Master Suite Makeover: Part 1

Hey y'all! It's Sarah again. (Although I'm pretty sure you could tell from the Texas that has found it's way into my speech. Yes, I do get poked fun at on a regular basis. As in, every time I say, "Y'all." Which is a lot. Love y'all too Beth and Rebecca!! :P) 

This post is the beginning in the documentation of a long, arduous journey (aka, "home improvement project") that is still a work in progress as we speak. (Or as I type... and you read... if we want to get technical about this.) This time, we're tackling the master bedroom and bathroom!

DUH DUH DUH!!

Now that my random, dramatic tune has you excited about long, arduous journeys in a bathroom, let's get started!

*Disclaimer* This post contains disturbing images of not one, but three kinds of offensive wallpaper. (And the mention of quite a few more.) Do not read late at night, while home alone, or right before you go to bed. If you are easily frightened or extremely sensitive to poor decorating decisions, this post will make you want to crawl under a rock. 

This is the bathroom! Our current house is the first one we have actually gotten to paint, decorate, and make our own in about 25 years. While I do hate the wallpaper that the lovely *cough* previous owners did not take down for 16 years, it has given us very good motivation to get the home improvement ball rolling. (That, and Aunt Mary introducing us to her beloved steamer. It has powers, my friends.) We've completed taking down horrendous wallpaper/painting the kitchen, office, family room, powder room, sun room, and all three of the benevolent daughters' *wink* rooms. So it was only a matter of time before we got to the parental units' quarters, and their trip to Canada a couple weeks ago gave us the perfect opportunity to get construction underway.

Now, the image above does not give you a complete picture of the weirdness of this wallpaper. From far away, it's not too bad.  

 Then, you get closer.

(The demon border.)

 (The main course.)

I mean, seriously, what is this stuff? Not only do the two not match at all, the border looks like it had an identity crisis x 5 and the main wallpaper looks like veins. Or neurons. It reminds me of the movie, "War Of The Worlds." (Which dealt with said veins, is really creepy, and gave me nightmares... if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. I'll spare the rest of you who haven't a description. You're welcome.)

This wasn't the only nightmare inducing wallpaper around the house though.

 This lovely specimen could be found all over OUR bathroom. The shower curtain valence matched. 

Two things. One, shower curtain valences are weird. Second, there is a fish in a party hat smoking a pipe in the upper right hand corner. I tried to come up with a good explanation for that fish. And an explanation on why someone thought this wallpaper would be a good choice to pay money for and put on a wall. Ever.

I failed to come up with a reason on both counts.

Ah, memories.

Anyway, back to the current project.

This is the magical steamer Aunt Mary is lending us until we get our wallpaper problem under control.

This problem included;

1. Watercolor flowers in the sun room.

2. Horses in the powder room.

3. Fish, in party hats, smoking underwater, in the girls' bathroom. (See image above.)

4. Dogs and cats playing baseball, basketball, and soccer in Rebecca's bedroom. (Yes, all three.)

5. More watercolor flowers and creepy fairies in my bedroom. (The fairies were in a border above the chair rail, so they were the first thing I saw every morning. I'm scarred.)

6. The demon border and veins I just took down in the parents' bathroom.

Now, that was just the first and second floors. Sub- level is another story. Our basement is currently sporting;

1. A beach scene border with seersucker blue stripes underneath in the exercise room.

2. A print in the bathroom of conquistadors on horses hunting lions, tigers, and bears. (Oh my.)

3. A border of the same conquistador wallpaper in the guest bedroom.

I'm completely confused.

But I digress.

Here is the start of me steaming! (It's a very exciting action shot, I know.)

This was the first strip I took down...

 (The carnage.)

 ...And this is where I started to cry. 

 Good thing its a bathroom.

I started crying for a couple reasons. The previous wallpaper we encountered in this house fell into two categories. The first (the watercolor flowers in the sun room) had a sticky back that came off cleanly even when the magical steamer was applied for just a few seconds. Angels sang, the heavens opened, and I'm pretty sure all the stars aligned just for good measure.

Then we got to the other rooms.

These weren't bad, they just had two layers; a top, vinyl-y layer that had the offensive pattern and a paper backing that was left behind after steaming the vinyl-y layer off. It wasn't really a problem, you just had to steam the paper backing again and scrape it off with a putty knife. In my naivete, I thought the wallpaper in the bathroom would be the sticky back kind because the little bit I tested (aka it was already coming off) pulled back easily. But I was wrong.

