The Two Hour Project Which Almost Wasn't

Every home project takes longer than one thinks. This should be no surprise. But this project I had in mind had nothing, absolutely nothing which could backfire and take two weeks to finish. I was just going to paint.

This has been bothering me since we moved in. Someone painted the cupboards but apparently ran out of paint? They had about 4 brush strokes worth of off-white paint so that got in the mix as well. And then I took off the cover plates and what should I see staring back at me? 

Old Linoleum!? It's hard to see but it is that brown/green marbleized kind. My parents had  some in one of their bathrooms and on a laundry table and we assumed it was original to their 1918 house. The stuff may have been made for 40 years so who knows how old mine is. I took out a flashlight and I could see it all along the crack between the upper cupboard and diagonal trim. I JUST about ripped out that 70's diagonal wood but came to my senses and realized it was not a good idea because A. They nailed right through it when they attached the wood B. It might not go all the way to the counter so then what? and C. Despite how much it intrigues me, come on, it would totally clash with my classy orange and harvest gold décor.

It's all painted and all the same color so I am satisfied for now. The mystery of the Linoleum will still be there if I ever get up the nerve to redo the kitchen.

An Old Abandoned Farmhouse

A friend and I took the little ones to the water park in Mahoney a few days ago and since she lives in Ashland we drove back that direction instead of the way I usually take to the interstate. Not too far down the road I spotted an extremely old (for this part of the country) house perched on a hill right next to a new housing development. I remembered reading a newspaper article several years ago about an abandoned house in this area. I didn't remember details, but I remembered they mentioned the cupola and how you could see both the state capital one direction and downtown Omaha the other. This must be the house? I went home and without too much googling, found the article and photos. (The photo is from the news story. It is not still snowy here thank goodness!)

 The original family had lived in this house until 1999, when they sold it along with the farmland to a developer (hence the brand new fancy housing development next door). 1999? Seriously, the place looks haunted and like it has been abandoned for 60+ years! Now I'm not as fascinated knowing the original 1870's kitchen with cobwebs and dusty utensils I was picturing has a 1980's update and there is baseboard heating throughout. Though I'm not quite sure why the family moved away as the developer claims to (surprisingly) have no intention of tearing it down due to its historical landmark status. Couldn't they have sold off the farmland, leaving them with money from the sale and a smaller lot?  If I had inherited my family home from the 1870's I would be doing everything in my power to stay. Jobs and money are still the reasons I suppose. It's not like it's in the middle of nowhere, Omaha and Lincoln are a 1/2 hour in either direction so it's not a bad commute.  Here is another webpage with some inside photos.  It looks like it USED to be fairly updated and modern inside. What is keeping the developer from selling it to someone who will appreciate it?  You would think it would benefit their housing development too since there wouldn't be a boarded up "crappy" house front and center. Hopefully soon I will see a story about someone fixing it up! I also really want to go up in that cupola!

Baby Proofed Deck Railings

Last weekend my dad and I tediously dug through the lumber at Menards and came up with enough straight boards to fix up my deck. When I came home from work last week this is what I found!

It would have taken me all week just to take the old railing down but my dad somehow managed to take it apart, cut all of the boards to size, assemble them and put them up in less than 8 hours! It still needs some finishing work but it's already an improvement.

 Here is a before shot from several years ago.

Here is an unfinished section which shows how far apart the spindles were. Not only could the small child easily fall through but I bet a grown adult could also have fallen right through!

Hmm, now if I only I had a gate and a whole lot of screen I could just open the door and contain both the cat and small child for some quiet time at last!!!

Belated Flea Market Finds

I swear I wrote a post in April but I must have just thought about it, organized the photos and then thought I had written it! There has been a lot of entertaining of the small child and non-exciting yard work happening around here. It is rainy and cold today so no outdoor work or walks to the park.

The "Mother of All Garage Sales" AKA a flea market at the fairgrounds was, what? the first weekend in April? It has is a good mix of garage sale and flea market items though most of it is a little pricier than garage sales since they do have to make up for the cost of the booth.

I did find a Spring Blossom Salt and Pepper for $1.

In another booth I spotted a set of Butterprint fridgies which turned out to be $45 so I thought the $2.50 prices was a typo on the pressed flowers casserole. 

I picked it up expecting a chip or wear on it somewhere. I did find a  small chip on the lid but it seemed to be good otherwise. I brought it up to pay and she said "you saw it has a chip on the lid? That's why it's priced the way it is." Um, Yep, I saw it (and it's just a plain old lid so I don't really care...)

There. I posted something for April. I do have some more posts on back log so I'll see if I can get them out of my brain and onto the interwebs. 

