Keeping my promises

I promised pictures! If you're using Internet Explorer, captions will appear when you mouse-over the pictures. For the more enlightened among you, I've included the captions below the photos as well.




The kitchen was very dark, with cheezy paneling and cheezier faux brick. Hard to clean, and dreary, my wife had decided the day we bought the house that eventually, this would have to go...



This picture shows the faux brick as it encompasses the entire dining area and extends around the wall into the living room.



By far the dirtiest part of the job was the initial stripping. Though not visible from this shot, the archway between the dining area and living room had been curved. My wife decided to square it off to make the area appear more open. In the process of removing the faux brick, some of the drywall panels were damaged, so they were torn down completely.



Our son wants to be a drywaller. What better vote of confidence than to let him practice on our walls? Here, he's being supervised by my brother-in-law, an accomplished do-it-yourself-er in his own right.



Ready to go with the mudding, my wife sports her favourite painting moomoo. This dress has seen more action than most paintball warriors.



Mudding was hard work, and here, she stops to wipe her brow.




Fast forward a few weeks...

Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the painting that proceeded after the drywall was done. My wife had decided to apply stucco paint to give the walls some texture. It turned out to be a marvelous idea. Not only was it not as important to do sanding, but we were able to incorporate some of the imperfections of the brick applique into the finished product, giving that much-sought-after distressed look.




The dining area is much brighter. The phone has been placed on a side shelf (instead of being on the dining table), and the dreary brick and dark paneling has been replaced by a gleaming white surface throughout.



The transition from living room to dining room is much brighter, giving the impression of a larger space. The squared archway looks quite impressive.



The olive green front door was repainted a deep green, more in keeping with the colour scheme of the living room.



Partial view of the dining area, from the vantage point of the front door.



And finally, a view of the kitchen backsplash, formerly faux brick, taken through the archway to the dining area.


That's it! All done and ready for the holidays. Now, my wife can take a well-deserved rest, and I can go about reconnecting all the surround sound equipment. I sure have missed it lately.