Oh boy, was I wrong.

This wallpaper not only had a paper backing, it had literally melded with the wall. Steaming got most of it off, but certain areas (the entire room) tore the actual wall if you tried to take it down.

 Cue the crying.

 The identity confused border was even worse. Wallpaper clearly not meant for a humid room with temperature fluctuations does strange things after almost 20 years. The backing, glue, and wall pretty much had a party and congealed into one substance. Weirdest... party... ever.  So I just had to leave the border backing on most of the walls. It was pretty smooth, but just bubbled because steam found its way behind it. And it still wouldn't come off without tearing the wall. Hence, why I call it the, "demon border." Cue more crying.

Eventually, however, this is what it looked like.

Wallpaper is not nice. It steals your soul, makes you cry (noted), and takes your first born child. (I guess it's a good thing I'm the middle sister.) And makes you smell like wallpaper glue, but that's just a bonus.

 (The aftermath.)

The next stages were spackling, sanding, and taping for paint.

 Spackle...

 Spackle...

 And more spackle. 

(I bet the word, "spackle," looks funny now how, huh?)

 We went though a lot of spackle.

And a lot of my sanity. 

But this insanely long detailed post is now finito! Part 2 will feature painting, staining, and hopefully some new mirrors and lights! I know. I'm sad the brass boxes with exposed bulbs are gone too. *sigh* Oh well. :P

One last word of caution; Stay away from wallpaper as much as humanly possible. Coming into contact with or having to remove wallpaper can include side effects such as; 

1. Nightmares. 

2. Breaking out in a cold sweat when you walk into the offending room.

3. Running away in screaming terror at the sight of a wall that needs to be spackled.

4. The need to do bodily harm to designers on HGTV who decide to put up wallpaper in a poor,

unfortunate soul's home.

5. An insatiable desire to take a steamer and putty knife to everything in sight.

(Not that I've had personal experience with any of these... *cough* )

Part 2 coming soon! :)

Tea latte

My office got a new coffee machine a few months ago after one of our old ones died.  This is a Flavia machine and it uses packets.  You know how Keurig machines have those cups that you pop in and they make a cup of coffee?  Well this machine does the same thing but instead of popping in a cup, you pop in a pouch.

I don't even like coffee.  The only reason I even use the coffee machine is for hot water for oatmeal and tea.

The interesting thing about this machine, though, is that it has a creamy packet.  That's all the packet is, it's a creamer made of milk powder and stuff.  Because people like things like tea lattes and they are made with tea and creamer.  

So after a few searches on the internet I figured I would try this tea latte thing out.  Here's how I make it:

1.  Put the creamer packet into the machine and choose "tea latte."  It will fill up half the mug and the water will jet the water into the creamy mixture hard enough to make the foam on top.

2.  Remove the mug and put a different cup on the filling station with an individual bag of green tea in the mug.  Fill the mug with hot water to make a half glass of green tea.  (The reason I have to do this step is because my office doesn't have a green tea packet so I have to make my own the old fashioned way).

3.  Once the green tea bag has steeped for a few minutes, add honey because it's healthier than sugar and also because the creamer just makes the tea creamy and not sweet, and I like sweet things.  Easpecially sweet tea.

4.  Pour the green tea into the mug with the creamy, foamy mixture and mix.  It won't pop the foam for reasons unknown to me.

5.  And enjoy!

See?  Foamy top.

And creamy tea.  It's pretty yummy.  I'm glad I tried it.  It took me about a week to work up the courage and I tried it at lunch so if it went horribly wrong no one would be around to give me weird looks, but it all turned out well! 

<3 Running

We love running.

Can you tell?

We actually don't, but apparently anyone driving by thinks we do.

Maybe we do love running subconsciously (doubtful).  I do love what running does for making me feel better in my jeans.

Mine is the biggest heart of all though ;)

Recently

So I've just been taking some random pictures on my phone.  Mainly I take pictures of things so I can send them in text messages to people to show them what I'm seeing or doing.  What I'm trying to say is I have a lot of pictures in my phone.  So I thought I'd share some of the pictures that I have so you can see what I've been up to!  Because I know you care about my life.  Mainly because I'm telling myself that someone does and will find these pictures interesting too ;)  

Hey at least I included pictures.  I could have just written about my life.  And put you all to sleep.  Let's see, my life goes something like:

Wake up late

Get out the door to go to work

Get to work

Look at the computer

Check the weather

Start some work

Make some tea

Do more work

Eat breakfast

Do more work

Oh wait sorry, this isn't a post about my day at work.

