{the last} step

We put our wood floor down last summer (posted here), and then basically took the summer off from indoor projects. So some time passed before we got around to getting the step in that separates the kitchen and family room. It was one of these projects that doesn't take long once you do it, we just had to stop doing other projects to get around to it.

my pinterest inspired family room

My Pinterest inspired family room renovation is finally done! And to think it all started with a few photos. But first, it helps to understand a little bit about my husband and I. Here's an example of a typical improvement conversation:

Me: "Handyman, we should do this (whatever project x is)."
Handyman: "I can't visualize it. Show me a picture."

~Surfing the Internet-moments or days later~

Me: "Here, I found a picture."
Handyman: "I can do that."

I knew I needed a photograph of a bead board ceiling to to sell him on the idea. These photos from BHG did the trick. Thank goodness for Pinterest, where I have a place to save and organize my ideas.

source

source

Handyman finished the last of the touch up paint just other day.

And just in case you can't remember what it looked like before, here's a reminder:

I think it turned out pretty good. The addition of the bead board works well with the cottagey-style of our little yellow cape.

We choose use individual tongue and groove wood boards, because installing the beadboard panels would have left us with a giant seam running across the length of the ceiling.

(In full disclosure, I'm sure Handyman wouldn't have been keen on the whole bead board ceiling suggestion, except that we had to do something with it after we took the acoustic tiles down, leaving these large open-faced sandwich cookie like glue spots. You can see them best in the BEGINNING OF BEADBOARD CEILING photograph above.)

Now to just furnish it, decorate it, and style it. No biggie, right?

You can see all the projects we did here.

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Nifty Thrifty Things, It's Overflowing, MopItUp , Twigg Studios Monday: Made by You, C.R.A.F.T. DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, Debbie Doo's, Home Stories A to Z, diy home sweet home, DedicatedHouse Tuesday: Coastal Charm, Nest for Less, Tip Junkie, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Get Your Craft On, ClaimingOurSpace Wednesday: Uncommon, Savvy Southern Style, Organize and Decorate, Power of Paint, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, Southern Lovely , Home Happy Home, Gingersnap Crafts Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made in a Day, House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue, Crafty, Scrappy, Happy, 52 Mantels Friday: Making Lemonade, Blissful and Domestic, One Artsy Mama, Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors, Financial Friday, At the Picket Fence, Classy Clutter

Linked up to YHL, CentsationalGirl, BowerPower, TenJune

a look back -part two

A Look Back At Our DIY Family Room . . .

After we demolished the family room, which was the fastest part, it was time to start rebuilding. Since this was a more an impromptu project, Handyman ran out and bought a bunch of dry wall, screws, and mud.

 This is how it looked after all the dry wall was up, mudded, sanded, painted.

This was the beginning of our tongue and groove bead board ceiling. I had read in several resources to paint the boards first, so we did. However, we noticed it didn't seem to matter since we had to go back to mud and sand each individual nail hole.

This is how it looked after the entire ceiling was up, before the crown.

This is how it looked after we installed the recessed lighting. This room did not have any overhead lighting.

I love how the bead board ceiling turned out, it beats the acoustic ceiling tiles we had before and is a better fit for this cozy cottage-like cape. I did get a few quizzical looks from friends when asked about our ceiling plans and my response was bead board.

Anyone else ever install bead board on the ceiling?

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Nifty Thrifty Things, It's Overflowing Monday: Delectable Home, C.R.A.F.T. DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, Thrifty Decor Chick, Debbie Doo's, Home Stories A to Z, Evolution of Style Tuesday: Coastal Charm, Nest for Less, Tip Junkie, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Get Your Craft On, Kurtz Corner, Centsational Girl , Primitive and Proper Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style, Organize and Decorate, Mommy Solutions, Power of Paint, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, Southern Lovely , Home Happy Home, Crafty Sasse Wednesday, Gingersnap Crafts, A Crafty Soiree Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made in a Day, House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue, Crafty, Scrappy, Happy, 52 Mantels Friday: Making Lemonade, Blissful and Domestic, One Artsy Mama, Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors, Financial Friday, Furniture Friday, At the Picket Fence, The Rooster and the Hen, Classy Clutter

a look back -part one

Since we started our family room renovation before I started blogging, I realized that I never revealed all our slow-learn-as-we-go-along-the-way progress.

