It's been a while!

Well, I feel like it's been a while since I've done this, and it has! About 10 months ago, I posted about our bathroom renovation - which is now mostly complete! We just lack some trimwork around the windows, and that will wait until we actually have the money to replace them. In the meantime, we have taken on another MAJOR renovation - in our living, dining, and hallway spaces.

Living Room (fireplace and side door) Before

Our home was built in 1928. It originally had 9 foot ceilings, but those were lowered sometime during the 1960s for efficiency and given a popcorn texture for reasons only people then understood. There were no overhead lights in the living room with this new lower ceiling - even though there was evidence that the older, higher ceiling did have them.













Dining Room (note our only cooling source) Before


So, we began the project in March and are just now finishing up. Thus far, we have: stripped the rooms down to studs and ceiling joists, knocked out a wall between the dining room and kitchen, reinforced the ceiling and put in headers in the doorways, created archways between the rooms, put in insulation in the outside walls (there was none before), installed recessed lighting in all areas and a chandlier in the dining room, re-drywalled (no popcorn here!), added a MILLION electrical outlets (I was starved before), AND - this is my favorite - refinished the beautiful but hiding hardwood floors! Oh, and we had someone come put in central heat and air! It is revolutionizing our lives! We are NOT sweating through the nights any more! It's been a BUSY couple of months.

The rooms are so bright now. The high ceilings and the lights make a huge difference. Cami's not sure what to think of the hardwoods - or the holes in the floor for the air conditioning. She's having to relearn how to run in the house. She is, however, happy to have her spot on the couch back. It's been hiding in the garage for 5 weeks.

We've hung the TV on the wall and sent the cords through the wall, so it looks very nice - not cluttered by wires running everywhere. Eventually, a built in cabinet will go next to the fireplace to hold all of the components. For now, though, they are just on the floor.

The trim, baseboards, and crown molding are all painted but not up yet. We decided to replace the windows and doors before hanging them to avoid the possibility of having to hang them again. John was nice enough to cut some trim and our baseboards for me because I have strange taste that doesn't exist in regular hardware stores. He has a great setup at his house complete with router table, planer, sander, and lots of saw horses.

It's still not finished yet, but we are getting closer! Furniture is getting moved back in slowly, and I'm determined not to put any CLUTTER back in these rooms! Let's hope I succeed! I'll post updates of the finished project soon!