Chez Larsson

Bathroom Update

So I thought I’d give you an update on the bathroom at the new house. This is how it looked a week ago. Plastic floor, rusty pipes, ugly units. You name it, it was there.

 

The contractors started their work on Wednesday at lunch time and on Thursday morning I was greeted by this. Yay, blue plastic gone!

 

Thursday afternoon and the tiles were coming down.

 

Friday. What can I say other that GUTTED! It’s kind of hard to believe that I’ll be taking a bath in there in a few weeks time.

 

It’s a little bit like a sauna. My Finnish roots are calling me.

 

The plumbers arrived on Saturday to remove the pipes. Good thing…

 

… considering the state of them. They will now be replaced with plastic ones and I look forward to flushing!

 

When I tore down the kitchen I was secretly hoping for a message from the past, such as a time capsule or even just a scribble of someone's initials (we’ve left a couple of messages in our house for future owners to find) but there was nothing. The bathroom wall behind the toilet revealed the 1954 newspapers though from when the house was being built. I love that kind of stuff.

That’s the bathroom so far. I’m so excited! And relieved. That this is not a DIY project.

Ps. Please excuse the quality of the photos but I'm snapping them with my point and shoot in available light. Don't want to bring my good camera into the hot mess at the house just yet.

So How Did I Do?

  
Remember my to-do list from back in May? I promised I’d repost at the end of summer and over here I’d say this is it. Summer, at least in my mind, is over. So how did I do?

* Scrape west facing side of house

* Prime west facing side of house

* Paint west facing side of house

*Scrape south facing side of house

* Prime south facing side of house

* Paint south facing side of house

* Paint fascia boards south, west, east, north

* Scrape south window

* Paint south window

* Scrape patio door

* Paint patio door

* Paint white trim outside

* Clean trim in hallway

* Paint trim in hallway

* Paint interior doors to bathroom and stairwell

* Paint stairs

* Paint trim downstairs

* Paint doors downstairs

* Craft new house number

* Cut boards for botanical prints

* Paint boards for botanical prints

* Mend stucco on west side of house

* Sort out papers from hanging files

* Order fly strips for windows

* Clean shower head

* Sort Wille's stuff in basement with him

* Sort Wille's stuff in his room with him

* Continue scanning negatives

* Assemble travel scrapbook pages

* Add photos to albums

* Prep for gravel in back yard

* Order gravel for back yard

* Buy and plant summer flowers in pots

* Weed, weed, weed

* Plant Dahlia's

* Sow swiss chard

* Paint bedroom walls

* Prune roses

* Sew patchwork pillow

* Bake more

* Top dress lawn

* Mend rotting corner by patio **

* Trim lawn edges

* Adjust leaky kitchen faucet **

* Paint livingroom walls

* Sort out water pressure and temperature in shower

* Add wheels to ottomans

* Paint stairwell

* Change fabric in stairwell

* Trim hedges

* Rebuild craft corner desk **

* Move and reorganize dresser **

* Do a kitchen drawer switcharoo

* Add wheels to antique arm chair

* Add shelves in bedrom closet

* Figure out a way to hang longboard **

* Add wheels to ottoman in bedroom

* Reinvent large cans

* Sort out downstairs pantry

* Paint parts of front steps

* Turn garden composts

* Change lock on patio door **

* Change locks on two doors upstairs

* Change handles on four doors upstairs

* Refinish edges of bathroom shelves

* Paint bathroom shelves and brackets

* Touch up fuse box door

* Staple new fabric on fuse box door

* Sew patchwork quilt

* Fix chipped ladder bar in stairwell

* Caulk gaps in top of stairwell

** Martin helped

 
I have to say I’m pretty proud of all I did do. I haven’t been lazy. I’m pooped though so I look forward to doing the more fun and crafty bits this fall and winter and the yard things which are still on the list next spring. And I’m sure I’ll be adding to the list next year…

* Paint fascia boards south, west, east, north (Couldn’t face another race up and down the ladder)

* Paint white trim outside (To few hours in the day!)