We started here. . .this is the listing photo.

The first mini project was taking out the coat closet, and gaining access to our garage. Handyman just installed a door and hung the same existing brown clam shell trim.

At some point over the summer we painted the room. But by the end of the summer, Handyman was tired of my constant complaining encouragement and relented, and demo began.

The first step was to remove this space hogging gas stove.

  

With the stove gone, the room felt instantly larger.

Next, it was time for the brick hearth and wall to go.

The brick was laid on top of the wood paneling.

Everyone wanted to get in on the demolition action.

Within minutes the brick was down.

And we were left with a mess. Due to their weight and size, I knew the best way to offset our disposal costs would be to give away the bricks. I immediately hopped on the computer and posted an ad on Craig's List. By that evening, a thrifty-patio-laying couple contacted me, and hauled away all the whole bricks, leaving only a handful of partials.

Next, we started removing the wood paneling.

With the wood paneling removed, we could see the condition of the insulation. It was old and needed replacing, and explained why the room was constantly cold in the winter. It wasn't a lack of heat as we first suspected, but precious heat was escaping. (This room has two heating vents, which we later worked around when installing the baseboard trim.) The room was losing heat. This reassured us that even without the gas stove, we would be warm enough in the colder months. After living in it a complete winter, we happily discovered we were perfectly cozy, warm, and best of all draft-free.

My only regret of ditching the gas stove is losing a non-electric heat source when we get these gnarly Nor-Easter storms here -which seem to occur a few times a year.

Handyman took out all the old fiberglass insulation and replaced it with new insulation. He filled in all the gaps around the window and the front door. (He had already sealed all the gaps to the garage door when we took out the closet. He used the expanding yellow spray foam.)

Although we didn't plan on replacing the insulation, it came with a couple of unexpected benefits. The first was the smell. My house no longer had someone else's smell. The old insulation had accumulated a few decades worth of various odors.

Another benefit of removing insulation, was the opportunity to rewire the electrical in the room. We had light switches everywhere. In this room we had

• the outdoor porches lights
• the pool lights
• the backyard outlets
• the patio lights

 I imagine this was a result of the various additions to the home, but we figured since we had the walls open to the studs, it was a great opportunity to improve it.

However, Handyman did not like crawling around the in the leftover rodent droppings. And I was happy he assured me they were old droppings and not fresh. Phew. (We don't need any extra occupants hanging out in our attic.)

We didn't want to live with it like this, so re-building was imminent.

Next, I'll show you how we went about rebuilding the room.

hardwood how-to

The last time I showed you my family room it looked like this, posted here.

And last time, I {sorta} showed you the hardwood that I purchased from Home Depot, posted here.

Handyman got home from work Friday evening, changed his clothes, and started right in on taking the tile out of the room. (This is why I have very little in-progress photographs. He gets right to work, and if I'm not around to snap a few pictures, they didn't exist.)

Using a crowbar and hammer, Handyman removed all of the tile by the front door. He had the children carry it to the Bagster, posted here, in the driveway.

He removed the top layer of the vinyl flooring, leaving the under laying paper layer.

Then, he ground off the residual tile mastic leaving the underlying plywood sub floor smooth. We wanted a nice even, level surface to lay the hardwood.

After laying the black tar paper with a staple gun, it was time to start laying the hardwood. We rented this tool, a hardwood gun stapler and double sided mallet hammer from Home Depot for $75. It just plugs into an air compressor and makes the work a lot easier than doing it by hand.

