Sunday, September 03, 2006

Lazy Sundays..

Sunday...
Sleeping in, long morning coffee sessions, kids in pyjama's, reading all pages of Saturdays paper (no sunday papers here in Holland), breakfast slowly maturing in brunch, walk on the beach/woods, visiting friends for drinks and chats, watching some tv, boring serene long hours...
No way!! Look at this and remind me please, what does Sunday look like? No preppy clothes, no make-up, no soft boiled eggs for breakfast, no papers, yes for the bored kids. Today we were ripping out the carpet, tearing off wallpaper, attacking the steps with hair dryer and stopping knife, sponging the walls with warm soapy water to get rid of the last wall paper and sanding, sanding, sanding. I. Hate. Carpet. GLUE!!
I forgot to take a "before" photo but here you can see a detail in the top left corner. That was the staircase...before. All dark brown you see here was once covered in -once- beautiful sand/corn coloured carpet. The walls were wall papered in the same shade. But what the heck was I thinking with three boys (and all their friends)? Yep. I was not. Thinking I mean. Soooooo...the plan is......covering the steps of the stairs and the first floor (or is that the second floor in US-speak? confusing!) with wood ("vintage oak" is what it is called). The sides of the steps needs painting and we uncovered the panelling on the walls and that should be painted too. And the handrail but that is something the Husband is not aware of....yet.
Anyways...I took a 20 minute break and hurried some breakfast raisin muffins in the oven. I figured we needed something warm and sweet. Recipe will follow some time later..

4 comments:

  1. You really suckered me in on that one! Home repair is such a joy. I was painting baseboard today!
    Muffins look really great!!!

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  2. Wordt al moe als ik dit zie....
    Wens je heel veel sterkte!!! And keep on reminding: It will become very beautiful.......one day...if you'll survive all this!

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  3. Eeek! I feel your pain. I decided a few months ago that we would just strip all the brown paint off the door frames (the brown was not my choice, it was there already!) and repaint them cream. Hah. It's now six months later and they are half stripped and they look terrible.

    As a tip for getting rid of the carpet glue - have you tried a heat gun? They are more effective than a hairdryer and only cost about 30 euros at the Praxis. We bought one for stripping the paint and it works wonderfully. Are you using laminate on the stairs? We have a limed oak one through our whole apartment and its very nice.

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  4. I agree you need something comforting and sweet. Oh my. This reminds me very much of what I have seen from Tanna's photos lately and what I "want" to do next spring. I agree with your I-do-NOT-want-carpets attitude. And believe me, with the puppy-to-be in your household you will be much happier to have none (I do not mean NO dog but I mean NO carpet). Carpets always remind our little friends of GRASS.

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