Ugh. This area is a constant apology area. That area where when people come over and dare to go upstairs, I literally can’t help but say, “Ooh, the landing on the top floor isn’t done yet, obviously, haha,” which is worrisome and annoying. It’s empty on a good day, busy most days, and yet it has so much potential. So this is one of those update posts that most of the world won’t care about, but those who have been following this house closely will understand (and probably even help). Stay tuned to the end for some rarely reported design drama that made me more crazy than I’d like to admit (but it was totally justified).
Last time we showed you the landing:
OG Landing:
The area was big, dark, and full of potential. new skylight Brings in so much light, so that was a real “win”, and then I put up the cutest ticking stripe wallpaper that you literally can’t see on camera (which I guess I could consider a “fail”). We kept the landing floor white because I was going to paint a mural or pattern, but I didn’t do that for three different reasons. Want to hear my excuses?
- Painting even the most trafficked floors while it’s happening is incredibly disruptive. The kids will have to go out for a few days or sleep somewhere else, and listen, when the kids go camping or to the grandparents, painting the floors isn’t exactly what Brian and I want to do at that time. So every summer we plan it, and every summer on our kid-free days we decide to do something fun together.
- Anyway, I don’t really know what I want it to portray. We have sunroom floors and art barn floors, both checkered, so would the second one really be the right step? I bought all these crappy floral stencils on Etsy, thinking I could just make a border with them, but I didn’t feel confident enough to actually finish it. Lack of clear vision = paralysis.
- We love the large oval sisal rug here (From H&M Home, but no longer available). I don’t think not having a rug is an option here (I also spread out all the clothes on the floor every night as the kids are getting ready for bed). But the problem is that the area around the rug is a completely different color than the one underneath the rug. As such it is beige around the oval and bright white below, untouched. My fear is that it will take us so long to paint it, and most of the pattern will be covered up, only the area outside it will be visible, and then it will be damaged. That’s why I was leaning toward the solid blue of the stairs with pretty borders and calling it a day. There’s no clear way forward, and every option seems time-consuming, and when I don’t have that clarity, I move on to other fish to fry.
If I could go back in time, I would have invested in replacing the damaged wood in the stairs, landing, and kids’ rooms with our beautiful hardwood floors, but we were so exhausted financially that I was looking for a way to save like $18. So it felt better to paint the heavily damaged floors (and there was only linoleum under the kids’ carpet, so it felt easier/quicker to lay down new carpet). I don’t know. Your brain really stops working well at the end of a major renovation, becoming overwhelmed with too much panic, desperate to stop burning cash and just wanting to move very badly. I made the choices I have to live with, and that’s okay.
i really like door colorHowever (although I wish I had invested in new knobs – those original antique knobs fall off every day, often with a neighborhood kid locked inside, and me having to yell my way out after minutes of yelling for help…). How charming!!
Now we’ve redone this laundry closet, which is a daily joy (no kidding, it stays pretty organized). I want to mention the best casual (and very specific) life/family hack – keep your washing machines out of the way and near your kids’ rooms. Here’s why: Every night while the kids are brushing their teeth and getting ready for bed, I turn the laundry around and usually pack away one item. We used to wash all the clothes on Sundays, which took hours, and now we hardly have a single thing left because I keep it going all week.
Drama #1: Serious Wallpaper Damage
Well, remember the wallpaper you can’t see in the pictures (but I really liked it – very calming!), well, it’s the most delicate wallpaper ever. We rented out our house for a huge photo shoot, and they used blue tape to put protective corner boards on every corner so moving the furniture wouldn’t scratch the walls (all standard). When they took it down, the tape tore the walls so badly (at eye level). Like 6 different locations spread across all corners (so not easily fixed). I tested again on a leftover piece of the same paper to see if it was their tape, and sure enough, even after 10 seconds of gently placing the blue tape on the paper, it tore off the top layer. It’s like tissue paper!!!!
The wallpaper also wasn’t very washable and was covered in baby fingerprints, and you could see every single nail hole (and I was too afraid to put command strips on it). So the production company and I were going to re-paper the entire stairs and upper landing. I chose another barely there strip that is far more durable (we tested it). While I’d like to be the person who creates insanely fun, colorful patterns on stairs and landings (because yes, that’s all it takes), I can’t or won’t do that. 🙂 Finally iPhone photos!
Plot Twist: Enter Pop-a-Shot
For Christmas, we got our baby This pop-a-shotAnd after debating for a while, this was the only place for it. Listen, all you Northern girls can tell – in the winter, you don’t want to offer your kids anything to do inside that involves moving their bodies (i.e., away from screens), so it’s here to stay until we get the guest house done.
This is really amazing. Kids and their friends play a lot, and it becomes compact. To me, it represents life, especially with children. It reads, “We are a home for and about families”, so it wasn’t something Brian had to explain to me – we all play it. By the way, the piano is in Elliot’s room at the moment, and we moved the world’s heaviest arched cabinet that you can’t take apart right now into the guest room (because we honestly didn’t know how to get it down the stairs except by sliding it – it’s too heavy).
If you are wondering whether this is the old striped wallpaper or the new one, it is the old one. If you blow up your screen, you can see a slight striped pattern. I do not recommend this wallpaper. I also tried to avoid it for the life of me to see what it was made of (and warn you), but it said the same thing as every other wallpaper, so I guess there was no way of knowing. bad bad bad. 2/10.
So this is the current status of the landing. Maybe this summer someone will paint the floors the same blue as the stairs, and then if we do a DIY, it’ll just be a border. It all looks white and clean here, but personally, it’s a little dirty (it barely bothers me, to be honest).
Drama #2: Wrong Wallpaper Installer
However, I’m really excited to show you the new wallpaper. I love it already – we’ve got so much stuff hanging out. It’s 1/10 installed because the company that was hired to repair the damage from the photo shoot and install the new paper had barely installed the wallpaper in the first place. They came to bid, assured me they were experienced, and quoted about $3,500 for the entire job. I wasn’t really in charge because the production company was handling it (they were amazing, BTW). Turns out they were painters, and these guys were very good but completely flabbergasted. The owner of the company should never have taken the job and kept him in a very bad situation. They primed with oil paint primer (don’t know why), which was so toxic that we all had to evacuate the house (unplanned) for two days, and then they were here for 2 additional days with three people and only finished stripping at the end of day 2. Brian and I were speechless, and the owner kept telling us that’s just the way they do it, etc. For reference, when it was originally installed, it took 2 days, with one person, and cost $1,800. After the second day with so little progress, I had a “frank and kind” conversation with the supervisor and the owner, and they refunded everyone’s money and walked off the job (I made sure to congratulate the painters for being professional and hard working. It was the clear responsibility of the higher ups to take the job and put them in that horrible situation). I was angry that I was lied to repeatedly, and it was extremely disruptive to our household for three days (I had to work in the garage with the dogs because they barked at them the whole time… blah blah, whatever). No one died, and I’m glad no one was charged. But all of you, if you don’t know how to do something, don’t take a job just for the money. I’ve always hated the phrase “fake it until you make it” for a reason. Don’t fake it. Admit what you know how to do, but ask questions when you don’t know how, to show your willingness to learn. Don’t lie.
Anyway, I called one of my installers that I should have called first to get it done, so it should be done soon, and I’m really excited.
Here are some silly iPhone shots of it so you can see what it’s going to look like 🙂
Ending. Also… maybe I was hormonal while writing this, hahaha. I promise all is right in the Henderson world.
*by photos Caitlin Green
