Housework

Adam has been doing SO MUCH to our house since moving here last August. How about a little before and after show? Let's start with the back room. Here's a picture from the dining room looking at the back room's door. It was originally the back door of the house and the previous owners built an additional room onto it. The room eliminates most of our backyard, but since it's mostly winter in Wisconsin, we'll take the extra indoor space!

The weird shelves and cupboards that made entering the room feel like going down a hallway and moving a couch in tricky, if not impossible. The far left doors covered a bar area.

These bookcases were an ugly color, with orange 70's carpet attached to the back of that left center one...gross. We decided to keep these bookshelves but take out the others by the doorway, along with the entire wall they attached to!

First came the demo. We had to take the ceiling down because 1) It looked like elementary school tiles, 2) We needed to put more lights in since we could barely see with them on. They were dim and VERY recessed, and 3) It looked like it could be asbestos. We hired Igor--now that's a good story--to take down the doorway and put support beams up. Igor also took care of the new lights/electric work and hung the ceiling (and from then on, Adam has done everything). Adam tore down the wood paneling. We weren't against just painting them, but the ceiling situation gave us no other choice. While we were at it, we took the carpet up to reveal hardwod floors.

Adam hung the drywall, taped mudded, sanded, primed, and painted! I just stood there holding Jane in one arm and paint samples in the other. You can see the spots where the cabinets used to be--where the blanket is in this picture. We called those the "holes."


Jane crawled through the debris far too often for a 9-month old. Any health issues will be attributed to this period of her life when she breathed in drywall dust and tried to eat nails. Because of this, we recommend not living in the home you're working on if at all possible.

The room freshly primed.

Freshly painted and carpet pulled up.
And finally, re-stained bookshelves, new moulding aroung the windows, Ikea window treatments, couches, rug, some ornamental books from the "free" shelf at the library, and voila, we're living in the back room even though we're still not quite done.

We had to replace the dining room chandelier. We found a great one at Costco at an awesome deal. I made those curtains--my one and only sewing project for this house.

While I was in California, Adam decided to make a big coffee table for the back room so that both couches could share it for drinks, magazines, and feet. It was inspired by his parents'.

Can you believe all this stuff he's done without having done it before?? He's amazing!!!

Now about those "holes." This is why I am posting this huge run of pictures about the back room. We are thrilled to finally have new wood flooring in place of those holes. Hooray! Jane, as always, liked to help Daddy out.