Consider this somewhat of a tutorial. On how to waste a week of your life. Ready? Ok. (Did that just make you think of cheerleaders? I do apologize)
So. There were these bookshelves. UGLY bookshelves. Built-ins. Normally I love built-ins and this house has several, but these are awful.
The worst part of these shelves is that there is a space behind them (I’d say about 15 sq ft) that is completely boxed in by walls. When we first bought the house we would lie awake at night wondering what was in there. Old wall leftover from the add-on in the 60′s? Piles of cash? Dead bodies? We didn’t know. Until we broke through the wall of the closet to find an empty space. WITH AN INTAKE VENT.
Moving on. We need every square foot we can get. With seven people, two cats, and one big dog, we need every square foot we can get. So we decided to tear down the bookshelves, put down a small patch of carpet and put in some bunkbeds to make room for Eli. Him still being in our room is SO not working for me.
Well, it turns out it wasn’t that easy. Not only were there bookshelves, but also a wall. Studs and all. I didn’t take a picture but this is the aftermath:
Here’s me. At 2am thinking this was not what I signed up for.
Here’s the gross carpet that covered almost every inch of our house when we bought it. We have slowly taken it out room by room. Plus some really cute legs. Rest assured the rest of those legs have “pannies” on them, but I try not to put undie pictures of my kids on the internets. Call me crazy.
So keep that carpet in your mind for a moment. I peeked under it for fun and BEGGED my husband to let me tear it all out. A lot of the original (1905) wood flooring in our house is in awful shape. This room not so much. Pretty good shape. Him, being so great and wanting me to eat my words, said okay.
Hey check it out. We tore out a wall and built one!
The other side of the room for reference:
Hey! Another shot of that awesome wall we built. I’m not proud of myself or anything. We even recycled the drywall that was torn down. So what if it is made with asbestos? We’re saving the earth.
Look at the floor. Only a turn-of-the-century home-owner would think this is beautiful. I do.
Drumroll please. Drywall primer!! (Isn’t this exciting? It’s like eating cardboard and watching grass grow at the same time!)
So I picked out a couple of AWESOME (read dripping with sarcasm) orange testers for the room. We went with the darker one. I had a panic attack after Dave painted half the room. Panic attack isn’t the right term. . .maybe nuclear meltdown would be better. Had a similar episode trying to pick out a new color at Home Depot. We went with minty green, which is nice and calming. Trust me. Deep orange: not calming.
The dark corner is chalkboard paint (Dave’s genius plan). Totally cool invention. Here’s a tip: When the instructions say to “condition” the chalk board, don’t listen to the Home Depot employee who says you can buy it at a craft store. And then, don’t listen to the employee at the craft store who says you can buy it at an office supply store. Do the right thing and google it. Then take some chalk and rub it all over the painted surface. Erase it. Now it is conditioned. Good tip, eh?
So here’s where the rest of the week gets wasted. It turns out that painting the floor takes a LONG time. 24 hours between coats (at least) and then 72 hours before using the room. Whoopsie.
Dont’ they look super shabby chic though?
So ignore the clashing rug. But the blurry children are the best part. We found out during this project that all we really need is a completely empty room and we would be set. ENDLESS entertainment.
All three youngest are now settled into the “new” room and I am a happy camper.
