Dining Room Reveal

Sorry I have been gone for sooo long, and sorry that I have been fluttering around on subjects. I will do better - I mean it.

We have been pulled in many different directions the past month or so, but I am back and ready to show off the new changes we have and will be making!


First and foremost...the Dining Room Reveal is ready! We where able to get new dining room furniture by pure chance! (thanx mo!) It was a little touch and go getting it - We almost lost all of it because the house it is from was being foreclosed on when we showed up to move it. After a little detective work, and fast thinking we got it all. I would share pictures of us getting the furniture but I flash to a moment when I am sitting in front of court saying, " No judge I had no idea that the house was not in the possession of the person who let me in. I swear, really." So I bring you the pictures of it all moved in to the newly painted revamped dining room. The set is very traditional, but high quality. It includes: a china cabinet, table with 2 leaves, 6 chairs, and a server. I will add my own spice to the room to overcome the traditional set, in time. And no we did not break into some rich person's house and take all this great stuff. It was all very formally written out that we could come steal these goods, in a legal sorta way.


edit** please excuse some of the fuzzy shots...I need a new camera. Oh and the "glass" doors on the cabinet and server are not glass at all. They are just mia until casahusband attaches the wood ones back on. *hint hint casahusband.

Before

*Just in case you missed the mess you can catch it here


After


*Note: The only thing missing is the crown molding - we are waiting for a cow to jump over the moon before we hang em'.























The light we chose has speckled colored glass, and the metal finish is similar to the copper window fixtures.

Yes, I said copper. I scrubbed, and put some major elbow grease into these babies and I love them. They are my favorite part of the room.










Oh and we can't forget to the crumbling wall...


Before



After


With lots of sanding and paint we made this wall look as if had never fallen apart. Magic & spackle I tell ya.

The only one in the fam that didn't pitch in to make this room a hit was Beamish. But it's okay cause he chipped in by excavating some holes in the front yard for me.

Thanx buddy.

UPDATE:::Dining Room

The Darn Dining Room is it's new name. We got the paint up and noticed that many of our patches and such where not sanded down quite enough and showed through the paint like giant slabs of plaster screaming at us. So we are trying to over look our poor workmanship and just get the darn thing done. Tomorrow Rob has taken the day off and is going to hang the chair rail, and crown molding with his dad. yippee! So I will hopefully have more to post on the room soon.

My "job" in the dining room project was the beloved double hung windows. Since I was so picky, & bossy...and yes even a little bratty about them I decided that I would tackle them myself so that if they did not turn out it wouldn't be any one's fault but my own.

Removing 100 years of grime & paint off of the original window hardware:

(before)





First:

I took 1/4 cup of *baking soda and added it to a half filled pot of boiling water. Once dissolved I added the hardware and let them simmer for about 30 minutes. *keep an eye on them, if your like me you added more than 1/4 cup and it started to bubble over every time you turned your back. Also I recommend using a less liked pot since you will have all kinds gross stuff floating around in it.

You will begin to see bits & pieces float to the top...

After about 30-40 minutes I took them out and rinsed them, while using steal wool I scrubbed off the loose paint that remained.

After shots coming soon...

The great debate of the lighting fixture. Over the weekend Rob and I shopped for a new dining room light with no luck. We want something that is classic but still has a little eclectic flair. So many lights to choose from...I love them all.



The dining room is "in progress" currently but here is a sneak peak of what we are thinking about:

We are keeping our current table but staining it a dark brown because of this "oops". I love this table so I am willing to work with it. The chairs are going to be sanded and painted white, with a glossy finish. I love the eclectic look of a few different chairs all painted the same color. I want an old hutch that is worn in with time, but for now I think we will use the simple Ikea expedit bookshelf until I find the perfect one.

So let us know your thoughts about the lighting...I am really hoping for some good ideas to move this project forward.

Oh and our old light is for sale HERE on Craigslist St.Louis.

First we had gray/blue, then a green, then we came to an agreed upon color. The wall color we choose is Olympic™ D13-4 Stony Creek in egg shell. It's very earthy and warm, but has a very classy feel to it. It will look just great with the white woodwork and dark stained table with a brand new light...now to finding a light. Any suggestions?

The Dining Room...AHHHH RUN!!!


We decided to tackle the dining room thinking it would be a weekend paint project. Oops. The paint prep on an old house like this takes forever! The picture above is of the floor board that fell off when I started to sand it. yep. some quality walls we have here. So we patched it and nailed a piece of wood between the lath board and the floor board so that it would stay intact. We then patched the wall using spackling compound with a little bit of water added and sanded it until it look brand new again, well almost anyways. Nothing is perfect when your house in 100+ years old. But that's why we love her so. Right?
(we used the spackling compound because we where going for "quick drying")


After we started chipping out the cracks in the plaster and filling all of the 10,000 nail wholes we had a realization that this was A MUCH LARGER JOB THAN WE THOUGHT. So we kept on chipping, filling, mending & sanding. Lot's of sanding. Like tons of sanding...so thankful I put up plastic in all the door ways to this room and closed off the air vents and shut off the HVAC.
yes those are dust particles taking over my camera lens


not the best way to block off a vent but hey...I try.


I even wore a pretty little mask to protect my dear lungs.

1st place "Handy Tool Award" goes to The Craftsman 9-27984 Professional 1/4 Sheet Pad Sander! You can get yours (here)

This tool earned it's keep plus some. We used it on the windows, ceiling, floor boards, walls, and the floor. With out a doubt the best sander I have used thus far. The 1/4 sheet allows you use any grade paper you prefer and you just cut it yourself. The handy vacuum bag helped with the dust, but with most any sander you will have access dust flying around. Very easy to use for anyone, and made this job much quicker.
**edit

**Special thanks to my father-in-law John for purchasing the Craftsman Sander and letting us use it. Also a huge thanks to family for chipping in to help us get the walls back in order. Thanks guys!

We got the walls prepped and ready for painting by Sunday around 2:00..yeah great weekend painting project. First we primed the areas where we had spackling, and painted the ceiling with Glidden ICI PAINTS Quick Roll with EZ Track - you can just dip and roll with the easy to use container. It also goes on pink until it drys so you know here you have painted (very helpful). We had to go to Home Depot for this one...our Lowes doesn't seem to carry this gem.



watching the paint dry...


Then we primed the whole wall with 2 coats. We use Zinsser Bulls Eye primer. We bought a 5 gallon bucket before we painted our bedroom because if you see that orange in the background...it's gonna need a lot.





Next... wall color, new light, chair rails, & crown molding go up.

Big things this weekend! We are having the wicked tree removed from the side of our house. It was hit by lightning a year ago and now has a huge crack in it...making the chances of it falling on our house pretty good.

The view from our dining room of the bad tree

Now the view with out the tree

The Fantastical stump - we will get it removed in the future...

-It would be nice the neighbor wants to pay for part of it too-

Oh - & Even Beamish is enjoying all the leaves!

Picture 098, originally uploaded by fishfishkiss.

Curtains For Sale:

I have these great blue floral pattern curtains for sale. $40

I know I said I would post more soon and it's been like 4 days...well i had to find my flash drive, and get pics off of the laptop and the desktop and bring them here to work. Yeah I know what your thinking - god lady you work hard...posting on the blog thing all day long. I work very hard and have done most all of the work for whole day its almost 2pm. so there.

I wanted to point out that in our dining room I have to somehow to cover this up with the design:

Nice huh. It was an accident that was made while living at the apartment. It's okay I am thinking of painting the table white anyways. I have always wanted a large white table for some reason.