mad maison

Yes, there’s plenty of work associated with renovating an old family home. We spend most of our time here at mad maison discussing those various challenges. Of course, there are warm and fuzzy moments as well. For example, imagine you’re working on a beautiful Saturday afternoon painting your living room. You’re working in front of the window that you’ve opened to ensure quick drying time. As you gaze out the window for a moment you notice something in the driveway of your neighbor. You notice your father’s name carved into the pavement. And you know, many decades ago, long before you were a twinkle in his eye, your young pops was enjoying the same streets and the same home you now occupy. While most of the time I discuss the price of living in a house that has been occupied by my family for over 60 years, there are moments that make me smile and remind there are benefits as well.

My dad's name in the pavement of the driveway next door. Coincidence? I think not.

. . .to the living room. Yes, you know what that means–we’re done painting the living room. I’ve never been so excited to move furniture and unpack boxes in my life. There are still many things to be done in the living room–but those things don’t conflict with uncovering the couch from its plastic shell and moving the TV out of the dining room. What other things, you ask? Here’s what I can think of off the top of my head:

1. Install molding around the fireplace hearth
2. Replace the less-than-charming light fixture.
3. Replace the less-than charming window coverings.
4. Repair the windows. They look good from afar–but two out of the three don’t open and all are in need of help.
5. Patch areas of the doorway where the hinges used to be.
6. Get our area rug cleaned

Tomorrow, however, we won’t do any of those things. Instead, Mike will be uncovering our couch and moving the rest of our living room furniture into the room. Wahoo!

Many living room tasks remain, but the painting is done.

Yup, the ceilings and molding are painted as well

mad is officially DONE priming the living room. To sum up, here’s what we’ve done so far:

1. Laid plastic on the floor.
2. Scraped 1,000 year old, painted over wallpaper off the walls.
3. Removed the old (though not antique), hollow, huge mantle from the fireplace hearth (increasing the width of the room by what feels like five feet).
4. Scrubbed the walls, baseboards, ceiling, and moldings with water/tsp.
5. Re-plastered the wiggly walls to the lath.
6. Spackled the cracks from the wiggly walls and the holes we created to fix the wiggles.
7. Painted the first coat of primer.
8. Spackled all the spots we missed.
9. Sanded all the spackling.
10. Removed the sand-covered plastic.
11. Laid fresh plastic (sans sand) on the floor.
12. Painted the second coat of primer.

So it’s with great excitement that we move on to the painting phase. mad has decided to go for a subtle light brown/taupe for the walls. We’ll make a final decision at the store tomorrow, but there are a few colors that are in the running. It’s hard to not allow the name of the color influence our decision. For while Mike thinks “Broken Arrow” might be a little too pink for his taste, how can one resist painting your walls the same name as a bad John Travolta action movie?

It might be too pink for Mike, but can I really go for "Clay" over "Broken Arrow"?

that with spackling, there is sanding. And when there’s a lot of spackle, there’s a lot of sanding. Today’s post honors Mike, who finished sanding the living room today. And he did it just so mad could have a home with a living room. With this kind of dedication, we may sit on our couch before September!

Res ipsa loquitur

Ahh, sweet progress. This weekend mad applied the first coat of primer to the living room. I know what you’re thinking–first coat? Well, these walls are in pretty rough shape–priming them was the best way to tell what additional spackling needed to be done. Regardless, it does feel less depressing to walk into the room and see white rather than a combination of yellow, green, and don’t even ask. Take a look at the before and (slightly posed) during shots to see for yourself. We have a little more spackling to do (please send your thoughts to Mike who will have to spackle part of the ceiling, yikes), one more coat of primer, and then the painting can begin!

Post Wally's, pre-primer corner of living room

Mike during the prime process; fun was had

welcome to cell block maison

I’ve alluded to the gate on the front of the door. It was installed for reasons I’ve never been sure of–the neighborhood never warranted it. In addition to restricting light and making a lot of noise whenever someone came or went, it really set a non-mad tone for all who approached our door: “go away.” Not to mention that we felt like we were incarcerated.

