Friends! We're approx two weeks into our work, and man, it has been work. The name of the game has been wallpaper removal and drywall repair. This meant lots and lots of fabric softener, water, and ragged fingernails.

In some cases the drywall was in pristine condition, replaced not too long ago. In others, we found buckling and crumbling plaster.

In some places we found the original wallpaper AND the original stencil work that I fully intend to recreate in the colder months when the work slows. 

Throughout the process of scraping off the old to make way for the new, my darling husband and I almost killed one another. Every single day we had a "how can we communicate better" talk that never felt quite right. We were snippy and on-guard and there was no A/C or WiFi and everything was exhausting.

But then, something magical happened. We ended up in another crappy situation (of which there have been many in the past few months) but in this case, we found ourselves faced with a common enemy.

And for the first time in weeks, we were on each other's side. Cole was hyping me up like "go get em' babe!" And I was like "don't NOBODY mess with my house." And next thing we knew, we liked each other again. The effects of a common enemy have been quite long lasting.

So now we sit in our climate controlled, construction zone of a living room, basking the in the glow of our first before/after photos.

Keep in mind, all the woodwork still needs to be cleaned and refinished, so just look at the drywall.

You may notice the photo quality itself is better, and that's because, in the middle of this mess, I had to buy a new phone. I just basically had all this extra money laying around and thought to myself, "what else could I drop some serious cash on?!" *eye roll*

This next one is my favorite, this was Cole's very first time working with drywall, and he had to rip out almost ALL the plaster you see below and patch it with new sheetrock, then mud and create a smooth transition. He did such a good job I'm going to let him do all the drywall from now on!

The next shots are above the stairs as you're walking down. I'd really like to hang a Victorian portrait of our cat Whiskey. If you know anyone who does Victorian cat paintings, holla at your girl.

These are the walls down the steps. They weren't in terrible shape, but we did have to do some minor patch work. Again, I'm stoked to recreate those cool flower things. I'm sure that's the technical term.

And here's the entire front landing!

Obviously, we're not getting any style points but we are clean and down to a blank canvas.

Oh! And if you thought all we did was the front landing, we also patched and painted 3 of the 4 bedrooms AND removed carpet/carpet tacking/staples.

I'm tired.

Sarah Jo

P.S. If you're curious about paint colors, the landing is Universal Khaki and the bedrooms are Escape Gray, both by Sherwin Williams