The House Transformation Project

More progress was made with floor removal this week.  It is now complete and the cleanup has begun.  We also arranged for the new roof and advanced with windows/doors and cabinets.  Demolition is nearing the end with only specific targeted areas left. Foyer - Original Foyer - Week 2 Removed chair rail and began  wall repair. Foyer - Week 3 Completed wall repair.   Removed  chair rail. Primed walls and  mouldings.   Caulked mouldings. Foyer - Week 4 Removed wood floor and  subfloor.  Removed mouldings. Foyer - Week 5 Cleaned up nails in floor.

 This week was one step but several steps forward.  I tried to take up the wood floor in the great room and discovered that it was glued to a chipboard subfloor.  The effort to get 3 feet of floor removed told me that this was not the best use of my time.  We hired a crew to remove all of the floors on the main level down to the lowest subfloor.  It will take them several days and several tons of debris, but we will have a single level of flooring on which to build.  With 2 wood floors, tile floors, carpet, and vinyl floors, the layers were at different levels. At the same time, we changed our thoughts on the mouldings.  We originally planned to keep the traditional mouldings but paint them white to update the look.  As our decorating plans evolved, we decided that a craftsman look appealed to us.  So I ordered the crew to take it all down.  That means the priming and caulking we had done was wasted effort.  Luckily, we hadn't made it far.  It also meant that more damage was do

This week was one of slow progress on the house but lots of progress with vendors as we spent considerable time visiting cabinet places, lighting stores, countertop fabricators, etc.  Most of the house work wasn't structural but more getting facades ready for finishing. Foyer - Original Foyer - Week 2 Removed chair rail and began  wall repair. Foyer - Week 3 Completed wall repair.   Removed  chair rail.  Primed walls and  mouldings.   Caulked mouldings.

Photos taken on or before Monday, November 5. Week 2 of our renovation work was a lot harder than the first week.  I have determined that this house is pretty well put together.  It took all week just to get the shower and tub out.  I did take some time to start putting things back together and allow Susan to do some of the lighter work. Foyer - Original Foyer - Week 2 Removed chair rail and began wall repair. Foyer Closet - Week 1 Removed wallpaper. Foyer Closet - Week 2 Repaired wall.

Photos taken Monday, October 28. The first week of our renovation work is in the books.  Our work schedule looks like it will follow a similar pattern.  We will work a full day on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Wednesday will be "shopping day" where we visit vendors to get bids, buy products, and see options with our own eyes.  Saturday is college football day and we will take that day off to rest.  Sundays will be light work after church. My first task was to get all of the stuff off the walls.  This includes curtains, blinds, shelves, hangers, etc.  It took a full 2 days just to get the walls to a starting point.  The parts nearly filled a drawer. It did make an immediate improvement in the appearance of the rooms. Foyer Closet - Week 1 Removed wallpaper. Great Room - Original Great Room - Week 1 Removed blinds and hardware. When all the walls were cleaned of hardware, we started on more difficult work.  Susan worked on wa

We closed on the new house on October 22, 2019.  Immediately after closing we headed to the house.  Susan's plan was to have lunch on the deck but the weather was no cooperating.  Instead, we had lunch inside while looking at the new view - at least as much as we could see with the weather. I did take lots of photos in order to document the work we were about to undertake.  My plan is to take photos each Monday to show our progress.  The work is now focused on the interior of the main level.  That is also the focus of these photos.  So these are the "Before" photos. Foyer Great Room