Finishing Up the Details

It's always feels like a miracle when my father and stepmother come and visit. They are a mighty duo and they help keep us on task (and off Netflix). =)

My father spent today finishing up the final details in the bedrooms, like installing door hardware and adjusting hinges so doors close properly. He, with a tiny bit of help from me measuring, has the new handrail installed!

And Maxine and I spent many hours cleaning, cleaning, CLEANING! We've had to vacuum virtually every horizontal surface in the house because they were covered in dust.

I also discovered a new cleaning product. The last couple of days I've been like an excited little kid running around using my new brass polish. My contractor gave me a bottle of Liberty Metal Polish last year when I griped that folks had left fingerprints on our unlacquered brass light fixtures, but I didn't actually get around to trying the stuff until this week. I'm not sure where to buy it, but my contractor bought the stuff at Rejuvenation.

Anyway, the hardware in our kitchen was looking very tarnished and splotchy—it looked disappointingly old. I spent a couple hours cleaning it all up, and it looks literally like new. (Too bad I didn't take before and after pictures.) Now I've been running around the house looking for brass hardware to clean.

Our open house is tomorrow. I had originally envisioned having the house all decked out in Christmas and Jeff and I wearing 1912 period clothing. I totally failed on both those plans. The entryway project delayed completion at least a couple of months, not to mention my three weeks of procrastinating.

Anyway, we're lucky to have gotten moved back in for the party. Christmas decorations will just have to wait. Oh well.

Bedrooms Unpacked

Our bedrooms seemed pretty spacious when they were empty, but now that we've got all the furniture moved in, things are, shall we say, "cozy." This old house just wasn't built to accommodate queen size beds.

In both rooms, we had to rotate the bed so it was in front of the window in order to have enough space for the end tables next to it. This wasn't my first choice, but it will have to work because we won't be down-grading to full-size beds.

I was pretty excited to get to hang our monster tapestry back up!

You can't get a picture head-on because the hallway isn't wide enough, but here's mostly what it looks like.

I'd actually like to hang it on the opposite wall over the staircase, but that would involve two people and ladders, so we'll go with this spot for now.

My father and step-mother arrive in the next hour, so I'd better get back to cleaning.

Moving Up In the World

At long last, we got to move out of the basement and into the upstairs bedroom.

It was such a relief to have beautiful weather today; I actually saw some sun. I had imagined a pretty bad day with pouring rain.

The movers spent something like 5 hours moving our stuff from storage and rearranging furniture within the house. This is how the master bedroom looked when they left for the day.

Then we spent a couple hours putting the master bedroom together. This evening it looks like this.

As usual, the picture isn't very good because we didn't finish until after dark and I had to adjust the exposure to lighten it up.

Since Jeff has been sick this week, he was pretty wiped out after working on the master bedroom, so the guest room still looks like this. I guess we'll finish that tomorrow.

Our washer and dryer also moved upstairs into the back sleeping porch. They're not hooked up yet, so it will be a few days before we can do laundry again.

The worst part of today was the movers accidentally scratched our newly refinished floors—right at the top of the stairs where it is oh so visible!

Our floor refinisher is going to come out tomorrow and take a look and give us an idea of what it will take to fix it. I hope it doesn't mean taking that bit of floor all the way back to the sanding.

Ready or Not, the Movers Are Coming

I spent a couple hours today finishing up the final tasks to prepare the upstairs bedrooms so we can move in tomorrow. First, I touched up messed up spots in the frieze.

Then I, finally, stained the door in the guest bedroom out onto the sleeping porch. (Sorry the photo sucks. That one overhead light in the room just doesn't cut it for photos at night. I'll have to get a better picture during the day.)

I didn't get the door shellacked because I want to give the stain time to thoroughly dry, but I've done the messy part so I should be able to finish after the furniture is in the room.

We've also been packing up our "bedroom" down in the basement so the furniture can be moved upstairs. And we're planning to do some rearranging of other pieces now that we can.

I'm hoping tomorrow with the movers will go OK, but I'm sure we've forgotten some things. I checked the weather forecast and there is a good chance we won't be moving in the pouring rain, so that is good, at least.

Guest Bedroom Stenciled

I was all set to stencil whatever design you guys chose for me, but it turns out with all the comments and emails, I ended up with a tie between the Pansy & Morning Glory and the Moonflower. Initially, I planned to put on the bigger Pansy & Morning Glory; I even put up the registration marks yesterday and sprayed the stencils with the adhesive. But, this morning, when I went up to stencil, I couldn't bring myself to start.

I guess I always sort of preferred the Moonflower design, but I felt it was a little small. Then I poked around my saved pictures again and found this one from a 1910 Sherwin Williams painting brochure. It even looks like a very similar stencil.

From "Your Home and Its Decoration," by Sherwin Williams Co., 1910.

This is when I gave myself permission to use the smaller stencil.

I had to get a bit creative at the corners.

And it is hard to decide what to do about the back wall ceiling. It is finished at an angle, so I think it would look funny stenciled as the design would appear shorter when viewed from the front. So, for now, I've left it blank.

Finally, but for a bit of paint touch up, we're all ready for the movers on Monday. It's time to start cleaning.

Update, more than a month later. I found the original source of the stencil I used in the guest bedroom. I found it shown in a 1915 Wards paint catalog. I flipped the stencil horizontally from the way it was shown in the advertisement because I thought it looked like it had flowers, which should be facing upright. =)

Auditioning Stencils

I spent a few hours today trying out some stencils in different color combinations for the guest room. I don't know why, but this is absolutely my least favorite part of stenciling stuff. I am so paralyzed by indecision, it takes me forever to come up with my final selection. Which do you guys think?

Pansy & Morning Glory

Rose Trio in Reds

Rose Trio in Yellows

Moonflower

I like the Moonflower and actually have a period drawing for this one—but it seems a little small for the size of the frieze.

I don't have a lot of time to pick this time, though, because movers come on Monday to move the furniture back in. I have until then to conveniently stencil the guest bedroom.

My First Stenciled Frieze

I had a busy weekend stenciling the frieze in our master bedroom. I was probably up and down the ladder a zillion times—OK, not that many, but it felt like it. I'm exhausted.

The particular stencil design I used was a three-layer design—Mission Gatsby Border Stencil with Flower & Leaves—from American Home Stencils.

I followed the suggestions from Amy Miller in her book "Stenciling the Arts & Crafts Home." Whenever I had questions or problems, I'd go back to the book to figure out what she suggested; it worked every time. I recommend her book without reservation.

I started the process by applying masking tape bits and marking on the registration spots. This was a pretty long process because once I finished a wall I might decide to move it over an inch or two to make the design suit the wall better and then I'd have to redo it. There is really only so much you can figure out just with measurements. Needless to say, it was not a fun process. But, once I was done, I could turn my attention to applying the different stencil layers without a lot of thought.

I decided to do each stencil layer separately, so I did the full circuit around the room before applying the next layer. (Normally, when working at a table I do all the layers on one repeat before moving on.) It was a total of 44 repeats of the design and took about 4 hours per circuit. So, it took about 16 hours over the weekend.

Stencil First Pass

Stencil Second Pass

Stencil Third Pass

I have a few smudges to clean up/paint over once it all dries. (They were not due to problems with the stencil, but from getting it on my hands from the paintstiks and not realizing it until I got a spot on the wall.)

As an aside, while cruising through my photo files, I found a good inspiration photo for my master bedroom in Sherwin William's 1910 "Your Home and Its Decoration" style guide.