Kitchen finishing

The owners of this West Philadelphia house had some work done in their kitchen several months ago, but never got around to finishing it.  They had their ceiling reframed and new lights installed, but never took care of the wallpaper or the finishing of the ceiling.   The kitchen just needed us.

The drywall installers spackled over the wallpaper, so that had to be removed.  There were also dry erase boards attached to the wall.  After removing them, we found that tiles were removed behind them with the mortar still in place. 

We removed the dry boards with the mortar and plaster behind them while removing the wallpaper everywhere else in the kitchen.  Then we repaired the walls, primed painted, added new baseboards (not pictured), and painted everything white.

Removal of Texture

At some point in the history of this South Philadelphia house, some one decided that it would be a good idea to cover the walls of the living room with a thick heavy texture.  It looked like this all of the room...

The wife and children went out of town for a week and we got to work.  The idea was to scrape the high points off then skim coat the room with some joint compound.  However, this texture was made of mortar or heavy plaster, and it did not come off easily.  The wall section under the stairs had some wallpaper under the texture.  So, the paper came off with the texture.  That small area was not a problem at all.

However, the other walls were not so easy. We tried to remove the texture with very little success.

So, after 2 complete skim coats all of the walls in the living room, sanding, priming and painting, it looked like this...

Deep Space and Chalkboard

I worked for this family a long time ago.  I did some work on their front door and painted the two rooms on their 3rd floor.  This time, they wanted me to paint their 2nd floor.

Some people contact me and just want their house painted.  They really don't know what they want, what colors to use, or how to create a space.  This is fine.  Not everyone is good at it.  This woman, however, had a vision and did not compromise it at all.

Her son's room was scuffed up, the baseboard was missing in some places, there were nail holes all over the ceiling and walls, and it needed some new life.  She showed me a picture from a design website and wanted what she saw.  So, we made the ceiling and the top 2/3 of the wall one off-white color.  We covered the bottom portion of the wall with chalkboard paint, even the closet.  She did not necessarily want her son drawing on the walls.  She just liked the look and the durability of it.  I had the chalkboard paint color matched for the trim.  So, the door frames were the same color as the chalkboard paint, but in a standard semi-gloss product.  We made the line go right over the trim.

Before

After

Her bedroom was a huge project.  We stripped the wall paper from the ceiling and made extensive repairs to it.  Then we painted the walls in Benjamin Moore's Deep Space with a Matte finish.  The trim and doors were also Deep Space, but in a semi-gloss. Considering the name, I was not shocked by the color.  I was shocked that someone would want it, though.  The ceiling was the same color as her son's room.  I did not understand it at first, but I do like the results.

Before

After

Before

After

Kitchen Makeover

I know that is has been quite some time since I updated this site.  The winter was filled with rather uninteresting jobs.  I patched a lot of holes due to water and ice damage, painted several rental units, and simply forgot to take pictures of the other jobs.  Now, that my busy season is starting up, I am engaged in more interesting projects and can get photos worthy of updating this blog.

The people in this house did not want a full upgrade of their kitchen, but needed to clean it up and make it look nicer.  The walls had a lot of texture (which you cannot see in the pictures) and were rather dirty from years of use.  Beautiful, old, hand-made built-in cabinets were also rather worn, and the hinges were caked with paint. The homeowners wanted it clean and nice.

Here are some pictures of the kitchen as it was when we got there

After repairing and skim coating the walls, painting the ceiling, stripping the cabinet hardware, and painting the cabinets and trim, the kitchen looked wonderful, bright, and clean.

Wallpaper Removal #4

This job was a wonderful transformation.  We removed the wallpaper from the ceiling and walls from a 3rd floor hallway.  As we were doing it, several areas of plaster simply came down with the paper.  So, there was a lot of major repair involved here.  Then we painted everything - ceiling, walls, baseboards, chair rail, spindles, and the entire 2nd floor, as well.  Take a look at what we did.  (I promise to bring my real camera next time.  These iphone photos don't really do justice).

 

Painting of the Second Floor

This was a lovely house with some very nice people and skittish cats.  The house was small and perfect for this couple, but not big enough for us to repair the entire thing at one time.  So, we took over their second floor and the homeowners slept in their living room. 

Again, I forgot my camera, so these are iPhone pictures.  I hope they come across well here.

The first set is the bathroom.  It was basically a cleaning of the walls.  We painted the ceiling, walls, trim, door, and shelving all the same color.

Bathroom Before

Bathroom After

 The shelving was painted in a very odd, almost incomplete fashion.  We made everything uniform.

Shelving Before

Shelving After

We changed their bedroom from yellow to a rich blue while repairing some drywall issues.

Bedroom 1 Before

 

Bedroom 1 After

The ceiling and the trim in the second bedroom was faux painted with a sponge.  There was also a significant amount of repair to do.  We made all of the repairs, changed the ceiling and trim to white, and changed the walls from red to yellow.  The photo does not do justice to the work that we did, but I think you can see the difference.

Bedroom 2 Before

Bedroom 2 After

The closet in the second bedroom had some water damage and did not even have a door.  There was also more faux painting there.  So, we cleaned it all up and added bi-fold doors.

Bedroom 2 Closet Before

Bedroom 2 Closet After

Excellence

I got notice today that Barry Bush Home Improvements won the Angie's List 2013 Super Service Award for drywall and interior painting.  This marks the 6th year in a row for awards in these  categories.  Only the top 5% of companies in the Philadelphia area get this award.