Blink! July just disappeared. This month started off in Florida watching the last launch of NASA's space shuttle program - STS-135 Atlantis. WOW is the only word that kinda summarizes but in no way does it justice. We woke up super early to stake our claim for the viewing. We scored a covered picnic table with seating. After 5+ hours of waiting with 2M of our new friends, Atlantis rocketed into space for the last time.
After a quick trip to Universal Studios and Busch Gardens, we headed back home for some serious remodeling of the Studio.
Jim sanded the original hard wood floors for DAYS. We have the bare wood safely covered for priming and high gloss coating. My initial thoughts were a dark stain with high gloss, but the natural wood is in perfect condition and looks amazing, so we opted to keep it natural. After being shaken to death, Jim tackled painting the outside. The exterior is now a chocolate brown with ultra white trim (that POPS) and a red door.
The inside has been one challenge after another. The previous owner painted over wall paper. What we thought was going to be an easy job has consumed a large part of the month. Pulling the paper, along with 3 - 4 coats of paint below and/or on wallpaper, was miserable. Lots of hand scraping and skim coating to get the walls ready to paint. We still have a ways to go on the walls, but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. All demo is now done and this week we will start the final skim coating and priming for final paint coverage.
The house is an "H" house. The floor plan has been reset to it's original design. I wanted as much of the original architecture as possible. Phase II of the project will be setting up a training room and wet bar in the full basement. It has been partially refinished and will be a great place to hang out in the winter teaching digital scrapbooking and photoshop classes. It is VERY SCARY downstairs with all the props, tutus, and wall displays staged for hanging - so no pictures until later.
The The wall in the front room is going to be metallic silver (Martha Stewart's Tin) with a RED punch wall. The rest of the walls in the main area will be neutral grey.
We had a set back this weekend on the painting, cuz I did not prime all the walls. Note to self and all readers - IT MATTERS - PRIME BEFORE YOU PAINT! The walls before may look nice, but that is several layers covered with painted wall paper and partial wall that was not framed out flush with the rest of the wall.
I have been blessed to have a crew of folks that show up to help with whatever was on the day's agenda. We have nick-named Michelle as "the animal." She can skim coat like a pro and bullied Home Depot into mixing a hot pink venitian plaster for my office walls. They are so awesome. The focus wall is going to be black and white damask fabric. As soon as the dust projects are complete, I will get the fabric secured to the walls. In addition to making my office happy, the wall will make an awesome backdrop for pictures.
We all took the day off to recharge our batteries. I have spent the day post processing a family shoot. Stay tuned for more updates.
