Saturday, February 25, 2017

Upstairs Overhaul!

It has been quite some time since I wrote a post sharing how our house was coming along. Nate shares pics on Facebook so some of you might have already seen these, but I wanted to get the before and afters all in one place.

Just like the rest of our home, nothing is 100% at this point. I seriously wonder if we will ever get the molding and trim up, but it is all coming along and we are no longer living in a "construction zone".

In December my parents came to visit for two weeks. It was a cold and snowy two weeks and they survived.

The goal of their trip was to see if Dad could figure out how to plumb in a second bathroom upstairs. We were managing with only one bathroom, but for the boys to have to come down the stairs in the night to go to the bathroom, and all of getting ready to go somewhere did present some challenges.

When we bought the house in early November 2016 the upstairs had two nice sized bedrooms, one small "office", and a closet. There was a small landing upstairs between the rooms, but not big enough to do much with.

When we started remodeling we decided to go ahead and remove the paneling, that was painted yellow, off the walls and that of course tore off the plaster, so major demolition began.

Before Demo Began




As you came up the stairs there was a door/window in the wall, nailed shut, and leading to nowhere. 


Demo was a family affair!





Let me tell you, I never want to have to deal with plaster walls again. Do not knock the plaster off your walls if you can avoid it, just Sheetrock over it! It was miserable living in the rubble. I felt like we would never be clean again. 



It began to look like a house again! Sheetrock was put up, it was mudded and taped, textured was sprayed, and we painted. 




We worked super hard to get all of the Sheetrock completed before mom and dad got here in mid-December. 
Between November 2, 2016 to December 15, 2016 we did the following

Living Room:
Tore up the existing floor
Put in new joists, insulated the crawl space, and laid sub-floor
Tore down paneling, wall paper, and plaster
Insulated the walls
Hung Sheetrock, textured, and painted
Laid carpet

Diving Room:
Tore up existing laminate
Tore down paneling, wall paper, and plaster
Insulated the walls
Hung Sheetrock, textured, and painted
Installed new flooring

Stairway and Upstairs Landing:
Tore off paneling, wall paper, and plaster
Hung Sheetrock, textured, and painted

Upstairs Bedrooms:
Repaired plaster walls
Painted
Laid carpet

Kitchen:
Painted
Painted cabinets
Installed new flooring

Miscellaneous
Pulled up carpet and laid new flooring in our bedroom
Installed new flooring in the bathroom
Blew insulation into the attic
Reinforced and lifted the floor under the stairway where the floor was sagging

Those 6-7 weeks were long... Then mom and dad got here and we started looking for a good place to put an upstairs bathroom. Of course we had an idea that the small office area would be the best place, but weren't sure how the plumbing would work. 

After some discussion it was decided that we would tear through the back wall of the upstairs landing closet and into the small office and combine those two spaces into a bathroom. Dad decided he could go through the floor upstairs and run the plumbing down through our dining room (we would hide the pipes with a box of some sort) and into the basement where he would tie into the main plumbing lines. More demo began, but with two extra hands (Dad and Moms) it went quickly and we knocked it out in one evening. 





The next morning as I wandered upstairs and evaluated the office space and bathroom, it hit me, the landing/office should be one big open space with a small bathroom. Otherwise this already small room, was going to basically become a closet after taking a portion of it to become a bathroom. I knew that this meant a lot more demo and a lot more Sheetrock and a LOT more work, but it really was the best idea for the space. Everyone agreed it was probably the best thing to do, so more demo began - including the demo of the sheetrock, Nate had just finished hanging, texturing, and painting less than a week before! UGH!!!


So all of the walls between the landing and office came down and the framing for the bathroom went up. 





While Dad was here he focused on getting the plumbing in and re-doing a bunch of electrical stuff. He spent almost 2 full days, that were not part of the original time frame/plan, in the attic doing electrical work. 

Unfortunately we live 40ish minutes from Home Depot and there were a lot of hours spent driving to and from Home Depot for materials/supplies that we didn't know we would need. Plus, a few returns when the shower the didn't fit, and then the vanity that I wanted was just way too big. Finally, the shower was in, and we found a pedestal sink that fit as well. 



Yes that is cardboard for walls... It was a quick fix for privacy so the toilet could be used. 

The above stage was about where the bathroom was left when it was time for Mom and Dad to leave. So thankful they were able to come and put in a bathroom! I know it's a luxury, but two bathrooms makes life soooo nice! 

Over the past 2 months Nate has worked to finish everything upstairs in the bathroom and "rec room". Because of some changes in my job situation, Nate is now working full time outside of the home and therefore doesn't have as much time to work on the house, so the upstairs has been slow going... 





The bathroom needs trim and a mirror over the sink, and some finish work over the shower, but it is fully functioning and the boys don't seem to notice that there isn't a mirror! 




Nate spent a lot of time refinishing the floors upstairs and while they are 100+ year old floors and definitely not perfect, it looks nice! 



Our other upstairs project was to create bookshelves in place of the banister. The banister was very low with wide spacing, and quite dangerous so we had planned to replace it from the beginning. Building bookshelves worked well and I love them!



Originally we thought the room would be more of a rec room for the boys, but instead of a tv and video games we are leaning towards making it more of a creative space where we can all craft and create together. 

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