1970 home renovation Archives | Page 16 of 17

1970 home renovation

We purchased a 1970 brick ranch house in Washington County, Maryland in September of 2022. This wasn’t the home I envisioned us purchasing, but we thought it was a little gem that needed the kind of updating we were eager to do. We have had the privilege of meeting some of the children of the original homeowners, who built this Better Homes & Garden floor plan as their dream home. Follow along as we make updates to the home, big and small, while retaining the original charm and best features of the home.

1970 home renovation

making progress & more on tinted primers

The crew finished the wallpaper and glue removal and the priming on Monday, so then it was time for us to get to work. So, last week was all about painting and priming and, since I’m trying to pace myself, that will continue into this week. The crew did a good job stripping the wallpaper and did an excellent job of priming the dining room. Still, I think they got a bit antsy to finish the job on the last day and the details of the job ended up being a bit disappointing given it was done by professional painters. There were drips, bits of paper stuck in the primer or painted over, and specks of paint on the floor. They were not supposed to paint the doors and trim in the hallway, but they threw that in as a bonus, and, unfortunately, it was poorly done. They used a

January 30, 2023 30 Comments

1970 home renovation

the paint colors I selected | decorating

Several people have been asking, so let’s talk paint colors and which ones I selected for our house. I didn’t feel much urgency for selecting colors since I had so much wallpaper to strip, but now that the job is completed, I am ready to get rolling. It was nice to have that unhurried time, though, so I could firmly make my choices. Paint is one of the most cost-effective ways to transform and update a room, but it still costs money and it still takes time and energy. You want to get it right if you can! After living with paint swatches for a while (you can read about my paint swatches HERE), I selected Farrow & Ball’s Card Room Green for the living room. Truth be told, that was the color I had in my mind the whole time, but I needed to live with it a bit,

January 25, 2023 45 Comments

1970 home renovation

tips I learned from the pros stripping wallpaper

I told you I would only write a couple more posts about stripping wallpaper, so let’s just get one out of the way. This post is prompted by the people asking if I snooped and picked up some tips from the pros who were stripping off our wallpaper and glue. The bad news is that they didn’t have some magic product or technique that made the paper and glue magically fall off. It was still messy, laborious, tedious, and challenging just as it has been for me and every other human who has had the misfortune of having to strip wallpaper. There is just no way around it. I did pick up a few things, though, that I thought I would pass on. If you missed it, you can read how my mom and I removed the wallpaper glue in the primary bedroom HERE. We’ve since been using a steamer

January 24, 2023 30 Comments

1970 home renovation

making trades | 1970s home renovation

As I have been working on stripping wallpaper with my one-tank-a-day method, Jeff has been questioning why I don’t get a quote on having the work done. The steamer would be heating up, he would suggest it, and I would bristle. It’s not that I didn’t want to have the work done while I was doing things that were more interesting, exciting, fun, and NOT scrubbing off wallpaper glue, but, tedious as it was, it was something I could do myself. We were already having to hire out so many things that were beyond our capabilities or DIY comfort level, so I felt like if I could do it, I needed to. I was also concerned about the quality of the work. This wallpaper was very easy to remove. It simply peeled off in all but two rooms and below the chair rail in the kitchen. Removing the wallpaper wasn’t

January 23, 2023 49 Comments

1970 home renovation

new bedroom windows | window world review | 1970 home renovation

This is a non-sponsored review of working with Window World to replace the three windows in our Master Bedroom. Since I wrote this post, we have been repeat customers, and I’m now working with them as a blog sponsor. When we first started our home renovation projects, I felt like we had more than enough saved and dedicated to comfortably do all of the projects we wanted. As I’m sure many of you have experienced in the past, that money can go a lot quicker than you expect. Some projects have come in delightfully under our expectations, but the ones that have been over have been way over. The floors cost about double what we anticipated. And the roof, which we weren’t planning on doing for a few more years, came in about 30% higher than what we expected. All of the little projects, materials, and required tools have also

January 17, 2023 56 Comments

1970 home renovation

the jewelry of the house | grandeur hardware

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Grandeur Hardware. As always all words and opinions expressed are honest and my own. The projects on our house slowed down a little bit over the holidays, but we’re starting to ramp up again with more wallpaper removal, a few new windows, the installation of recessed lights, dining room built-ins, and a kitchen renovation. While there are so many big things to do, we’re also working on some of the little details like sewing and hanging curtains and replacing some rickety old doorknobs with some luxurious solid brass doorknobs by Grandeur Hardware. I was excited about replacing some of the key doorknobs in the house, those to bedrooms and bathrooms, but I underestimated how stunning they would be in person. We have very simple hollow core doors, which we’d eventually like to replace, but just adding a beautiful knob with a classic Carré short

January 12, 2023 21 Comments

1970 home renovation

kitchen cabinet shopping & selections | 1970s home renovation

This is the year of the kitchen makeover and I am so, so excited about it. Every house we have lived in has had a kitchen that was too good to completely redo. We’ve always been fortunate to have solid cabinets, a great layout, and good bones, so I have always focused my attention on cosmetic changes. I was ready to gut a kitchen, though, and design one from scratch with what I choose. This 50-year-old kitchen gives me the opportunity to go kitchen cabinet shopping for the first time ever. Let me say, any room that is as hard-working as a kitchen and lasts for 50 years was well done. These cabinets are solid wood from the back to the sides to the shelves and they are still sturdy. But, the kitchen is getting tired. Most of the drawers on broken or on their last leg. The finish on

January 3, 2023 46 Comments

1970 home renovation

antique step-back hutch & breakfast nook

The kitchen will be our next big project in the house and I can’t wait to tackle this space. As I’ve shared before, it’s a bit of an awkward room that is sort of a U-shape. One side of the U is a hallway that leads to the pantry (the door to the right in the photo below), the foyer, and opens into a kitchen breakfast nook. In the little hallway to the pantry, I put the antique step-back hutch that I purchased last summer at Gold Rush Days in Minnesota. I bought the piece for the basement and never really did much with it. It was a piece I wanted to keep for a few reasons. First of all, it has a small footprint but offers a lot of storage. Second, I didn’t really have the chance to enjoy it, so I wasn’t ready to let go of it

November 23, 2022 16 Comments

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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