Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Scenes from my office and bathroom makeover...

So my months of obsessing over all-white interiors led me to two simultaneous projects over Labor Day weekend: new (old) floors in the office and a brighter, whiter bathroom.



In the office, like every other room in the house except the kitchen and bathroom, there was ugly, black indoor/outdoor carpet. I'd like to take it all up eventually and decided to use my office--the only room with carpet not connected to another room with carpet--as a test run: how long would it take? would it be messy? what was underneath?



Formerly white and minimally damaged floors were underneath. Plus lots of staples, glue & insulation, and tack boards. Ripping up the carpet and insulation was easy enough. We hauled five four-foot pieces out in about a half-hour. The messy (and dusty and tedious and long) part had to do with pulling up the staples and tack board.



I wore this cool mask to protect me from allergens.

At the same time, we taped off the bathroom and began painting the walls and ceiling white. Previously, they were a light tan--for a bathroom with no window, it was too dark and dank. The splash-back (is that what you call it) area behind the sink and toilet was a yellow-ish color. I painted it and the woodwork a light grey.



After all the staples were pried and the tack board in the garbage, I scrubbed the floor with a mild detergent and let it dry overnight. I then collapsed into bed.
The next morning, I set to work painting the floor. We used one container of Dutch Boy's Latex Enamel. It went on smooth and thick and thus far, there have been zero scuff marks left behind. It was too expensive either--I think $28 with a mail-in rebate.

The first coat going on! And speaking of coats...



The bathroom took three coats of white. Sigh.
At this point I need to thank my mother who helped me throughout the weekend and especially in the bathroom. She OWNED the bathroom, she ROCKED the bathroom. She also got all mom on me and took charge of the carpet removal--just the kind of leadership I needed.


On Monday, Labor Day, she and my brother stopped by the house to pick up my mom's supplies. This is how they found me: a wreck. The floor's second coat of paint had dried and I barely had enough energy to drag the IKEA chair into the office and fix myself a cup of tea. I forgot how exhausting a renovation project really is.

More photos of the finished (and put back together) office and bathroom soon. For now, more photos of the improvement project can be found here.

Oh, and I won't be doing the rest of the floors for awhile. Maybe never!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are my hero. Now that is working up a sweat for awesome, awesome, awesome.

Anna @ D16 said...

Hi there! I came here from your comment on my blog about your office floor. It looks great! I'm also happy to see that you were able to just use porch paint and not go over it with poly.

And you live in Buffalo! I think Buffalo is like the Newburgh (where I live) of western NY. You read the New York article, I'm sure? It almost made me want to pack up and move to Buffalo! I'm a sucker for underdog cities. :)

whitney said...

c - you are my ~*~ hero

anna - yeah, the porch paint has done me well thus far. I was worried about my office chairs (rolly wheels, might mark it up) but I'm happy to report that the paint has held up.

I've thought the same thing reading your blog--Buffalo and Newburgh seem to have a lot in common. Even some of the photos of houses you've posted look like houses near me. and yes, I did read the article and blogged about it here too!