What's Goin' On In the Family Room?

 Let's see... I really don't remember what all I've shared so far and what I have yet to show, so I'll just start from the beginning and do a total recap of our family room.

This used to be called our dining room, but we decided to switch it around a little bit. So this is now our family room. It's bigger and in the middle of everything and we won't be using the dining room nearly as much as the family room, so it just makes more sense. We are half thinking about leaving the dining table in the family room and making the room that would have been a dining room into an exercise room... but we'll see how that develops.

So this is how our room started out when we first bought the house. We had a drop ceiling. There were plaster walls covered with a paneling. Not just any paneling, but the darkest kind of paneling possible, which really made the room feel small and even with the curtains open, it never got all that light in there. 

And here's a view of the other side. The room on the right will now be our dining room... unless we choose to make it into our exercise room! 

Below is a picture of my mom on the ladder, tearing down the drop ceiling and the tracks to it. Yes, I know you're not supposed to sit on top of the ladder. She marches to the beat of her own drum, lol. After tearing down the drop ceiling, we had a furnace installed, but instead of putting the drop ceiling back up, we decided to go ahead and just frame a ceiling and put up drywall.

So we went ahead and tore off the paneling and knocked down the plaster. I don't seem to have any pictures of that process, or I can't find them on my new computer. But either way, it was a mess and I'm glad it's done! So we were left with no ceiling and no walls. Just studs and exposed wiring.

We took advantage of not having walls to put in some more insulation. It is an on-going process, but hopefully we will get the whole house covered sooner rather than later. 

The framing of the ceiling was a pretty long task. We got most of the boards up and then realized that we didn't have it all leveled out because the original ceiling gently sloped upward in one corner. Rather than putting up drywall at an angle, we decided to readjust every.single.row and made them all level. Not fun at all. But worth it. 

Then came the process of putting up the drywall. We learned our lesson in the bedroom, so we measured twice, cut once ... ok, we had to trim a bit a few times, but nobody's perfect. : )

All in all, it went much smoother than the bedroom's ceiling. We had an extra set of hands and a little more experience under our belts. 

We happen to have two chimney columns in our house. One in the bedroom and one in the family room. So we've had to create a frame around each of those and cover them in drywall. We don't want to tear them down and risk putting a giant hole in the outside wall just yet. So after the ceiling was framed and we got some of the drywall up, we started framing the walls and the column. None of the studs are ever level with the others, so it's a very, very long process of adding shims or 2x4s and getting them all straight. 

Here you can see we have most of the ceiling done (waiting on the furnace and new wiring to be finished before closing it off completely). We also have the column covered. 

 We have gotten most of the walls framed, so we started putting up drywall. It really makes a huge difference in the feel of the room already. Much brighter and cleaner and I love it! Don't mind the mess in that room there, that's just our tool/supply storage room for the moment, lol. And we usually have it blocked off with a blanket because there are some wicked air leaks and it gets cold, so that's why the tube to the furnace is hanging from the ceiling. We moved it so the heat comes to the rooms we actually are using. 

Another angle with the drywall up on the walls. 

Recently I tried my hand at doing it all by myself and got that section to the right of the column done all on my own. It took me quite a while, but I learned a lot in the process.  Gus likes to sit and watch while we work ... and eat any stray pieces of wood (or drywall) that accidentally land in chewing range.

And our last big work day was last weekend and we got another wall finished, except for one small corner piece.  My mom and dad came out and helped us with the walls and the wiring.

This mess is the finished product ... for now. Around that corner on the left there are a few sections that need to be finished, but we now have the entire ceiling done except for the middle part where the furnace needs to be adjusted. 

Next time we need to clean up BEFORE we take the pictures, lol. But here is that small corner. 

We're hoping to work on it a little bit throughout the week and see what we can get done and then have another good go at it this weekend.

We are trying to decide what to do with this corner though. We would really love to move the door from the kitchen into the family room, to that wall to the right of the TV in the picture below. It would really open up our kitchen and I think would just be a better fit for us. The problem is determining if it is structurally sound that way. We also need to create a header for that archway between the kitchen and the family room because whoever built the addition didn't bother with one. So those will be our two big tasks, if we choose to do so... well, the header is a must, but we may end up not moving the door. Or we may wait and move it some time down the road too. We'll see.

