Home Improvements, Rain delays and Painting

It's been a few weeks since I have posted an update. Not to worry, things are progressing (mostly). There was a small delay thanks to a nasty rain storm that came in and caused a roof leak. Waking up to this on my ceiling is not what I was hoping for.. at least the damage was contained and in an area that hadn't been textured and painted yet.




The front room is done, baseboards are in, outlet, switches, and light fixtures are up (thanks Jonathan!) and the first coat on the fireplace is coming along.






Bedrooms are also done.. guest bedroom is currently serving double-duty as storage space so I don't have a great picture. You'll have to use your imagination.




Work has begun on the office.. next up bathrooms, kitchen, family room, and laundry room.

Home Improvements, Painting Starts

Just a quick update before I pass out from paint fumes (now I remember why Zero VOC paint can be worth the extra few dollars per gallon). Just about half the house has been textured and the master bedroom and hallway have been painted.

Home Improvements, Attack of the Doors

Just a quick update.. Walls and ceiling are taped and mudded and ready for priming, texturing, and painting.




.. and all the doors from around the house have been stripped of their hardware, sanded, and are ready for painting.

Home Improvements, Part 4 (Closets)

.. and now we've caught up to real-time. At the moment I have a contractor working on the house with the goal of building the closets and retexturing/repainting the interior of the house.

First up, the closets. The original closets did a great job of maximizing the available space, but at the expense of dating the house. It's not very often you see floor to ceiling wood paneled closets, huh?



The best way to solve the problem? A sledgehammer. By using 2x2 framing and borrowing just a few inches of space beyond the original closet boundaries a new space was framed out. Plus the coat closet was made smaller and the bedroom closet gained a lot of usable space.




.. and a similar problem existed in the master bedroom. By bringing the wall out a few inches we'd be able to put a "real" door on the closet while still having a reasonable depth to the interior.

Home Improvements, Part 3 (Painting the Office)

One of my goals upon finishing the hardwoods was to repaint. While I was spending my days lying in a bed (some would argue I made the perfect foreman) I was fortunate to have Janith, Jonathan, Lanie, and Tami repaint the "purple room" (aka, the office).

Home Improvements, Part 2 (Hardwood Floors)

Next up were the hardwood floors. Originally the 3 bedrooms and the hallway were carpeted.... Between the dogs, the wheelchair, and a nice black glob of goo that landed on the hallway carpet during the plumbing repairs, the carpet was well beyond repair.

Ripping up the carpet took a small leap of faith since the condition of the hardwood and whether or not hardwoods even existed under the entire carpeted area was uncertain. But, ripping up the carpet turned out to be a lot of fun as I spent the better part of a week crawling around the floor cutting out section after section and pulling out 50+ years of carpet staples. All-in-all the hardwoods were in good condition. There was a stain from the "black goo" in the hallway and missing sections where the Murphy Bed used to be and the remodeled area of the master bedroom.




Sleeping next to a hole in the floor that opened up into the crawl space was fun. All I could do was hope that all the little critters liked it better down there than up in bed with me.




So, the entire house went into the garage and Lanie & I headed off to Colorado for our ski trip... and just in case you aren't familar with the ski trip take a look at some earlier posts.



.. but, the newly refinished floors looked great. I don't actually have any pictures showcasing the new floor, but, well, it just looks like a hardwood floor. You can use your imagination.

Home Improvements, Part 1 (Plumbing, Electrical, and Popcorn)

A couple years ago, I bought my house and while it was in move-in condition, there were definitely things I could do to improve the place. Some improvements were planned, some not-so-much. Here's a chronicle of a few of the projects (yeah, I am about a year behind in making this post).

There was the unplanned plumbing improvements in the front bathroom. The kitchen and bathroom sinks were backing up and after having three plumbers over I found one that actually knew how to do more than run a snake down a pipe. It turned out that the way it was plumbed snaking it was impossible--all the pipes came in at 90 degree angles. Taking out some drywall and putting in some new piping solved that problem.



Then came removing all the brass door hardware.. Not really my style.



.. and then there was the garbage disposal. Who knew that a measuring spoon that fell into the disposal could blow right thru the sidewall of an old disposal?



.. and then there was the exterior outlet that was so rusted I wasn't even sure it was an outlet (yes, that's the old outlet in my hand along with a picture of the new/improved outlet).




.. and then there was the popcorn ceiling in the master bedroom. It was nice to have it gone, but it also unearthed a pretty nasty looking sheetrock mess that was underneath it all.