It actually looks worse than the ‘after’ photo now, because we’ve moved on from the immediate need to get the furniture built and are getting ready to go to Boston tonight. So, it looked nice for a day or so, and will hopefully improve once Aimee gets back next week and has a week of […]

[Read more →]

This was the scene on Sunday after we returned from IKEA. We built a few items each night and everything is finished, at least as finished as we can be without the hinges for the wardrobe and the door for the laundry cabinet. We had our crown molding in the living room and baseboard in […]

[Read more →]

As I type this, we’re falling asleep in our new house for the first time. And we’ve been falling asleep for the last two hours, because it’s been a really long day. Delancey Street Movers came through for us again and did a swift and flawless job, from arrival to the last unloading in under […]

[Read more →]

I think we can stop counting the days, now, as we’re moving on Saturday. On Monday night, we tackled the last two areas that hadn’t gotten painted, the bathroom and the laundry area. I did a coat of paint on each, and Aimee took on the glorious task of removing the last of the hated […]

[Read more →]

It may not look like much, but this scene inside our bathroom is the result of some herculean teamwork effort tonight. We managed to get all of the wallpaper and paste off the walls, even behind the sink and toilet (though don’t ask why we didn’t do that before they went in; we would have […]

[Read more →]

So, we’ve come to the end of two straight weeks of work on the house. We had a good solid day there today, and spent it preparing the bedroom for the hardwood floor guys, who start tomorrow morning, and working on the kitchen. After Aimee got rid of the sunflower contact paper on the shelves […]

[Read more →]

Friday night was bedroom painting night, with a second coat in our bedroom and a first coat in the office. Aimee did yeoman’s work removing contact paper all night, one of the more frustrating tasks imaginable, but got it all off, so we’re ready to start anew. Today, we began our last weekend a little […]

[Read more →]

Yesterday, Aimee picked me up after work and we headed to Home Depot for another round of home outfitting. We picked up a new vanity (what a weird name; there’s not even a mirror involved), a new faucet, and paint for our bedroom (“Silvery Moonlight”), the office (“White”), and our ceilings. Thanks to our American […]

[Read more →]

Last night I was by myself at the house, and it made me realize how helpful it is to have two people there, especially when neither of us knows particularly well what we’re doing. I got in around 5:30 and went right to work doing the second and final coat on the living room and […]

[Read more →]

I had a meeting to work on a project with Michael in Santa Monica after work, so I could only stop by the house for a few minutes to check on Aimee’s progress – though it was long enough to get paint on my shirt and pants as I headed out the door. While I […]

[Read more →]

It has been one long week, but we can finally see some real progress. Yesterday morning, we got to the house around 9:00 or so and did some quick primer touch-ups before adding our first coat of Lakefront Blue to the walls, a step which quickly and dramatically changed the look of the whole place. […]

[Read more →]

Busy busy busy. I’ve still got primer on my hands as I type this, and we’re about to head out the door, back to the house to apply our first coat of real paint. Last night we primed the living room, after spending all day cleaning the walls, removing the crown molding, taping up the […]

[Read more →]

Yesterday morning, I headed up to North Hollywood to buy our bathroom tile, making sure to get enough square feet of six-inch tile for the floor and walls, and the proper number of quarter-rounds and beaks, which I definitely didn’t know the meaning of a few days ago. They had everything we needed in stock, […]

[Read more →]

Last night, we made some good progress on the wallpaper, with Aimee discovering some new techniques that made getting it off a lot easier. We finished the biggest wall, and nearly all of the walls (and ceiling; yes, they wallpapered part of the ceiling) around the breakfast nook, putting us at about halfway done with […]

[Read more →]

So, the day is finally here! A month and a half (though it seems like a lot longer) since we first saw the place, we completed the deal and got the keys. Almost immediately, we started taking down the wallpaper in the living room/dining nook, which is a combination of tedious and satisfying that I […]

[Read more →]