On to pictures!

Well maybe I'll start with a few pictures from work.  Since I don't stare at a computer all day.  Just in case you were worried.

This is an air conditioning unit.  This one is in a computer room.  Part of my job is sizing these units.  Exciting I know (hint: sarcasm).  But I do enjoy my job, I find it interesting.

 

This picture is a little hard to see, but that is the school across the street from my office that is being renovated over the summer.  The school isn't important.  What is important is the temporary power pole in the middle of the picture.  the string looking thing on the top right are the wires connecting it to the main power poles lining the street.  The only reason this is at all interesting and the only reason I'm talking about it is because a car got in an accident and ran into this flimsy little temporary pole knocking out power to my building so I had a snow day in the middle of the summer last two weeks ago!  It was a very nice and needed break.

 This is our first blooming sunflower of the summer.  It's pretty.

A friend posted this on facebook.  I thought it was incredibly amusing :D

This is a fabric swatch that my mom is holding.  We're taking a picture of it's name so we can remember it when we go back.  We're re-doing their bathroom and bedroom this year.  The bathroom wall color is this color so this fabric would be incorporated as a border on the curtains in the bedroom.  Because you can't have green curtains next to green walls.  Just a friendly tip from your resident interior designer.  You're welcome.

And these?  These gorgeous babies?  These absolutely gorgeous, drop dead amazingly spectacular earrings?  Yeah they're mine.  And I've totally already worn them to a friends birthday party this weekend.  They're absolutely perfect for me and I'm in love :)

Right now I'm watching the Olympics.  How you say?  They did end on Sunday and I almost cried.  I did tear up, no kidding.  I really, really, REALLY enjoyed watching the Olympic this year.  I watched them as soon as I got home from work, I stayed up late to watch prime time at night, the tv was on constantly every day of the weekend.  And  NBC is reshowing the swimming and track and gymnastics events all this week.  It's easing my withdrawal.  A little.  I still miss them.

Canada

So Mom and Dad have officially invaded Canada!  Haha watch out world they've been let loose and who knows what sorts of trouble they'll get into :)

But them being in Canada by themselves means that we're all by ourselves at home . . . hahahahhahah (insert evil, maniacal laughter here)!

Ok well we're not going to party . . . or at least we haven't yet ;)

Here's a look at what we are actually doing.

 There has been a lot of this:

Sarah on facebook, itunes, skype, internet, etc, etc etc

 

And a lot of this:

Rebecca in her cave.  Lots of talking to her door.

And not of lot of this:

We're leaving them all rinsed and neatly stacked on the side of the sink for Dad to take care of when he gets home.  Along with the huge spider on the porch and the weird dead beetle in the basement . . .

Or this:

Hopefully there will be a lot less of this:

Devil wall paper border.

By doing more of this:

Lots of steaming.

We've been making lots of dinners:

My Easter egg hunt present is awesome and of course I'm amazing by using it :)

Quiche.

Watching a lot of Olympics:

Friends with benefits (what my shirt says).  Go USA!

Getting a pretty decent amount of rain (and rainbows):

On the way to Becca's soccer practice (her picture taking skills since she won't let me touch my phone in the car).

And having random power outages at work that let me stay home and enjoy this:

Lovely deck (huge spider has mysteriously disappeared, dad lucked out, and now I have leverage over Becca where I can tell her I put it in a jar and will let it loose in her room if she misbehaves ;) I'm gonna be such a good mom!)

But while we've been enjoying our life here, in Canada Mom and dad are staying at places like this:

Pretty

Walking around towns like this:

We're (they're) not in Kansas anymore

Sailing in harbors like this:

Sigh

Eating at places like this:

No, they did not eat the escargot, but they thought about it.

Contemplating cars like these:

Dad wants and RV.  Mom will NEVER own an RV.  So It's a moot point.

Taking 3.5hr hikes in places like these:

Jealousy

Oh and meeting Royalty.  

So they stayed at the same resort that Wills and Kate stayed at when they visited Prince Edward Island.  Props to Dad for making that reservation!

I'll let you decide who got the better end of the deal . . .