Guest Room - Day 2

Well it's the end of day 2 the paneling is all down and the carpet om the room is all up. I decided to pull up the carpet because when I get into the stripping I don't want to pull out a carpet sodden with stripper later on in the process. I figure in the past 2 days I've taken the room back about 40 years.

I figure it must have been pretty comical for all 5 feet of me to be carrying these 4 x 8 sheets of paneling down the stairs and hoisting them into the dumpster.

Tomorrow I'm going to remove the carpet from the large closet and start stripping some trim. Rather than starting on the windows I'm thinking of starting on the door instead, since the floor will need to be refinished anyways I'm thinking about doing it in the room itself.

Guest Room - Day 1

Just finished up Day 1. I got the ceiling tiles removed and the furring strips down. The furring strips were probably the most difficult part. Many of them had a lot of nails located all in the same area. Good news is the ceiling looks to be in relatively good condition, although wallpapered of course. I did make kind of a cool discovery. Around the light fixture there is an oval outline. I suspect that at some point the room had a fixture similar to this.


I removed a couple sections of paneling. My goal was to get all of it down but I also neglected to consider the furring strips which was the most time consuming part. This is what was hiding under the paneling. It looks to be the same wallpaper that was in our bedroom except in blue instead of red.

Tomorrows goal is to get down the remainder of the paneling and to get the first window apart.

Home Improvement Week 2009

Due to the crappy economy I am required to take a week of unpaid time off this year. So I've decided to make the best of things and tackle the guest room, the current price holder for the ugliest room in our home. Current goal is to remove the paneling and ceiling tiles and to begin the process of reconditioning the windows by getting the frames and sashes stripped. Hopefully I'll be able to get more done but without knowing the condition of the underlying walls and ceiling it's difficult to know what kind of challenge awaits.

Stairs Updated Photos

Chris installed the final trim for the stairs this past week here are the updated pics.

Here are the stairs with the yellow paint and the repainted grate.

Here is the new attic entrance. Sure beats the heck out of that old piece of paneling.

Back into the game

It's been awhile but we are back to working on the house. We did do a few random projects over the winter. Chris worked on getting his workshop set up and I finished up the door for the bathroom which was one of the hold overs from the kitchen project. I'll have to post about that one later as it was necessary to do some minor repairs to get the bathroom door in order.

This most recent burst of home improvement mojo is due to refinancing, a 2% drop in interest rate was just way to good to pass up. Especially when the mortgage lady thinks the kitchen remodel may jump up the home's value by 10,000. We shall see, but at any rate I want the stairs to be nice and complete because every little bit helps.

Anyways on to the pictures.

Here is what the stairs looked like in March of 2007, it's frightening but this project has been going on for 2 years. Yikes! I guess we let this one spiral a bit out of control.

And here is what they looked like after the removal of the paneling and carpet. Not bad but the tack strip removal and years of carpet encapsulation definitely was a bit rough on them. On a side note look at those awful kitchen walls. It's true what they say it definitely gets worse before it gets better.

After stripping, cleaning, sanding, and 3 coats of Waterlox over the past 3 days they look like this. I'm pretty excited that whatever the next project it won't involve hanging out on the stairs.
Paint will go on over the course of this next week. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be nice to finally have this wrapped up.

a quick update

We have more or less taken a break to enjoy the house and the new kitchen. Now that winter is coming quickly we are working on getting our workshops in the basement.

Slowly Plugging Away on the Back Hall

I was able to get the bead board and trim stained this past weekend using the new technique of the alcohol dye. I'm pretty happy with the results the color isn't as vibrant as the dyed shellac but the tone is much more even and it's far easier to work with.

Before we removed the Vinyl flooring from the back hall my plan was to just paint the back steps I figured they would be in horrible condition and it wouldn't be worth the time to ready them for a clear finish. Then I would have added some sand to the tread to keep people slipping with wet feet.

Turns out the stairs other than some damage from the metal tips the stairs were in rather good condition. So I decided to stain and clear coat them however I was still concerned about them being slick so I did a little online research and found out that you could at a clear sand like material to the clear coat to give the stairs some grip I called around and found this http://www.hcconcrete.com/products/solid-color-stains/Shark_Grip_Slip_Resistant_Additive/index.jsp at Sherwin Williams I mixed it in with Waterlox and rolled it onto the stair treads. It's barley noticeable when looking straight on which is really nice. But still gives you that grit that keeps you from riding down the stairs on your keester.

Here is one of the treads with the Clear Coat and SharkGrip

Tonight I'm going to apply another coat then one or two on Saturday and it should be it for the stairs then it's time for paint!