Painting, painting, and more painting....

So, before we leave on our big trip, we wanted to mostly finish all our remodeling projects.  The pool and deck - done.  The bathroom - done.  Next we wanted to do the kitchen countertops and floors.  However, first...we needed to paint.  We've always said we wanted to paint the paneling in the living room.  Its soooo dark and dreary and 70's ish.  But it would be a HUGE undertaking.  So we had someone come in and give us a painting estimate.  To paint the paneling in the living room  - $2200.00.  To remove wallpaper and paint the kitchen - $1400.00  Yea.... ummm, no.  So we decided we'd do it ourselves.  Here we go!  First the kitchen.  A smaller space to paint - as we have tons of cabinets, but wallpapered.

The before:

At first, after dealing with removing wallpaper in the bathroom, we thought we could just paint over the wallpaper.  Well, that didn't work so well.  As soon as the paint touched it, it started peeling.  So we peeled it all off with the girls help of course!

Then we painted.  And another layer of wallpaper started coming off.  Huh???

Then we got all THAT off (thinking it was the backing to the wallpaper), started painting again and yet ANOTHER layer of paper started coming off.  What the heck?!?!  We wasted a whole gallon of paint (not kidding) basically used to remove wallpaper after wallpaper after wallpaper.  It was crazy.  But it finally got done.  And it looked soooo much better.  (keep in mind countertops are to be replaced soon)

The after:

Then we started the living room (same color as our kitchen and living room open into each other) - which was "just" painting the panelling.

The before:

Pay no attention to the mess or the table in the entryway - that's our old table we are selling ;)

It was more tedious and much more space but took about the same time.  Do not EVER paint over wallpaper.  EVER.  Lesson learned.  That took FOR-EVER!  The paneling wasn't too bad.  A huge space and we had to do it in segments to move furniture around, but Brad used the roller and I used the brush to do the grains of the paneling and borders.  (of course Brad had to do the tops, as I'm too short :P)  

I am so happy with it - can't believe after all these years of living here we finally have gotten rid of the darkness of our house and there is NO MORE WALLPAPER!  Anywhere.  Woo hoo!!!


The after:

(keep in mind, new floors are coming soon as well and sorry my pics are so dark...it was a bad lighting day)

Since our hall was the only room left white, we went ahead and painted the hall the same color too carrying it over throughout (its a light khaki color...hard to tell in pics)...

Next house update will be countertops!  So excited!!! :)