Tag Archives: home improvement

Floor Refinishing in Progress

04 Jul 2012

We are all living downstairs (not entirely, we do have the kitchen). Its awkward, and stinky, but so worth it!


We chose the middle one: “Chestnut”


CAUTION: Wet Floors (This Means You Booker And Lucy).


Today we removed the stupid built in! I’ve wanted that out for 7 years! (Tomorrow marks our 7th year anniversary of living on Page St.) We’re having the floor patched and stained. Then Mark will do some baseboard magic.

Don’t I just love home improvement.

In For A Penny, In For A Pound

30 Jan 2011

Wanna see the re-organization project that derailed my movie plans on Saturday night?

Here’s some background: I went to Ikea last Wednesday to pick up a bookcase. The project idea was stow my cookbooks in the nook behind my swinging door. I found a small bookcase that fit the space pretty well. The module piece was in the budget ($40), but didn’t come with a bottom level. If I wanted the bottom piece, it would cost me another 40. Really? Yeah, thanks IKEA. Very EFFIKTIV of you. I skipped out with just the main piece.

The resulting problem, is that I had to use the existing surface of my built-in for the books. The paint was peeling and dirty and awful. Peeling paint makes me want to run away.

So I used the paint remover (Jasco was best), and took off a bunch of paint. Then I got to some really weird red-stained wood stuff. Blood red. After poking around, (spending Way too much time trying to make the red surface nice enough to paint), I realized it was a layer of linoleum, and I could actually remove it! We uncovered and unscrewed the metal nose-piece, and it came up easily.

Sigh. What have these People been doing to my house through the years! I swear. I took out metal flashing, more patches of linoleum, contact paper, nails, … Eventually we got to the bottom level – wood.


Here is my lovely “After” photo. It was all worth it. I like my house a little more than I did before!

So what weekend project shall I tackle next? I’m all warmed up. :)