To get caught up, I want to start out with the bathroom bump-out! The original space of the bathroom was very small. It consisted of a full size tub, small closet, vanity, and toilet. To sit down on the toilet and "go" put you in a bit of a bind. There was not much elbow or leg room by any means. With the height of the guys in our family, that was not going to do for us, so we weren't going to make someone else do with it either. We decided to make the bathroom bigger! We had plenty of room in the living room with which to work, and so we opted to add 16" more to the north wall of the bathroom by cutting back a little space in the living room. You don't even notice the missing space in the living room, but you sure notice the extra space in the bathroom. Take a look!
Where we started...the "old" bathroom...
Just me being silly...:)
The finished bump-out! You can see the extra room adds a lot of space to the room! We are also going to move the sink and vanity to the north wall instead of right next to the toilet, so that when you are sitting on the toilet, you have more elbow room. I do believe it will be very nice!
We also widened the bathroom door, as it was pretty narrow. If Chad stood in the doorway, both of his shoulders would touch each side of the doorway. We added 4" to the width of that, and it makes a big difference as well.
One of the tasks we had decided to go for was adding more insulation to the outside walls of the house. We also blew in 10" of extra insulation in the attic, but we wanted to make the cold north walls more sound and chill proof as well. After we built out the studs on those walls from 3" to 4", we added strips of insulation to the walls of the kitchen and living room. We can tell it makes a big difference keeping the house warm...and I am sure the extra insulation in the attic is helping greatly too!
Getting started on the insulation in the living room...
Once the insulation was in place, we could begin sheetrocking. Woohoo!! Our walls are beginning to take shape! Now we are getting to the point where we are doing some of the fun cosmetic things. Dad, Cory, and Chad did all the sheetrocking and what an amazing difference it makes in the house! Things are starting to feel "buttoned up"...although we are far from closing the door on a finished project. It is just really fun to see more progress!
After the sheetrock was installed, Dad could come along with his tape and mud and start tying everything together. What an artform it is to cover the seams and cracks and fill holes and dents, and to do it well! Dad does such a great job with this. We will often exclaim, "Hey! Remember when that hole was there?? You can't even tell anymore!" The whole mudding process is pretty time consuming. Dad has to tape and mud once and let that layer dry. Then he needs to come in again and mud over the same places and let that layer dry. Once that's all dry, and any other spots that might have needed more mud are taken care of and dried, he can begin sanding. Now that is a dusty job. He has a good system going where he can utilize a Shop Vac to suck up the dust as he is sanding. That helps take care of a lot of it, but it's still a dirty job! Then, he gets to texture. This is a neat process as well. The mud mixes with water and Dad sprays it on the walls, making a great looking pattern that gives the walls some character and distinction! We do the entire texture on the walls and ceilings so it all looks uniform. This is an orange peel texture...not the old popcorn stuff that everyone hates because it crumbles off. The texture on the walls makes for an incredibly humid house while it dries, but the effect is so worth it in the end.
Ready for texture!
Texturized!
Tonight, Chad and I began the fun process of painting! And yes, I mean fun. Sure it can be a lot of work, but it is so fun seeing a transformation with color. And I'll be honest...this is the easiest painting job I have ever had. There is no trim work whatsoever to go around, and that makes it super easy! We started priming tonight with our Zinsser 1-2-3 primer which is what we love the best. We do have some spots where we are going to have to prime with a shellac instead of the water-based primer, as there is some type of stain that is being very stubborn and still popping through. No biggie though - we will get it covered! We went through two gallons of primer and ran out. We got the entire kitchen (walls and ceiling) primed and half the walls of the living room. Tomororw night we are going to start painting the kitchen, and then we will finish priming the living room. Our goal is to have the entire kitchen, living room, and hallway painted by the end of the weekend. Yay!!
As we were wrapping up our evening of priming, Chad noticed he had missed a phone call from our friend Jenn. She was calling because her work is having a football playoffs pool, and she needed to know how the remaining 12 teams were going to finish in the playoffs. Who else would you call for help making your picks but Chad, right?? So he grabbed a carpenter's pencil and sat down on the floor to draw out his picks on the rosen paper. I was a little disappointed that he didn't put my Bears in the SuperBowl, but we will see. His pick is for the Patriots to take it all the way, so let's hope he did well and Jenn wins the playoff pool!! :)
Tomorrow night we will start painting color, so stay tuned for pictures! You will be able to see the lovely shades we have chosen for the kitchen for sure, and possibly even the living room depending on what time allows. It should be exciting!
Have a great weekend everyone!
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