Stairwell Update Part 3

Pictures of the new doors are still to come, but here is the hallway.

Stairwell Updates Part 2

The old wallpaper came off. A network of frightening crack was exposed, and our first floor briefly looked like the final scene of E.T. when everything is wrapped in plastic.

We considered four colors and went with the one on the bottom right, wind's breath, (what?).

Stairway Updates

April of 2008

This part of the house is obviously one of the first things we see when we walk in the door, but somehow, I had gotten very good at simply ignoring it. John pushed to make this the next project we tackle, and with the help of a Christmas present from my parents, we did the unthinkable. We hired a painter. We found a guy on Angie's List, Kris Siskoski, who happens to live in our neighborhood. He gave us a good estimate, we stared at the Benjamin Moore fan deck for a few days, and he got started.
Most of the first floor is a bright white. We wanted something warm enough to work with the red we have a few place in our living room. We knew we needed flat paint because even with the amazing job Kris did to resurface the walls, they still look at bit like they've had a case of the pox.

New Residents at 1224 McKean St.

We adopted two kittens on Friday! They are four-month old siblings (born on August 3) who we found at P.A.W.S., a no-kill shelter in Philly. Names are still forthcoming. They are well-trained for the litter box, recovering from respiratory infections, at-times affectionate, and very fond of playing with one another.
As I am writing this, Boy Cat tried to climb the table cloth. In case you are wondering, I don't think it turned out at well as he had hoped. Here is a sampling of their first two days in the house.

While John is on the phone with his mom, the kittens enjoy their new toy.



Typical behavior from Girl Cat


Climbing, attacking plants, and fighting are favorite hobbies

New Old Chairs

We found a set of six of these chairs in the basement when we moved in. Here they are after a coat of the flat latex paint from the walls and a coat of semi-gloss varnish.

Springtime

We've all made it through the winter.

Painting Party

Before: The alcove in our kitchen in April of '08
After: The alcove after a little attention in February '09.

Time for the Before and After Shots

After: The back patio
Before: Miss Havisham's South Philly enclave


After: Our bedroom-minus many layers of wall paper, one drop ceiling, a few layers of linoleum and carpet, and prison-like bars of the windows.

Before:

After: the blue bathroom
Before: that bunny on the back of the blue toilet was a cotton ball dispenser. To use: simply yank off the bunnies charming cotton-ball tail and another will appear in its place.


The mysterious shallow, locked closet in the guest room that Jill decided should be used for arty displays. Any guesses on its intended purpose? Guns? Trophies?

The vestibule-you'll notice that we kept the cherubic switch plate cover after a fixing the cracks and adding a coat of paint.

At Work w/ Freedman - 7/18-7/20

Our budding-architect friend Michael was up from NC for a visit this weekend.

Here he is ripping the paneling off of our den.  Look, John's clothes!  This particular closet does, in fact, open in the next room over as well.

Tetanus is for kids!

The week before, we had all-new windows installed in the back of the house.  They're "low-E" windows, which sounds awesome even if you don't know what it means.

We're painting most of the house in modest, restrained colors, so it seemed like the lawn furniture could use a little punching up.

The Cedar Chest - 7/13/08

Jill's dad built this great cedar chest for us to store blankets, etc.  It's also a pretty great bench and/or TV table.

I don't have to tell you: this smells pretty rad.

Meal 1 in the New Place

Keeping things pretty simple at this point.

Our makeshift living/dining/TV alcove.  Note the sweet coffee table.

The Move-In - 6/27/08

Things aren't as finished as we'd like them to be, but we're all boxed up and moved out of the old place.

Kitchen stuff is piled particularly high.  How did we acquire this ridiculous amount of stuff?

Jill's art-school shot of our packing equipment.

The Big Dig + New Floors

drywallin'