Hammers, Nails, and Dust OH MY!

This page of my blog has pictures I took once we started the demolition process. I apologize for the mediocre pictures. I had no idea I was being followed by my father-in-law. He said, " you better take those fast because I'm ready." Of course I was all like, "whaaaaat?" I then saw a sledge hammer fly past me and into the wall. I decided taking a good ten steps back was needed for my safety. My wonderful dad, father-in-law and husband started tearing apart the inside and outside greenery. I think I had my, "what have I gotten myself into?" moment that day.

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When we took the panel board off the walls in the living room, we found cement sheet rock. It is sheet rock with a layer of cement. It wasn't really that bad and we were going to add sheet rock to the outside of it. That all changed when someone punch a hole in the wall to see what was behind it. There was nothing behind it. Which means, no insulation...anywhere!! For those who don't understand why that is important; insulation keeps the home from loosing heat in the winter and cool in the summer. It helps with the electric bill if you have an outside heat and air unit.

So now we have to put insulation in all the walls. This means a lot of dust, dirt, cob webs, and debris. Let the hammers fly and the dust fall, because there will be no survivors!

This is what creepy cement sheet rock looks like.

This took a long time to knock down. The pieces still clinging to the studs are being held their by nails. We have to pull out each nail individually. Whoever built this house must have gotten nails on sale and loved putting 20 on each stud. I hate nails now.

My amazing husband is also a clean worker. He is shoveling the mess up to keep the place looking clean at all times. Thank you Lord for this man!



We filled the walls with insulation and put new sheet rock up! John thought putting an opening between the kitchen and living room would make the area more open. I love it! Now we won't fee so boxed in the living room. John said, "Now I can watch TV while I cook or you can give me drinks and cookies while I watch TV."

That's nice honey..... lol Men?

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 We are walling up that open entry into the mystery room and opening it up on the other side. It will be our walk in closet.

The view of the closet from the master into the new walk in closet and currently into the living room.

This is the bathroom wall (obviously). This is what no insulation looks like.

There is a time and a place for vinyl. This is not the time or place.

Yay for individual pieces...said no one ever!

I love Disney and Winnie the Pooh. So, with this in mind, I wasn't terrible grossed out when I saw this behind the panel board in the guest bedroom. The master bedroom had Minnie and Mickey Mouse!

Don't mind us, just putting in insulation, because no one else did. Ugh

We got an amazing deal on this paint! They had five dollars off every gallon mail in rebate. Notice the dust on John's arm? That stuff got in my lungs somehow, even though I had on an expensive dust mask.

The color we went with was Oat Straw.

It is amazing what new sheet rock can do to a room. So under the wonderful black and white vinyl you viewed previously, was plywood. Under that was more vinyl, as you can see. Under that was more plywood. Under the second layer of plywood was shag carpet. Groovy, just groovy.

 I hate mudding and sanding. The white stuff you see is sheet rock mud. You apply it on the nails and let it dry. Then you sand it off and apply another layer. It has to be smooth, because you have to paint over it and paint is like a spandex. It shows every flaw.

We got to paint yay! I love the color. In person I see a hint of a sage green. No one else sees it. I think they are all color blind.

22 hours later the floors are sanded! It is red oak.

This a picture from the closet of the master bedroom. The floors and sanded and look like new.

The hallway has pine flooring. I am not sure why. The bedrooms and hall were painted white (incase you didn't see it before).

We tried out the Minwax stain Jacobean. It may be a little too dark.

Just a test of how the Jacobean will look in the closet. Its only one coat. We may go with dark walnut.

The living room is painted!







It has been a while, there have been quite a few road blocks and stops, but we have done so much thanks to my In-Laws and my parents!

It took us three weeks to clear out all of the briars, brush and poison in that back yard. It was so thick and the mosquitos were horrible!!

Here is a quick look at the floor transformation. It took my Father-in-Law and Husband 22 hours to sand it down. It took them one night to apply the stain and a few days of polyurethane. If you put two coats of poly on, let it set, then sand it down a little and apply another coat, it will be super shiny.

Here are amazing progress pictures of the rooms with paint, crown molding, window, door and base trim. Big thank you to my Mother and Father in Law for doing this for us while we were at work this week! It is absolutely beautiful!

 These are pictures taken from the bathroom. We laid the tile in a "brick design" and have inserted a shower.  There will be a regular detachable shower head, rain shower head and three body jets. I think my husband plans on drowning me in our shower.