One Sixty: And Now For The Office

I've been on blog-hiatus whilst going nuts at work. But never fear, work at home never stops... Well, I should say stuff to do never stops.

But we have been making major progress once again. After finishing the bedroom, it took us a week to move all the furniture out of the office and into the bedroom and put down the subfloor plywood in the office. This picture shows us at our halfway point in the plywood.

Tuesday and today, our neighbors have come to work on the drywall. This room is much easier than the bedroom - fewer problems. But I'm still going to repaint the whole thing anyway.

You see, I really thought I'd love a pink office - but when it comes right down to it - it's too girly for me! Plus, I want something warmer than the ice pink. Something feminine but not so girly if you know what I mean. And since I have to paint anyway - may as well repaint like I want. Also - I want to bring down the ceiling like I did in the bedroom by painting the upper slant white.

So if you look sideways (sorry, forgot to flip the pic) You can see the current paint and the closet. I don't think I'm going to do the color blocks again either - just because I found that it limits me in where I can hang pictures. And again, I thought I'd like that - but I like to have the flexibility to change my mind at will.

Have ya noticed? HA!

Anyway, hopefully the guys will be done with the drywall early next week and at that point we'll prime and paint.

Now, you'd think the next step after that would be the floor - but actually we have to put in our stair railing and all that because it attaches to the floor joists - not just the floor. Which is just as well, because the stairway (which opens up into the office) really needs to get railed. hee hee.

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.