So that's where we currently stand. I'll try to update more often as we make more progress!

Let's Catch Up!

I have to admit, I got a little behind in November with getting ready for the holidays, trying to fix up our house, and getting sick. Then, as January came, I realized just how far behind I was and didn't want to even think about organizing everything to try to get caught up ... which means that I got more and more behind and the thought of digging in sounded less and less appealing. It's a horrible cycle. 

Now add onto that this horrible winter, full of snow and storms and all kinds of "fun" stuff. I am not a winter person. I do not like snow. I do not enjoy being cold. I tend to go into "survival mode" when winter hits. Last year was pretty bad, and I ended up playing a bunch of sudoku and reading a bunch of novels to shut down and block out the cold, grey skies outside. I really didn't bounce back until Hubby intervened and got me back on track.I must pick a different defense mechanism each time. I'm just so looking forward to that first real warm day. I think I might cry when it comes. Not kidding. 

View of our driveway in January after the big storm. I'm so ready to be done with all the white!

We got stuck inside by a giant drift. Couldn't open our door.

King of the mountain ... er, snow drift!

 

It's a good thing I have this little man to snuggle up to when I get a case of the winter blues!!

Not sure why, but he loves shoving his nose in the gate, lol.

 

So, let's try to figure out where I left off and what we've gotten done on the house, shall we? When I left you last, Hubby and I were "Living in Transition".  I really don't think that helps much with Seasonal Affective Disorder either. Still feels like we are living out of boxes and all crammed together.

As of right now, we still have our upstairs blocked off to try to keep the heating bill to a minimum.  We've also moved our bunny, Gus, out of the office and into the dining room. And then we moved him into the bedroom. We blocked off our office and have packed all of our bedroom/family room furniture into one room and that's basically where we spend the majority of our time. 

Let's focus on the bedroom for now... The bedroom is still under construction. 

For those who don't know, we bought the house in October and the state of the bedroom was not so great. It was half drywall and half plaster/lathe. The drywall was not taped or mudded or anything, just screwed on. There was some moisture damage and that had turned into mold since nobody had been around to maintain it. 

 

So we tore it all down. All of it. Plaster/lathe and drywall and trim. We would have probably torn the ceiling down with it all, if there had been a ceiling. We did have a tall ceiling, but we now have duct work from the new furnace we had put in, so we constructed a new ceiling, below the duct work. In addition to the new ceiling, we spent hours and hours trying to level out the studs. Apparently they decided to use them at all different angles and just smoothed the plaster over it. So after we added lumber to get all of the walls level, we put up new drywall. We taped it up and threw some mud on it! 

Hubby is getting ready to do some damage!

 

Tearin' down the walls with a friend of ours!

As of now, we've managed to get almost all of the mudding done and have sanded. We just have to do one more touch up coat and sand that. And then we can get to priming the walls! I am so excited for that step. I feel like it will be a turning point to getting our house back! But for now, it's drywall and a bunny tent! 

Working on the corner guards.

Taking advantage of the new ceiling, we installed a new light/fan... decided to wait on putting the rest up until after painting.

We'd like to eventually get some carpet in there and paint, of course. And then we can move our things into it. Gus will just have to be shuffled around until we get my office done. It will probably be the last room, so it may be a while. But Gus doesn't really seem to mind. I think he likes switching things up. And I do his pen area a little differently each time I move him. The only thing that would be a bummer is that when he is confined to his pen he doesn't have as much freedom as he did when I had the whole office blocked off and he could run around the whole room. But I still say he's rather spoiled. So I don't feel too bad! : ) 

Before, when he was in what will become the dining room... lots of room.

And now, in what is slowly becoming the bedroom. Not as much room, but now he has a fun canopy and an igloo that we got him for Christmas!

Now, as for color and how we want to decorate the bedroom. Eventually. When we get to that point... I am obsessed with grey right now. I've pretty much decided that our whole house is going to have a grey theme and then we'll liven it up with colorful accessories. Now, I will be the first to admit that I know absolutely not-a-thing when it comes to decorating and being able to put things together so they'll look nice. This is just what I happened to put together and I liked it. 

