What a Difference a Day Makes....

What a difference a day door makes.

For 30+ years, (5+ with us in residence) this house has had hollow core, dark wood veneered doors to every room. Bathrooms. Bedrooms. Closets. Etc...

Today, after collecting one door at a time, all the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom have new solid wood, 2-panel doors!!!! Whoooppeeee!

Guest room door - open. In the guest room.

Guest room door - closed. Hallway side.

Phillip's office door. This one was the first one put in a while ago. It was the guinea pig, so to speak.

 A.J.'s bedroom door. Won't he be surprised when he gets home from school!

Bathroom door. In the hall way. 

The door to the right, is the closet door. I have a matching door, but I think I want to paint it with chalkboard paint, so it doesn't match. I'll live with it a while and see....

eta: So, it's been a few hours. Phillip came home from work (I sort of ditched work today!). He agreed. The closet door will have to be changed out too! Even as a chalkboard, it would look cheap and out of place now that the new doors are in and looking so nice!

Now for the big debate going on in my head. At a home tour in December, I saw a beautiful home with all creamy-white trim and the doors stained dark. It was gorgeous! And so, I've been debating about doing the same. BUT, now here's the pros and cons:

Staining Pros: 

easy to stain vs. priming and painting

shows wear and tear less

shows finger prints and dog-leaning less

easy to clean

Staining Cons:

stain wouldn't be as bright as I'd like it, especially in the dark hallway

wouldn't be that wonderful creamy-white I always croon over

wouldn't have that wonderful cottage-y 30's farmhouse look I'm going for

So, what's the verdict...?

I'm still deciding. 

I LOVE the creamy-white brightness, but there are all those cons lurking about!

My heart says light. My head says dark.

HELP!!!

So, whilst I'm playing stain vs. paint tennis in my head, let's move on to the new guest room, shall we? Uh, 'cause we have a few-month guest coming on March 7th!!!

Welcome to my guest room - circa mid- 1970's (photo: our 2004 purchase walk-through).

It began life as a bedroom for Kyle when we moved in.

When he moved out, I removed the carpet. Removed the tack strips. It was going to become my kitchen pantry. I was going to remove the closet, that backs the kitchen. Open up that wall, etc.... (thank goodness, I didn't)

Kyle moved back in.

Lived in there with a throw rug for the last few months.

Kyle moved out a couple of weeks ago.

Guest coming in a couple of weeks.

Not going to be a pantry after all - EVER! We have new kitchen/pantry plans.

Order carpet. Need new tack strips and padding.

Let's paint before carpet.

Let's fill the zillions of thumbtack holes. Can you say teenage boy with lots of posters?

Let's peel off the old wallpaper before paint.

Let's gather up the tools of the trade!

Sprayer.

Scraper.

Rag.

 BEGIN!

 

The last piece!

The aftermath. 

Two walls worth! Whatta Mess!!!

And the smell. Old, wet wallpaper...

No texture under two walls of wallpaper.

Let's texture the ALL the walls to match. Glad I took the time to fill all those stupid holes - anyway!

While we're at it, let's scrape the popcorn off the ceiling.

Tools of the trade...Hey, I've seen these before....

Done! Man, my upper arms and wrists hurt...

Oh, gee, let's replace the old aluminum window. 

You know, the one that drags in its track and makes that really horrid metal on metal sound...

(this after picture is really dark, but just imagine a nice, new, double-paned, white, vinyl window)

Note to self: When you go to Lowe's to pick up the window, make sure you ask the guy more than once that the window he is loading up for you, is in fact the window you've asked for! AND then double-check him. Do not rely on the Lowe's guy to get it right. DO NOT have him load it up before triple-checking what you know is right - not wrong, so you don't have to drive back the 30 mile drive - one-way - to pick up the RIGHT window!!!! Lesson learned.

While we're at it. Let's replace the door.

Oh, we already covered that..huh?

Does any of this sound familiar? How many ONIONS have we peeled around here???

My mom asked me the other day on the phone - "are you kids EVER going to be done with that house?"

Uhhhhh.... maybe.....someday......hopefully......I dunno......uhhhhhh.....

Now, we just need to fill all the "waves" on the ceiling.
Texture it. Prime it. Paint it. 

Texture the walls. Prime them. Paint them.
Hang up the ceiling fan/light.
Trim out the window.
Trim out the door.
Prime the trim.
Paint the trim, including the baseboards ALL before carpet is scheduled for install next Wednesday.
Sounds like another busy weekend at the 'ol Schiefer house....!

Tootles....

ps.. the old doors, because they are still in good, re-usable condition, will get donated to Habitat for Humanity Restore in Medford, OR. I will not be repurposing them for any thing. CAN you believe it???