* Cut boards for botanical prints (Not sure I’m into this any more…)

* Paint boards for botanical prints (… I’m not loving the yellowed paper of the prints.)

* Sort Wille's stuff in basement with him (Still to do)

* Order fly strips for windows (I NEED these next summer, I used some other type and they sucked!)

* Continue scanning negatives (Cozy fall project…)

* Assemble travel scrapbook pages (… another cosy one…)

* Add photos to albums ( … and one more!)

* Prep for gravel in back yard (Next spring, I promise!)

* Order gravel for back yard (Definitely next spring!)

* Sew patchwork pillow (Fabric and supplies have been ordered…)

* Paint livingroom walls (Paint has been bought!) 

* Sew patchwork quilt (… and there’s enough for this one too!)

 

Yay!

Doors, Handles & Locks

One of this summer’s big projects has been painting doors and trim upstairs as well as downstairs. After some years the white yellows and it was definitely time for a fresh coat. Before Martin and Wille went to Skåne  we took the doors to the loo and stairs off and while they were away I worked like a mad person so it would be ready by the time they got back. Door-less loo is not family fun.

 
The first thing to do was to remove the old handles. I also considered changing the locks because we’d had problems with the handles “dropping”. New locks would cost $75 dollars each though and I wasn’t really keen on spending that OR the fact that the new locks weren't the right size and I’d have to do a fair bit of drilling and carpentry OR the fact that original is always nicer than new.

Imagine my joy and surprise when I went to the lock smiths and he didn’t automatically sell me those new locks but instead offered me two little do-dads to insert into the locks for a grand total of $2.

 
Since the holes for the lock plates were really worn and some screws kept falling out on the old handles I used my new best friend Mr Chemical Metal. I love this dude! I’ve tried to fill these types of holes before with wood filler but with all the pulling and pushing of the handles they’ve come loose again. This is much much stronger. It’s stinky business and you need to get a smooth finish within the five minute time frame before it hardens as it’s difficult to sand but it works so well.

After a sanding and wiping session I needed to come up with a way to paint the doors on both sides without having to wait for one side to dry so I came up with this solution. We have these two work horses and I clamped the backs of the doors into them while resting on some strips of wood so paint wouldn’t puddle at the bottom. I then primed and painted everything, three coats in all. Well, I didn’t really paint everything, I left out the little areas where the doors were clamped and touched that up when we got them back upstairs.

I had been dreading this painting session and it did take a while but imagine the time it would have taken to wait for one side to dry and cure before being able to paint the other! Oh, the reason why I didn’t leave the doors up and paint them upstairs was due to our feline family members who would have been walking past all the time… So didn’t want any of their cute little hairs in my fresh paint.

I kept busy in between coats too. The locks had previously been painted over and I didn’t want to add another layer so I removed the paint with paint stripper. I very rarely use this stuff, I usually just soak whatever metal I need to remove the paint off in hot soapy water but I couldn’t really dunk the locks, could I?

Check this out! It is kind of magical. After a few minutes the paint starts to crease and bubble and you can easily scrape it off. I used my favorite tool for this!

After having wiped off the last of the old paint and stripper this is how the locks ended up looking. I like!

So it was time for new handles. We had a jumble of different ugly handles on the doors upstairs when we moved in twelve years ago and ended up buying new modern ones for the four doors. I regretted that purchase almost immediately after and have been lusting over repro ones that match the original ones on the inner front door above ever since.

 
Finally! It was a bit of a splurge with our currently strained ecomomy but now that they are up it was so incredibly worth it (here's a link to the store where I got the handles).

 
Hey! How’re you doin’? Pretty good looking huh?? I did for a second or three consider a Bakelite white version but am super happy with these. They are so nice to the touch!

And that completes one of the projects I’ve been most eager to check off my to-do list this summer.

