Final Details - 2

We began this journey seven years ago. Our house had great bones but everything in it was worn out and shabby. We wanted to clean it all up and create something of our own. We wanted to do the work our selves. This blog has allowed us to realize everything that has entailed. It is full of plans, lists, decisions, tasks, and WORK. The project morphed along the way. We did not do it fast, but then it never was as much about the goal as it was about the journey. But now that we have reached our goal we are very happy! All along we kept a task list. It proved to be very clunky, with some tasks taking an hour (install heat register) and some tasks taking days and days (repair cracks in plaster).

We still need to repair the wood trim on the interior stairway where the floor re-finisher scuffed it up, and there is one item left to check off on our original task list, to finish moving all of our stuff back in that has been in storage for seven years. But, those things will not happen until after we return from our cruise. We feel the project is complete and it is time for some R&R!

Here is a photo of the next-to-the-last item on the check list; "install fireplace doors."

Of course we have begun a new list. Don has decided to build some furniture for the living room and dining room, and we want to finish fixing up the basement. But that is for another blog and another list. We have truly reached the end of this one. And we did indeed manage to fix up our old house, stay sane, stay together, and not go broke.

Final Details - 1

We can hardly believe that we are very, very nearly done. There are check marks next to 316 of the 318 items on our to-do list. Here are pictures of a couple of things that we accomplished in the last couple of weeks.

This very comfortable recliner was a treat to ourselves.

This simple cherry dining set is what we finally we settled on.

These photographs also show how the oak floor looks after having been refinished. We may have to add an audio file to our blog to demonstrate how our old piano sounds. A piano tuner was here this morning to tune the piano. The piano was the first "new to us" piece of furniture we ever acquired after we were married. It had led a long and colorful life prior to that, and was on the way to the dump when we rescued it. It continues to have a new lease on life, as does our whole house! We are feeling pretty snug.

Hello to Old Friends

Sami is busy unpacking boxes that she packed up seven years ago when she cleaned out cupboards and drawers in anticipation of the remodel. Two observations; 1). We have a lot of stuff! 2). It is nice to see some of the lovely things we have done without for seven years.

The upstairs landing has been finished, complete with a new light, Venetian blinds, paint and hardware. It looks clean and bright, don't you think?

But Wait – There’s More!

Yes, we are nearing the end of our 385 item to-do list. We are working hard on the two remaining areas; the living room and the upstairs landing. We have also been shopping for some additional needed furniture; bookshelves to replace the partial board ones we have acquired along the way, and a hutch for the dining room to replace the one we dropped and broke over a year ago. It dawned on us that we have yet another unfinished project that will give us all of the new furniture we want. Let us explain...

About forty years ago Sami gave Don a table saw and with it Don set about building furniture to replace the motley selection of hand-me-downs with which we began our married life. He designed bedroom and living room furniture; including a bed head, dressers, bedside tables, bookcases for the bedroom and living rooms, end tables, and a storage trunk. Based on the plans he bought a truck load of quarter-sawn oak and plenty of hardware. He finished the sides of the rough-cut wood and sawed it up into “furniture kits.” In the mid-70s he got as far as finishing the bedroom pieces, and we have enjoyed them ever since. Now, we have decided, it is time to finish the rest. What is left are two tall book cases; one will become the dining room hutch, the other will go into the living room. Two end tables, a low book case, and a storage trunk.

Before computer assisted drawing software.

 We have been eyeing the end of August as the finish date for the remodel, but with this new project our remodel will go on for a few more months. It will be wonderful to have all of the hand-made furniture – finally!

The Final Frontiers

We push ahead, Don with the fireplace project and Sami with the upstairs landing. Our last two big projects!

The tiles will come on a mesh backing. Although to get the exact pattern we want, Don will need to cut many of them apart. Here are samples of the colors we have chosen.

Another new skill to learn. Mortared tile removal.

A super messy job.

The naked fireplace.

One thing we like about this house is the generous about of storage it has. We have cleared out all of the linens and sewing things to refresh this bank of closets.

Big Bucks, Little Bucks

To finish up the project we have spent several big bundles of money. First we bought a new hot tub. Our old one was just worn out. We enjoyed it so much and so often, we decided to replace it.

Oliver helps cleaning out the old hot tub, to prepare for it to be taken away.

Another good sized purchase was buying tile from Pratt and Larson to re-do the living room fire place face and hearth. After that we selected a dining room set that we really like. This one is made of cherry wood. The final big project of the remodel is to have our wood floor refinished, so we have contracted with a fellow to get that done.

When we were not out shopping, Don was installing new windows in the living room and refinishing all of the mahogany trim. Sami placed the final order for the remaining Venetian blinds.

With Oliver's help we painted the living room a warm, happy golden.

A few years ago we were gifted with lovely new fireplace tool set. Over time the broom fell apart. We found it would cost a lot to have it rebuilt, so Sami bought a small Asian household broom for $2.49 and fashioned a new broom in the metal handle. Its not perfect, but it will do the job.

Don says the light at the end of the tunnel is getting mighty bright. We will be so happy to come out of the other end!

Face Lift

On Tuesday we picked up the last three new Milguard windows that will replace three of the four windows in the living room.

On Thursday we visited Pratt & Larson to look at tile for the fireplace.. With a change in the fireplace tile we will completely bid farewell to the 1940s "Barbie doll pink" that was everywhere in our house.

We are thinking of a geometric pattern with the sunny color as the main color and the blue and red colors alternating as accent colors. What da' ya' think?

Today we are playing catch-up with yard work, but tomorrow it is full steam ahead with the living room face lift.

