Tuesday, June 10, 2008
We've been in this condo for almost a year. Hard to believe. There was only one bit of major work that needed to be done, and that was to refinish the upstairs flooring. All three bedrooms were covered in this hideously dirty, white, wall-to-wall carpeting. Whoever invented white carpeting needs to die. Whoever took the white carpeting to hide the pumpkin pine flooring from the 1890's also needs to die.
Had the schedule allowed, we would have gotten the floors done before moving in. Alas. But it had to be done. So last month we bit the bullet, moved all our stuff upstairs down to the living room and kitchen and lived like packrats for a couple of weeks while the floors were sanded and finished piecemeal. The really really heavy pieces - bureaus, office desk, elliptical machine - we left in the rooms, sort of dismantled if possible and pushed to a corner. Once one area of a room was completely done, we'd move the furniture to that side, and then the sanders would finish the other. The process took 100 times longer than normal. Humans and felines alike were getting cranky. Two floors of furniture crammed into two rooms, living out of suitcases, dust everywhere despite best effors to keep it contained, cats crawling around everything despite best effors to keep them contained, not being able to find anything, and hey I think I just realized why I stopped knitting for a bit there. There was no ZEN. You cannot knit without the ZEN.
The results were totally worth it though. The original pine flooring has been returned to their former glory.
This is the office. Where all the blogging magic happens.
Before, as furnished by the previous owner:
After:
Our office desk is significantly larger
In Between the Before and After:
Floors sanded to a warm blonde, stained to a warm amber, then varnished to a glow.
We also knocked down the wall that covered the chimney. Obviously at some point this was a working fireplace, but no more. Unless we want to burn the entire rowhouse to the ground. We almost exposed the whole wall over there but decided we needed the wall space, and long column of brick was more accenty than an entire wall of brick.
The wall color was inspired by this outfit from the now-defunct Blueprint Magazine, March/April 2007 issue.
I love that crisp pear-green skirt accompanied by the pale gray/blue shirt. I almost went with that gray/blue for the office, but will do it for the adjacent bedroom instead.
Next I throw some things on the walls and some nice rugs on the floors (just around the desk for the chairs, not going to cover up those floors too much!) and then it'll be 1 room down, 2 more to go...
Filed Under: Life