Byggfabriken

Oh Lord, I love this store! Byggfabriken at Söder in Stockholm with another location in Malmö down south specializes in restoration in keeping with past tradition.

 
I finally got new 1930's style interior door handles for upstairs. It's been ten years since I added them to my shopping list so it was about time we switched the old ones out.

Here's some more of what the store offers; the exact coat rack we have in our house and cool period wallpaper.

You can also get period style light switches, house numbers and other signs depending on the style and age of your house.

Love this new kitchen complete with Formica style top, knobs and handles.

Here I can get replacements for my basement and outdoor light shades...

 
...and I la-la-love these! I don't have anywhere to hang a single one but I want at least three.

Aside from friendly, knowledgeable staff and cool wares it also smells divine in there. If you're ever in these parts of Stockholm or visit Malmö this store's worth a visit even if you don't have a period home or a small 30's cottage in suburbia like we do. 

And, yes, I promise I'll show the handles in situ and in action, just need to paint that last little bit before I can remove the "Fresh Paint" signs from the doors. And no, I've not been sponsored by Byggfabriken, I wish :).

Troubleshooting for Katie

After Martin and I did the troubleshooting post for Juliette I received an e-mail from Katie, who lives in a small mining town in the US. She asked for our opinion on the exterior of her house. I knew Martin would jump at this, having strong feelings about architecture in general and exteriors in particular so I passed the photo on to him.

Here's what Katie wrote:

This house has gone through a major facelift from when we first got it. It's not the most beautiful space, I'll admit. For some reason, people in the community just fell in love with attaching indoor porches to their homes in the 70s. It has a screen door (you can see it leaning against the wall for repairs), then the main house has a standard exterior door. The whole neighborhood is like this.

The problem I'm curious about your opinion is the wood paneling. It isn't fake paneling. It's real, tongue and groove, 4 cm thick stuff. Should it be painted, replaced with something else in a different color...? I guess the paneling just feels too "interior" in my mind to be across the whole front of the house, so I blame it for the weird feel the front has. I'd take any suggestions on the space, really. 

First of all I have to say I disagree with Katie. I love the house! I love the porch! I DO think it's beautiful!What I love most about it is the symmerty, the square structure with the centered porch and centered door. There's always room for improvement though and here are a couple of suggestions for Katie and Martin ( Yes, she has a Martin too!).

For the interior of the porch we suggest painting the paneling to give it more of a room feel than the sauna (sorry, but you know how I feel about bare wood) look. I think a couple of coats of white in there will give a totally new feel to the space both when looking from the outside in and once your inside. We would also go for white trim but since all white's not everybody's cup of tea a nice pale shade of grey would look awesome too.

For the exterior of the porch we would paint the paneling in the same color as the house itself. It's a really nice green and painting the rest the same would make the porch stick out less and be more integrated with the main house.

For the outside trim we would again go for white. There's no denying that painting trim white will give the walls or in this case the paneling that added freshness, at least in our book.

Martin got a little carried away (as he does with these types of things) and threw in a few more things that will give give the house more curb appeal.

How about making the front steps more substantial by running them along the front and sides of the porch? If there's no frost in the ground where Katie is it's quite an easy build. With frost there's a bit harder labor involving digging for plinths but it would be so worth it. Imagine some nice pots and lanterns on there...

Another suggestion is that because there's not much of a yard at the front of the house to put gravel down there so there's no need to mow a thin strip of lawn. If laid correctly the gravel will be virtually maintenance and weed free. Pick the color of gravel carefully. Martin and I stay away from anything with pink in it because it tends to look fleshy and clashes with a lot of paint colors. White-gray-black gravel goes with everything and looks fresh.

What we're not crazy about is the metal fence and gate in front of that cute house and if it were up to us we'd switch to wooden fencing. Here's one version which is open and airy but maybe not a great idea if there are doggies involved.

The other version is more closed in to contain any four leggers.

So these are our two cents. Anyone else have any other suggestions for Katie and Martin?