Spare Room Fixup

The small little spare room had to be fixed up... It had ugly carpet, bland walls, and bare windows. Check it out!

Before:

Walls were a dull tan, with no moulding or trim. Beige carpets. Yum.

Moulding:

Heidi's paint pick in progress (a very subtle creamy yellow):

Turns out, under the carpets were hidden hardwood floors. Unfortunately the bank had hired spray painters to do the house a neutral, enticiting the lay person with a "new paint" listing. The hardwood floors were covered in a sheer layer of latex, and it proved quite difficult to remove. It took another two days of scraping and emulsifying the paint off the newly found floors before a degree of accomplishment could be had. After a few afternoon of heffalumps and woozles, it isn't perfect, but most probably, after some putty and varnish, it will be difficult to tell. Especialy since we will put an area rug down to hide our erroneous work!

So, with the finishing touches complete, and blinds in place the spare room is finished.

It was nice to have a totally empty back bedroom, until, of course, London got her little tail injured. So, now it's the cat's healing room... or screaming room; whichever she prefers. And she usually picks screaming. All night.

Yard Demo

After purchasing the house in Norwalk, we began to undertake several (hundred) projects. I am, as some may have guessed, not easily idle, and we bought this home with the goal to fix it up and rent it out in the next few years. Hopefully, we can move up and out: bigger house, different coast... but, that is another blog.

One of the saddest areas of the house was the backyard. It was overgrown, had a dilapidated fence, a cesspool fountain built from cinder blocks, and of course, a car port. Yeah. In the yard. There were also several random patches of differing hardscapes, including a cement runway (mini basketball court?), and 11x11 square of flagstone (?) next to the cement strip.

= Carport (East view; Jan09)

Yard (West back corner, Jan 09)=

We started by digging up the pond, , sledge hammering cinder blocks and deep digging roots. We excavated and filled holes under the blazing Norwalkian desert sun, sweating blood, crying dust. No more ocean breeze from the cliffs of Palos Verdes... The concrete and flagstone came up with a sledge hammer, more sweat, and a trinity of cold beer, ice water, and lemonade. Gotta love that lemon tree.

<-- Fountain of concrete

(Working late into the night)

After the new fence went up, Heidi and I took several odd weekends to stain it. Minus the ruining of a pair of glasses, two stained pair of pants, one bonkers kitty, and coating the dog's tail, I think we were pretty accomplished.

The final yard redo won't be completed until after the next major renovation project: "The Bathroom Addition". Apparently, with sprinkler moving, and brick patio demo, one needs a final layout of the home to do any major hardscaping. This demo just created a workable space, and saved some cash, as most charge major dinero for "demo and hauling".

The yard thus far:

This little wasteland is shaping up! More updates after the addition, as, sorry to say, the yard is the last project on the list until after the bathroom.