I’m Crazy – I mean WE’RE Crazy!

This is Milo (aka – Lo-ee, Mee-lo, Lo, Helper Catten, Little @#$% – forget that last one).

Earlier today I starting dinking around in my office and took off some hinges on a closet door that had close to 100 years worth of paint on them.  I took them out to the shop and put them on the grinder to reveal some decent quality hinges.  Score!  Tonight, my husband and I were sitting on the couch and I asked him if he’d come up and advise me on some funky trim pieces that lined the tops of the walls.  Should I take them out?  Should I just caulk around them?  Next thing I knew I was headed to the garage for the nail pullers.  Huh?  Oh yes, that’s true H & G fashion.  In our last house that’s how I got a new bathroom and laundry room.  “Just one peek under this corner” and WHAMO, the paneling, drywall or tile is flying.  Tonight wasn’t quite that bad, but close. We started pulling off the trim at the top of the walls to see if it was easily fixed without replacing trim and success, it’s not bad. Then, like 2 crazed remodelers wielding sharp tools, we turned our attention to a pop-out wall next to the door that has a different wall material than the rest of the room.  It appears to be wood, but is completely rigged and seemed to push in easily with a little pressure.  It didn’t take much effort to reveal the old coal furnaces chimney.  It serves no purpose any longer other than for aesthetics.  After ripping that paneled wood off, G turns to me and says “I have to admit this right now or I will feel bad”. Umm, should I call an Attorney?  What is he hiding from me?  Oh no, he’s got a gambling habit.  Then he says “It wouldn’t be right for you to only fix the masonry.  We need to gut this room and put up insulation and new drywall”.  Phew!  Good thing I wasn’t speed dialing my Lawyer.  Anyway, this is about as far as we got.  So much for a quick “polish the turd” kind of renovation.  Looks like it will be a full blown gut and redo.  I’m looking forward to making it a wonderful creative space, but it will have to wait for the most part until after Christmas is over.  So for now, I’ll just do what I can on my own to get it ready for the the best face-lift it’ll have in 100 years.

You can see the quarter round in the corner of the room.  There are parts of the room that have quarter round and parts that have a thin door trim.  Interesting, to say the least.   See the BEAUTIFUL sponge painted walls?  Oh yes – Hello walls, 1980 wants their paint back!

See, there’s G pulling away the paneling saying “What’s behind here?”

There is a Santa Claus!  It’s the brick chimney!  It has layers of old wallpaper over the top of it, but that’s easily removed with a handy dandy screwdriver.

Before – rigged wood paneling

After – well sort of after.  I was too bushed to keep going, but I will wet it down with warm water tomorrow and see if I can get the paper that’s stuck on.  It’s going to add a little chic to my office.