The Completion of the Upstairs

Before I cover the destruction of another main floor room, I thought I'd post some of the pics of the new windows/trim installed in the upstairs master bedroom- installed in April/May.

Destruction/Construction Season Coming Soon

While I don't claim to be a "blogger", I do realize that it is poor webiquette (I coined the word- I can do that, it's my blog) to go several months without a post.  However, as of 1:30 AM this morning, I am done with school for the summer and will now devote some spare time to home improvements, baseball, and blogging.  The Winter/Spring hasn't found us completely dormant.  We had a wood furnace installed in the basement and installed new windows upstairs in the master bedroom (pictures to follow).  This summer's big project will be the main floor bathroom and converting the den (next to said bathroom) into a bedroom.  This arrangement makes more sense than our current floor plan and will help our situation if the newest addition to our family (due in December) is a boy.  Sarah is sifting through magazines looking for color, design, fixtures and other such womanly stuff while I charge the battery for my sawzall in eager anticipation for demolition.  I will try to hold myself back long enough to take "before pictures" this time.   Stay tuned or don't.

New Door and Nice Floor

My camera decided to work again for a little while only because it overheard that I had purchased its replacement on Friday.  This last effort by my trusty Kodak EasyShare was in vain however, because newegg promisses that a better camera will arrive by Tuesday.

Since the last blog posting, a new door has been installed, stained, and sealed.  The floor has also been sanded, sanded some more, and then polyurethaned (with three coats).  Trim work has begun as well and will hopefully be wrapped up this week.

Paint

Today, the room was painted. The ceiling is white and the walls are yellow. One mroe coat of paint is needed on the walls. I should be able to apply the final coat on Tuesday and can then proceed to refinish the floors and install trim. Dad came over and helped to install the pine door you see in the picture below. In other news, The Big 12 South is far superior to the Big 12 North, it's raining in Philadelphia, and Obama is a communist.

I apologize for the low quality of the images below. Our camera quit working so our cellphone had to pinch hit.

And Then There Were Walls

The walls are now covered in drywall and the joints mudded. With a little luck and some time, we'll be painting next week.

The New Ceiling

This evening my dad came over to help install the three 12 foot drywall panels that were destined to become Audrey's bedroom ceiling. There was not a glass ceiling around, meaning that Sarah had to put down the baby and help hoist the panels to the ceiling while I screwed it up.

Insulating

Since the last blog posting, all electrical boxes and switches have been installed and wire roped through the proper paths.  Paul came over this Saturday to give me a hand with the installing of the insulation and the pulling of the nails.  Speaking of nails, did anyone order any for the LA Angels of Anaheims' coffin?  Anyway, back to the work at hand... The next step will be to install drywall and should occur sometime this week if all goes well.  

Here's a little clip of Paul showing off his mad nail-pulling skills.

The New Closet takes shape

I am sorry to say that I have not updated this blog in quite some time.  I have been kept busy with a few other home improvement projects that are not so blog worthy.  The following video shows the progress taken last Saturday.  The new window is now in the garage and will be installed this Friday evening/Saturday morning.

From Destruction to Construction

Joe, risking his health, came over to help again. The task at hand today was to remove the last of the plaster/lath and clean up the room to allow for the reconstruction of the room. As we cleaned, the Royals won game three of their four game series against the horrid Seattle Mariner club by a score of 5-3.

Now that the room is cleaner (relatively), I eyed down one of the ceiling joists and found that they had a belly, meaning they sagged in the center of the room. Now don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with having a bit of a belly, but it's not good for hanging sheet rock on ceilings. I'll need to tie the ceiling in with the roof joists for support to help straighten the load.

Here's a pic of the slight slope in the ceiling.

It was a little dusty sweeping up all that plaster and old insulation.

Much better.

The Destruction is Almost Complete

Friday evening, the remaining plaster was torn from the walls and loaded into the back of my truck. Joe Peterson agreed to help with this stage in exchange for clam chowder... think he's regretting it now. My F-150 heroically hauled the 1.5 tons of debris all the way the the Louisville landfill on Saturday. The lath boards were removed and set aside for burning :-) .

Dad came over for a little while on Saturday and started the "re-wiring" process.

The Sky Begins to Fall

Removing the Trim and Paneling

It was time again to embark on a home improvement project of epic proportions. The task before me was to perform demolition work on the main floor's guest bedroom so as to expose the bare studs and then update the lair with insulation, a new window, and drywall.

I began on Saturday by cleaning out the contents of the room. Tuesday evening after supper, things started happening. I started by removing all the outlets and switch plates, then proceeded to take down all the ceiling tiles. With the help of a pal, I removed all the trim and paneling and exposed the previously disguised pink plaster.

Unfortunately, as you can see below, I forgot once again to take a "before" picture until I had already removed the ceiling tiles.


As I type, the demolition is well underway and the room is quite pink... a little too pink for my liking. That is all about to change however, because tonight I will begin the dirty task if tearing out the putrid pink plaster (say that 10 times fast).