Our paneling quest has resumed, prompted by another delivery. Ready Strip Pro is, apparently, amazing at removing multiple layers of paint. But, despite being described as “environmentally friendly” by the manufacturer, it does contain some harmful chemicals. And it’s almost impossible to buy in California. We managed to get some shipped, and promised to be …
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Tag Archives: living area
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ready. set. strip.
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the right gray
As you may remember, we weren’t too happy with the blueish gray we picked (Benjamin Moore 2121-20 Steel Wool) for the large wall of siding, in our living area. Though you probably won’t detect a difference, I had to let you know that we Karen repainted it. Now it’s a much purer shade gray (Sherwin Williams’ …
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picking flooring
We plan on replacing our flooring room-by-room, to phase the cost. We’ll be installing Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT) throughout. We already have some very beige VCT in our living area, as shown below, behind some new samples we picked out. We rejected many more than these, and eventually settled on the center sample, Soft Warm …
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the bookcase
The bookcase on the right was added by the original owners, a long time ago. This pic is when we just moved in, as I didn’t take a ‘before’ shot for this post. Anyway, while useful, it interrupts the flow, conflicts with the design, and narrows the space by our entrance. It had to go. …
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virtual dining
Back in November, we spied the perfect dining table. Our budget still won’t stretch, but we do have dining chairs, so I placed them in situ, to check how they’d fit. We thought this may encroach on our hairpin breakfast table (original to the house) but it shouldn’t be a problem. This was a few …
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fireplace paint
We love our cinder-block fireplace. One problem –it’s yellow…and it shouldn’t be. More accurately, it’s smoke-stained white, but it amounts to the same. It doesn’t look too bad in this pic, but trust me on this. Anyhow, we set about re-painting it white. The texture of this cinder block makes it difficult to paint with …
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beam me up
Post and beam construction is synonymous with Eichler homes, and similar modern home designs. This is what enables walls of glass and open living space. These ceiling beams are intended to be visible, and admired, as an architectural feature. And they need painting. We’d inherited brown painted beams in the living space, shown in this …
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arcadia sliders
Our single-pane glass sliding doors are 1955 originals. Not great for efficiency, but good for a dose of nostalgia. Arcadia manufactured most, if not all, Eichler sliders –we’ve certainly seen them on models built ten years after ours. We have three sets –office (above, near), master (above, far) and lounge (below). We can’t afford to upgrade …
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halfway house
Now we’ve settled on paint colors, we’re systematically working our way through the house, painting all the trim, beams and (eventually) ceilings. We also plan to paint the odd feature wall. During this phase, the place will inevitably feel disjointed. Above, our new Cityscape gray trim (inside) butts against Oxford Brown trim (outside). Likewise, the …
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