Bungalow Paneling: Demo

After almost two years, I had finally picked out a paint color, crown molding and was ready to tackle the biggest room in the house--the family room.

As I was meticulously prepping to paint, you can imagine my delight when I discovered three rather large bulges in the walls.  Soft to touch but not damp, I was puzzled at what on earth could be causing the walls to swell like a belly.

Paul decided we should go for an exploratory mission 

and what we found (half a demoed wall later) was the joy of Bungalow Paneling.

What might you ask is Bungalow Paneling?  Oh but a lovely product from somewhere in the 70s where Georgia Pacific decided it was a brilliant idea to make a particle board wall panel covered in a wood veneer sticker.

Unfortunately for us, this gem of a home improvement project had been installed incorrectly with finishing nails in lieu of adhesive and over time, had given way.  To crown off this achievement, sometime in the 80s-90s the next home owner decided to skim coat a thin layer of plaster over the paneling for a more modern look.

All in all, demoing out the paneling wasn't that bad.  A crow bar, hammer, gloves, mask and eye protection were the only tools necessary.  Paul and I took turns ripping and hauling the history of the house out as we worked to restore it to its original glory.

When the paneling was all removed, we were delighted to see almost 80 year old plaster in decent condition.  We knew there were several cracks and imperfections but the biggest task left was to meticulously scrape the popcorn ceiling over spray off the walls to really get a good look at what 1148 had been hiding for decades.

Paul and I teamed up and tackled the popcorn together, spraying and sc

raping and spraying and scraping some more.  A few hours later we had somewhat smooth and somewhat clean walls.

Clean enough to form a plan.  What plan, you may ask?  Stay tuned!

Cheers,

LB

Curb Appeal: Tattered Rail

So my mom recently e-mailed me an article from Southern Living.  The featured house reminded her of 1148 and she thought we could get some good ideas for our upcoming curb-appeal projects. 

Well she was right. If you look at the before and after photos from SL you'll notice the before image much like our digs has an awkward, non-craftsman style railing on the front porch. Well I

 decided to do something about it....

Tools Required:

Hammer

Drill

non-flip flop oriented shoes

protective eye-ware*

Woodchuck Amber (for liquid courage)

So our railings had aged out, to say the least.  They were hastily crafted and not very well secured but took negotiating with the hammer, drill and a little husband muscle power.

I started with the obvious--unscrewing the brackets.  Once that was completed and still not much budge, I got to it with the hammer.  In about 5 minutes I was totally stress free 

and rail free as well.

A quick, easy and low intensity project that made a major impact on curb appeal.  

Cheers,

Laura

1148 Kirkland

For those of you who don't know, about two years ago Paul and I set out on an adventure to buy our first house.  New to the Nashville area, we fell in love with the eclectic, diverse and often called "up and coming" east side of town...aka...affordable!

Our fabulous realtor Marsha, who has a certain affinity for finding the most amazing detail on a house and pointing it out as you quickly drive by, persuaded us to take a look a little bungalow, I had absolutely no desire to see.  Why?  Because the MLS listing showed ZERO curb appeal and since years of watching HGTV with my mom had brainwashed me into curb appeal mode, I was convinced this was not the house for us.

Alas, we came, we saw, we fell in love.  Original hardwood floors, molding and a funky old fireplace, the house was a charmer.

Of course there was the eviction notice on the front door and the horrible, horrible, horrible gray carpet throughout a large portion of the house but it wasn't enough to keep us from seeing the potential.

Now with nearly 700 days under our bungalow owning belt, we've decided to start tackling some really big projects.  Don't get me wrong, we've painted, added shoe molding, blinds and other pretty cosmetic things, but the bathroom is the only project to date that we've really sunk our teeth into...or my finger through the wall...however you want to look at it.

So this blog will be a journey of what I'm sure will be pure bliss (blood, limits, insane expenses, sighs (heavy) and oh yeah maybe some style).  

Best,

LB