A Woodland Wall Collage, Sort Of

Something happened to my blog, meaning my background is disappearing and reappearing at random! Meh, I should do some custom cool background like everyone else does but for the moment it is going to be weird

I am always sending my mom random real estate listings so we can discuss them and I have been finding more and more my description reading "Pinterest exploded all over this house" to listings you can tell were updated and staged. I am willing to admit the only reason I can recognize this is I spend too much time browsing Pinterest and Pinterest has finally exploded onto my small child's wall. NO I didn't paint it gray and add yellow chevrons...though maybe...nope! Fortunately I have no painted woodwork in the house so I can't even be tempted by this trend.

See, probably not as bad as you were thinking. The top dresser drawer didn't even get closed, though I did move the gross diaper pail which usually hangs out in the corner.

I was going to give the clock an orange background but then it ended up by the butterfly so I'll have to figure out something different for it. The orange flowers kind of work.

I've been wanting to hang up the cute embroidery which I...made (ha ha, j/k) I picked up for $3.99 at a thrift store in Denver last year. Then I came across the owl needlepoint from my grandma's stash - which I suspect she also picked up at a garage sale. I now had a theme. It fit the rest of little one's room theme but the other items I wanted to include in the collage? gallery wall?, a bright pink print and game board map, clashed with this theme so I had to dig up more stuff! I probably have something hidden away in a closet which I have forgotten about but what fun is that!?

We were at the Goodwill Wearhouse in Omaha which sells things by the pound. It is fascinating, disgusting and a fun treasure hunt all a the same time. Not for a weak thrifter, that is for sure! I wouldn't recommend buying a pillow or 15 pound inflatable mattress (which I saw 3 of) but I always find crazy things for the wall. I did paint the butterfly to match the dresser pulls as it was just white before.
The fabric in the hoops are scraps from the cut down curtains. Ohh,look at me being all matchy, matchy with things!

Estate Sale Findings

It's been pretty slow around here blog topic-wise. It has been Cold. Typical February. But Spring is finally on the horizon! My parents were in town last Friday and they are always a bad influence on me because they take me out of the house to places like estate sales! I'm glad I went to this one as it was in a fantasticly funky house. It was an architect's house from 1961 with the original bathrooms, kitchen and light fixtures. I don't really know how to explain it except it reminded me more of an office building or our downtown library. It looks like one of the family members bought the house and was keeping most of the furniture and probably most of the matching décor and knick knacks so there wasn't a whole lot of interesting things which is fine with me. I would rather they stay with the house than migrate to my house!

 I did find this tiny Pyrex flask.

 

and I am jealous there was a time when one could say "you know what would finish off this backsplash? Some brown peacock snowflake tiles!"

I think I like the box more than the actual tile!

Getting Plastered During Naptime

Yup, still workin' on the living/dining room walls. Once I get the usual chores done to keep the sanity around here i.e. a little vacuuming perhaps cleaning a bathroom, I'm left with some free time to work on this room which is maybe 45 mins. If I am lucky. This week I decided to try to work on this wall.

Note the holes where the broken circa 1970 doorbell was removed.

 

This is the supporting wall so it is particularly nasty as the house settled and then they jacked it up probably an inch or so at some point which resulted in:

Nasty stair step cracks all the way up and across. Previous owners skim coated the whole wall and surpise!? The cracks showed up again! So now I have to go through and gouge out their plaster and paint along the cracks so I don't end up with ridges along the wall. Then I slapped up a whole bunch of sticky mesh tape. This is just the bottom half of the wall. Can you see it in the photos? 

 

The label on my tape is long gone but this is the same type and also from Menards so it probably is the exact same thing. Will it keep the cracks from reappearing? Maybe. Maybe not.

 

Other delightful things such as nail holes and what I thought were plastered over nails but turned out to be plastered over hot glue? dotted the walls to be repaired.

 

For the initial sanding I do some wet sanding which involves getting the plaster sandpaper wet. I would recommend a larger bucket if you have time to do more than a 3 ft section at a time oh, and also maybe covering up the vent as it still makes a mess but a majority of the damp plaster dust falls on the floor right below rather than all over me and surrounding furniture.

A side note: Don't dump the plaster water down the drain! It seems to me it would eventually clog up the drain? I always dump it outside as plaster is good for the grass so bonus there.

 

This is about as messy as I get since it all has to be scrubbed down before the baby wakes up and starts running around so I don't worry about the vent since it takes about 3 seconds to pop off and vacuum. This wall is starting to shape up! I think the plaster patches are an improvement over the cracks anyways!