I found some more pictures that we took in February of 2006, just after mom and I finished sanding the cupboards, right about the time we started painting. This gives you a good idea of what the backs looked like before.
If you haven’t seen what they look like now, check out this post.
Recently, di asked…
“Hi again. Just curious: what color stain did you use on your trim, and what
species of wood is it? Thanks!”
Well di, all of the original wood trim and doors in the house are American chestnut. The few places where we had to replicate trim in a room full of chestnut, we used red oak. The floors are white oak with white pine centers.
As for the stain… the simple answer is that nearly every room is different. The long answer is that every room was made to match itself because of the variety of conditions. In some rooms the trim had been painted white, when this was stripped, there was some white paint that simply would not come out of the grain. So, what the guys did was to wipe a stain or dye on, and wipe it right back off. It stuck to the paint, leaving the rest of the wood mostly its original color.
In other rooms, the trim had been painted wild colors like lilac, mint green, and even black. Yes, black. We kept coming up with this black, tarry stuff as we stripped the living room and entry, including on the fluted columns. We might never have known if I hadn’t had a surprise visit from some ladies who grew up in the house around 1950-1970. They told me their mother was the first to paint the trim. She loved the mint green wall color she chose to go with the black trim. I can only assume this took place during the 60s. Anyway, these wild colors required a bit more work to get the wood back to a normal color. Different stains and dyes were mixed, and different combinations were used for different rooms. I’m sorry I don’t have a more definitive answer.
And now, today, the upstairs hall looks like this:
This is the view toward the front of the house. At the far left we have the staircase to the first floor, the door to the linen closet, the door to the front bedroom straight ahead, and the door to the side bedroom to the right.
No huge changes here, just repaired plaster walls, a new plaster ceiling, the carpet is gone, the wood floor is refinished, and all the trimwork has been stripped. You may notice there is a transom above the door to the side bedroom. I do have the window that goes there, but I need to purchase the hardware to make it operable before I can reinstall it. Right now the space is filled with cardboard (classy, I know). This is only temporary, and was put into place to keep that room cool this summer, because we only have window units right now.
Speaking of keeping things cool in the summer, we have installed a lovely whole-house fan. I love this thing. I do wish it weren’t plastic, but what can you do? I’m told this model is special because of the way it is made, none of the joists had to be cut, the center of the fan rests on one and the fan takes up the space between two joists. Anyway, I’m so glad we put this in because it really helps keep the house cool most warm days. It is only during the most sweltering part of the summer that we resort to the air conditioners.
From this angle you can see the staircase to the first floor at the far right, the chimney stack, then the bathroom door (yeah, the jamb still needs some work), and straight ahead is the door to the back bedroom.
In order to enlarge the bathroom a bit, we bumped the bathroom doorway out into the hall a bit and changed the door so it swings inward. This looks totally natural because it is now flush with the chimney stack. Before there was this unnecessary inset for the bathroom door.
It should be noted, however, that moving this wall 18″ required a visit from a building inspector, and he is the reason for the new structural support beam in the kitchen. Which he suggested should have always been there. I was all too happy to have that beam put into place, I didn’t want to always wonder when the bathroom was going to come crashing down into the kitchen!
This is the upstairs hall, looking toward the front of the house, door to the front bedroom straight ahead, door to the side bedroom on the right, door to the linen closet on the left, and just next to that is the staircase to the first floor.
This is a good view of bad plaster patching. Don’t worry, that’s all fixed now. The open door on the left is to the back bedroom, and the open door on the right is to the bathroom. We made some major modifications to this area to enlarge the bathroom, but nothing you would notice today if I didn’t point it out. Which I will do. So keep this spot in mind when we get to the back bedroom and the upstairs bathroom.
All the paint has been stripped from the wood work, the plaster ceilings have all been repaired or replaced, that wallpaper border is long gone, as is the carpet from the floors and the stairs.
Funny story about the stairs. When it came time to strip the baseboard trim on the staircase, they couldn’t get to all of it without taking the carpet out. Now, I wasn’t in love with the carpet, but until this point I hadn’t really thought about pulling it out. I mean, it was in okay condition, it wasn’t quality to begin with, but still… When it was all said and done, all the carpet in the house was torn out. It made a good drop cloth to protect the lovely original wood floors hiding beneath.
So, back to the carpeted staircase. We started pulling the carpet off at the top, worked down to the landing, so far so good. Okay, this was going pretty easily and quickly. A bit of grotty padding, lots of staples. Down each step, closer to the bottom. I’m laughing, loving how great the treads look. I should have known better than to rejoice until the job is done. So naive.
It is all going great until we get to the bottom step. Oh, you aren’t going to be live this. Wait, yes you will. You housebloggers know what horrible things previous owners can do to a house. You see, the first riser, first tread, and second riser were covered with more than just carpet and padding. Someone had tried to put sheet vinyl on the stairs. Yup. Sheet vinyl. And not just any sheet vinyl, it was that fake parquet-looking stuff. You know it. You’ve seen it. Oh I wish I had taken pictures. Why didn’t I? Well, it is still vivid in my memory, almost three years later.
It took me four days, my favourite putty knife, some whining and crying, and many bottles of dollar store nail polish remover. Why nail polish remover? Because the acetone cuts through the adhesive pretty well. Just saturated cheap paper towels, laid them over the gunky steps, sealed it with dollar store cling film, let it soak for a few hours, went back and scraped till my arms were sore. Repeat.
That bottom stair tread is still darker than the rest. And of course it couldn’t be flipped because it is the only one that has the curve. Figures, right?
You can see a close up of that particular stair here. Just look under the puppy.
Green Bungalow Craftworks 