Another Craigslist Win

It was early Saturday evening and we were hanging out at our friend's house while waiting for the second coat of polyurethane to dry, so I browsed Craigslist. There happened to be a reproduction Eames lounge listed a few hours earlier in the color combination we were looking for: walnut with black leather. I texted to ask if we could see it right away, since we were leaving town the next morning. Within the hour we were checking it out and decided to buy. The couple selling was really cool and we talked with them for a while. Coincidentally, the guy needed a large photo print delivered to Salt Lake, so when he found out that's where we were driving he asked if we could transport it for him. They even knocked $50 off the chair for it.  Here's the photo from the ad:

Needs a little bit of touch up on the wood and the leather could use some conditioning but overall it's in pretty good shape. We took it to the house and left it in the garage due to the floors being refinished. On our trip last weekend, we were finally able to bring the lounge chair into the house. Here is Nick relaxing in the one corner that is now (mostly) complete! It's really coming together nicely.

Nick Refinishes the Floor

After the day of prep work we were ready to put down the first coat of polyurethane. I vacuumed one more time and then Nick started the application. He had done this only once before, but had a complete handle on it. 

I'm not going to include pictures of all three coats, though there were noticeable differences between each of them and I did document them. He did the first Friday afternoon, which took the longest. We allowed the first coat to drive overnight then Nick completed the second by early afternoon on Saturday. We went back that night to do the final coat, finishing that sometime around midnight. This was the first trip we stayed at the house, but these two nights we had to stay at a friend's place. Sunday morning we left there, stopped by our house to see how the final coat turned out, then got on the road back to Utah.

First room: Master Bedroom. Working his way toward the door where I'm standing.

Closet done

Close up: first coat compared to sanded area

Dining area after

Dining area before for comparison

Living room finished

And before shot of the living room floor again. Incredible difference.

Floor Prep

Even with four days of painting we didn't get everything completed. The studio/guest room still needs to be painted but refinishing the floor took priority for the rest of the week. 

The floors were really dull and very worn. There were some water spots in the living room and black marks that resembled tire treads on some of the bedroom floors, which was probably transfer of some kind from carpet pads back when they were carpeted. 

Dining area before

Living room before

Nick spent Friday morning sanding the wood floor throughout the house while I used the vacuum to clear out all of the dust so he could see the areas he'd already done and where he still needed to sand. I ended up vacuuming 4 or 5 more times after he was finished in order to make sure we got all of the dust and anything else that might have been on the floor.

Nick sanding the studio/guest room

He had to spend extra time on areas like the one below, but was able to reduce these marks significantly!

Tire tread-like marks in bedrooms from carpet pad 

It took several hours of sanding, but the floors were finally ready. We had an appointment to have the fireplace inspected that afternoon, so as soon as that was over Nick started with the polyurethane. Here are photos of the living room and dining area sanded and ready to be refinished:

Living room sanded

Dining room sanded 

And Even More Painting...

I'm combining the rest of the painting into a single post. We spent four days painting both walls and trim and finished everything except Nick's studio/guest bedroom. Sanding and refinishing the floors took priority after Thursday since we absolutely need that done before moving things in and were running out of time.

Before and after photos:

Kitchen - before

I pulled the stove (which we are replacing) away from the wall, cleaned and then painted several coats. The large wall on the right was mostly finished on the last trip so I continued painting down the hallway. I removed the ugly yellow cabinet doors and the kitchen is looking better already. I also removed all of the bedroom and closet doors to paint the trim and just left them off since we are going to replace all of the interior doors with slab doors finished with a walnut stain. No more paneled, two-toned doors!

Kitchen and hall after paint

In this photo you can see the finished hallway and some of the finished bedroom. This is the second coat of polyurethane on the floor, and it looks even better with the third and final coat. More on that later!

Hall and bedroom after paint (and floor - 2 coats)

This is a darker shot because the shades are down, but you can kind of see that the room was a light blue with white trim.

Bedroom before

Here is the after shot with the new wall and trim paint. I also painted the window trim the same color and it looks much nicer with the shades, which are an off-white. Again with the second floor coat.

Bedroom after paint (and floor - 2 coats)

Here is a before shot of the hall closet. Same yellow as the kitchen cabinet doors and the rest of the hallway.

