Had enough door jokes? NOT ME. I’m just thrilled to have all of the doors hung upstairs. With door knobs and trim!!
Door, knob and trim. This one is Claire’s closet door.
The upstairs hallway.
As you can see, we also hung pictures in the hallway! Finishing a room and decorating it are two completely different worlds to us right now. So, I’m reminding myself to be grateful for the little things. I’ve realized there are so many details that go into a room (read: so much to do!), even before the decorating process.
Thanks for dropping in as we FIX THIS FARM. Our door is always open! Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’ve been spending too much time with Cory and his Dad jokes 😉
We’ve been in the house for almost 3 months now. It’s still half construction site, but it’s now officially home! We (mostly) finished the two upstairs bedrooms before we moved in, but we’re still putting the finishing touches like baseboards and framing in the windows.
Claire’s room is so close to being done! Cory framed in her window and completed her built in toy closet. I painted it but we haven’t put shelves in yet. This space was previously part of her closet. It was a narrow long space, so we decided to break it up and open the access. This will be a more functional way to store her toys, separate from her clothes and true storage items. Here is the during and almost final product of Claire’s built in toy closet:
We also haven’t hung anything on our precious walls!!! I do want to hang pictures, but the thought of putting a hole in our freshly painted, newly hung drywall still makes me cringe (a lot).
The progress has slowed down a bit now that we live here. As expected, we spent time over the summer cleaning up the property and keeping it mowed. We miiiight have even spent some time floating in the pool with friends and family! We also found some great end of season bargains on outdoor furniture. We got a sofa set for the deck, a pair of chases, new umbrella for the table and two huge deck boxes to store all of the fun new pool toys.
Now that it’s turned chilly we had a cover made and winterized the pool. The one we chose is highly rated for safety, a 95% mesh weave, and will (hopefully) cut down the algae growth over the winter. We got lucky and were able to use all of the existing anchors for the cover so we didn’t have to drill into the concrete, phew!
We had some of the water hydrants in and around the barn replaced and spent several weekends clearing and burning branches.
Our major project in the house right now is the upstairs bathroom. It will be Claire’s bathroom and serve as the guest bathroom. I have a design plan and the tub is installed, so it should go pretty quickly now. I’ve got a test spot of the paint color drying on the wall as I type. This is some of what I’m planning:
clockwise from top right: floor tile, shower tile, vanity, granite for vanity, shower curtain, and wall color
We also replaced the water heater. Not as flashy, but oh so necessary!
On a more fun note, we were very generously given their outgrown swing set by Grampa (Cory’s Dad), Grandma Judy and Ben! Cory and his Dad spend most of last Sunday reconstructing it on the farm. Claire absolutely adores it (thank you guys)! We will be spending a lot of time out there enjoying it this fall!
More updates coming soon, along with more pictures of the upstairs. As always, thanks so much for checking in as we FIX THIS FARM!
As we put the “finishing touches” on the upstairs it’s really starting to feel like a house again. Here’s our list of updates since last time:
We’ve finished the drywall (walls & ceilings) including mud, sanding and primer.
I finished laying the floor.
The door frames are painted and we’re working on painting the doors.
We’re really happy with how the colors are coming together. We decided to go with a palette of greys for most of the upstairs with light ceilings, slightly darker walls and darker grey doors. (more…)
So we finished the demo. Here’s what we ended up ripping out, repairing or replacing.
Removed wood paneling
Removed all carpet
Removed and replaced water damaged sub floor in the bathroom and bedroom
Removed water damaged ceiling
Repaired framing that had minor water damage
Removed the old vanity, toilet and bathtub
Replaced insulation that was impacted by water damage
Replaced all the recessed lights with fan mounts and replaced the bathroom exhaust fan
The guest bedroom. You can see the state of the windows and the water damage in the corner.
Claire’s bedroom closet. Later I converted part of the closet to a built-in.
The guest bedroom closet and entrance.
Another angle of the guest bedroom.
After everything was demo’d we cleaned up and moved forward with the next phase: drywall. I hung all the drywall myself including the ceiling. Beth did lend a hand for some of the more challenging pieces but mostly it was me, a drywall lift and some creativity.
Guest bedroom drywall is done including ceiling and walls.
Claire’s bedroom and built-in all drywall is finished.
Guest bedroom showing the repaired sub-floor (bottom left) and finished drywall.
In the next update we’ll share our progress with finishing and painting and new floors!
I’ve started the demo for the upstairs. The upstairs includes two bedrooms, a bathroom and a hallway.
Claire’s future room — all wood paneling removed
Looking down the future hallway
The whole upstairs was done with wood paneling in the 80’s which we might have been able to keep and paint it if there wasn’t so much water damage from roof and windows. Oh well; so this is a full gut! So far the paneling has been removed and I’ve pulled down some of the ceiling where the roof was really bad.
Bathroom after demo — walls, vanity, floor, tub and toilet removed
The guest bedroom — also our temporary bedroom as we finish the downstairs
Removing the ceiling after the wood paneling was removed
We’ve made a ton more progress recently and we’re way behind on the blog so stay tuned for some additional updates!
Throughout this adventure you’ll probably learn three things about me. I get bored easily, I prefer to multi-task and I finish what I start (eventually). The first two tend to get in the way of the third one as Beth can attest to when I installed hardwood floors in our old house. This is going to be a major DIY project for us, and it will really challenge us… but we’re diving in head first.
So with that in mind we have started three projects at the same time (told you). We’re going to post on the progress of each of these projects separately using categories within the blog so that you’ll be able to keep track of the progress on a single project by just filtering on that specific tag. We’re hoping this will be the best format but we’ll see how it goes.
Project #1 – Exterior
We’re really excited about this one. This should really start a massive transformation on the house.
Scope: Replace the roof, siding, windows and doors.
Code Name: Curb Appeal
Project Lead: Beth
DIY? No, we’re calling in the professionals on this one.
I used to be a Life Guard and Certified Pool Operator but there’s nothing in my old books about this. I don’t think shocking it with chlorine is going to cut it.
Scope: Remove all debris from the pool, repair the pump and plumbing, replace the liner and generally get the pool functioning again.
The guest bedroom. You can see the state of the windows and the water damage in the corner.
Claire’s bedroom closet. Later I converted part of the closet to a built-in.
The guest bedroom closet and entrance.
Another angle of the guest bedroom.
Guest bedroom drywall is done including ceiling and walls.
Claire’s bedroom and built-in all drywall is finished.
