Project: Dining Room paint preparation

Life is good. I'm sitting on the porch in my rocking chair, feet propped up on a cooler, got a 5-gallon bucket turned upside-down for a side table and I am having myself a little frozen lime margarita as I write to all you pretty folks. Life is pretty good I'd say, Happy Friday everybody!

Nathan and I had Mom out for supper tonight and she stayed to help tackle Step 1 of our dining room makeover. We moved everything out of the dining room into our newly cleaned out office. Here are some pictures to show the nice blank canvas of a room.

The trim is all so pretty because it is original to the house. Unfortunately, it has about 5 or more coats of paint on it, giving in a little bit of a waxy/gunky appearance.

Unfortunately the water pipes and radiator have to stay, but I'm looking on the bright side and appreciating the original character of the home and trying to embrace it in someway.

Any ideas on what to do with the water pipes and radiator?

Here is a good shot of the ceiling fan, with one working bulb.

Mom removing the antique phone.

This is what was all left underneath. Seafoam green painted wallpaper with about 5 layers of different wallpaper underneath.

Check out these layers!

I used a spackling tool (forgive me for not knowing the proper name) to scrap the layers away, also using a wet rag to moisten it and loosen it up a bit. It eventually all came off.

Mom's spackling job.

This shows how the kitchen, dining room and office are all connected in the space.

 We actually only have one spot on the ceiling that is uneven and bubbling. I'm not sure how we will tackle this problem, but I would like to get it fixed the right way, so it doesn't chip and crumble later.

I took this picture at an odd angle, but the walls are on the left and top and the ceiling is on the right with the lightly yellowed spot. I'm assuming that spot is water damage, otherwise I am not sure.

So there's the progress on the dining room thus far. May do some accessory shopping tomorrow, including finding some drapes! Yippee!

I will post if I do.

Here is an updated dining room to-do list. We have one thing crossed off...WooHoo!

Dining Room total to-do list

1. Spackle and repair walls where nail holes are, old phone is and door knob hole.

2. Sand down walls and trim.

3. Remove baseboards (job for Nathan)
4. Paint ceiling a lighter version of wall (or darker possibly...hmm)
5. Paint walls a warm taupe-gray
6. Paint trim including the unistalled pieces. (We can touch them up after they are put in.)
7. Reinstall window trim and put up new pine baseboards
8. Install a ceiling medallion that surrounds the base of the light fixture. (I'll figure out the proper name for that.)
9. Replace ceiling fan with an oil rubbed bronze/wrought iron fixture, that Nathan and I both like(there's the challenge.)
10. Put up drapery rod in a matching finish to the light fixture.
11. Find a large-scale pattern floor-length drapes for the window, like these from Target.
12. Remove carpet and replace with an engineered hardwood.

I will accomplish Step 2 this weekend and hope for some progress on Step 3 and 11. 

Have a great weekend everybody!