NewlyWoodwards

an unconventional home

Renovation progress report – week 24

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Time is flying, but all is well on the renovation front. I love that we are at the point of painting rooms. More instant gratification than, say, plumbing and electrical.
Paint and skim coating
In case you were wondering, the front bedroom color is growing on me.  It looks better in daylight and I think adding white trim and our white furniture (from the extra bedroom) will really brighten it up.

Refinishing the flooring could help, too.

Ryan’s been furiously working on walls to finish the skim coating in the living room and dining room. This is a terrible job, in case you were considering taking it on. It’s physically draining, time-consuming, mentally mind-numbing and also incredibly messy. He seems to always be covered in a layer of dust nowadays. He sweeps up so much dust every night – it’s crazy. Then, he begins again the next day.

But the result seems to really be worth the effort. The walls are smooth like buttah. Like a baby’s badonkadonk. So much better than the original plaster texture. It almost looks like brand new drywall. I’m wishing we would have thought to try it at our current house. But, we didn’t. Moving on.

And seeing the white almost makes me want to paint everything white to brighten it up. Holy. Moly. Look at all that natural light. But I won’t. Color is in my DNA.

Speaking of color… do you see the color peeking through from the entryway?

Below is what the entry looked like after skim coating and sanding a few times. (There’s the husband, laughing while I’m saying, “If you don’t smile, I’ll put you on the blog looking grumpy.” Nothing like a light-hearted threat to make someone do exactly what you want. Story of my life.)

Oh. And hello there, Martha Stewart Bedford Gray. I’m madly in love and borderline obsessed with you. (The color is truest at the bottom of the wall.)
Let’s see another before and after, shall we? (See all that dust? From one sanding.)
Oh, dear God. I just died of happiness. Love.this.color. Paint every room in your house this color and then send me a cake to thank me. It’s that good.
You may recall that last week, I was debating the color. You all came through with lots of advice – some said paint it Bedford Gray. Some gave me other awesome choices for greiges. My awesome friend Christi sent me a list of blog posts with greige options and I checked out every one. I ended up with an entire list of paint colors that you love, which I organized by brand and wrote in a notepad. Then, I Googled each one to see images and checked out my favorite 10 in person. I have an obsessive personality. This shouldn’t be news.
After all of that. I went with Bedford Gray anyhow. Ryan predicted it. But I love you all for your help.
Since we’re talking about paint… I also confirmed our dining room color. Martha Stewart Seal (color matched to Behr Ultra Premium Plus, of course).
It’s the color below the chair rail. Which will eventually be re-done to its original board and batten glory. (Can you see where the boards used to be? Who in their right mind would take out original board and batten?) Since that will be white, I decided to go with something dark and moody. This dark charcoal-with-a-hint-of-brown fit the bill. (Speaking of a moody-in-a-good-way dining room, check out this navy beauty at Ten June.)
ReStore finds
This week, we also scouted out Habitat ReStore on Saturday in search of a sink and instead found these awesome cabinet doors. Solid wood. Perfect size for our soon-to-be-built-in shelves. And the price? $15 for both sets. Sold.

I was planning to buy custom-sized wooden doors online, but $15 for 4 solid doors sounded better. And I really like them
We also scored a trim piece that is an identical match to the top trim on all the doors in the house. Which is perfect since the past owners ripped out the trim above the dining room – kitchen pass-through. 
Other random scenes
I thought you may like to see some other snapshots of the house. There is stuff everywhere. The tub is still on the upstairs landing. A friend is taking it, but for now it’s holding trim and other random junk.
The linen closet has turned into a very handy paint storage area. (Who needs towels when you have Rustoleum? And we don’t have a working shower, sink or toilet, anyhow.)

Oh lookie… there’s the new tub. In the master bedroom. Right where it belongs.

So that’s the scoop at the house-ola. The list is updated, too. Check it out.
What do you think?

Comments

  1. OMG!! Bedford Gray is the bedonkadonk. It’s the shizz! I have a sudden urge to paint our (newly painted, mind you) basement Bedford Gray. You are awesome.

    All that architectural moulding & millwork in your “new” place has me weak in the knees. I’m seriously dying over here.

    OK, off to do my nightly stalking of your place (I’ll turn off my car headlights this time, sorry about that).

