House Made of WallPaper

I’ve decided that this remodel needs to be documented somewhere. Luckily, I have this sweet blog that I started almost 10 years ago that needed some lovin’.

Perhaps we were a little ambitious…perhaps a little too crazy, either way, here’s some short letters to our new house.

Dear #housemadeofwallpaper : I love you and hate you all at the same time. I hate you for your 4 layers of wallpaper on the walls and ceilings and the curved ceilings. But I love you that someone has put wallpaper on covering the walls so you have a really lovely finish underneath.  Someone must have really loved you to put so many layers of paper.

To the “before and after” bloggers of Pinterest :

I’ve always wondered why the before and after photos have super crappy “Before” photos. I now know why. There’s not going around it. Why would I want to edit or take super fancy photos of the before?

To my school background:

You’d think with my Construction Management Degree and work experience that this would come in super handy. Sometimes yes, but mostly no. I don’t have any subs to just call and do anything I ask.

Dear #housemadeofwallpaper :

I’ve never seen soo much wallpaper. I’ve also never seen so many drapes in one house at a time.  Or the color blue. We’re super excited to see the wood floors you’ve been hiding all these years under that blue wool carpet and laminate flooring.

To the ironing board in the current kitchen: your time is coming friend.

To the squishy toilet seat : I secretly love you, even if you are soaking up every germ.

We love all your little, okay, not so little built in cabinets and drawers everywhere. Also, I’ve never seen so many doors in a house. Every possible spot there is a nice solid wood door.

To the attic that may never be finished: I wish we could finish you now. It would make a lovely Master Suite and I’ve been dreaming about it for weeks now. If only you could be hiding some treasure that could finance your facelift.

To the light fixtures in the house :  I wish I could keep you, but I also think you are too dated. Maybe someone in the retro style will claim you. Don’t worry, I’ll try to sale you.

Dear Kitchen: You are getting a facelift soon. Hopefully one that includes most of my Pinterest Dreams.

To the Limestone covering the house : I Love You.

To the Limestone staircase : Keep my children safe. They seem to think you are their new playground that’s five feet above the cement. Please don’t let them fall. I can’t seem to keep them away from you.

To the giant window in the front room: I’ve dreamed about you for a long time. Too long has it been since my Christmas Tree sat so everyone could see. Isn’t that the purpose of a front window? To see everyone’s Christmas Trees?

Wall Paper recap

Photos are kind of in order, from September until Jan/Feb we worked on removing just wallpaper. 

Front Living Room.

Wallpaper covering the ceilings, curves and all the walls. 

The wool, blue carpet was quite lush. 

Realities of remodeling with tiny children. 

It's always a danger zone. 

Details of the wallpaper on the ceiling in the coved area. 

My favorite wallpaper that we discovered in the entry. There were MANY layers hiding here. 

I think this was the day we bought the house...since that darn giant blue couch is still in this room. 

I hated this pink fireplace...all it does is blow out AC air now. 

We thought we'd get lucky and this family room didn't need to have any wallpaper removed. Wrong. Come to find out...it's white wallpaper. But luckily, it was only one layer deep. Yes, it was also on the ceiling. 

After two solid months, the wallpaper was finally all gone. Really, there wasn't too much damage on the walls. A few cracks and a moldy spot, but nothing we couldn't fix. 

I can't remember how pregnant I was here, but I remember falling asleep with the babies on this mattress in the master room while everyone else was working. Moving and remodeling is hard. 

Some things I don't wnat to forget

We were down at the gateway, having a little fmaily night. After going to the German Festival, we went to this local market called Salt & Honey.

The market blew my mind, so many good things!

Then, on our way back we got corraled into this weird concert. The singers were good, so we sat down. Aiko was sitting next to her dad and placed her hand on her leg. She's never done anything quite grown-up like. It was adorable!

Orion is the sweetest thing ever. He loves Aiko. He cries if she isn't with him. Always tries to hug her, even though she doesn't want any hugs at all. Orion always says whatever Aiko says. He even looks to her if he wants to do something. When she says something, he'll listen, then step up, and say exactly what she just said. little birdie.

Orion is now in charge of putting away the toothbrushes. Once we are all done flossing and brushing he grabs the brushes and puts them in the drawer. 

Both kids don't like green peppers for some reason.

Aiko seems to have some skin issues with Oats and we are currently testing it with Wheat. Her skin on her forearms, thighs and lower back gets extremely dry.

Aiko seems to have night terrors as of late. Something to do with Spiders.

If Orion is crying Aiko promptly tells me what he wants.

Aiko can sing the ABC, I am a child of god, and happy birthday is her favorite.

Derek still works for Perfectly Posh. He either rides the bus or carpools. 

Both kids LOVe to play in the snow! We get all the snow gear out and they just run around, asking me if they can sit in the snow.

Aiko's favorite books are the little Critter Books, I can do it myself and Grover goes to the farm.