2nd Floor Palette, getting closer

The biggest problem I have right now is making a decision.  Lots of ideas but little confidence to make the final decision.  I'm putting it out there as an attempt to finalize what has been months of wasted time thoughtful planning.  Thoughts?

2nd Floor Front & Back Hallways :  Matte










2nd Floor Interior Hallway : Clovis
(this one is completely off on the screen - not pink at all)


                                             
2nd Floor Trim, all Bedrooms & Bath :  Meerschaum










2nd Floor Library & Media Room :  Melon Green

Ceiling : Silver Birch

2nd Floor Bathroom walls : Chanteuse

2nd Floor Master Bedroom : Argent 

Ceiling : Hesperia

2nd Floor Art Room & Laundry : Cornflower (this is so off, I shouldn't even show it)

All The Colors!

As anyone within 10 miles of me can attest, I am currently obsessed with the palette for the 2nd floor.  It's a lot of walls, ceiling and trim and I can't stop arranging and rearranging my plans.  My intention is to create a friendly living area that also holds up to the intensity of the Arts and Crafts woodwork, without appearing too traditional or too modern or too schmaltzy.  Here's a floor plan with some ideas, most subject to change on a whim.

My Awesome Daughter

Yes, she's awesome because...even when I gave her the choice to pick any purple in the hundreds of Pratt and Lambert Purple hues, she picked Violet Hint.  It's time to start picking paint colors, and her room, I assumed, would be the biggest challenge due to her love of all thing purple and pink.  Just like it sounds, Violet Hint is quite subtle and beautiful.  Not at all like the clothes she picked out for the first day back at school, but whatever, she has excellent design sense.  She didn't even argue when I suggested Meerschaum for the trim.  She loved it.  There was a discussion of a lighting bolt thing going down the center, but I think I can work that out.

Violet Hint
http://www.color-swatches.com/images/swatch.png?id=7c40797f665037483513fade9d82fbfc

Holiday Madness

For Christmas this year, Trent and I both got each other 1 solid week of work time at 49th Street.  Add in a few festive days off in Chicago and family engagements and we’re down to 3 solid days of work.  With 2 days down, we’ve logged some quality work.

1. Cleaning out of chimney surround (items found - 3 Miller bottles from 1917 oddly spelled Mueller)
2. Home networking of speaker & CAT 6 wire for entire 2nd floor
3. Carpet, staples & screws (lots and lots of screws), & carpet tack removed
4. Linoleum removed from old kitchen (soon to be art room)
5. Radiators cleaned and painted (items found - army men, curlers and matches, those darn kids)
6. Basement completely cleaned
7. Debris left from previous owner removed from site

So now, what we're left with looks a little like woodwork with some walls.  And shiny radiators!

 Carpet removal, that is a half of a tub too. 

 "Clean" floors, see all the holes?

 Carpet be gone

 Radiators before, this is where the army men lived

 Shiny and new

 Beer bottles, old knob and tubewiring and more!

 After the linoleum, nice water damaged floor in the center

 The Paneling Comes Off, and so does the wall

 Millions of tiny holes

Mystery Door between the universes

The 1st Month

We’ve now been in the 49th Street House for a bit under 1 month.  After losing a week in the beginning (40 years is a long time to accumulate stuff, and Crystal had a lot of it!)  We’ve made up for lost time with giant strides of progress.  Here’s the list:

1. Basement cleaned (we now have a shop, garden closet, storage & toilet room)

2. Shelves installed in basement in both shop area & storage

3. Toilet room in basement both gutted and re-installed

4. Yard waste cleaned out, bushes cut down

5. Wallpaper stripped from 2nd floor kitchen, and partially from 2nd (Sophia’s) bedroom

6. 2nd floor bathroom gutted

The electrical work has been plotted out by Trent, to be worked on in the next few months, as well as the insulation. 

Thanks to family & friends for keeping Sophia busy this month.  The coming months will be messy and busy as we work out the electrical logistics, re-build the 2nd floor bathroom and insulate.  What am I forgetting…?

Stripped the wall paper

Gutted the 2nd fl bath

The First Weekend INside -November 5, 2011

After hovering outside for a week while the former owner packed 40 years of stuff into a 20 ft van, we finally moved inside this weekend.

Friday, November 4th we set our sights on a garage full of refuse, and Saturday we lugged out 5 contractor bags full of clothes hangers. Well, there were other things too, but mostly clothes and weird newspaper articles on how long you can keep food in your freezer. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it was a weekend spent doing mostly what I would expect any house seller to do, throw their own stuff away.

Sunday we arrived early, sent Sophia to a friends down the block (she has the luxury of walking herself to her friends house -no traffic, no crazy people, just a bunch of friendly kids) and went to work cleaning. The basement is now in good shape, some book and art supplies are moved in.
We did OK for the 1st 2 days. phew. need a bath.

After the garbage is gone, we can see what we’re working with.