Second-To-The-Last

We have been hard at it and have finished another room. Yea! Our bedroom seemed to go more quickly than some of the other rooms, perhaps because much of it (except for the insulation job) was cosmetic work. However, we refreshed everything, including trim, windows, furniture and walls. We also think this room went fast because we are getting better at plaster work and painting, plus we have experience researching new items and understand what we like and want better than we did at the start of this project. It was a snap to decide on a ceiling fan and a new bedspread. Don installed the final touch today; the Venetian blinds. Here are are few photos of the final results...

Don modified the headboard he built 40-some years ago to allow for our new queen-sized mattress.

We love our old-fashioned twin closets - but what a lot of woodwork!

We are happy to be back in our airy, upstairs bedroom.

Only the living room remains to finish, and we are well on our way in there. We also want to completely refresh the six cupboards and the window area in the landing outside our bedroom, not exactly a room, per-say. However you look at it, we feel the finish line is in sight!

Kitty Good Seal of Approval

Our Bedroom is almost done! Don refinished the tops of the oak bookcase and night stands that he built forty years ago. Sami finished painting the walls and Don put the final touches on the ceiling. We have added a new bedspread and pillows. As you can see, Daphne has given it the thumbs-up, kitty-style.

Report

We are plowing ahead. We spent a day insulating the living room and our bedroom. We are old hands at this because we did the same thing in the main floor bedroom. Finally all of our walls are insulated! Next Don went through the process of repairing all of the holes that he had to cut in the walls in our bedroom.

Sami fed insulation into the machine outside and Don blew it into the holes.

We are also old hands at plastering, sanding, priming, and painting.

We will finish in the bedroom and then move on to the living room and the landing upstairs. The home stretch!

Gone is the wall paper we added 25 years ago.

We are going for a quiet, peaceful color scheme in the bedroom. The walls and ceiling are a light blue color called "Constellation," and the accent wall, behind the headboard is called, "Tranquility." Tranquility is a difficult color to describe. It is a grayed blue-green, and it looks different in different lights.

You can see the contrast color on the wall behind Don.

Back Down the Stairs

We are moving ahead with the final part of the project. Sami has put heavy-duty ribbed plastic shelf paper in all of the shelves and drawers in the kitchen. Don is drilling holes in the uninsulated walls of our bedroom and the living room. We hope to rent the machine and blow in the insulation tomorrow. Meanwhile, we have moved back down to the basement, this time with our bedroom. It is so very quiet and dark down there, but comfortable.

Don is also putting back the window trim.

For now this is our bedroom. When we are done with the remodel it will become Don's train room.

FIRE In Our Eyes!

We are bound and determined to finish the remodel (Do we hear you say... "Its about time!"). We have putzed along slowly for the last couple of months, focusing on other projects instead, but we are back at it now. There are really only three areas left to do; the living room, our bedroom, and the stairway and landing to the second floor. For the first time since we began the project we are giving our selves a deadline.... we want to be done by the end of the summer. The reason is, we have a family reunion and a 50th wedding anniversary party scheduled for Labor Day weekend So, the heat is ON.

Moving out of the living room is step one.

We are tackling the living room first. We know at least one, and perhaps all three exterior walls need to be insulated. We plan on blowing the insulation in from the inside, just like we did in the main floor bedroom. Then we will repair all the the plaster, and add new windows and window coverings, After that we will paint and do any spiffing up of furniture that is needed.

We decided we don't like our bargain dining set and hope to sell it.

Drop clothes will protect the few things left in the living room.

Almost ready to start drilling holes in the wall to prepare for insulating.

Rooms That Aren't Rooms

We have had lots of interruptions in the last few months. Both Sami and Don have been at Oliver's school several days a week working with the kids in their Oregon Battle of the Books volunteer project. And, both Sami and Don came down with a cold that rendered them unable to do much besides moan for several weeks (it was the worst!). However, through it all, we plugged away at the remodel. We are now finished with two areas that are as big and complex as any of the rooms we have worked on, but they are not rooms! The entryway by the kitchen has four doors (and a cat door), five switch plates, six switches, and what felt like miles of trim and a bucket full of hardware. The walls there are all bead-board, full of gouges and scraped paint. But after completely re-doing every surface and every detail, the area doesn't look much different than it did before we started.

Don refinished the long handrail going down to the basement and made a new handrail from the kitchen to the landing.

 The same was true of the front entryway. Don went through a large bucket of mud to repair all of the cracks in the plaster walls and became a master plasterer to repair a bulge in the front entryway stairwell wall. He also refinished all the old wood trim.. There was more wall space to paint there than in any of the other rooms.

The area with the bulge looked strangely guitar-like.

 But after it is all said and done, it looks lovely, but not surprisingly different than it did before.

 Even though our work didn't change the appearance of these areas a lot, WE know how much work it took, and decided it warranted a little celebration.

WOW!

A while back we asked our son-in-law, Paul, to design and build a light fixture to hang over the peninsula. His artistry and skill has won him awards at Bullseye Glass, where he works, and we admired the pieces he makes. We waited patiently while he made prototype after prototype, experimenting with different colors, shapes, wood connecting pieces, and processes for the production. We had no idea how much time and effort he would put into the project. Last week we were rewarded with the final product.... WOW! We love it. It is a focal point of our new kitchen. We are sooooo lucky. Isn't it beautiful?

We had a few fireworks during the installation, due to a twisted wire. But that got worked out.

It is hard to photograph lights, but perhaps this photo shows the beautiful warm light it casts on our new peninsula.

Its just perfection!

Each light is two pieces of glass that have been formed out of different colors of glass. The wood pieces that hold the two pieces of glass together were designed mathematically to match the curve of the glass, and then made on a computer controlled machine (CNC router) and glued with silicone to become one piece. That is also how he made the cross bars. It is a merging of engineering and artistry. In reality they are very complex, but the final product is beautifully simple. Thank you, Paul. We love it.