Phase I of the hallway makeover! Befores and getting theres
Get ready.
This is just Part I.
Spoiler:
You know how there are some things you just live with for decades because they are so overwhelming and expensive to fix that you just can’t deal, plus even if you could, you have no idea how to go about it, and it’s working okay, and there are bigger fish to fry?
Just me?
Well, my dear daughter-in-law Natasha gave me a lot of encouragement to tackle something that was definitely in that category, however idiosyncratic my state denial had been. “It will be fun!” she said.
Said situation is my vast amounts of hallway and two sets of stairs, all carpeted in this manner — front hall, front stairs, upstairs hall, back hall, back stairs:
Quite difficult to photograph as there just isn’t much light in this hallway.
This is upstairs:
Oh, it looks not horrible in the photo. But we moved here 26 years ago and it wasn’t… new… then.
Turn around and it goes on and on and on:
We had other wall-to-wall carpeting in the house. Deirdre’s bedroom was one and the den was another. Just to give all of you with lots of kids hope, I will tell you that said kids can, if motivated, do stuff. Deirdre at age 12 pulled up 400 sq. ft. of lavender-purple carpeting in one square foot at a time, yanked out all the nails and staples, sanded, and painted the floor. By herself.
A passel of teenage boys handled the den, getting it to a place where it could at least be painted.
So there was that!
But the hall… it was too much. All my manpower had moved on long ago. I’m too old for this!
But I bit the bullet. What I really wanted in my heart of hearts was to have the floor refinished — I was hoping there would be wide pine underneath. Some preliminary pulling up of corners showed there was some (painted that same gray we have elsewhere, namely in our bedroom) but also a whole section that had some sort of linoleum over plywood over … ?
I could just re-carpet everything, a possibility that paralyzed me (acres of carpeting! how would I ever choose?). But once you take out the carpet, you have to move on it. Too much dirt and too many sharp objects to have sitting around.
I just couldn’t go there.
One floor guy, experienced in old houses, told me in his gruff Massachusetts accent: “You gotta think positive!”
I consulted with a knowledgeable friend, saying, “I just need to stop thinking I have to know how to do it; they know how to do it, right?”
“Yes!” he dutifully and helpfully replied, “they will handle it.”
The floor guy I went with told me he often keeps the antique flooring he’s removed in houses where the owners just want new. “I can repair yours if I find it’s needed.”
Okay!
They were amazingly efficient. Then the painters came in and touched up the floor boards and painted the stair risers.
Here’s how those looked, yikes:
So… it’s rustic. These are 160-year-old pine floors! But I love how it turned out!
I will continue to update you. The back will be carpeted and I need a runner for these stairs. I also need a new light fixture here. This one isn’t bright enough and is cracked, anyway.
So far I have found three good handmade orientals in good condition; two from Facebook Marketplace and one from a nearby antiques store. They were all very good prices. I will fill you in on those later — one of them is at the cleaners because it had some weird dust in it that was not good. (The others were already cleaned.)
Here’s a snap of it:
I need a few more! Hard to believe, I know. We are just talking about that much area.
By the way, if you are contemplating some sort of renovation, I recommend starting with a Pinterest board. You can see my hallway one here. Pin pictures you find elsewhere rather than searching for things straightaway on Pinterest. That way you avoid the AI nonsense.
I promise I will try to get you better photos! But what do you think??
bits & piecesMcCrery, Architects of Catholic Beauty, chosen to renovate the White HouseJohn Henry Newman: Newest Doctor of the ChurchAstronomy and Liturgy: the Symbolic Meanings of the Date of EasterA Garden Enclosed: the Fairfield Carmelites
You kind readers often ask me for tips about being a mother-in-law and grandmother, and I just don’t know what to say. I am a real work in progress over here. But I liked this little article: 5 Tips for being a saintly grandmother
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