Operation White-Out

You can thank B&N for the photos on this one.  

We decided that it's been since 2006/2007 that most of our main floor was painted, and colors and styles have changed fairly substantially (as have our personal styles).  It's time to give it a fresh look.  We're adopting Cloud White as our basis for the fresh look.  We've declared the project "operation white-out".  Noah got in on the action.

Dining room in progress.  Don't worry, the fake vines on that shelf were also  removed as part of the fresh look.

Focus and concentration are important when you're painting.

Noah can get the job done!

Noah can also take pictures while dad is getting the job done!

Noah captures that they finished this little corner.

We have the kitchen, dining, and back entry-way finished.  The front entry itself is done, but the transition up the stairs is not yet.  We're working our way through all the common living areas.  I think the office is going to be light gray rather than white and it can't get done until some plaster repair is done also. 
I found some bright color accents to dress up the dining area a little, but need more of those.  I still need to get art on the living room walls (which we painted last year, yes, we move very slowly sometimes).  I want a larger and bright color entry rug for the back door, but it has to be the washable flat-weave type. 

Kitchen, dining, back entry, and laundry: white base (celery/lime green in laundry), with bright greens and turquiose/blue accents.  Fresh, new.  And, you know me, I won't have "project complete" pictures for ages and then some.  You better just come on over and check it out!

G-G-Glorious Day!

 45 degrees, super sunny, and over 2 feet of snow makes for a fabulous day playing in the north woods!

Dirt biking is fun!

I got to try out the "fat bike," couldn't get it up the slight hill on the soft snow.

Sure was fun coming down!

Noah needed to do some trail maintenance while we were out hiking.

We found a hole to test the depth of the snow...

Noah had to try too.  It's as deep (deeper?) as his leg is long.

Hiking while carrying a 4 1/2 year old load is still fun in the sun and snow!

Great day to be in the woods!

Let's do it again tomorrow!

The carpet is in!!

Yeah baby!  We've got just a few small things left to finish phase #1!

Take a look at this nearly complete bedroom:

Oooh, ahhh.

It's super soft, I'm impressed with what we got.

The waffle weave is a nice, subtle texture that adds so much.

We're really glad that we choose to do carpet.  We debated a lot about hardwood floors throughout and other such ideas.  The carpet is soft and cozy AND we didn't have to slave the whole day away to get the flooring put in.  It was fast, easy, and about the same price as a good-looking, inexpensive wood (and we don't have to buy a rug to go on top of it either).  This was by far the fastest part of the phase 1 bedroom.

Condo To-do list

Seems like you enjoy my to-do list updates - that's the post with the highest view count to date.  Thought I might give you a little update on that since we've had another couple work weekends since it was posted...

Phase #1 is the project we're working on currently and it consists of a bedroom, bathroom, entry area, and hall.

Remove bedroom wallpaper

Install hallway light fixture so you can see something when you walk into the unit

Remove bathroom paneling

Tear out old flooring in bedroom, bathroom, hall

Remove bathroom fixtures

Prep hall and bedroom paneling for paint

Get plumber to relocate shower head and install new tub

Replace electrical fixtures with fresh, modern white ones

Install tile underlayment

Tile hall and bathroom

Install shower surround cement-board

Clean and tighten radiator shrouds

Prep bedroom walls for paint (clean up wallpaper removal dings and fill many, many holes from Suzy)

Prep bathroom walls for paint (clean up wallpaper removal dings and poor initial install job)

Re-hang bifold door at bedroom closet

Prime and paint wood (paneling, trim, door?)

Prime and paint walls

Paint radiator shrouds

Paint ceilings (they've seen better days and a fresh coat of paint can make the rooms look so much fresher)

Tile shower surround

Install bathroom fixtures

Get carpet installed

We decided to wait on the bifold door until the carpet is down since they would only be in the way of the carpet installer.
I'm not going to cross off tile shower surround until it has been grouted and caulked, so it's completely done.
The carpet was scheduled to be installed soon, but we picked one that was on backorder, so it may not be done for a few more weeks.
Next visit will hopefully complete the bathroom items, then it's on to the furnishings and staging (for phase #1), Brian's looking forward to moving on to the construction work associated with phase #2.  We are well ahead of the game on phase #2 since we don't have any wallpaper to remove in the big bedroom and before we decided to phase the work, we had done a bunch of wall repairs and prep on that side.  The biggest challenge with phase #2 is that we're going to try to keep the one-bedroom-condo side tidy and functional for guests while we work on this next phase.  That means we'll be working around a slew of tools and materials during the phase.  The only times that really won't work is when painting and when the carpet gets installed, so we'll just play shuffle the mess a bunch.
We're starting to look forward to summer up there because we have a couple guests on the calendar.  Let me know soon if you want to be on the calendar and what your dates might be.  We like notice, so we can plan for having it tidy!  Complete visit instructions are being developed, so you'll know how to get in, what to bring with you, and how to leave it when you go. 
Since I can't leave you without pictures, here, again is that awesome piece of shore!

Condo bedroom #1

We made a lot of small progress on the bedroom that we're working as part of phase 1.  The carpet is ordered, so that will be exciting when it shows up and we can start "moving in" to the room.  

"Before" is on the right.  "After" is installed on the left.  Nice to remove the 70's yellowed plastic!

In case Brian's paint pictures weren't very clear, here's a good one of the gray wood and white walls.

Noah and a bag of cheese photo bombed me.  This is the closet wall all painted up pretty.

Just a reminder of where we came from - whew!

I got the window treatments installed.

Here's my carpet samples.  So glad that decision is made and can't wait for it to come!

It's so much lighter and brighter, I love it!  Noah thinks it's so much fun that "his bedroom" is close to done.  Everyone else is just looking forward to having a "construction free zone" so that visiting is a pleasant experience.  Let us know if you want to get on our calendar, phase 1 should be wrapped up and furnished by Memorial day weekend.

Shower tile

We got back up to the condo for a work weekend (and some playing).  The big goal for the visit was to tile the shower surround.  

Smoothing out the seams - prep for tile.  Man that wall is ugly.

Oh la la!  That first couple rows looks good and it feels good to makes some progress!

After one long day of work, we only managed to finish almost 2 walls.

Intensely lining up the open end.

The LAST piece going in!

Sweet finished tile walls!  Too bad we didn't have time to grout.

Call the plumber and finish that faucet!  Whoop whoop!

 Just like the last tile job, Brian manned the mud and trowel while I was the official cutter.  Unlike the last job, the cutting was a lot more important to the finished look, so it was a bit higher pressure for me!  There were a couple of cuts that he sent back to be re-done more than once.

Noah enjoyed far too much screen time while we pushed through this job.  He occasionally came to check on our work and tried to participate by handing up tiles or spacers a few times, but mostly the room was small and he preferred to have his shows on.

The toilet got set and is functional in the room.  After I took my tile pictures, Brian got the door put up (and ensured that it would close properly).

As usual, we thought we could get through a lot more work than what happened over the weekend.  This job was the big accomplishment for the visit.  I'll be back later with more little accomplishments from the weekend.

A little DIY table

We kept the old house pillars that had rotted at the base, cut them into couple foot long pieces, and I thought they would make nice end/side tables. Noah had his clock radio sitting on the floor ever since he moved into his big boy room. We put the two together and look what we have.
Noah picked his paint color himself. The project cost about $10.