Blue

Yesterday, I painted some of the walls of the bedroom "Byte Blue" to see how the color looked in situ. I did one wall that got lots of sunlight, and one side on the corner that got little.

Here are the results:




They finished removing the carpet and staples today. I'm now waiting for the last bid on refinishing the floors and then away we go.

Colors

I've been struggling with paint colors. I want to go with a pale blue in the bedrooms, with an even lighter ceiling. I also want to go with a pale yellow in the public rooms of the house.

I finally realized that I liked the yellow in the laundry room. It's called "canary," it's by Eddie Bauer, and they sell it at Lowe's.





For the bedrooms, I'm leaning towards something called "Byte Blue" from Sherwin Williams. I painted a fair amount today and I'll photograph it tomorrow after it dries.

The Tile is Gone!

I stopped by this evening and the tile is no more. All gone.



The living room without tile:


The dining room without tile:


The hallway:

(the area where the floor heater was will need to be patched on both sides of the wall)

The office:

(The wood in one section has been clearly damaged -- I'm not sure by what -- and will certainly need to be replaced)

The edge of the sliding door:

(this area was swarming with ants in the afternoon)

The rest of the office:


Here's a close up of the holes made when they attached the tile:


I tried another shade of yellow:



And here are two new shades of blue. I'm thinking of painting the ceiling the lighter shade.


Since they finished the floors so early, I'm going to bring by another floor person on Monday to give me an estimate.

Demolition Begins (+paint ideas)

This morning we pulled up some of the tiles, and thank God, the wood underneath is in good condition.

He started with the opening in the hall by the master bedroom:


The contractor brought some guys over this afternoon and it looks as if they got a good start. Tomorrow that start at 7 am and then again on Monday afternoon. I'm hoping that by Monday evening they might be done, Tuesday at the latest.

Here's the living room:


Here's the dining room:


And a closer picture of the dining room floor:


Here's a closeup of the floor after the tile was removed. You can see where they still have to remove the screws holding the hardboard down.


I bought some Glidden samples at Home Depot.

Here are two variations of yellow that seemed different in the store, but not on the wall (perhaps after they dry).

Against the red wall:


Against the beige wall:


I also tried some blues. These did look different on the wall, but I had to do them in the guest bedroom as I drip too much as I paint. I don't care about dripping on the tile or carpet since that's being tossed, but I don't want to drip on the hardwood. This did make it clearer than ever that someone else should do the painting.



I'm going to have to check and see how it looks after it dries.

Mine!!!!

The house is mine. I got the keys this afternoon. I was so excited I started pulling up the carpet as fast as I could. The wood in the bedroom looks fine, as does the wood in the guest bedroom.


[The material on the floor is the padding that stuck to the staples]


[The pattern embedded in the wood will be removed when it's sanded and refinished. The stain is so dark, the floor guy wasn't sure what sort of oak it is, but we both believe it's red oak]

On Sunday when I did the final walk through, I thought it looked smaller without the furniture. When I opened up the blinds and windows today, though, it looked better.

Here's the living room with the west window now visible:


The dining room and living room:


The dining room in afternoon sunlight:

[To the extent the red works, it's because the floors are white. Once they are back to hardwood, I think it needs a much lighter color]

Here's what the hardwood in the guest bedroom looks like:

[I HATE the bright yellow. I'm leaning towards a very pale blue for both bedrooms]

Here's the office. It also has hardwood under the tile.


I started work on the garden this afternoon. Here's the first row of retaining bricks:


The floorer quoted me one price to remove the ceramic tile, but the contractor gave a quote nearly 25% lower (a $500 difference), so I'm going with the latter. I go back to the floorer to refinish the hardwood once it's exposed.

I'll post photos of the renovations once they're underway.

Waiting

The escrow company is trying to get BoA to fund today. Meanwhile, I continue to wait.

Final Walk Through

We had the final walk through this afternoon. It's surprising how much smaller the house looks without furniture.

With all the papers signed, now all I can do is wait for the bank to fund the loan.