Handyman and his dad followed the manufacturer's installation instructions.The hardwood we purchased is factory finished and has a tongue and groove. The pieces easily interlocked into each other for a tight fit.

  

After the floor was in, it was time to install the baseboard. We wanted the baseboard to be flush with the our new door trim. The baseboard we purchased wasn't as wide, so we add width with a simple furring strip. These are easily cut on a table saw.

The baseboard also had to accommodate a few other cuts, such as our shoe cabinet, since we chopped the legs off it no longer accommodate the taller baseboard trim. (The legs come long enough to not to do this, but we wanted our shorter.) If we remove the cabinet, we can easily pop in a new, non-cut piece of baseboard trim.

This is the closest wall color -gray with a little bit of a blue undertone.

We also had to accommodate our two heating vents. We did this by lowering the vent so the vent cover occupied the widest part of the trim. We have access to these vents in the basement, so lowering them a smidgen was easy.

The final floor task was finishing the space between the floor and the doors. This was just standard weather stripping.

The finished product

We still have all the touch up work left, but almost all done . . .

Now my family room floors match the rest of the hardwood floors throughout the rest of the house.

 Even though the room is empty, I think it's better than when we started.

You can read more about our family progress:

• what it looked like when we bought it
• removing the coat closet
• how the whole project started
• why we needed new flooring
• shoe and other storage without a mudroom
• all the changes we did along the way
• checking the sub floor 

Linking up to 52Mantels, SundaeScoop, SundayRoundUp, It'sOverflowing, NifyThrifty, MopItUp, SweetAnneDesigns, HomemakerOnADime, BNOTP, Debbie Doos, Making the World Cuter, LinesAcrossMyFace, MadeByYou, MadSkills, KurtzCorner, S3,TipJunkie, CowgirlUp, HowToNestForLess, NotJustaHousewife, CoastalCharm, Carolyn'sHomework, SugarBeeCrafts, ClaimingOurSpace, MyUncommonSliceofSuburbia, aBowlFullofLemons, CozyHomeScenes, GingerSnaps, SavvySouthernStyle, OrganizeandDecorate, DIYByDesign, UncommonDesign, Michelle'sTastyCreations, 52 Mantels, Crafty,Scrappy,Happy, Newlyweds, LiveLaughRowe, SouthernLovely, ShabbyCreekCottage, HouseofHepworths, the36thAve, LovingThisCrazyLife, FindingFabulous, FamilyEverAfter, SerenityNow, AtthePicketFence, TheShabbyNest, ALittleKnickKnack, 30HandmadeDays, CheeriosAndLattes, ClassyClutter, NYMelroseFamily, MakingLemonade, BlissfulandDomestic, One ArtsyMama, ThriftyDecorChick, DIYShowOff

hardwood

Progress is moving {slowly} on our family room makeover.

After a little more research, we decided cork flooring, posted about here, was not the right choice for this room. According to those we have spoke to, it doesn't hold up as well as we need.

(Of course, if I thought I could get away a polished cement floor, I would. But that may be a tad too modern for our little yellow cape.)

We decided to go with a factory-finished hardwood from Home Depot. It needs time to acclimate to home's temperature and humidity before installation.

Verifying that we didn't have a hidden gem hiding under the vinyl brick flooring.

No such luck. Just the typical plywood sub floor.

Here's hoping we will have a new floor for this room soon. . .

more family room progress

Our marathon DIY family room makeover finally has some more updates. Handyman used his Memorial Day time off to get some more work done in here.

The ceiling is painted.
The trim is all painted.
The walls are all painted.
And the old carpet, padding, and nail tack strips are removed.

The room is now ready for new flooring.

newest progress

progress

before

newest progress

close up of the vinyl brick flooring

To lower our disposal costs, Handyman cut up the carpeting according to our town's bulk item removal criteria. We also purchased another Bagster.

