I realized the other day that I haven’t updated you on my renovations in a while.
Since I last wrote about it I have sanded all the patch work in the whole apartment, which isn’t fun at all. I wear a mask and safety glass to protect my eyes from the flying debris.
The last couple of weeks I have been working hard in finishing the living room turned photo studio as it is the biggest room and needed the least amount of work. Plus it can hold all of my inventory for a while so I can finish the rest of the studio.
My husband and I decided we are going to wait till next summer to finish the floors because we are pressed for time and it has been very cold, so that took one thing off my must get done list.
When I got to the living room I had already removed wallpaper from 3 walls because of holes and tears, the 4th wall was in relatively good shape it just needs a good washing. After a discussion with a interior designer friend about it, I decided to remove it.
One reason I wasn’t sure about removing the wallpaper because it was pretty as you can see in this photo.
Also the doorway concern me, however I used a razor blade and was able to cut the at the corner of the arched doorway without any problems.
The wall had 5 layers of wallpaper on it and of all the walls in this whole apartment this one was the hardest. As you can see a little bit of the floor is covered with wallpaper bits. I have a 3 step process for removing wallpaper.
Step 1: Scrap the wallpaper off with a wide blade scraper.
Step 2: Dampen the the remaining wallpaper and scrap off with a razor blade scraper, it removes it quite nicely from plaster and sheet rock walls.
Step 3: Wipe the wall down to remove the glue and dirt from the walls.
Yes it was 3 step process and it took a lot of time but once you get it down it goes but pretty quick. Plus I listen to Insight for Living by Chuck Swindoll while I work which helps pass the time quickly.
Please do not mind the big screen tv, the computer guy downstairs set it up for his kids to watch tv in the living room before I tore it apart and he hadn’t had a change to remove yet when I took these pictures.
Aren’t those corner cabinets fabulous?
Sheet rock is the gray walls.
I had to prime the walls twice with a flat white then I put a Satin Egg Shell Paint as the colors, since this will be my photo studio I wanted to keep it white for great light.
Once the walls were pained I pulled the carpet up off the floor and the beautiful hardwood floor underneath were revealed. The above pictures were taken right after I pulled the carpet and padding up, the carpet tacks were still down and I hadn’t swept or washed the baseboards yet.
The un-glamours side of renovating is the pile of carpet sitting in part of the hallway awaiting it’s day to be hauled away.
Once the carpet and padding was rolled up and out of the way I had to deal with staples in the floor where they stapled the padding down in different sections. It took me over an hour to pull all of the staples out after I pulled the carpet tacks up and out of the way.
Floors have been swept and all the wood work has been washed down makes a huge difference in this room.
I finally mopped this room on Monday the 1st and didn’t get any pictures from that. Once the carpet is removed from the hallway I will be moving my clothing racks into the living room and start taking my inventory up there. I am pretty excited about that and can’t wait to do so in the next couple of weeks…hopefully before Christmas.
Kris's Vintage Clothing 