So it turns out that the dining room is a major component of our every day life, in that it serves as an extension of my kitchen as well as a giant closet of sorts – it’s the place where we throw the mail, keep the vacumm cleaner, pool bag, canning jars, WINE, cloth shopping bags, garden & market baskets, any pots over 3 quarts (so my stock pot, at least one canning pot) – you know, things essential to everyday life. The table is the where I set things to cool, as to not further clutter the 2 square feet of counter space I have that seems to host various fermenting projects, empty jars, cookbooks in use, toaster oven, coffee pot, the usual kitchen stuff. So, having this hub packed up just pointed out exactly how much of a hub it is. Just the fact that we all walk through by habit and therefore have dragged the entire mess through the house says it all I think.
The chairs are in the basement, the table in the sun room. The hutch is still in the room, but it has been completely unpacked. Its contents are boxes in the den, the hallway, the living room. Edie set up a tv tray to eat breakfast in the living room in the morning and it is now our mail table. Basically, the hub of the house has exploded all over the rest of the house. Also? That hutch holds a lot of stuff.
Summer boredom has led Edie to deep clean her room – she got rid of clothes and books, which are now sitting in bags in the living room waiting to be handed down to some of our favorite little girls who are coming to visit in the coming weeks.
This is one reason why we’ve put this project off for 14 years. The hub factor. That and the prep work.
Pat has taken the last two days off work to help. He decided we needed to replace the shoe moulding, left over from the shag carpet era, hovering a good 1/2″ above the floor.
Back when the trim was avocado green. Which so perfectly matches the wallpaper that everyone who has seen it has commented on what a perfect match it is.
Scraping the french doors we realized that the paint had been cracked and not properly dealt with since before the avocado….which is a long time ago indeed. Basically Pat & I scraped 70 years worth of paint off those things, as the paint peeled back to the wood. So they’ve ended up coming off – we’ll deal with them flat in the basement, because we realized what a pain they are going to be paint in place (not to mention the serious love they are going to require). We’ve also discovered that the walls & ceiling were sky blue, with a pale blue trim pre-wallpaper – similar to the sky blue ceiling in the den currently.
The project is as much of a pain in the ass as we have always thought it would be. This is exactly why we have put it off for so many years. And exactly why we are taking the time to do it right this time – so that we can proceed to leave it as it is for a long time after this.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 
14 Years? That makes me feel so much better than the 6 years I have been waiting to paint over the “Monkey S**t Brown” color in my dining room. As for the doors, perhaps you could have them “dipped” in stripper somewhere?
We’ve already pretty much scraped them by hand, down to the original coat of paint, which is the last decent prep job they got. By hand, in less than an hour. They were in rough shape. But no longer.
I admire your persistence 🙂 I’m glad it’s your job and not mine, but I’m sure it’ll look fabulous once it’s done!
Our last renovation project happened when we were on vacation a few years ago – we came home and it was done. I am reminded of that model almost every step of the way with this – and think it might be the way to go from now on.
I hate it when I get knee deep in a project and realize exactly why I’ve put it off, but when it’s finally finished it’s such a relief and a joy! Good luck. I just know it’s going to be gorgeous!
I didn’t have to get knee deep into it to realize why I put it off – just dipping my toes in did the trick. When it’s done the improvements will be subtle I think, but enough to make the room look good.
“Serious love.” That phrase cracked me up–and says it all.
And emptying a hutch IS a major chore. They had to at my grandma’s–her entire china/teacup/tchocke collection–it took a DAY to unload it to move it so they could install new carpeting.
Sounds like you’re making do while you’re doing it, which makes the whole project so much more meaningful, too.
BTW, thanks for the very sweet note! I don’t think I mentioned how it made my day finding it in the mailbox.
Avocado trim…wow. That must have been seriously gloomy. Do you like your sky blue ceiling? I’ve considered going with a colored ceiling in one or two rooms, but haven’t had the courage.
I have colored ceilings in a few rooms. I do like my blue ceiling!
Sky Blue ceiling? That sounds wonderful! For a number of years, I have wanted to do something with my mocha colored kitchen. It is a nice color of brown, but it is way too dark in there. Last week, Laura and I had dinner at a restaurant with the color scheme of their dining room of mocha, conservative grey (which is light blue), and semi-gloss cream trim. I found my new combo!