Master Bedroom & Bath

Well, I've been holding off on posting about our major project re-doing the master bedroom and master bath until we had it completed. However, it is such a MAJOR undertaking, that it has taken more than a year and we're still not finished. So, I will post our progress so far. We began in November (the 9th, I believe) 2010 with tearing apart the old tiny closet. (Even though, technically, we had started back in March 2010 by tearing out the Orange Street side bedroom wall and putting in a wall next to the steps for the closet, see that post here.)

Tearing apart the old closet

The little closet had a lower ceiling than the rest of the room, and the bathroom had a little "box" of sorts down from the ceiling. We found out what it was: the bookshelf (formerly a large window we believe) on the second landing of the stairs.

We decided to put in an attic access in the new closet because our bedroom had no access.

In order to tear out the remainder of the closet side wall, we needed to tear apart the bathroom. Since we were planning to eventually extend the bathroom, we decided that we must do them both at the same time. That wasn't our original plan, but it needed to be done. Here is the bathroom "before".

Here you can see the "box" in the bathroom ceiling/wall, which was from the bookshelf on the stairs.

The ceiling in the bathroom was a drop ceiling covering a very moldy original ceiling.

This nasty old fan/vent wasn't vented properly and there were large holes in the ceiling where there didn't need to be any.

Tearing out the bathroom wall.

Jason had to go to work, which interrupted the "flow" of work, so I decided to continue ripping out the shower on my own. It was VERY moldy beneath the tile.

The insulation had slipped down and started to rot away.

Under the floor of the shower was hardened cement, which seems odd.

The wood planking on the studs had to be cut where they went past the outer bathroom wall.

Working on the drop-down of the bookshelf. Jason just wanted to work around it because it was going to be a LOT of work cutting it down, but I really wanted a smooth ceiling for the closet and the bathroom, so I begged him to cut it down.

This is the front of the bookshelf on the stairway side. You can see the cuts that were made from the bedroom side.

Jason cutting the drop down from the stairway side.

Peter thought that was a lot of fun being able to see into Daddy & Mommy's room from the stairway!

The hole boarded up.

Insulation going up.

Drywall up in the bathroom.

We discovered what must have been an old doorway. On the steps going down to the basement, it was a shallow shelf, so we tore it apart. This picture shows the hole looking into the basement stairway.

The hole boarded up. We had to cut and remove the majority of the old door trim and casing because it was sticking out beyond the studs.

Preparing to cut the floor to extend the bathroom floor.

The bathroom floor with new plywood sub-floor to extend the bathroom.

The new bathroom floor linoleum.

Working on the water supply for the shower.

Originally, we were going to re-use the old shower. The next few pictures are re-installation of the old shower with new plastic walls, and new shower control knob.

Preparing to mud the walls.

Walls mudded.

Priming.

Ceiling mudded, beginning to prime.

Walls primed, ceiling primed and painted.

Ceiling painted.

Beginning to paint the walls. (This picture is deceiving, because that's pretty much all the priming and painting Jason did, the rest was done by me while he was at work.)

This picture is more representative of the bathroom prime & paint job! ;)

Walls painted and baseboard in.

Starting on the pluming and vanity for the sink.

While Jason was off work for Christmas 2010, my parents took our kids for the day. We decided that was the ideal day to tear out the bedroom wall that faced the stairway, so we could do both at once without fear of the kids falling down the hole(s).

Insulation up and drywall being put up.

Working on the front of the closet.

Drywall up, preparing to mud.

Painting with paint-and-primer-in-one paint.

Ceiling painted, trim up. This is also a view of the attic access, and the new light fixture.

Working on the closet insert.

Putting up the sliding doors for the closet.

Putting up drywall on the outside of the bathroom.

The new bathroom door installed.

The old shower leaked, and we could not locate where the leak was coming from, so we gave in, tore it out, and replaced it.

I either need to take more pictures, or download them off of my camera! Our shower has been installed since May 2011, we have a boarder up in the bathroom, and the sink is in place. We are currently working on the walls of the bedroom. Jason has them mudded, and he's working on sanding so we can prime & paint. This has been a very long involved process that has taken us more than a year to get to this point and we're not even done. My poor kitchen has been waiting, half finished, for a VERY long time!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

It's a bit late, but we're finally getting our "white Christmas"! It is snowing out and so gorgeous, I decided to plug in the Christmas lights and take some pictures before the decorations come down. From our house to yours: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Also, I never took pictures of our porch and front walk project from this summer. We re-did the screens on the porch and made them permanent, we put in a new screen door and changed the location of the door. We also added a "nub" to the porch with steps and railings (the Myrtle side railing is removable so we can take R2-D2 down the steps), and we added a boardwalk connecting the steps to the front side walk. Also, we added a post light at the end of the boardwalk, something I've always wanted. Here is a "before" picture:




And here it is now, all covered in freshly falling snow and my Christmas lights and garlands:

Two Years!

Two years ago, we were moving our belongings into our house so we could begin living here. It's amazing all the things that we've been able to accomplish in those two years...and how many we still need to do!

I have a load of pictures I'm eager to share, but I'm hoping we'll finish something before I can post them. We've been working on the front porch, adding steps to the left side, and a wooden walk. I'll post pictures of that soon. Also, we've been working on expanding the bathroom and the closet in the master bedroom as well as redoing the walls with better insulation and drywall instead of thin wood paneling.

Here is a beautiful sunset picture I just took a few minutes ago. I LOVE living here!!

Blizzard!

Here is our place after the blizzard on February 2nd, 2011:

Back Door!

September 23rd, 2010 we finally were able to buy a new back door for the mudroom! Jason had been working mandatory 7-day weeks for three weeks straight, which is why we could afford the door (on sale) but also made it tight to fit replacing the door into the schedule. But, we desperately needed to replace the old door which was NOT at all weather tight.

The old door showing the light (and cold or heat, depending on the season) that would stream in:

Taking off the old storm door. We put the old storm door back on, but we will eventually replace it as well.

No doors!

The old door off. The bottom window panel was actually a very thin Plexiglas instead of real glass.

Fitting the new door in the old slot:

The new door installed! Jason had to go to work before the knobs and deadbolt were in, so I chiseled the spots and installed the door knobs and deadbolt:

Trim Work

In September, 2010 we finally got the trim work around the front door finished up. Here are pictures that were taken the 12th of September.