Painting the Town Red

I read on someones blog recently as they were gussying up some dishtowels a quote that they loved, "Whenever possible, make the ordinary into extraordinary." Here is our attempt at that.

Before and After Dining Room Flooring

Before
Phase 1
*this was the first time we saw the house and the lady's stuff was still all over the place. What is now our dining room used to be her utility room.

Phase 2

Phase 3

AfterPhase 4- Complete!

*Now filled with a dining room table and chairs and a bunch of boxes.

Concrete Floors

When I tell people that we are having concrete floors poured in parts of our house, I have a feeling their first thought is this below. After all, it was my thought the first time I heard about it too. Not so, my friends. When I say concrete floors, I want you to think of this:


Ha! Sorry for the bite size pictures. Consider this a morsel of things to come. :) The last two pictures (if you can find your bifocals) show the color that we are going to use called Fawn. It's not the black with the K9, but the caramel with brown splotches around it.

We wanted to pour concrete in 3 different areas: hallway, dining room, and around the fireplace. You may be wondering how we came to decide to do concrete in the first place. Well, that began with the hallway. When we bought the house the hallway had some bumps and dips where the foundation had sagged. The foundation was the first thing we had fixed and although our contractor said, it was built back up to par, it would not be suitable for a game of marbles. :) It still had bumps and dips, but all in all was propped back up to normal. We had some parquet flooring in the hallway that we ripped up and found old linoleum underneath. Under the linoleum was the great possibility of discovering aspestos and so we decided to leave the linoleum because aspestos is dangerous when disturbed and it is advised to just leave it alone. SO, we were left with two options: 1- concrete flooring or 2- tile. We were discouraged by the thought of tiling as it is very hard to make an even surface and to keep the tiles from popping up as we experienced in our last house renovation. Adam had tiled a bathroom and after a couple months, a few tiles would just pop up in the corner and we ended up having to take them all up and put down linoleum tiles. So, having a friend in the concrete biz, we called up Joe and put him to work.

Adam and I did all the prep work (along with the help of a friend, Andy. Thanks!) and there were a few steps. First step was laying down plywood in all of the areas. This picture above is the laundry room and also the last area that needs sheetrock on the walls.

The hallway

Hard worker Adam. He is seriously over here every night. We are so ready to relax!


2nd and 3rd steps were to lay down tar paper and then diamond lathe on top. That stuff is brutal. The diamond lathe is rough cut metal and cut Adam's hands up pretty bad. I also don't recommend you transporting this in anything but the back of a truck as we learned the hard way after it snagged the ceiling of my mother-in-law's Ford Expedition. I know, I know.

Once the lathe is layed you have to staple it to the floor with a staple gun. That was my job.


The next day, I came over to find this! Wet concrete in the hallway.

You can see Joe at the end of the hallway pouring out the last little drips of the self-leveling concrete. He had ordered just enough of what we would need and so absolutely all had to be accounted for. He had to scrape and scrape with his giant squeegee thing to make the concrete stretch as far as possible.

Ta Da! Just makes you want to get your rollerskates and disco ball out. :)

Joe works with these spiky shoes so he can perform miracles and walk on water...er... concrete.

Man of the hour, Joe.

I was able to snap some better pics of the oak floor too. The dark spot is what they will look like when they're finished after they get a coat of poly on them.

Back to Joe working on the patches of floor on both sides of the fireplace.This is what the concrete looked like after drying overnight. We were able to walk on it, but Joe has to come back on Monday and fix some areas where the lathe was showing through.

This is what the bedroom looks like now that the floor is sanded. I'm going to move that chandelier into the dining room and spray paint it a kelly green to match my dishes.

Hardwoods in the sitting room.

Joe came back over the next day, this morning, to work on the fireplaces a little bit more.

He was working so hard and was trying to get out of there to be at another appointment on time.

Greta and I were admiring a red cardinal and I was having fun walking on our new dining room floor when Greta darted over the fireplace patch that Joe had just worked on.

It startled Adam and I so much that we both yelled, "Nooooooooooo!!!" and Greta ran back through the concrete and into her daddy's arms. Here you can see her shoes tell the story.

And so does the concrete. :) That was our cue to leave, but apparently Joe was able to fix it in minutes. Phew!

Updated Picture Tour

It's been a while. We're busy with two babies and a house renovation. I'm sure you can understand. :) I forget what you've seen and what you haven't so let me just pull some pics out to show you what's been going on.
The new paint color, "vintage yellow" by Glidden, that will go in the pink guest room upstairs.

The "Filtered Shade" gray color by Valspar that will go in the kids room upstairs.

Proud of my priming skills upstairs now that both rooms are done. Just primed...not painted.

The fireplace cleaned and ready to be sealed. Remember, the stove is going to hide that patch of new brick. I know, it still looks dirty, but that is the best it's going to get. We call it "rustic." :)

Updated staircase with the wall gone and new pine stair treads. We're trying to come up with a cool idea for a custom banister now...staircase post to come...

Vaulted ceiling in dining room with sheetrock and brand new windows that Adam replaced!

Old doorway leading from former living room to former dining room. Now that it's a master bedroom, we needed to wall it up.

House on an early Saturday morning waiting for work to be done.

Through those beams is my new laundry room that Adam and his dad framed up. Doorway entrance is from the hall. We're looking at it from the dining room.

And the sheetrock work that still needs to be done in the sitting room over the boards and on both sides of the doors.