Finishing the Living Room

After pulling up the floor, taking the ceiling down to plaster, pulling down the paneling and removing wallpaper, we started to put the room back together.

More Destruction Phase

Like I said previously, we had planned on leaving the paneling on the walls. But we needed to clean up the corners around the room to properly install the future crown molding and paint the ceiling. As my dad and I were doing this clean up, we realized there were several layers of wallpaper behind the paneling.

The Living Room - Destruction Phase

During our honeymoon in 2010, part of the drop ceiling fell. We've known since then that the drop ceiling either needed to be replaced or removed. So, that was on our list. What we didn't realize was that the paneling on the walls stopped at the drop ceiling and did not extend to the actual ceiling. So, we needed a plan. Our plan was to paint the paneling, install crown molding, and paint the ceiling.

La piece de la resistance

The living room. It's where we LIVE, right? It's where we spend time when we're not in the kitchen or sleeping or working. It's where the TV is, where the dog waits for us to get home, where family gathers, where spies plant bugs in remote controls. Ok, maybe not that last one. I've been watching too much Burn Notice. First, we attacked the floor.

The Dining Room, Part 2

After much patching, we painted. I also pulled out the ugly brown carpet and installed vinyl flooring. If I was ever asked "Chelsea, what kind of flooring do you recommend for a DIY install?" My answer would be: vinyl.

The Dining Room

Our dining room had such ugly wallpaper, like the rest of the house, and ugly carpeting, and popcorn ceilings. It was such a mess. But, now it's beautiful.

The Office: A Simple Fix

The fourth bedroom, or what we call our office, just needed the ceiling fixed. So, we bought matching tiles, same brand and everything, and figured we'd replace the few tiles that needed it. Boy, we were wrong.

Master Bedroom Final Touches

After taking care of all of the big things, it was time to pay attention to the smaller details in the Master Bedroom.

Master Bedroom Next Steps

After patching the Master Bedroom and sanding, and more patching. We put texture on the ceiling, painted it, then painted the walls, and finally painted all of the details.

Finishing the Foyer

Once all of the wallpaper was down, all of the patching and sanding was complete, we painted the walls, the trim, and then sanded and finished the floor.

Repainting the Sitting Room

There's a room you walk through to get to the master bedroom, we've called it the sitting room. I have no idea if it's accurate, but it's what we call it. Several years ago we pulled off the wallpaper and painted it a happy, natural green. Then I painted the floors purple. Because why not? Well, our realtor said those colors had to go.

Southwest Chicken Burritos

This is one of Pete's favorite meals. It's super easy, pretty quick, and freeze-able. It also only dirties a cutting board, frying pan, and maybe a casserole dish (if you want to toast the burritos). This is adapted from Kevin and Amanda's Crispy Southwest Wonton recipe.

More Foyer Progress

We had a lot of patching to do in the foyer, and scraping, and...just work. Behind the wallpaper we found all sorts of problems.

After taking down all of the wallpaper, we had to wash the walls, especially up near the ceiling where there was a lot of glue left

Starting in the Foyer

The foyer or entrance way in our home is beautiful, the original woodwork and stairway made us fall in love with the house. Now, the blinds and curtains were ugly, there were popcorn ceilings, and the woodwork needed some love. But it was, and still is, beautiful.

The Start of the Master Bedroom

When we moved in we chose the back bedroom, with the large built-in cabinets and large close with sliding mirrored doors as the Master Bedroom. Why? I don't know. We just did.

Final Kitchen Post

So I was debating about whether or not to finish the kitchen posts or to keep you all hanging while I moved on. In the end, I figured it was only fair to post some of the final photos of the kitchen.

More Kitchen Stuff

Along with removing the wallpaper, we also had to fix some of the other ugliness. Here's that fantastic floor, remember that we pulled up TWO floors above this one.

Oh the kitchen

When we moved in the kitchen was one of the least appealing rooms. They say kitchen and baths sell houses, we apparently missed that memo. There was wallpaper, mirrors with gold inlay, a pink counter top, pink trim, peel and stick tiles that were pulling up, and only one window. It was... a wreck.

From Blue to Neutral Purple

There are two empty bedrooms in the front of the house. The other one we stripped the wallpaper down to the drywall and had to start from there. This is the bedroom on the left, and was once a very ugly pink (I think). The previous owners painted over the wallpaper, so I painted over that with a dark peacock blue and a light blue over it. The texture hid a lot of the problems with the painted wallpaper

Apple Carrot Slaw

Lots of things are going on here. I'm working on a fairly large research project, we're getting the house finalized to list, Pete's settling into his job, and the animals continue their routines. While all of that goes on, we still cook almost every night. Cooking provides me a creative outlet. This slaw was inspired by a very complicated slaw recipe, but I wanted something super simple but also sweet. I pair this with tuna cakes (think crab cakes but with canned tuna), but it would be really great with anything grilled or brought to a BBQ.

I am a hockey fan

Dear NHL (and Mr. Bettmen),

I am a hockey fan, an actual, real-life hockey fan. I grew up going to Rochester Americans games. My parents were season ticket holders. My dad and his best friend would take me to games and we'd go to Nick Tahoes for garbage plates. I grew up with stories of Olie the Goalie, Jody Gage, and Wayne Gretzky. My dad is a die-hard Blackhawks fan. When they won the cup, he asked me to reach out to friends in Illinois to get the regional Sports Illustrated with the Blackhawks on the cover.