Remodeling Complete

Done.

My winter project of remodeling the bulk of our home is complete. Here is how the upstairs came out, with some before and after photographs.

Upper Hall: Before and After

Stairway: Before and After

Master Bedroom: Before and After

I'm already getting antsy, since there's not much more planning to be done for our upcoming vacation. There is yard work and general repairs to do, though. And after our vacation I want to gut and redo the children's bathroom. For now, though, my big project is done and the house looks a lot nicer.

Winter Project

My winter project is almost done.

The goal was to remodel the piano room, family room, office, and master bathroom. That meant new flooring, painted ceilings, walls and base molding, a fireplace, hallways, stairs, and carpeting in the bedrooms.

Much of this work was done solely by myself. I removed the old carpet, painted, installed hardwood flooring, designed and installed the fireplace.

Friday, the carpet comes.

This weekend, we put our bedrooms back together.

Then it is done.

The big project will make way for small putterings. Sarah's flowers. Hope's tomatoes.

I can, also, overplan and fret over our upcoming vacation. Sixty-seven days to embarkation, and counting down.

Tools of Winter

There has been some interest of late in getting started making your own bookcases and the like. Simple things that last, but not heirloom furniture.

Woodworking isn't my hobby. Like anything else, it has been a case of monkey see, monkey do. We have all put together pre-made furniture. Heavy slabs of particle board, held together with quarter-turn fasteners.

"Surely, I couldn't do this," we say to ourselves. After all, those parts were factory-made with precision cuts and drilled holes. Never mind that nothing quite lines up right when we're assembling it. We can't do this.

Not that I wouldn't try. Oh, I'd buy some 2 x 4s and screw them together with some drywall screws I had lying around. It would look like hell and fall apart.

Then, I wanted to remodel my bathroom. I wanted one stinking cabinet. Natural cherry, to match my kitchen. One lousy vanity. Okay, maybe some matching shelves. I couldn't find that anywhere. Anything close was thousands. Thousands. I didn't want the whole room to cost that much!

So I started looking, really looking, at my kitchen cabinets. And I thought, maybe - just maybe - I could make one, too. Christmas was coming, so I asked for a couple tools. Soon after, I had my master bathroom remodeled. Walls freshly painted. New toilet and sink. A lovely granite counter set onto a cherry vanity that I had made. On a tile floor I had laid.

All it took was a way to join two pieces of wood together in a quick and sturdy manner. And all because I wanted what I wanted, but was both impatient and cheap.

Last of the Hickory

Break time is over.

The last bit of carpet to be replaced by solid hickory was in the upper hall. We have decided to carpet the stairs, our daughter's bedroom, and the master bedroom. But the upper landing in hickory will, hopefully, wear better than the smelly carpet I ripped out of there. It, also, allows us to use different carpet in the bedrooms and on the stairs, since the flooring carpet and stair carpet do different jobs.

Anyway, I needed a bit more flooring to do the hall, so I made a trip out to Sheoga in my car. I can fit exactly two cases of flooring between the seat of my Maxima, so I picked up a case of 3-1/4 and a case of 4-1/4 prefinished natural hickory. I, also, picked up a stair nosing.

This job took a bit more time than it looks like it ought, but it is finished.

The next steps is to remove the carpet from the stairs and paint the stair trim.

Then I need to paint the master bedroom.

After that, I need to remove the furniture from the bedrooms and remove the carpet from them, too.

I like to say that the last five percent of the job is half the job. So I'm half done.

Office Remodel

Finally, I am done with the ground floor remodeling. The kitchen was done a couple years ago. The dining room isn't on my list, nor is the lower half bath. I did paint ceiling and walls and replace carpet with solid hickory in the piano room, family room, hall and home office.

It is time for a break.

It is also time for new office furniture, but that is a project for next winter, perhaps.

In a couple weeks I will be at it again, because it is my plan to refurbish the main staircase, upper landing, master bedroom and my daughter's bedroom before summer.

The main need, there, is to replace the smelly carpet on the landing with hickory and to do something about the worn carpet on the stairs. My daughter's bedroom has been recently painted, so it just needs a new floor. My bedroom needs both a new floor and a fresh coat of paint.

The upper bath is a project for another time, and my son's room is already done.