House Chronicles

Things are moving along quickly at our house! On Saturday, I went over there with a spray bottle and some Snuggle and went to town on the wallpaper in the dining room. Everyone had warned me removing wallpaper is the WORST, but I actually found the removal of the top half super satisfying. The bottom half...um. You'll see.

Following the wisdom of the Internet, I created a mixture of half hot water and half fabric softener. I spritzed it on the top layer of the wallpaper first, let it sit a few minutes, and then pulled from a corner to take off each panel of paper. Sometimes this worked amazingly well, sometimes it was a little more tedious, but I can't recommend this method enough if you have paper wallpaper (as opposed to vinyl).

After I tore off my first sheet, I was greeted by this patchy mess of backing paper. I then spritzed that with my fabric softener mixture, waited a little bit, and then got to work peeling it off. It comes off in amazingly large strips or — if you're really lucky — entire sheets!

Sometimes I would spritz and be greeted by these really delightful air pockets, which meant it was TOTALLY WORKING.

After four hours, I had accumulated this trail of wallpaper dead and it was SO rewarding.

And then I tried to tackle the bottom half of the walls. And lo and behold, underneath the (MUCH TOUGHER) wallpaper, the walls were completely different: textured and blue, like clouds. Unfortunately, the backing paper was really stuck to this mess and with Sean's help, we finished peeling off the last little bit after four additional hours.

Which meant it took a total of 8 hours to remove all the wallpaper. Completely worth it!

About that textured on the wall: unfortunately, more than half the walls in the house have been texturized. It's entirely possible to remove wall texture with a lot of water, diligent scraping, skim coating and sanding, but on we lack the time, DIY know-how or resolve to really tackle that. Maybe someday if it's really driving me crazy, we can try, but for now the plan is to paint the texture walls a nice flat finish and call it a day.

On Monday, we painted the molding in the den and it made SUCH a difference. I know it's hard to tell, but it makes the ceilings look taller and really makes the beams pop.

We will be painting the baseboard, too, but it will have to be after the hardwood floors are installed, which starts this week! It's amazing to have gotten some of these projects done already, but I've learned in my few weeks of homeownership that nothing is EVER done. Every time I walk through a room, I see to-do lists. But it's okay...that's the beauty of it right?

Hoarders Confessional

 Are we ready for truth time? TRUTH TIME: This is what my guest room closet has looked like basically since we moved in. I just kept tossing stuff on the pile like a sitcom character. But something snapped over Memorial Day weekend and I decided something had to give, so I did something unthinkable: I spent two weekends cleaning ALL of the closets in our apartment. And, because I'm a future episode of Hoarders waiting to happen, I unearthed a few treasures.

Like this reclaimed wood silhouette of Lincoln I bought Sean for Christmas, made by the wonderfully talented John Birdsong. Sean was like, "Um...what?" so I temporarily stuffed the 16th president in the closet until I could figure out my next move. Six months later, I pulled old Honest Abe out and popped him right on the wall of Sean's bathroom. Now he can feel like Abe's judging him while he pees. So THERE!

I also found these amber glass Austrian candlesticks I had bought many moons ago and randomly stashed in the closet. They are so pretty! My closets are apparently treasure troves.

So this has nothing to do with the closets, but I also finally set out some of my favorite Ireland souvenirs: rocks from Inch Beach in County Kerry. Sean also thought I was crazy for insisting on bringing these home, but I think they're beautiful and will look great on some mantel someday. At some point, I'm going to paint the location where I picked them up on the bottom. And hopefully continue the tradition when I go to other beaches!

Isn't this one cray in the best way possible? Loves it.

But back to the closet treasures. Hoarding runs in the family. Over Christmas, I asked my mom if we could start going through her hope chest, otherwise known as my childhood time capsule. She saved EVERYTHING from my childhood, including an entire bag of party hats from my second birthday. It's a little excessive, but sometimes it yields awesomeness. In a bag of kindergarten projects, we found this silhouette of me that neither of us remembered having...it was stuck to crumpled pink construction paper, but seemed salvageable.

 Of course I brought it home and stuck it in the closet, but this weekend, I finally bought a frame and stuck it to the white piece of paper that came with the frame, using tape just in case I change my mind and want to use a different background. I think it could be great on a little bit of patterned paper or burlap.

And, voila! A tidier closet I can actually enter when necessary. Cleaning is secretly awesome. Maybe I should do it more?

Repairing Tarnished Brass

You might recall that I picked up this little brass bowl at a yard sale for $1 a couple weeks ago. When I picked it up, I loved the shape and thought it would make a great vase for flowers, decorative item or jewelry holder. But as you can see, it was pretty badly tarnished, nearly black in person, and the woman who was selling it took a look at it and frowned before saying "I'll give it to you for a dollar."

