Dining Room Renovations
Monday, May 23, 2011 at 8:27PM Backstory:
My house was built in 1906 near the rocky shore of Lake Superior.
We moved into our new old house almost a year ago.
I got excited about choosing a paint color for the dining room, which is the central room on the main level.
I painted a bunch of swatches on the walls one night while my husband was away.
I left them there to think about which I liked best.
I left them there because I was busy.
I left them there because I really wanted to face the embarrassment of hosting out of town family for Thanksgiving.
It's such a classy look.
These swatches have now been on my wall for almost a year, and I'm ready to move on to a different kind of crazy.
I decided to put up wallpaper. Then I decided not to put up wallpaper. I decided to put up wainscoting, I decided not to put up wainscoting.
I own five books about paint colors. I own three complete paint fan decks.
I know a little about color.
Something had to give. I forced myself to make a decision.
One of the colors below will be in my dining room.
I took a picture, looked at the picture, and then eliminated the ones that didn't speak to me.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Bought the paint.
Didn't like it.
Mixed up my own custom color because that is the only gosh darn way to get anything done.
Meanwhile, why don't you assess the plate rail situation?
Do all plate rails like to keep a 1/4" gap between themselves and the wall?
No? Just mine?
Also take a moment to notice the previous owner's paint job. I'll wait.
Does this help in your assessment?
Let the record reflect that yes, I have 46,000 paint swatches on my dining room walls, and yes, they've been there way beyond the allotted time. But let it also show that I would never, ever slap some latex paint on top of oil-based paint on top of antique woodwork without primer and without even cleaning up the pebbles, dryer lint, bird's teeth, and other detritus before hand.
Methodical decision maker, me? Perhaps.
Purveyor of shoddy workmanship? No ma'am.
I shall now compose a letter to the previous owner(s) of my home.
Dear Previous Owner(s) of My Home,
Please take your awful painting skills for a long walk off a short pier.
And not one on Lake Superior, either. The Coast Guard here is too competent, and they're just itching for some excitement.
We do have 11,000 other lakes that might be able to assist you in the short pier department.
Love,
Yarnista.
The plate rail had been badly repaired in four sections. Emphasis badly.
We bit the bullet and took it down. Took it down so new stuff could be put up correctly.
This is what was behind the plate rail.
Yes, that's a hairpin. Yes, I'm perplexed.
I also love this fine piece of workmanship here. Oh, 105-year-old plaster needs patching? How about we just cut some drywall to fit? That'll blend seamlessly.
See? Totally seamless.
You might be asking yourself if I'm ready to check into a "sober living facility" for "exhaustion" yet.
The answer is no. As my friend Katie likes to say, I'm from hearty Midwestern stock. If the worst I have to worry about is some perfunctory painting and some poorly patched plaster, then don't look that gift horse in the mouth.
Speaking of gift horse.
The horsedog is now a year old. She loves construction projects, especially ones where she gets to lounge in plaster dust.
This is the horsedog's finest hour.
More dining room renovation updates to come soon. The train has left the station, ladies and gentlemen. No getting it back in the shed now.
Reader Comments (18)
Ahhhhh! The joys of owning an old house in Duluth! We have been working our way through our new old house for 2 1/2 years now. Good lord, the painting is sooooo shoddy it's ridiculous, let's not even talk about the patch work (or rather 'non' patch work) OR the fact that wallpaper covering up huge holes in the plaster seemed to be the standard M.O. Argh! That is why I call my house a "work in progress....' Sigh. Good luck with yours! I love that your paint swatches were on your wall for nearly a year...that sounds oh too familiar to me!
Of course you don't purvey shoddy workmanship! That's why we love your yarn. The horsedog is adorable when she lounges in plaster dust. I'm happy she looks so happily ridiculous doing so. :)
I can't wait to see how your dining room turns out! And I love your horse dog. I have one too, his name is Max. :-)
Any chance we get to see June colors soon?????????????????
Big surprise there, on the narrowed-down colors, hey?
Can't wait to see the finished product!
Ha, yes, this sounds rather familiar. We bought and moved into a flat within an 1884 house in north London last November. I am learning not to remove things for fear of what may be beneath them. Dado rail? What's that there for - it's the wrong moulding, let's take that out and put a picture rail up instead, much better suited to the room, more historically accurate... cue an awful lot of filling and patching. Cornice? That sounds like a great idea, don't know why they ripped it out before, let's put a new one up... ourselves... quite heavy stuff reproduction victorian plaster cornice. Wouldn't recommend doing that yourself. And the paint... 21 pots of variations of white/grey white/soft brown white (large pictures are giving the colour to the room)...however the paint is bought and I do like it. I am gaining a whole new appreciation for builders (I'm an architect, this is a very good thing)!
