Let's go to the mail bag.
Jeff from Tampa Bay asks: What is your favorite type of screw head.
Good question Jeff. It is the Robinson. P. L. Robertson is Canadian and he invented this type of screw because it was easier to manufacture. However it has two other distinct advantages...the screw can hold the screwdriver in place easily without slipage and it is almost impossible to strip the screw head. However it never really caught on anywhere but Canada. So until the rest of the world wakes up...it is our country's best kept secret.
Thanks for the feedback and questions...keep them coming.
Now onto Project: Guest Suite.
The room was always just ok. Nothing special. See for yourself.
We decided to try and spice it up.
What you can't tell by the pictures above is that walls are actually wallpaper. An almost invisible pattern on them. I tried to take a picture, but it is hard to see just how bad it was. In direct light it looked like the walls were wet.
Anyway Step 1: Remove wallpaper.
Step 2: curse the fact that it didn't come off with standard methods of chemical and scrapper.
We were forced to rent a steam remover and take it off 1sq foot at a time. In the end it took us 16 hours to remove the paper backing. In places we were removing multiple layers of wallpaper, making it almost unbearable. Tedious and frustrating doesn't begin to cover it.
But that wasn't the worst part. It became obvious that previous owners had decided to wallpaper over unfinshed parts of the drywall. And that meant the walls were in serious need of repair. So we spackled. A lot.
Then everything was sanded down and painted.
It looked a lot better. Those with good memories and eagle eyes, will remember our little bathroom downstairs. We liked the color so much we decided to go with it again in this room. If you are curious it is BEHR - Ocean Pearl
The next part is where I quickly realized that I married someone with similar qualities to my Mother. See, when my mother used to get "decorating ideas" that meant a lot of work for my Father (some men have 'the war' to keep them sleepless through the night...my dad has the rec-room of '84). Well...the circle of life is complete.
Kelly decided that she wanted to put something special on the wall. The 'WoW' factor. In the end she decided to go with a decal.
When the decal final arrived I thought it would come mostly assembled and we could just put it up a sheet at a time. Nope. Too easy. It's like they knew that I was going to be the one doing the work.
The decal came in pieces that need to be individually cut out. 226 individual pieces to be exact.
Anyway, once cut out, we used painters tape to stick them to wall in order to find the right placement. Once we had that it was time to peel and stick.
Here are some shots of the progress. (You will see the image coming together).
Once in place it was time to peel and stick. It took 5 hours just to put all the leaves on.
Want to see the finished product?????
Not yet. Wait, there is more!
Once the decal was done the final, peace-de-pain-in-da-butt, is the adjoining wall need some further enhancement.
On this wall we hung some 3D decorative leaves to complete the atmosphere. Placing them was just as fun.
The floor shelving unit was removed and the green chair we had in the den was brought up. The curtains replaced, the closet door knobs replaced, as well as the light fixture. And a brown rug for the floor.
So without further delay here are the pics of the final outcome.
The little hidden secret in the room is the leaves that fell on the floor by the chair.
Well, there it is. If you happen to stay over at our place this where you will end up. In the spring we hope some sparrows will nest here.
Hope you all enjoyed this one. Thanks for checking us out.
Kev and Kel