Summer renovation project

I wrote about starting to rip up our living room back on April 28. A lot has happened since then! We hired a pro to help us with some of the major pieces, and we've made a lot of progress. There is still a lot to do though. My goal was to be moved back into the living room by June 28, and that did not work out at all.

Before

 

Dining nook after we half-heartedly pulled off some wallpaper

The east side of the room, aka the "inside wall"

The west side of the room, aka "3 windows"

Furniture removed

Dining nook is on the right, and to the left by the front door is the "hall" closet, a major target of this renovation

Slightly different angle of the nook, that's the kitchen through the right-hand door. Note the omnipresent piano in many of these pictures.

Here's the far corner by the 3 windows, mostly showing the wallpaper that is about to be removed... By removing the walls

With old walls removed

 

The disgusting moldy closet has now been ripped out, along with all of the rest of the Sheetrock stuff in the room.

Dining nook

The "bookcase wall," down to the studs

Insulating

 

The closet is now gone! The doorway was removed and it's being integrated into just a longer front hall.

Pinkboard and foam added

Sheetrock installed

 

We hired someone to put up the Sheetrock for us. Also he hung up a new front door.

Dining nook

Book wall

Primer added

 

Here's where I volunteered to help. For three separate evenings I sanded Sheetrock compound until I was satisfied the paint would go on perfectly smooth. We even got our pro to come back and fix the compound in some places. Then I rolled primer onto walls. I also painted the ceiling.

Dining nook

Far wall

Paint and Trim

 

Walls are painted (by me) and trim is up (by our handyman guy). Check out the closet area now, there's a bench and coatrack for a "mini mud-room" area.

The paint color is Sherwin Williams "Faint Coral," a very light pinky peach. We've also been trying to refinish the floor, with not much success. You can see the ridges from the poor finishing job done before our time, and now we have to sand everything down to even it out. It's been at least 3 long attempts and it's still not ready for stain/polyurethane/etc.

More about that Closet!

 

This was inspired by something I saw on Apartment Therapy and then added to my Pinterest for safekeeping.

The coatrack was made from scratch, with hooks reclaimed from our old Target coatrack since they seemed perfectly good.

A nice deep bench that we can store things in and also sit on while pulling on winter boots. My plan is to paint it the same color as the walls, though I'm not completely sure about that.

NEXT!

There are a million billion things left to do, including:

• finish buffing the floor
• Stain the floor
• Seal the floor
• Prime trim as needed
• Prime the bench
• Putty nail holes
• Sand and wipe down
• Caulk cracks
• Paint all trim, including crown moldings
• Paint coat rack and bench
• Replace switch plates and outlet covers
• Install new window shades
• Put back light fixtures

Also we're mulling some questions, such as: Should we get help for the floor and trim stuff that we're dreading, or power through and chip away at it all summer? Where is the piano going to live while we finish the floor? When we're done, how are we going to arrange the room? Are we really going to also put in custom bookshelves and an entertainment center (flat screen tv, new shelving for stereo components) on the far wall?

We are doing our best to stay calm, focused, and not get too frustrated or run down. I feel that I am not a great do-it-yourselfer because I only have energy to make dinner, put the kids to bed, and maybe read one magazine article before bed. Trying to squeeze in something extra is hard!

One plus: Having the doors sealed off to this room means we can easily shut one more door and air-condition both bedrooms. So now our house has 3 areas--the under-construction part, the hot July part, and the lovely cool part.

How are your projects going? Have you broken out the AC? We just set ours up on Monday evening. It is delightful.