Moving Fun

Because we cannot live by politics alone.

Here are a few before-after pictures of the renovations on our house. The first one is what the kitchen looked like the first time we saw it. A nearly original 1924 yellow tile kitchen. The floor is filthy, peeling vinyl, the walls have been painted in three different shades of yellow, and the room is split into the main kitchen and a small utility porch with no back door. The fridge sat back there because there was no where else to put it.

After renovations, the kitchen and utility room have been combined, the old yellow tile has been replaced with green tile and custom Arts & Crafts style gingko leaf decorative tiles, the floor is now true linoleum, inlaid in a classic rug pattern (the color and style taken from the original flooring unearthed in demolition), and the old yellow cabinets have been replaced with new yellow cabinets.

The original dining room and sunroom were swathed in layers of dirty curtains and Venetian blinds, with rotting, moldy carpet that had been put in sometime in the 70s. The center of the house was dim and smelly. You can just glimpse the glitter popcorn ceiling, loaded with asbestos.

Curtains removed, floor stripped, sanded, stained and revarnished, and all the woodwork is given a chance to shine. The ceiling asbestos was removed (with proper environmental protection and disposal), retextured, and painted a beautiful soft rose. The floors throughout the house now look like this.

This bathroom is simply hideous. The mismatched paint, the gag-inducing wallpaper, the formica topped vanity, the stained and ratty carpet. But underneath it all is gorgeus vintage tile.

The medicine cabinet is still out of the wall having 70 years of paint stipped off before it is sanded and refinished. We still need paint and the lights were put in upside down, though they are pointing up now. The beautiful floor is in the open for all to see, and the disintegrating vanity has been replaced with a wooden washstand with Art Deco carved legs and a sleek china sink top. The sink itself is just a deep curve in the middle of the china.

Here you can see the double glitter ceilings, the rotting carpet, the hideous light fixtures, and the dark rooms. Even in the middle of a sunny day, you had to turn on lights to see anything. In the background, you can glimpse the kitchen.

The floors are redone and the windows have been fixed. The light is a little funky because of plastic they put up to keep people from walking on the floors while the varnish dried. We're moving in over the next week.

Anglachel