Monday, May 28, 2012

Master (bedroom) of the Universe!



He-Man did not assist.

The biggest project so far in our house has been our master bedroom. It has had so many awesome people helping, and it was a real labor of love. It took us about a month to complete during weekends and a few weeknights. We are so lucky to have so many people with the skills needed to make this happen. When we first saw the house, the room was white with rusty baseboard heaters, rough blue floors, and an electrical system from the 1920s.


Ignore the rug, curtains and terrible picture. These are from when we were house hunting! Below is a good shot of what kind of condition the floors were in.
Our order of operations for this project was a little backwards. We started by painting the walls a greenish blue. Jess and Charles went at it like a machine, and had it done in a morning. The touch up coats were done by me, Diane, and Meagan. .
Then, came the sanding. Oh, the sanding. We rented two industrial sanders and bought two hand sanders. The dust was everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Here's a shot of Sean and Chris sanding the dressing room:
After one whole day of sanding, the room was still no where near done. We had hoped this would be a one weekend project; not so much. 
The whole next week before we moved in was spend sanding with small hand sanders until we lost light. We had to use extension cords because the electrical was not safe. Here's a shot of Meagan and Heather working hard on a Tuesday night (I did mention it was dusty, right?):


Underneath the blue layer of paint was a lovely brown with multicolored polka dots. This is the most confusing thing; was this a clown's room?



Next came the electrical work in which the electrician had to cut holes in the walls....maybe we shouldn't have painted first ;) Chris is a magician and made the holes disappear though!

We washed the walls and floors probably three times, and I swear I still find dust.

And finally, we stained twice and sealed five times over the course of a week, then my mom, Chris and I painted the baseboard heaters.


 When I say "wide pine", I'm not kidding! There are still a few pockmarks with a remnant of what the floor once was, but overall it looks awesome. I love the character of these floors.


And last but not least, we moved in.





Hooray! Special thanks to:
Jess, Charles, Tom W, Diane, Sean, Meagan, Heather L, Joe, mom, and anyone we missed!