Priceless...

• Paint, $70.00
• Brushes, rollers, pan, $25.00
• Spackle, $20.00
• Trim for 4 doors, $80.00
• Trim for 3 windows, $70.00
• (faux) Mop board, $110.00
• Chair rail moulding, $60.00
• Crown moulding to fix broken pieces, $25.00

Mop board.  There is no such thing as 10" floor trim.  At least not at Lowes or Home Depot.  They do have 10" pine board and a plethera of small mouldings that can be married together to look like mop board.  And each and every piece will need to be cut with the mitre saw at a perfect angle which is different for each and every corner.  Oh joy.

I bought this wallpaper to accent the wall.  It is a lovely celery green, very soothing and calm.  Which is weird, 'cause I think I've said more swear words since framing it in this chair moulding then I have ever said in my life.  The "POSTS" in aforementioned post and beam construction are evident in the living room.  They would be evident in the kitchen also, but when I had a "professional" fix my kitchen he blocked in the posts so the room is smaller but there are no weird little angles.  Not that there is anything wrong with weird little angles, they add character and you get to mitre the moulding to fit around them.  Wheeeee!  It is especially fun when the room is so far from square that it makes you dizzy.  No angle is perfect and they had to be cut three, four, five times to fit.  Also the room is crooked.  The picture of this beam was taken straight on, I am not leaning.  This took me hours and hours and hours to finish.  Ironically I was listing aft when I was finished and at least then it looked straight.   

Oh and this lovely little angle?  Chimney.  Crooked, crooked chimney.  See the optical illusion that makes it looked like the wall is larger at the ceiling and tapers in as it goes down to the floor?  Yeah, no illusion there.  Though it is only apparent from this particular angle.  So don't stand right here if you come to visit. 

 

The most important lesson (I just spelled that leison-I've got those too) that I have learned is that~~~

"There is no such thing as perfect in an old house.  If you can't make it fit, then do the best you can and just SPACKLE THE GAP."

Smiles,

Lisa

From the bottom up...

Before we start looking at my floor, let's talk style. 

-crickets--chirp--chirp--chirping---

Well I HAVE style, it's just really hard to define.  The house is 110 years old.  We have to respect that.  You just can't put skinny jeans on Grandmother and have it be ok.  So we have to have some Victorian influence.  Then there has to be the whole country aspect.  I really like the romantic country look, so we'll throw some of that in too.  Shabby chic, just a pinch.  Oh, oh and Rustic French Country--with distressed black paint and fleur de lis, toile and damask patterns?  Yup, need that too.  And lastly I just think the new retro patterns are great.  Big bold prints in bright contemporary colors.  How the heck will I make that work?  Oh, ye of little faith.  Keep watching. 

So on to Step 3.  The floor.  Ick.  In the pictures it looks like hardwood.  It is not.  It is...it is LINOLEUM.  I KNOW!  It is linoleum made to look like wood.  Really.  Wow.  It was probably installed between 1956 when the last owners moved in and 1970.  It is cracked and horrible and no there is not hardwood beneath it.  There is plain old pine rough cut floor boards covered with something black and sticky and then a layer or gross plywood and then the linoleum. 

So, what to do?  In additon to the heinous floor's appearance, it is wonky.  Post and beam construction over 110 years tends to go wonky.  You can place a marble at one end of the room and it will quickly roll to the other in a roller coastery kind of way.   So we COULD rip up the floor, but we're not going to.  We are going to lay a plywood sub-sub-sub floor to even out the speed bumps and go from there.  I know all you purists out there are gagging on your Craftsman levels.  But really I'm looking for pretty, not function.  Don't judge me. 

So here is the new sub floor all put down.  And oh look Fred Flintsone brought Frankentube back into the room. It started to rain and good gracious we don't want our prehistoric television to get wet. 

Then I went shopping.  Husband bought the plywood, so I don't have to take that out of my budget.  I found laminate flooring at Lumber Liquidators for $.49 a square foot.  So for the entire room with the padding it was $180.00.  Awesome.  I know, I know I would rather have real wood too, but remember the budget people.  So to sum it up, I replaced the fake wood flooring with ummmm, fake wood flooring.  But just look at it!  So shiny and new and somewhat level, what more could a girl ask for! 

Frankentube is helping cut. 

So tommorow I will work on the ceilings and the trim.  I probably won't be back here until Monday, but there should be some major progress to see then!

Oh and our tally so far is:

• 
  
  Walls, $100.00
• 
  
  Flooring, $180.00
• 
  
  Snapple, $4.99

Which means I have $715.01 left.  Ok Pat, I'll take the ceramic dalmation for $40.00. 

Smiles,

Lisa