After two months of hard work, Jacob has finally completed the initial renovation of our bedroom. I can't say our bedroom is "done," because I know that we will have many things to add and change in the future. Once the wallpaper was finally stripped, it only took two weeks to make the space livable.
It took two large tubs of Spackle for us to fill all the holes, patch up the crumbly plaster, and mend where we had taken down the molding. Originally we were going to keep the molding intact, but removing the wood panel had left a large gap between it and the wall. After taking it all down, it was clear we would have a lot of plaster to repair. The most painful part of this process came when we sanded down the Spackle which resulted in a lot of dust that even our face masks couldn't keep out. This process probably took us two full days because we could only do a small patch of wall before we were forced to let the dust settle and come back later. If we had filled every imperfection we would have been set back about a week, so we left a few scrapes alone. Personally, I like the character it gives the walls. Our house is old, I don't need to lie about that. Would it be impressive if a room originally built in 1918 looked incredibly modern? Yes, but it wouldn't be the look we love and feel at home in.
It was so nice to see the clean layer of primer on the walls. The room had looked so bad for so long that a smooth coat of Kilz really looked like progress. Two layers of grey paint and it was hard to believe the work was done. Looking closely at the walls you can tell it was a quick
paint job. Despite taping, we still somehow managed to get huge smears
of grey paint on the ceiling. Our edges aren't clean, there are drips on
the baseboards, but it is livable and far more beautiful than the wood
paneled nightmare we were living in before. Down the line, we may have
some real painters come in, but for now I enjoy waking up and seeing the
little smudges of grey paint here and there. It makes our home feel
real. Ours. Once we add some art to the walls, no one will notice the
rough edges. We thought about framing a picture of how the original
bedroom, just as a reminder to ourselves of how it started.
One day while I was at work, Jacob and his father had ripped up the carpet and sanded the hardwood floors. It was so full of dust and old wallpaper bits that it would have been more work to clean the ugly thing than to rip it all up. Underneath it was a huge mess. When Jacob showed me the before pictures I couldn't believe the work they had done! In the dining room we were lucky enough to find that there was only carpet glue around the edges. The bedroom, however, was completely covered. A power sander and 4 hours later, the floor was tolerable.
After investing in our very first brand new mattress it really feels like a grown-up bedroom. We will probably refinish the floors next spring or summer, but right now they feel smooth on our feet and we won't be putting them at risk for any damage. We are just some curtains and art away from our dream room!