The inside color is gorgeous, and my hopes were to clean it up so the outside looked just as good. Let's just say we ALMOST got there.

I did a little internet snooping around and came up with a plan of action that I would recommend if you have any interest in fixing up tarnished brass (which is super trendy right now; every single damn shirt I've bought this year has brass beads).

First, wash thoroughly in hot soapy water. Dry completely. This is what the bowl looked after that process; a little better, but not quite there.

Then, create a paste out of vinegar, salt and flour.

Apply the paste to the bowl like you're icing a cake and let it sit for about an hour.

Rinse off the paste and dry thoroughly again. Looking much better, isn't it?

Sprinkle salt on half of a lemon and rub the lemon into the sides of the bowl. This is a kind of natural scrub that also works wonders for your skin! lol.

The finished product (for now!). Seriously, I was really impressed with how much better it looked. It still looks a little scratched up and tarnished, but I think that gives it some Old World-charm. I think I might try one more round of paste at a later date, but I'm pretty happy with the results.

I should note that this was also my first foray into Heloise-style domesticity. I used to edit the Hints from Heloise column every week and if I learned anything, it's that the solution to everything is vinegar.

Climbing the Laundry Mountain

This is a picture of my weekend. So. Much. Laundry.

We've talked about this before, but if there is one major area in which I'm not remotely domesticated, it's laundry. I don't:

• Do it every week, even though I have a washer and dryer.
• Hang up my clean clothes.
• Put my dirty clothes in the hamper.
• Change my sheets as quickly as I should.

It's kind of a problem. I spent ALL of Sunday doing laundry and when I say all, I mean ALL. I washed everything in the house: clothes, sheets, towels, rugs, dish towels. It was kind of ridiculous. My dryer literally sighed during that last load.

So my point is, what little tricks do you guys use to keep your dirty clothes in check? Any super-secret good tips? I could use them.

Undomesticated, indeed

This has been a week of domestic disasters at the Kennedy Compound, hence the sporatic posting. Between working long hours, entertaining, attending birthday parties, getting sucked into stupid Twilight books, I've sort of fallen off the wagon of neatness. Does that ever happen to you guys?

Here's the evidence of why this week, I'm just undomesticated. Not even pretending to be.

• For the first time in my life, I ruined the laundry. We had so many loads and so much stuff going on, that I forgot a load and left it in the washer. It was a load of whites and once they got through the dryer, I was horrified to discover blue spots on nearly everything in the load. There wasn't anything blue in the entire load, so my only guess is that the blue dye in the detergent congealed and manifested itself into ugly splotches. And the worst part is, that happened on Sunday and I've been so exhausted all week I haven't gotten to fixing it yet. Does anyone have a suggestion? Should I hit it with some Spray-N-Wash?
• Sean broke my mirror and there are still tiny little microscopic bits of glass in the carpet that only I can see.
• I dropped my cell phone in the toilet. I carried it in there so that the alarm wouldn't bother Sean and after washing my face, I reached for the towel and SPLAT! the cell phone plopped into the water. I started screaming "DISASTERS! OH NO! NO NO NO!" but it was too late. The damage was done. The screen literally turned white. I only got a replacement phone today, so for half the week, I was incommunicado.
• Last night I got home and was so hungry, I figured I'd have a snack of popcorn before I made dinner. I ate way too much, though, and by dinner time I wasn't hungry, which meant by midnight, I was starving and had a hunger headache. FAIL.
• I still have laundry waiting to be folded. From Sunday. Oy.
• I have to get my hair cut desperately. I also have to get my car inspected. Dreading that...

Needless to say, I haven't been productive this week anywhere but work. I'm so exhausted when I get home, faint from hunger and sitting in traffic for an hour, that all I want to do is sit and read. How do the rest of you have the get up-and-go to exercise? I am in awe, friends.

hot dog!

Lunch, by Sean. Excuse the crappy cell phone picture. Somewhere in this apartment is my camera battery charger. I'm hoping to find it by 2011.

Sean made Sabrett's hot dogs (the greatest of frankenfurters) and waffle fries. He tried to convince me he had no idea what he was doing; he held up a sauce pan and was like, "I don't think the extra long dogs will fit in here." I didn't realize he was kidding; I can be a little slow on the uptake.

Neither of us have mastered this oven yet. Both of us cooked the fries until they were golden brown and both of us were dismayed to find they were cool by the time we sat down to eat. I suppose we're supposed to keep them warm or something? Seriously, what gives? I'll take suggestions.

Also, to explain about my dishwasher ignorance: I didn't have a dishwasher for 90% of my life, including childhood, so I seriously have no idea what goes in and what stays out. So far, nothing has been destroyed, so I guess that's good. I think that with only two of us eating, however, it's going to take weeks to fill it enough to make it worth running a load.