  2. I am just so impressed by how far you all have come on this house in so little time. You are amazing!It’s looking so great! Beautiful gray!

  5. Where do I begin?

    Love the Bedford Gray, maybe the perfect color for our basement? But I said the same thing about the aqua somewhere else… Decisions…

    The Seal is going to A.Maz.Ing. with with board and batten.

    I LOVE the color you picked for the MB bedroom! Have we seen that yet? I have such a short, freakin’ memory. Your house is going to look phenominal when it’s done. You guys are going to be the next Sarah Richardson. I predict it.

  6. Oh my, so many good things in this post! But I dropped dead with jealousy at the sight of the built-in! Love that gray color too…may have to try it in our office and then send you a cake of course!

  8. Oh wow, you guys are already painting. I love.those.colors. You did such a nice job picking them out and it really starting to come together. I feel Ryan’s pain about the dust thing. Working with drywall and plaster rates as one of my least favorite activities. But oh those smooth walls are so worth it!

  9. LOVE Habitat Re-Store. If it took less than an hour to get there I would probably frequent it weekly.

  10. Holy wow that’s coming along! I’m loving watching your progress! I also wish we could use the bedford grey in our house, it’s stunning! But we’ve got more warmish tones running through, so I don’t think it would fit the flow /sadface.

    Keep up the amazing!

  11. Love it! When I think about repainting I’m hiring you for my research/decision process. I like the dark color for the dinning room, kinda like the RH color we talked about. I kinda want to repaint 3 rooms in my house.

  12. How do you like the Martha Stewart paint? I bought some of the sample pots to try in the baby-room-to-be and it was REALLY thin. Like I would have to do so many coats THIN! Maybe I’m just used to the paint and primer in one stuff that covers better?

  13. I love the paint choices!! These posts are so fun to read. Now I need to decide what room to paint Bedford Grey also… maybe there should be a facebook group for everyone who loves the color!!

  15. wow, lots of progress! i wish my guy worked that fast. paint is looking good, and i had seal as an option for my bedroom but was too afraid to go that dark in that space. can’t wait to see it complete on your walls with your mega natural light!

  16. It’s coming along great! Loving all the paint colors and the entry way looks fabulous.

    I have to read up more on skim coating because right now we currently have wainscoting in the master bath. We have debated on whether to leave it or remove it. However if we remove it we will have to skim coat the rest of the walls because of all that plaster texture… ugh!

  17. Oh my goodness, there’s so much awesomeness to comment on, I don’t know if I’ll get it all! Skimcoating looks like a nightmare, LOVE the dining room color!!, the tub in a random room scenario looks familiar :), and our Habitat ReStore never has anything that awesome! So excited for you guys. 🙂

  18. You guys are such worker bees! It’s so fin to see the progress. And, I think Bedford Gray was the perfect choice! : )

  19. it looks amazing! I love the paint choices…. can’t wait to see the finished product, though I’m sure you can’t wait more than me! So, is this questions allowed? When is the estimated completion date?

  20. Awesome colors! And MAJOR props for skim coating. I SHOULD do that in my house, but for now i’m going to tell myself that I enjoy the “character” of the cracky plaster walls.

    So… did you post which gray is in the front bedroom? I’m looking for a new color about like that (the purple gotsta go).

  22. The paint in the entryway compliments that tile perfectly! I am dying!

    Sooo.. when this house is all finished, I’m visiting you. No ifs, ands, or buts.

    LB

  25. Kim,
    Going to check out your paint colors. My friend just told me last night about the Bedford Gray color. Loving your foyer color! It is so exciting to watch your progress and seeing it all come together 🙂
    Happy Day
    Wendy

  26. I am SO EXCITED to see that color all over your dining room. Totally love it. And the entryway color. I love that too. You’re also making me want to try skim coating our walls. Can you talk me out of that real quick? Because my house is already covered in a thick layer of drywall dust.

  29. Again, you all never cease to amaze me. I think I’m starting to sound like a broken record when you update your progress but I can’t NOT comment–you all are my DIY heroes!

  30. It’s looking wonderful! My Hubby attempted to skim coat in the nursery, since we replaced two walls of drywall, and it looks good, but it would have looked better if I hadn’t been so impatient and wanting to load up on diapers.