See, this is our first home and we got it at a steal when the market was low. We bought it knowing we weren't planning on staying forever but, we want it to last until Emma is going into middle school. The house was already in great shape and had wonderful upgrades. Paint colors aside, and those weren't even offensive, there were very few things I wanted to change.
Now we've been here almost 4 years and I still love our little home but I have made a few changes. I haven't even tackled all the paint changes and truly the only 2 rooms that are really finished and I love everything about are Emmas room and the guest room. The kitchen and the master are both not far from total completion and Eli's room is done but Im not counting it because he will soon need a big boy room. Anyway, this is not really about a home tour but I wanted to show you some quick before and after shots before I show you the hallway project.
Please be forgiving. Some or many of these were taken before I ever knew I was going to be writing a blog. Several were taken on my phone because I am awful about running in and getting my camera in the middle of a project. Some were just before I had my wonderful Canon 40D. And the hallway, well its a long, narrow, dark hallway. I just am not that good of a photographer to know how to overcome that. So with that little disclaimer out there. Here we go...
Our front yard has come a LONG LONG way in 4 years. Before it was our it was mostly flower bed. The native "low maintenance" kind. Let me just say this, its not for me. I think it looks over grown and...uninviting. This first picture is when we first were buying the house. We came for a second showing and brought a camera. Thats my baby girl in the car seat.
We took out the flowerbed you can barely see to the left, the first year. Then we took out the big main one you are looking at now around February 2 years later. Then I scored some free sod on craigslist and we laid it down. The bottom pic is our yard before it got too hot and after we watered, a lot.
We also added a back screened in porch (I'll show that off in another post) which meant tearing out our tiny back deck. I wanted to salvage it and make it into a front deck. That area up by the house was always shaded and got a ton of run off in the rain. So it was always wet and hard to grow anything.
We tore apart the other deck and built this one all the same day. We had just finished in the bottom picture. I think I may add a rail some day...opinions on that? I really do want them!
By the time summer was in full swing so was my desire to do more, more, more! In an attempt to satisfy the need to repaint or remodel something I did this little number.
Wow, the two different angles make this picture really hard for me to look at. Anyway, I loved the red pop from the mailbox but couldn't stop there. So I decided to paint the door too. This was all just spray paint by the way. The door still needs another coat but it got too hot here in Texas and I didn't want to air condition the neighborhood anymore so I put it off, and am still putting it off. Haha.
Well at this point I planned on showing you the before and after kitchen project but I would have to hook up to my external hard drive and bedtime is proving to be WWIII with Sweet Emma tonight so its on to the main event.
No matter how much I tell myself not to over improve or invest to much in this house I cannot help but want to. I like to think of it as practice for the next one, in which we plan to stay until retirement (we hope!) But I say this foyer redo on pinterest, haha yes again, and she made it look so easy. I just had to give it a try. Our entry already has some weird wall treatment and our bathrooms have tile about halfway up the wall. That left only the hallway. I'd been meaning to paint it anyway. It was a weird yellow and too warm for our house. There isn't a lot of natural light in our house especially since we added the screened in porch. So I feel like warm colors make it to dark for me.
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| Before |
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| Yes even the baseboards were yellow |
First I measured the length of each wall. Then I determined the spacing. To be perfectly honest on the shorter walls we just centered the board. The measurements were so close to that of the only long wall, I felt like that was the best way to do it. Turns out it was. I knew the 1x4s came in 8ft pieces so for the sake of convenience in figuring how many boards I needed, I decided I would make my top board be 4 ft from the bottom. If you do this do not think you wont need to measure your cuts, you will. Also consider light switch heights or whatever else may be on the walls. We had our thermostat and the return air vent we had to work with. You may want to see if you can find a thinner board because a 1x4 will stick out from you door frames. Whatever you get, make sure they are flat and straight. Now, if you have nice baseboards, obviously I do not, you may want to skip that little piece of shoe molding we put at the bottom. However, if you have ugly baseboards read this inspiration post from HI Sugarplum. I came across it when I was doing Emma's room and thought maybe I could use it on the baseboards. Turns out I am not the only one because I later found it on The House Of Smiths blog. I was originally going to stop there but figured, what they hay, lets combine them.
Second level and hand the boards. We cut all the bottoms at a 45 degree angle so the overlap wouldn't be as noticeable. We used very long staples to hang them and came back and screwed the top board to the studs in the wall. Also, we did not cut the corners at a 45 because I knew I was going to paint and fill and you wouldn't be able to tell.
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| Angle cut looking eye level |
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| More of how you actually see it when you walk down the hall |
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I know I didn't give you a before of this angle but trust me, it looked the same. Anyway here is where the boards have gone up and no painting had been done. Honeslty, this is where I was having second thoughts. I was concerned that our walls had too much texture or that it was going to look like a bunch of boards we stuck to the wall. I could see it when we went to sell "Why did they hang these boards on the wall." But I kept on trucking, really it was a little late for all that.
Third It took a lot of caulking and filling. I filled all the nail holes and all the gaps between board and board then between the boards and the wall. I find that caulk is easier to work with until you get the hole almost level. Also I keep wet paper towels with me and as I apply it, I use them to smooth the caulk. If this isn't making sense it will when you start doing it. It took about 3 applications and letting dry then one final sanding before everything was filled.
Finally paint and decorate. I used a semi-gloss off white color from Lowes on the bottom and scored a $4 light tannish, mocha "mis-tint" color at Walmart on top. I always check mis-tints because I am usually not too picky unless its a bedroom. Its not near as dark as it looks in pictures.
So there you have it, my hall makeover.
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