New House Files Part 9: A Front Room Makeover

It's time to show the progress we have made on remodeling this old house we are now calling home. As a refresher, my husband and I undertook a massive experiment in patience and perseverance in February of 2012. We left our home along the Columbia River and moved back into the Portland metro area. We took over ownership of an 80+ year old home, built by my husbands great grandfather, and began unearthing the flavor of the cottage through good old hard work. We rolled up our shirt sleeves and labored away for over six months, driving nearly 2 hours one way every week, often with our small kids in tow. We began remodeling this old house that we intended to call home.

You can find all my accounts of our adventures on my Directory of Posts page. Scroll down to 'new house files'.

The front room was a substantial project. The old walls held six - eight layers of ancient wall paper and due to budgetary needs, we could not afford to just 'drywall' over the top of the walls. So, I became 'one' with the sander and I spent a lot of time sanding down the walls of the front room.

The walls were plywood underneath the wallpaper. Great grandfather Pete worked for the local lumber mill and as he built the house, he used 'reject' sheets of plywood. In the 1920's, those reject sheets were far more sturdy than what we call plywood today.

After sanding down to the wood, I applied two coats of primer, and then two coats of color w/primer paint. You can still faint outlines of the wood texture, but I'll just chalk it up to 'character'. The ceilings also required two coats of primer. They are made from a 'paper' material that can no longer be found. We finished the look with molding around the edges.

Here's my post of the joys of working on the old front room.

It was interesting to see what was in 'fashion' through out the early 20th century. The layers of wallpaper certainly opened my eyes to the trends of the time. My father in law, who previously lived in the home, had refinished the original fir floors and also stripped and refinished all of the trim boards in the room. He and his brother restored the old craftsman styled front door. All of this newly refinished woodwork looks quite sharp.

Here is the finished project of our joint labor:

Remodeled front room 

I was inspired by our Pacific NW coastal colors when I picked out the color theme for the room. Our move back to the PDX metro area meant that our family was no longer a short trip away from the Oregon Coast. I wanted to carry the colors with me.

I have combined a few of my family heirlooms with my husbands 'heirloom of a home'. We have decorated our walls with my husband's Aunt's original artwork. Family is important to us.

This is where you'll find me blogging away:

Join me the next few Sundays as I showcase the changes and updates we have made to our new/old family home. It's been a journey that few words can accurately describe.

Cheers, Jenni