It took us about 2.5 seconds to decide that it needed to come off. Of course, they call it a security gate for a reason. You can’t remove a gate like this with a screwdriver. Who did we call? The brother-man. Mi hermano is comfortable using all kinds of tools, including scary metal-cutting tools that generate crazy sparks. But with the right tool, it took him only about an hour to get the gate off.

the best door ever

Of course, much like Sean Connery in “The Rock” he had to wear some strange head gear and time his way under the flames just so. Needless to say, we were impressed. And while there’s still much to do (including painting the exterior of the house), getting that gate off has lightened the mood here at mad maison. We’re not sure if we’ll end up replacing the door, but right now we think it is the best door, ever.

our liberator. . . didn't anyone tell him he was already inducted into the mad hall of fame?

sometimes feels like two steps back. Such is the joy of fixing up an old house. Take our new Living Room, for example. After trying multiple methods, mad found that an over-the-counter wallpaper remover has worked best to remove the 1,000 year old wallpaper from our plaster walls. Of course, we’ve quickly realized (both through direct experience and extensive online research) that many folks back in the old days used wallpaper as a literal bandage over imperfect plaster walls. So our original plan to have the living room painted in a few days will have to wait until we receive the magic plaster repair glue. Until then, we’ll wash and spackle those parts of the wall that aren’t popping off the lath (I know, I sound just like someone on “This Old House”). And while the magic spray works wonders on that top layer of wallpaper, when there is more than one layer or ornery adhesive (or mystery substance, as in the case of our hallway), it all comes down to elbow grease. The good news is that getting all that wallpaper off in one little room gave us our first ray of hope that one day, we’ll live in the clean, organized, peaceful environment we had grown so accustomed to in Queens.

finally, a home repair resource that's on mad's side

Mad is back. While initially Mike and Denise were thrilled to have a house free of furniture to complete home improvement tasks in, we’re now happy to announce that our furniture arrived yesterday. There is no experience more sublime than sleeping in your bed, with your sheets, after over three weeks of hotel beds and air mattresses. Today, mad went beyond stripping wallpaper to removing a bunch (and by bunch I mean four) of interior doors on the main level of the house. It immediately opened the house up and made our furniture “fit” the house a little more. In addition, we’ve started the process of removing the intense security gate that my grandparents had installed (it’s a little overkill for the neighborhood). We’ve installed a piece of plexiglass over the large glass opening in the door to diffuse the light, increase privacy, and improve safety sans gate. When I find my camera under the boxes, I’ll share more. To follow up on our previous post, things have improved on the infrastructure front. We now have a fully-functional bathroom with a working shower and toilet, and the electrician has started to improve our power situation with more improvements slated for Tuesday (by which time we should even have a working doorbell). Happy fourth of July for everyone in the states!

The bi-coastal efforts of mad maison continue. I’m happy to report that after months of sorting through over 60 years of my family’s possessions, the main rooms of the house have been cleared of all items by my family. There’s still some furniture in the garage for mad to go through and potentially restore and/or sell, but the floors are empty and ready to be refinished. Even with the existing floors you can easily see the potential of the beautiful Victorian architecture. There will be plenty of work for mad after the floors are done, but things are really starting to shape up.

While not nearly as noteworthy, I’m also happy to report that my assistant and I packed up my NY office today. With my work-from-home days I only have one day left of driving the 40 miles to my NY office!

The emptied living and dining rooms in SF.

The emptied bedrooms upstairs in SF.

Today, while Mike and I were packing a few boxes, my Pops was chipping away at the linoleum problem in San Francisco. Much like wallpaper, it seems my grandparents had a strong penchant for linoleum. While other people can’t resist the warmth of wood, or the durability of tile, my grandfather became enamored with this almost magical invention of Frederick Walton. He even used it to protect the perimeter of his wood floors that he laid carpet on top of.

Unfortunately, much like wallpaper, removing linoleum is a challenging enterprise. Mad has decided to expose the original wood floors throughout the house (most likely douglas fir). Therefore, Denise’s Pops is working diligently on sanding and staining the floors in the living, dining, and bedrooms before we arrive. So while my pops is removing the linoleum “borders” that my grandfather laid in three rooms of the house, the members of mad will be addressing the rest.

We know your thoughts are with us.

samples of the linoleum found throughout the house

While Mike and I are thrilled and excited about this new adventure, there is one thing that gives me a pit in my stomach. . . wallpaper. I didn’t even realize it until presented with the prospect of living there how much wallpaper my grandparents hung throughout the house. Every room save two has wallpaper. In addition, the last time I tried to remove wallpaper from the house I rented in Berkeley I felt like I was trapped in a Charlotte Perkins Gilman story. I’ve been reading all the techniques and methods for removing old wallpaper from plaster walls, but I know this is going to be a huge challenge. So, if you’ve been on the fence, friends of ours, about commenting–now is our official plea. If you have some magic formula, some incantation that will make all that paper melt away, comment away. If not, a good luck wish is equally welcome.

a sampling of the wallpaper throughout the house