Sheeny Shiny and Scrap Booky

We had a hard time deciding if we should paint the wood ceiling and wood work at the little farm house.  We thought we would paint everything white, to match the trim that was already there.  But the wood looked so pretty unpainted.  What to do?  We decided to give it a coat of polyurethane, and leave it unpainted.  At least for now.  Brandon used a fluffy roller on a long handle, and I used a small roller and brush, and in one day we did a single coat on the ceilings in the kitchen, dining room, living room, and all of the upstairs.  

We used an oil based polyurethane, so it would have that lovely amber glow.  It was really stinky though, so I was glad we decided to do it before we moved in.  Even with the windows open and fan blowing, the smell was strong enough that I felt like I could taste it.  Gross.  But it does not look gross.  It looks so sheeny and shiny!  

We have plans for a rocket mass heater on the wall in the dining room, which means we might use tile or some other surface on this wall.  For now, it's plywood.  Brandon put some small trim pieces over the seams, trimmed in the windows, and we gave everything a coat of sheen.  I never knew plywood could be so pretty!  

We sanded the stringers on the stairs, and I gave them a coat of shine as well.  With the painted steps, and polyurethaned stringers and columns, it looks pretty good.  I keep telling myself I can paint them later if I decide.  Yeah, right!  I'm ready to move in!  Let's go, already.   

The pantry room has patched together drywall, and even some that's wood.  The surface is rough and ugly, and I wanted a quick way to cover the walls that wouldn't require too much work.  I thought I would use some wallpaper, but I couldn't bring myself to spend any money on those ugly walls, so I did some searching on the inter web and saw that folks were using elmers glue and newspaper to give things a new surface.  This gives me an idea...

Jamie recently cleaned our our "library room" at the office.  There was a whole stack of folded paper maps and brochures from various state parks and national forests that were slated for the trash.  Free wallpaper!  Cool.  

I mixed some water in some elmers glue, and used a small roller to make the ugly walls all sticky.  

Then I used my hands to smooth the maps onto the walls.  I had fun overlapping the maps to show the parts I thought were interesting.  For some reason we had a bunch of old road maps of Kentucky and Tennessee.  I guess now that folks have gps on their phones, we don't use as many paper maps.  

I had a poster of edible wild plants that I pasted the center of one of the walls.  

And one one wall I used some topographic maps and aerial maps from some projects that I worked on.  It's king of scrap booky, I guess.  Or maybe sort of serial killer-ish! I did the whole room in a few hours.  I'm not sure I did an excellent job getting the bubbled from under the paper, so I don't know if I would try this technique in a place that wasn't sort of hidden away, but for a pantry that had ugly scarred walls that will mostly be covered with shelves, I think it works really well.  

The last thing we did last Sunday was to paint the floors with a second coat of paint.  The floors should be dry very soon, and it won't be many more days before it's time to bring our things.  Not everything will be finished, but we're ready.  So, ready or not, house - here we come!