard in this room that needs to be stripped. Multiply that out and you get several years worth of weekends working on removing paint from this room.

Why so long? #1 the aforementioned abundance of paint layers, which do put up a good fight against the chemicals we put on them (strength in numbers, you know), and #2 the impressive intricacy of Victorian woodworking. The reason we are taking this room back to wood is to reveal how lovely this woodwork is and originally was...which we now realize is both a blessing and a curse.

We finished the window frames:


And we finished (mostly) the closet door:


Then Adam finally got his wish - he started on the mantel.


Here's the action sequence for stripping paint off of one single panel on the mantel:











That's at least 5 separate applications of the stripping gel, letting it sit, and scraping it off.

The column capital looks pretty amazing, too, after a couple hours worth of work:


If you have enjoyed this post, take heart, we are only 30% done with this room.

Turn Your Yard Into a Dirt Farm

- Tired of maintaining plant life in your yard?
- Want to make some extra cash selling dirt and dust?
- Did they make you read The Grapes of Wrath in High School?
- Ever thought of raising camels?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then you may be interested in our step by step dirt farm process. Just follow our simple instructions and all of your dirt farm dreams will be realized. Within weeks you can have your own profitable and enjoyable dirt farm that may (or may not) produce actual profits and/or enjoyment.

1. The first step is to fall under the misapprehension that you can improve upon the grass that grows naturally in your back-yard (you cannot) . This is like thinking you can improve the salt water off your local beach. Mother Nature has spent eons determining the grass that is most suitable to the conditions of your yard. It may be the back-hair of grass, but it is yours. Fight it all you want, long after you have departed your mortal form, your yard will still be covered with back-hair. Just like your back.


The back hair of grass. Though this may look bleak, after you see the end result, this will look like Ireland during a wet spring.


2. The next step is to remove all forms of organic life from your yard. If at all possible, you should employ the most inefficient, dangerous and environmentally harmful method available. Naturally controlled burning would be your first choice. However, in disadvantageous burning conditions, you may have to select an alternate method. We used a hand-held tiller. Hand-held is to tiller as bite-sized is to sea urchin. The main difference between tilling and burning is that fire doesn't hurt when it hits a rock.

Don't forget mammals when removing life forms from the yard. If you have a dog that loves the yard, and you have no way of keeping her out of it, you must sit her down and tell her, in plain English, that she should not walk into the yard anymore. After that, you should speak with the birds.

Once you have vibrated the filings from your mouth and you have honed the earth to a suitable degree, so that nothing remains but dirt - pure, unfiltered dirt, you should pay someone to supply the crucial ingredient... dirt!

Readers who have become familiar with the recurring dramatic themes in this blog will recognize, in the adding of dirt to dirt, a leitmotif characterized by the futile relocation of geological objects, the moving of rocks, the digging of holes and so on. Typically this leitmotif is used to introduce the well known and much beloved character, "Cousin Doug".


Cousin Doug adds 22 piles of dirt, to... the dirt.

Each pile counts as repayment of .0023% of Doug's debt incurred as a result of this event.




After painstakingly raking every particle of new dirt, we were able to recreate the exact look of the yard before any dirt had been added.




Finally, one of the local merchants was able to convince us that, if we sprayed soaking wet clumps of green paper on top of the fresh dirt, grass would miraculously spring from the mix. Sounds good right?! How much for that?!


Apparently we will pay money for anything.


In the next installment.....


The Ruedigs frolic on their verdant new lawn!

uh.. It's still dirt.

Finished Product

We promised ourselves that we would post more often now that we are working on the house regularly again...but of course, we get lazy. As a filler post, here are some pics of the finished kitchen. With cabinet doors. And finished trim!


We have cabinet doors! And complete crown molding! And fully-painted trim!


And all the cabinets have side panels, too!


Once again, our beloved counter. We can't tell you how much we love it.

...and we're back!

Spring is here! And like the birds, crocuses and wind-blown Doritos bags on Ashmont Street, we are coming back to life!

We have spent the last 5 months just enjoying the new kitchen and adjusting to a low plaster diet. We have even entertained (we are always 'entertaining', but apparently there's a difference).


(not the kitchen)

We are going to tackle the dining room next, but first, we have a few house-keeping chores to finish up. Nothing too big, but we'll share them anyway because we're proud of ourselves for even the smallest tasks and because you have all been so pushy about our blog vacation.

The toilet in our bathroom had always swiveled a bit. This isn't something that you generally want from a toilet, but it proved to be somewhat helpful when you needed to face a certain direction, or, you know, when you need to turn to talk to someone without straining your neck. Then we noticed a little leaking in the kitchen ceiling - our NEW kitchen ceiling - and so good bye swivel toilet. (don't worry, we're keeping the reclining toilet)


This is the hole that we've been pooping in for the last year and a half. No, we're joking, of course. We took the toilet up and found this. Hmm...wax ring totally slacking off on its job.


Need to put down a new collar, but the flange of the pipe is old and doesn't have holes in the right places. No news here - it seems everything in this house is unique and doesn't fit the standard. Adam had to do some modifications to get it mounted and in place.


Drilled some holes, put in some nuts and bolts, and had to cut them down to size.


Ah, beautiful. Stable and waterproof with new wax ring, though less convenient when you need to turn from side to side.

Oh, and we also cleaned the sink drain and found some buried treasures.

Yummy. Adam would like to point out his obvious lack of culpability with regards to the giant wad of hair.

Speaking of eating, have you ever eaten part of your own house? No? Of course not! Houses are for squirrels to eat! For example, this is the portion of our porch that was recently eaten by squirrels! Perhaps they had buried an acorn...

One day there was no hole, then suddenly...hole. They chewed their way through some weakened shingles. Not acceptable.


Adam removes the nest, and eats it for revenge. He also replaces the shingles.


Beautiful work. Now just paint the new shingles, and keep on going until the whole porch is painted, too.