Remodeling for Xmas!

As I mentioned in my last post, we've done a bit of remodeling in our livingroom! I lived with bare plaster walls for the last 2 years. For 9 years before that, I lived with old, peeling wallpaper. 2 years ago, when Dean asked me what I wanted for Xmas, I told him I wanted my livingroom redone. He agreed and so I set to work peeling off all the old wallpaper. Then life set in and Dean got busy...we all got busy. And the bare plaster stayed. But then last week, a miracle happened! Dean helped me get it in shape so my Xmas decorations wouldn't look so horrible! And it was HIS idea!!!! Below, here is part of our wall with new sheetrock and mud covering what was once a large 2' x 3' hole in the plaster exposing the lathes underneath. Sorry I didn't get a before picture, you'll just have to trust me that it was ugly!



When I pulled down the wallpaper, I found this hole in the wall. Originally, it housed a chimney pipe for a woodstove that used to be in the livingroom many moons ago. A previous owner had removed the woodstove and just covered the hole with wallpaper.

The ceiling in one half of our livingroom had been redone previously, but they had left the plaster ceiling intact in the other half. It had many cracks and was bellying down, so we couldn't save it. We ripped it all down and replaced it with new sheetrock.

If you click on the picture, you can see more detail in the wall. This is bare plaster with sheetrock mud covering cracks and nail holes.

We have an arch separating our livingroom into two areas. Above the arch, a previous owner had used a type of wallboard that looked as though it was made from cardboard. It was warped and sagging in areas, so this, too, had to be removed and replaced with new sheetrock. Here, Dean is removing the old wallboard.

It was a bit of work, but we actually managed to make our 150 year old plaster walls smooth enough to paint! I didn't think it was possible and had resigned myself to ending up with wallpaper in here. Thankfully, I won't have to deal with that and can just paint! The below shots show the new walls freshly primed. We are planning to finish the job after the holidays when we have more time and money. Eventually, the walls will not be this exact color, though I think I will stick with a neutral brown family, probably quite a bit darker than this. We also have not mudded the new sheetrock ceiling yet, but even as unfinished sheetrock it is an improvement over the cracked plaster. The floor is still an old plank subfloor that is in pretty rough shape, and eventually we will lay some new hardwood down, but in the interim it'll get painted. A previous owner had laid a piece of carpet down and then painted around the carpet...a couple different times, so it looks pretty bad, but it'll be improved after the holidays with a fresh coat of paint awaiting the hardwood flooring.

Our Xmas tree! I love this tree!

Slated for next year (I HOPE) is some vinyl siding in a cedar color. I'd also like to paint all the exterior doors bright red. But until then, we have to put up with old peeling paint on the old part of the house and Tyvek housewrap on the new addition. I'm hoping we'll have a matching porch on the right side of the house that matches the left side. When that happens, I'll run the icicle lights on both porches and around the eaves of the new addition. But this will suffice for this year. Merry Early Xmas, everyone!

Today's quote:

The best revenge is to vow to never be like the one that hurt you. (As if I could! Eeeeeeks!!)