And this model isn't an exact replica of what our room will look like when finished either, it's just an inspiration board. I'm still learning how to work the website, Olioboard, but it has been such a help. I am a visual person and I have a hard time making decisions unless I can SEE what it will look like. So this has been a great tool. I really can't remember how I happened to find it. I think I may have just searched for inspiration board tools and tried a few. There is a free version and a pro version, but the free version is pretty darn spiffy, if you ask me. It's sometimes a little hard to find exactly what I want, but there are a ton of options to choose from and the combinations are endless! I highly recommend checking it out if you feel the desire to create an inspiration board of your own! : )

So now, I leave you with one of my all-time favorite things ... a before/after (or progress) shot! 

Tearin' Down The Walls!

Ok, time to get to the real meat of our DIY projects to date! We tore apart the bedroom!

It started out looking like this:

And we decided that we had to take down the lathe and plaster to put up drywall. We discovered at this time that they had used horsehair in the plaster. It was both disgusting and fascinating. 

Then we decided that the old drywall had to come down because they hadn't sealed the crawlspace so moisture had gotten up and into the drywall. Not good. So we took that down. 

That meant that the walls were completely gone. Down to the studs. And it looked like this:

So now comes the easy part, we just put up drywall, right? Wrong! Apparently the studs are not flush at all. Some leave 1 inch indents and some stick out 1 inch from the rest. ALSO, there were no corners, so those had to be built so we could support the edges of the drywall. AND then we found out that the there were no top or bottom supports. So we decided to fill in gaps and add 2x4s to the corners, tops, and bottoms to create a level work surface. 

This would be my mom, helping us to get the room finished! : ) 

This was no easy task, especially since the existing studs seemed to have petrified and it was nearly impossible to get a screw or nail into them without it bending or just getting stuck half way. But we finally managed to get three of the walls completed. And it looked like this:

 

Here Chris was shaving off a bit of wood that was pushed out and would have made the drywall sit uneven against the rest of the studs. Tough job, but someone's gotta do it! And below he is cutting out a square for the outlet. 

So at this point it was time to put in the drywall. The drywall was much heavier than I had expected. My mom and I carried it into the house and we about broke her knuckle because we were moving it and her hand became smashed between door and drywall. But we eventually got the hang of it, and we now have almost 3 full walls up.

We have had a few setbacks. We were waiting for my dad to finish putting in new wiring. That's a whole other topic right there. And we have had a few issues getting the corners flush. But we have made some really good progress and it's starting to feel more like a nice room with potential rather than a creepy, abandoned, crime scene. I exaggerate, but there are a lot of pointy instruments in that room right now. 

It's been slow going. Hubby doesn't get home until 6 and then we have dinner and we unwind and get ready for the next day. So we have mainly been working on the weekends. I would try to get some of it done during the day since I get off earlier, but I'm afraid to use power tools by myself. Don't think I can rely on Gus to drive me to the hospital if I were to saw off my finger or put a nail through my foot. (I am not the most graceful person on this Earth, lol). 

We're hoping to get the rest of the supports up on the top and bottom and then to get the rest of the drywall up this weekend, but we're also going to a wedding on Saturday (of which Hubby is in) so our time will be limited. We're going to see what we can do though. My parents have been amazing throughout this whole process. I can't even describe it. We decided we want to DIY as much as we can with this house. It saves money, it's a good skill to have, and it's a sense of pride for your home that you just don't get anywhere else. They have been through a lot of this already since they did the same thing when they bought their home 25+ years ago. And they have been teaching us, and letting us learn first hand, and really supporting us financially whenever they can too. We would definitely not be getting this stuff done without their help. So we are so grateful to have them helping us throughout all of this process. Thanks, Mom & Dad!! : )

Anyone else working on a DIY project right now, anyone tearing down walls or putting up drywall. It's a long progress and always more time consuming and more expensive than we think, but it will be so worth it! 

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. We have an issue on the fourth wall. There is a little chimney in the wall. And from what we've seen so far, we can't tear it down. So instead we will be building a column around it and just closing it off that way. Wish us luck! We'll share the progress as we get there!