Of course, our weekend did include its share of marshmallow roasting, firepit corn popping, yard clean-up, and swimming.

How did you spend your Memorial Day?

Linked to ThrifyDecorChick, ShabbyCreekCottage, HandyMan,CrafyWoman



our family renovation

Did you ever read Laura Joffe Numeroff's sweet story If You Give A Mouse A Cookie?

It's the full circle tale of an innocently cute mouse's simple request that evolves into increasingly complicated requests and their ensuing messy consequences, eventually tiring the generous giver to utter exhaustion.

I {might} have been a mouse.
And I {might} have wanted a cookie.
And we did make a mess.

I blame it on my babysitter really. She was unavailable that fateful Friday night, leaving us bored and wondering what to do. So, we did what any listless couple does, we demolished a room.

The initial mess ensued not long after we painted the fake wood paneling. Truthfully, we didn't even finish the job. . .

All I really wanted to do was:

• paint the fake wood paneling
• remove the space-eating gas stove
• tear down the brick hearth

But once the brick was down we realized we might as well:

• remove the fake wood paneling
• replace the old and yucky insulation
• spray foam the window joints
• rewire, relocate, and consolidate the electrical
• install overhead lighting
• replace the door
• remove the acoustic ceiling tiles
• update the trim

And that's how we got from wanting to paint our family room to renovating the entire space.

You can read more about our family room renovation here, here, here, and here.

Please tell me I'm not the only DIY mouse out there?

our first change to an old house

Our very first priority when moving into our current home was to gain interior garage access. We have an attached garage right off our family room. At some point, the previous owners closed it off and converted it into a coat closet.

It was a decent size closet, quite large actually, but we wanted the ability to come and go from our garage more than the storage. (You can read here how we compensated for that storage loss.)

We never used that closet for two reasons. First, we knew wanted to tackle that project pronto. Second, it was frigid inside! I think I opened that brown bi-fold door only once because I was instantly hit with a blast of cold air. (Remember we moved in at the end of January.) It was not insulated well.

Within a month we demoed the closet, installed a new door, and insulated the whole thing. It was also the time we bought our first bagster -because all that old drywall and junk has to go somewhere, and that's not the kind of stuff you can re-purpose.

Our existing opening wasn't exactly square and required a fair amount of shimming.

We had these existing steps. We actually noticed them the first time we viewed the house, because we are always curious about steps that seem to go no where.

You can see in the above photo (besides my messy garage), the scarring where the existing closet used to be. And that's the light fixture they had in there.

We still need to trim it out on the garage side, but that's pretty low on the list. My husband is just pretty happy that it is level, plumb, and not the least bit drafty.

By doing it ourselves, we saved at least $100. (I can't remember what the two home improvement stores charge, but I think they are a comparable flat fee.) It's a straightforward, get-it-done-in-an-evening-after work type of job.
And we are all pretty happy that we can come and go through the garage, like a modern family (which is one of my favorite shows.) And now, we really can come in and out of the closet.

Any weird renovations you've undone at your house?

Anyone else keep their garbage and recycling cans right by the door because they are too lazy to walk across the garage?

If you want more information on how to do this yourself, check out this video from This Old House. They categorize this project as moderate difficulty and completed within 2-4 hours.

Also, Lowes has an article as well.

marathon monday

It's Patriot's Day here in New England. And probably the best weekend of the year! If you have ever thought of visiting Boston, this is the weekend to do it.

image source

You can check out the schedule of events here.

And if you are in the area, you absolutely have to go watch the marathon. It is truly inspiring. In the words of my friend Deidre,

"This is an awesome event--even if you have never run a mile in your life. I would encourage those who will only be in New England for a short time to be sure NOT to miss this."

I mean, c'mon. Check out this guy! If that's not inspiring, I don't know what is!

And speaking writing of marathons, my family room renovation is a marathon.

Have you ever attended the Boston Marathon?
Any marathon renovations going on at your place?

Linked fav photo