I too am renovating a house that's a wee bit over 100 yrs old..it's awful work...also, I too have a horse dog much like yours but of the male variety. In fact I think ours might be related. I often find him laying in that same position..feet in the air..haha
Oh the joys of home ownership and the renovations it brings! My hubby and I are closing on a house soon and will be probably exhibiting the same eye brow raising, what were you thinking, gestures ourselves!
Sweeeeeet baby doggie!
My new house isn't nearly that old (only 20 yrs) but the previous owners were obviously going for some sort of record for poor home maintenence. There are fist holes in nearly every door (someone had anger issues), the yard is 80% weeds, the bushes are going native, both decks need sanding/finishing/sealing, the kitchen was disgusting (probably hadn't been cleaned in years - you don't want to know what my mother found under the fridge and stove), the paint jobs were shoddy, the downstairs bathroom has the most hideous duck wallpaper - peeling off the wall, too, all the casement windows have to be sanded/refinished (i.e. will probably get replaced by the time I factor in labor, etc.) and there were chunks of drywall missing in the second bedroom where wall decorations had been removed.
I should have asked for more money at close. You live and you learn.
PS: Love the last picture of the horsedog. That face just screams "I dare you not to think I'm cute and sweet" :P
My husband declared we were building a new house when he had to hire a company to make special pipes for our bathroom in our second hold house. The girls had spilled all the Don't Spill the Beans beans down the drain, didn't tell anyone for fear of getting in trouble, imagine that. Well beans sprout, even in total darkness, imagine that. My poor husband had to take a sledge hammer to the wall and totally destroy it and the pipes. I feel your pain.
On the other hand, I've had pieces of fabric up on our living room windows in the new house for about 7 years because I can't make up my mind as to what I want. I also know your hesitancy. We just can't put any old thing up.
Oh BTW, my wonderful husband painted our living room walls 5 times in as many days because I couldn't get just the right shade of mustard yellow.
Life is short, I want to get it right.
Smiles
Oops, I forgot to mention that Horse dog is absolutely wonderful. What expressive eyes.
What a wonderfully silly pose that horsedog has struck - I especially love that third shot, she's positively grinning with self-satisfaction for finding the perfect spot in the room to plant herself! Thank you for the doggie update!
My ex-DH is a carpenter, years ago he specialized in remodeling and renovations. Oh, the stories he'd tell! I even got to witness some of them when I'd visit him onsite. A few years after that his mom died, leaving us a small two-flat she had acquired through a second marriage. For economic reasons, we decided to move into the place intending to save money while fixing it up to sell so we could buy our own dream house. My step-FIL was old-school frugal Italian, and every day brought a new revelation of the insane levels he stooped to in order to save a penny, or a buck! The most bizarre of the long laundry list of bizarre shortcuts he used in remodeling the old house had to be the discovery of a PANELESS window to the outside world hiding behind the prefab walls of the bathroom - with old boxer shorts, longjohns and other rags stuffed between them ostensibly to serve as "insulation"! Because the buildings in this old Chicago neighborhood were built rather tightly together (a person couldn't fit into the space between our house and the one next door), we were unaware of the window, and completely mystified why we couldn't get that bathroom to warm up in the winter, until we removed the wall for some pipe repairs. That was the most bizarre, but some of the other crazy stuff we found were downright scary.
Granted, we didn't find any birds teeth though! Or hairpins.
I'm sure that once the dust settles (if the horsedog will let it) that dining room will be worthy of a two-page spread in "Better Homes & Gardens" - it will be your masterpiece!
What's wainscoting? (No, I didn't miss the point of the rest of the piece, but seriously, I think I need to know what wainscoting is.)
Wainscoting is a type of paneling that only partially covers a wall. It's usually painted today. Tongue and groove and beadboard can both be used as wainscoting. :)
Love the horsedog - she's so SHINY!
I hope that you picked brown with teal.
margieinmaryland
I read this post last week and was inspired to finally paint some of the rooms in my house. Thanks for the inspiration, although I'm having the same dilemma picking colors. Like a haircut though, I figure its only paint, I can always redo if it doesn't work, so I'm jumping in with both feet and getting two rooms done this weekend.
I swear your horse dog looks just like my horse dog! Mine is 9 and black, but same long face and floppy years and of course gigantic-ness. Love.