Hall closet before

I painted throughout the entire hallway, again including all of the trim for a very modern, monochromatic look. The room on the left is the same color as the hallway, but it looks a little different in the photo because of the difference in the light between the rooms. The handle on the upper door still needs to be reattached, and the room to the right is the last that needs to be painted.

Hall closet after

Living & Dining Baseboard and Window Trim Finished

On our previous visit in June, Nick test painted a section of trim and started preparing to paint the rest --including the trim in and around the large windows in the living and dining rooms-- to finish during the July trip.

Neither of us are fans of painting wood, but covering the white with brown was our compromise to get the architectural effect of wood without the pain in the ass that would be sanding/staining or just pulling up and replacing the trim altogether. Not to mention maybe having to deal with lead paint. 

Here is Nick using his new electric sander to smooth some of the areas on the trim: 

Sanding in preparation for painting

Half done with the first coat

Final paint and trim in living room (with sanded floors-more on that later)

Final paint and trim in dining are (with finished floors-more on that later)

The brown really draws attention to the windows, which along with the fireplace are the major focal points of the living and dining rooms that we wanted to highlight. We are incredibly pleased with both the wall and trim color and how the rooms really feel tied together now.

We'll need to do some trim touch up work after sanding and varnishing the floor, but that won't take long. And we only painted the trim brown in the living room, dining area and kitchen. The hall and bedrooms have trim painted the same as the walls, an idea that we saw and loved in one of the houses on this year's SLC Modern Mid-Century House Tour.

More Painting...

After spending one weekend of the past three months in Portland working on the house, we planned a week-long vacation for end of July to have some fun and finish everything we wanted done before the move, which will likely be in September. Since we took a full week off, we decided to drive and take a second car-full of stuff we won't need for these final few months in Salt Lake City.

I started where I left off: dining room. Below was the island "as is," which was just white and dirty. I removed the door, handle, and hinges and painted the area with several coats of the same "Soft Suede" as the rest of the dining room/living room.

Before

After paint, but before brown trim

Door reattached and a first coat of brown trim down, with bonus shirtless Nick

I'll probably have to do some touch up painting underneath the counter top once that has been ripped up and replaced, which we'll do soon after we are living there full time. We haven't decided yet on a counter material, but color will be basic black.

It's hard to tell but I did not paint the end of the island where those weird rounded shelves are because those are going to be removed. Once gone and any damage patched and sanded, the plan is to paint the end the same color as the rest of the island. Removing those shelves and stopping the new counter top where the island ends will open the area and give us more space for moving between the dining room and kitchen.

Vintage mid-century lamp, media cabinet & new planter

We had several new pieces of furniture to see (in person) for the first time! All were found on Craigslist and picked up by our friend Dylan in Portland. I featured the lamp in an earlier post, but here is it again since it's so amazing! It turned out to be in even better condition than the pair we saw in the shop, which each had scorch marks on the shades from someone using the wrong bulb size. Here I am next to it for scale. 

Beautiful vintage lamp and mid-century cabinet pair well

This cabinet is also new and exactly what we were looking for to create a media center area for the flat panel television, which will be mounted on the fireplace. It was hard to find something narrow enough to fit to the left of the fireplace without blocking the cat door, but this was the perfect size and a steal for only $35. It is currently painted, which doesn't look bad, but I might definitely want to sand and stain it sometime very soon.

The open space will be for the Blue-Ray/DVD player and stereo receiver and the storage space behind the sliding doors will hold all of our dvds, which are in easily store-able soft albums rather than individual cases. We'll cut a hole in the back of the cabinet for the electronics to plug into the wall and run necessary cords along the left side of the fireplace up to the television.

What a very large flat panel television over the fireplace might look like

The final new item on this trip might not technically be furniture, but this fantastic planter is BIG: 17 inches tall and 17 inches in diameter. Exactly the size we'll need to grow a lime tree right here in front of the south-facing window of the living room, which is the plan.

Plants will get plenty of sun with these floor to ceiling windows

 

Lemon and lime trees are evergreen so that will add some year-round green to the space. Having a lime tree like the one above in the house will also add a natural citrus smell to the room and give us the ability to grab a fresh lime for rum and coke or to squeeze over tacos anytime it is bearing fruit.