Nuthin’s ever easy. Lordy! Goad you found it before you were bringing in groceries, though!
4 Likes
UGH. I hope that this is the worst of what you find, the anything else is more along the lines of age and wear. Imagine our surprise when moving into our quite clean house - the owner even made a point to talk about washing all the walls on a regular basis (?) - when I noticed that I don’t think they even knew that the knobs on the stove simple pull off for easily cleaning them and the surface behind and around them. 
3 Likes
Moving into a space that someone else lived in is definitely pretty gross. I remember there was food on the walls when we moved into this place, and the former owners reeeally loved fish (we got a new fridge, lol). I’ve blocked out the original carpet (my in-laws’ house warming gift to us was a visit from Stanley Steamer).
I remember thinking, how does one get food on the bedroom walls?? Three kids later I pity the people who buy this house after us! 
7 Likes
Yesterday I started preparations to finally redo our stairwell! I cannot believe that I have not even painted it in the decade we’ve been here. It’s a slightly pink “white” like the whole downstairs was - and it’s at least a semi-gloss. Not my jam at all. I did add the handrail several years ago, and have had a few different configurations of decoration hanging on the walls. I forgot to get a real before picture, but did a screen shot of a video I did with a friend.
It’s not nearly do dim and grim IRL, but here’s what I hate and what I will be changing:
- The wall texture, color, & sheen: I am going to skim out the walls and paint the color of our living room. I will defintely paint the ceiling, but also might retxture. I HATE IT. It’s the same on almost the downstairs, too, but oof.
- OK, I don’t hate the light fixture, but it’s totally wrong. The glass is pretty great - a cool Mid-century piece which matches the one in the upstairs hallway. It’s not to our tastes, though, so I’m going to sell them. I have replacement glass for both - also vintage, but more “schoolhouse” style. I will either replace or paint the lacquered brass. I hope to get a better before pic of the fixture.
- I do hate how the fixture is not centered! The tiniest bit of forethought by the framers would have avoided that. SIGH. I am not going to go to all the work of recentering the box, but I think I will swag the fixture just a bit. I may also put it on a dimmer, so we can have it brighter when we want it, but not so bright all the time.
- I will replace the outlet with a new one in a color that goes better with the new paint and looks a little sleeker.
- The house is plumbed for a central vacuum - that horizontal rectangle in the lower left is the port for it, but the vac itself was not here. It would mount in the closet under the stairs that we use as a pantry and we can’t really give up any pantry space. I would love to have a central vac, though, I had one years ago. I think I may remove the port and just put a standard box cover over it.
On the tall, narrow wall opposite the stairs, I plan to had some shelves, hopefully lighted, that will house a “cabinet of curiosities”! That will be Stage 2.
I have the right ladder & plank setup leftover from my decorative painting contractor days for doing all this work and I brought them in from the shop yesterday! Today I am going to set them up and start on the walls, etc.! EEP!
8 Likes
This is so bad a** of you.
Also - how cool is a central vac?!? That just feels so futuristic and old school/common sense at the same time.
4 Likes
Good for you darling! (Personally, you couldn’t pay me enough to get up there.) 
4 Likes
I really liked having a central vac! There was a port under the toekick in the kitchen that you could sweep right up to and it would suck it all away! If I knew then what I know now, I would’ve put one of those in the bathrooms, too, for the hair! I’m a shedder. Maybe someday we’ll figure out a way here.
6 Likes
I’ve never owned a house that came with a fridge…I think I might be glad about that now that I heard your story…
2 Likes
I was just about to ask how you reach the ceiling and the walls in your stairwell, but this is quite the set up. I could have really used it when we lived in our 3-story house with very high ceilings. All your changes sound great, and the swagging of the light fixture sounds like a perfect way to manage its placement challenge.
2 Likes
I used to be a professional decorative painting contractor! I didn’t keep all my specialty equipment, but these are so handy in different ways in multi-story home-ownership. They’re heavy and awkward, but do the trick!
7 Likes
The painters came today and started removing the wallpaper in the 3 upstairs bedrooms. By the end of the week they’ll have removed that crud, repaired the walls, and given everything a fresh coat of paint!
In preparation, poor Jim spent hours and hours removing hundreds and hundreds of glow in the dark stickers, just from the ceiling. (He didn’t bother removing the ones on the wallpaper.) This is the dustpan full of stickers.
And a nice man came to take a look at the gaps in our floors… Thankfully they aren’t too bad. Basically they need a few tack downs in a couple spots, a missing plank to be filled in, and some quarter-round added along the baseboards in 3 rooms.
11 Likes
My dad still reminds me that I left glow in the dark stars on my popcorn ceiling attached with blue putty when I went away for college and how much of a PITA it was to remove them. 
Hopefully yours was easier to remove!
3 Likes
So many stickers!!! 
1 Like
That’s a lot of stickers! Sounds like things are moving ahead quickly!
1 Like
Jim spent about 6+ hours on it yesterday.
3 Likes
They’re laying flooring today! We also have one coat of paint on a couple walls. Our cabinets are here, too!
12 Likes
It’s really coming along!
2 Likes
It really is! 
The exposed wood will be painted in a really dark, neutral brown. I’m really happy with the wall color… it’s a very grey beige, but it brings out the warm brown in the mostly grey floor. I really wanted to avoid the cool grey tones that seem so popular these days. My stepmother’s house was a sterile white, floor to ceiling, and a home that looks too colorless makes me uncomfortable now. But, this should be a neutral enough palette to spice up with color in the furniture and decor.
4 Likes
The wall does match the floor very well. I’m not usually a fan of neutrals, but this is a “warm” neutral, not a “cold” neutral, and compared to earlier pictures the basement looks ten times as good and ten times as big as it did before!
3 Likes