This Old House (Part 3)

   Well, it's been a couple of days since I had time to post any updates about the remodeling. It's not because I haven't been working on it. On the contrary, it's because I have been working on it so much that I'm too exhausted to post pictures about it. Tonight, however, I'm knocking off early (10 PM.. lol) and taking a break to post these.

Thanks to all of you who had nice things to say about the work. I appreciate it. This is what I grew up doing with my father and grandfather. Holding a hammer in my hand and smelling saw dust in the air is all it take to make me remember those days. I wish they could be here to help now. This is the first time I've ever worked on my own place, so it's kind of special to me in a corny way. When I get done each night, tired, sweaty, and covered in any number of dusty dirty speckles of crud it still feels great to see the progress created by my own two hands.

Anyway, enough of that for now. Here's an update on what's been going on these last two days.

 

 

My dearest April scrapes away endlessly at the wallpaper that plagues our one wall. This wall has been a major holdup for us, but we're beating away at it day after day during our evening hours after work.

I added casing to the doorway because there wasn't any, and then applied the double-layer chair rail to help separate the colors a little. I'm really pleased with the look it's taken on.

If you're the slightest bit familiar with drywall, you know it's never as easy as simply patching a hole. After I took the wall down, April discovered a bow in the wall that was there before we moved in, so I took the wall out a little more and rebuilt the corner with scrap sheetrock from the wall that I removed earlier this weekend. This also has been a pain in the butt, but overall I only have about three hours time in this wall and it's almost done now. It needs one more coat of mud on the left side, a final sanding, and then it's ready for paint.

This is the look we're going for with the fixtures. I like the old-world feel to the burnished copper and black color tones. This is about what the remaining fixtures will look like when we're done. Mainly I needed the extra light so I went ahead and replace the 60 watt dining room fixture with a 180 watt fixture.

This is what I started today when I got home from working all day. Today is the day I start the hardwood laminate. My knees are NOT going to like this. See all that sunlight that I'm getting now? THAT"S the look I'm going for.. much more open space and better "glow" to the room.

The fun begins: First I tear up the carpet, remove those stupid carpet tack rails, sweep, sweep again, the sweep one more time to make sure I got it all, and then the water barrier and sound barrier will go down before the floor gets laid in place.

Do I look like I'm having fun here? Actually I am. I'm finally getting to see it come together now. After I finish this part I'll start working on the baseboards and then we'll be in the home stretch of all this!

Wish me luck!